Wildwood entrance

[gilesjuk]

Why on earth have they painted over the left hand lane on the entrance to Wildwood estate? You now have to slow down in the main road and then turn left instead of pulling into the left lane, slowing and turning left.

Doesn't sound too bad if you're in a car but on a bike you want to get out of the traffic stream ASAP.

 

[wildwood]

I noticed that tonight - stupid idea - even in a car. It's worked for the 30-40 years the estate has been there - why change it now.

 

[Withnail]

You'll have to excuse me for being a bit thick and not being entirely certain of where you're talking about (though fairly sure), but is it not difficult to cycle over (dried) paint?

I will investigate further when time allows.

 

[wildwood]

I can only imagine he means bike of the motorized variety....

 

[gilesjuk]

No, I do mean bicycle. I live in Hillcroft Park and there's simply no point driving to the Co-op.

Yes I can ride over the lines, but that creates two problems:

1. I would not be abiding by the highway code. I do drive a car too, so I know the rules of the road.

2. If I did cycle on the lines then a car could turn left in front of me at the last second.

It looks like another example of dumbing down the roads just because some people are unable to drive properly.

This is the area in question:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=stafford&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Stafford,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&ll=52.784797,-2.080214&spn=0.000947,0.00284&z=19&layer=c&cbll=52.784715,-2.080133&panoid=-NopTUzALOzR5kye9SO2bQ&cbp=12,314.66,,0,10.96

 

[staff4ord]

I presume those muppets from the council had to splash out and spend the last of the cash at the end of the last financial year, so brought a load of paint and opened the really stupid place to paint lines idea book and away they went.

Any one got a picture of what it looks like now.

 

[gilesjuk]

Picture below:

 

[staff4ord]

Good news. I think this relates to rule 130 of the highway code which says

130
Areas of white diagonal stripes or chevrons painted on the road. These are to separate traffic lanes or to protect traffic turning right.
if the area is bordered by a broken white line, you should not enter the area unless it is necessary and you can see that it is safe to do so
if the area is marked with chevrons and bordered by solid white lines you MUST NOT enter it except in an emergency

So if your turning left then I would say it's necessary.

Unless a council boffin who uses this site would like to add anything else. Like for example why have you painted white lines on the road for no reason.

 

[Gramaisc]

Areas of white diagonal stripes or chevrons painted on the road. These are to separate traffic lanes or to protect traffic turning right.

•if the area is bordered by a broken white line, you should not enter the area unless it is necessary and you can see that it is safe to do so
•if the area is marked with chevrons and bordered by solid white lines you MUST NOT enter it except in an emergency

 

[Withnail]

It does, indeed, seem spectacularly - possibly even heroically - pointless.

 

[proactive]

What a pointless waste of money.

It must have been sponsored by Accident Lawyers 4 U or some such, as it is guaranteed to cause people not to use the filter lane (even though it is still perfectly legal to do so, most people think you cannot EVER go into cross hatching), brake late and hard and get shunted up the @rse.

I do wonder if anyone at SCC Highways Dept has two brain cells to rub together sometimes.

 

[henryscat]

There could be any number of reasons why the layout has been changed. Any one of you could put in an Freedom of Information request to find out the real reasons before declaring it a waste of money....

What's the major drama with not having a separate left turn lane? The hundreds of other left turns off main roads in Stafford don't have one.

If you go onto Staffordshire County Council's "Local View" you can see that there are quite a few accidents clustered around that junction. Something that immediately springs to mind is that traffic turning right into Wildwood is no longer crossing two lanes of traffic (the main flow and left turners) which may have been a problem.

 

[henryscat]

I presume those muppets from the council had to splash out and spend the last of the cash at the end of the last financial year, so brought a load of paint and opened the really stupid place to paint lines idea book and away they went.

Any one got a picture of what it looks like now.

Intelligent contribution as usual.

 

[Gramaisc]

I hope nobody turns left across the (ex)lane in the picture above.

 

[henryscat]

as it is guaranteed to cause people not to use the filter lane (even though it is still perfectly legal to do so, most people think you cannot EVER go into cross hatching), brake late and hard and get shunted up the @rse.

The only cause of braking "late and hard" would be the driver, not the road markings.

 

[proactive]

Any one of you could put in an Freedom of Information request to find out the real reasons before declaring it a waste of money....

I have put in a FOI request. As that junction has worked perfectly well for 30 odd years I can still confidently say it is a waste of money. Your blind faith in SCC Highways Department to act in the public good is admirable though sadly misplaced.

 

[proactive]

as it is guaranteed to cause people not to use the filter lane (even though it is still perfectly legal to do so, most people think you cannot EVER go into cross hatching), brake late and hard and get shunted up the @rse.

The only cause of braking "late and hard" would be the driver, not the road markings.

Of course but adding unnecessary markings to the equation is only to confuse some motorists and encourage bad driving.

No doubt you will now say that bad motorists should not be on the road, but some of us live in the real world and know that will never happen.

 

[henryscat]

I have put in a FOI request.

Would be interested in what the answer is.

As that junction has worked perfectly well for 30 odd years

It may not have changed in 30 odd years, which isn't necessarily the same as "worked perfectly well".

Your blind faith in SCC Highways Department to act in the public good is admirable though sadly misplaced.

I don't have blind faith in anything. There may well be a perfectly good reason (the right turning struck me as a possible, but that is a guess) for the change, which doesn't strike me as particularly outrageous anyway. Why not wait until you get your FoI answer before passing judgement?

 

[henryscat]

Of course but adding unnecessary markings to the equation is only to confuse some motorists and encourage bad driving.

I don't see how those markings are in the least bit confusing. The bad driving will be down to locals who choose to pretend the old markings are still there.

As you don't actually (yet) know why the markings are there, you don't know they're unnecessary.

 

[proactive]

Of course but adding unnecessary markings to the equation is only to confuse some motorists and encourage bad driving.

I don't see how those markings are in the least bit confusing. The bad driving will be down to locals who choose to pretend the old markings are still there.

As you don't actually (yet) know why the markings are there, you don't know they're unnecessary.

Neither do you know they are necessary.