What changes are required to improve our road network?

MrLOL said:
trains are great unless your travelling as a family

With a family, the cost of using the car is the same no matter how many of you are in it.

On the train, when theres 3 or 4 of you that instantly wipes out that 50 % saving that fox experiences on his own.
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Ironically its the families that make the trains a pain to travel on.

There is nothing worse than a bunch of screaming little brats and their castrated dads and fat mums doing nothing to control the little freaks.
 
TheVoice said:
They should just use teleports instead of roads. I know it's not possible and never going to happen, but...
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Lol, dont be a dick.

Most of the suggestions in this thread are never going to happen but it doesnt stop people suggesting them does it now.

But yes you and MrLOL are both correct its never going to happen and i was foolish for contributing to a thread which is asking for suggestions on how the road network could be improved.

rather than suggest increasing speed limits or adding extra lanes to motorways i thought i would look at what annoys me the most when driving and i came to the conclusion that its slower moving traffic.
 
not being a ****

its just the orignial post did say

Ricochet J said:
In this thread we will discuss what is needed to improve the UK's road network.

To stimulate a healthy debate try to avoid saying stuff like "make people keep to the left" - actually provide an explanation on how you propose to enforce any changes.

Go!
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not "post what annoys you the most"
 
But many other people's suggestions are at least plausible in some sense. Removing HGVs from the roads during the day would have a serious knock-on effect not only for the people who drive them, but also for all the businesses that rely on the industry.

Can you not think of any better ways of managing HGV traffic than making them disappear?
 
Speed humps should be full carriageway width. Pillow humps should be banned. All remaining humps should be designed as standard details by engineers to allow traffic to drive safely at the speed limit. The standard details should apply nationally.
 
1: Traffic lights that are timed correctly, not to block other sets of lights behind them. Or one set shouldn't turn red when the set just behind it has turned green. Its so annoying to start moving from a set of lights, only to have to stop 100 yards later.
2: Finish the road network as it was meant to be, M27, A1M, A14 (m14?), M11, A414, A406South etc are all unfinished messes that go from motorway/dual down to single carriageway at points.
3: Roads should "flow" better (point 2 really), and shouldn't be designed to cause choke points... Like stupid traffic calming chicanes, and bus stops that are designed to block the road.
4: all motorways to have Variable speed limits, however the max increased to 80-100 depending on the safety of that road. Stop starting on motorways is not only dangerous but totally uneconomical. This helps Point 3...
5: Police shouldn't be out there just catching speeders. How about tailgater's and middle lane morons? Those two are cause for more accidents than speeding ever will be.
 
MrLOL said:
not being a ****

its just the orignial post did say



not "post what annoys you the most"
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TheVoice said:
But many other people's suggestions are at least plausible in some sense. Removing HGVs from the roads during the day would have a serious knock-on effect not only for the people who drive them, but also for all the businesses that rely on the industry.

Can you not think of any better ways of managing HGV traffic than making them disappear?
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I have to admit i didnt read the OP fully.... i will now duck out and wrap myself in a blanket of shame. :o
 
I think the best way of removing HGV congestion would be to force HGVs to use the inside lane only - no overtaking during peak time of 8am - 6pm

Cant see how else you could do it.

Either that or major investment to widen the entire stretch of the M62 / M1 / M6 / M25 to 4 lanes. They've done huge chunks already but more needs to be done i think.
 
1) Sort out the NSL limit so that it is 100 on motorways, unrestricted on the best of our motorways, 85 on DC

2) Sort out the crazy limits local councils are putting up, where they have lowered limits far below what a road needs to be.
Take Oxford ring road for example, when I moved here 13 years ago one sector was a 70 NSL DC, with just a grass and kerb thing separating the two sides of the road. Then there was a fatal accident where some bint was driving a people carrier full of kids got distracted and ended up crossing the divide and causing a crash with another car that killed the driver of that car.
So the council has put concrete dividers now between the two sides of the road ... BUT they have also lowered the speed limit to 50... the original accident had nothing to do with speeding, and the new concrete dividers make the road safer as it is.

