Wildwood entrance

[gilesjuk]

Two things, firstly I spend as much time as a pedestrian as I do a driver so I can see the argument from both sides, and secondly as to the cost of motoring you are obviously considerably richer than me, I still think it's quite expensive to fuel, maintain, tax and insure a car..

Depends what you drive. Rising insurance costs aren't anything to do with inflation or the government, it is down to personal injury lawyers pestering people to make injury claims even in crashes at speeds less than 10MPH. You also pay depending on the amount of cover you require.

VED is banded, if you want to drive a large cylinder petrol then you'll pay for the amount of CO2 you produce (which is considerably higher for a petrol car than a diesel). Some of the lower bands were optimistic years ago but now have cars available in them.

As for fuel, if it was that expensive then the roads would be deserted and have tumbleweeds blowing around them, yet the traffic seems as ferocious as ever. I still see plenty of cars flying down the M6 at 100MPH, so fuel can't be that pricey.

 

[gilesjuk]

The other way of looking at it is that the costs that motoring imposes are not covered by the costs paid by drivers (as was pointed out earlier), so in other words it is artificially cheap.

Here's the rough figures as calculated by someone on another forum:

Expenditure:
- roads £21.86b
- accidents £15.8b - £30b
- congestion (urban only) £10.9b
- road traffic noise £3b - £5b
- carbon emissions (urban only) £1.2b - £3.7b
- Total: £52.76b - £71.46b

Vehicle Tax Income:
- VED £5.4b
- Fuel tax £24.6b
- Total: £30.0b

So there's a £22 billion to £41 billion short fall.

 

[Jay]

Over the years the cost of motoring has remained pretty static (in real terms) whilst incomes (and disposable incomes) have risen. Public transport users, often (but not always) on lower incomes have been clobbered by significant rises in fares above inflation year after year.

Jeez this is getting quite heavy... Weren't we talking about road markings in Wildwood, we now seem to be in the midst of a rather patronising economics & politics lecture.... Henry'sCat: I was talking from a personal point of view. Sadly I have much less income and hence disposable income than I had 10 years ago so to me, motoring is an expensive luxury. Don't argue ...it's a fact! Oh and by the way -30 Stafford Points is quite an acheivement!

 

[gilesjuk]

Sadly I have much less income and hence disposable income than I had 10 years ago so to me, motoring is an expensive luxury.

Nobody is doing that well in these tough times, well unless you work in the banking sector where you can get a bonus for making a loss (see Northern Rock for an example of that).

I've not had a pay rise in three years, not even cost of living. But I'm saving a packet by cycle commuting, I can even get up later since if I drove into work I would get up earlier to avoid the queues by the crematorium.

 

[John Marwood]

Has there been a plague?

 

[gilesjuk]

Has there been a plague?

Haha, if only. I mean the queues of cars going past the crematorium and the school.

If I'm on the bike and go down Baswich Lane then I can cycle up Birkdale Drive which is blocked part of the way to cars (why?!?).

It wouldn't be so bad if they connected the road to the fire station with Tixall Road.

 

[Gramaisc]

Has there been a plague?

Bring out your dead!


But just once a fortnight.

 

[Withnail]

Blue bin for organ donors, but which for non-donors?

 

[gilesjuk]

That's the great thing about stafford. You can be knocked down, taken to hospital (and then get the nationally famous hospital care) then be cremated all in the same day.

As for the Wildwood turning, I rode along the markings today and a car turning right into Wildwood was very reluctant to give way to me. So it seems it's a good idea not to do that.

 

[tekkers]

This is just a ridiculous idea, its been like that for years and its worked perfectly well every day, getting rid of it will just cause congestion, slow people down, create more problems, and seems a lot more dangerous. Why do they bother!

 

[gilesjuk]

There's other things that could do with more attention. Like the double roundabouts, when turning right from Weeping Cross into Baswich Lane there's always some wally who barely stops in time when they should be giving way to the right.

There's three lanes, so it's pretty bleedin' obvious that left means going left to Cannock, middle is going to Radford Bank and right is Baswich Lane.

 

[Withnail]

This is just a ridiculous idea, its been like that for years and its worked perfectly well

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

getting rid of it will just cause congestion, slow people down, create more problems, and seems a lot more dangerous. Why do they bother!

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

Would be interested in what the answer is...
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.

Now i like thinking things are unnecessary, but then again i like thinking things are necessary.

But which is better?

There's only one way to find out, F...

OI request.


How good were Elbow on Later...? While we wait.

 

[Gramaisc]

Do the people who pay for all this have a say?.

 

[John Marwood]

Sathyanarayana Raju sees all

Magic our Morris

 

[tekkers]

Sorry how is doing this making the road better? There's no benefits I can see, and all the traffic on an A road now has to slow right down for turning cars. Great for an already congested junction which needs traffic lights/a roundabout.

 

[Mr X]

...which needs traffic lights...

Do you realise what you've just said! That would slow traffic down even more!

.../a roundabout...

That's better!

 

[Gramaisc]

Or traffic lights and a roundabout?...

 

[tekkers]

...which needs traffic lights...

Do you realise what you've just said! That would slow traffic down even more!

.../a roundabout...

That's better!

Yeah I mention lights, because of the number of minutes you spend trying to turn right out of the estate at 5-6 every night isn't the best

A road about would be best in my view, or bring back the filter lane for gods sake!

 

[proactive]

Or traffic lights and a roundabout?...

What the Cannock Road really needs is to be modelled on the Lichfield Road coming out of Town. You need sets of traffic lights separated by pedestrian crossings with no more than 50-100 yards between them. Make sure they aren't synchronised in any way and, hey presto, traffic problem solved!

Still awaiting a reply to my FOI request, obviously it must be taking some time to come up with a good reason other than the likely real reason which was either that traffic was moving too well at the junction and obviously something needed to be done about it to fit in with the rest of the town or it was the end of the financial year, the money had to be spend and Bert from Highways just happened to be passing by with a pot of white paint and a brush.

 

[WildwoodPaul]

Just to get this back on track and to bring the other Wildwood entrance into focus.

I live on the section of Wildwood covered by the entrance closer to Baswich, I find it near impossible to make a right turn out of that junction.

I recently saw an accident at this junction where someone turning right was hit by a car in the "2nd lane". The traffic into town is reluctant to let anyone out of Wildwood to turn right (even if the traffic is stacked on the other side of the junction). I actually had a car last week in "Lane 2" pull across the junction blocking my exit to turn towards Cannock, even though I'd pulled out as far as "Lane 1".

When I return home from the Stafford direction I have to just plonk my motor in the middle of the road to turn right onto the estate, I have to cross the middle white line if I want the Cannock bound traffic to be able to get past me to continue on their journey, hope that makes sense?

So a number of questions ....

1) Is the Cannock Road towards town supposed to be two lanes, it's not marked as such?
2) Would a solution be to cross hatch the junction to prevent people entering the junction?
3) Shouldn't something be done to assist drivers entering the estate from Stafford town centre?

Paul