3) Sort out traffic light phasing and make all the lights "smart" so that it is run by computer system that will optimise the flow of traffic

4) Re-develop many of the junctions on our roads to make them as safe and good as possible. Stop building crazy roundabouts which are either magic style or hamburger style.

5) Remove as many of the pointless road signs as possible, ensure that all other road signs are visible and not hidden by trees

6) Remove speed cameras everywhere except outside schools, make the ones outside school only be on during in/out time for kids.

7) Get more traffic police so that they can actually detect bad driving

8) Road maintenance .... LEARN HOW TO SURFACE A ROAD PROPERLY. When a new surface is laid it needs to be SMOOTH, offer good grip, and not get destroyed within days by the weather or by trucks

9) Stop letting utility companies dig up ditches in middle of roads so that they can lay some new pipes ... make all these works be done at the same time as the road is resurfaced.
Another example from Oxford ... few months ago the council resurfaced a road near the city centre, fast forward to a few weeks ago and some utility company has dug up the middle of the road to lay some new pipes ... and have now simply applied a "patch" thing to the road surface, making it not smooth.
ALL utility companies should HAVE to ensure that the road is left in the same state as when they found it, no patches. If you are digging the road up, then you can damn well resurface the WHOLE street or find a method of surfacing that does not leave patches.

10) Ban HGV overtaking/racing

11) Stop charging us to drive (and park) in our own cities, free multi-storey car parks need to be provided as this will encourage more people to shop in the centre.

12) Use rail for more hauling, with HGVs only doing the final stretch

I got plenty more, but cba right now
 
rypt said:
Most things...
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I rarely do this, but honestly you have covered most of what I would have typed out. I think the only point I disagree on is the free parking in city centres.

Assuming most of em are like Manchester, that isn't feasible.

Though what I would suggest is that if the council allows land to be used as a car park there should be minimum standards they must adhere to, this hopefully would stop the ***** gravel eye sores that make their owners so much dosh for so little outlay!

I would also suggest that city councils re-think their stupid idea to limit the number of car parking spaces ppl can incorporate into their developments in a totally misguided attempt to be "green".

Manchester's new hospital grounds on Oxford Road have roughly 1000 too few parking spaces, even though they had plenty of cash to add them into the multi-storey they were already building, it was even all planned, but then MCC said they couldn't and limited the number of spaces thy could have. Now they have had to let some private car-parks dotted around Manchester so their staff have somewhere to park (as well as introducing draconian parking requirements) which is undoubtedly costing the NHS far more than adding a few more storeys and utilising the basement of a building they were already constructing!
 
robmiller said:
All these people saying "educate people about…":*where, when and how is this education going to take place? Who will fund it? How will you reach existing drivers as well as new ones? How will you make sure new drivers stick to your grand new educations and don't just forget them within a week of unaccompanied driving, like they do now?
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Getting the license holder to foot the bill for compulsory retests. Whether that's every 5, 10 or 15 years depends on what's plausible. Commercials licenses for trains, planes, HGV's are stringently retested, so applying the same mindset for everybody makes perfect sense in the name of road safety.

It would also be good to make the learning/test more adapted to the risks such as nighttime driving, motorway driving, adverse conditions and even things like car maintenance and road manners.

I see this as absolute sense, but it is political suicide for any government to implement.
 
Remove all speed camera's except the ones in 30 zones.
More police on the roads checking if someone's not got insurance, and doing other offences like using phone while driving.
Make motorway driving part of the test, reduce the number of minors to about 5 instead of 15.
Stop having so many traffic lights in urban areas.
Have a device in the car for insurance which totals your actual mileage and charges you at the end of the year for the distance you went not the distance you say you would do.
Make speed limit higher than 70 as times have moved on cars can safely go much quicker.
What annoys me when driving in urban areas there is loads of traffic which moves very slowly, and everyone seems to think it's ok to block the roads which join onto the road were on, so if someone is coming the other way wanted to turn right onto the smaller road, they can't because someone has blocked it on our side. I see everyone doing this and it's very annoying! In other words, make drivers more aware of what their doing.
 
Fixed speed cameras dont bother me.

They are usually well sign posted, painted bright yellow and easy to avoid

They act as a visible deterrant to keep people to the speed limit.

The ones i detest are the mobile speed vans which they park in obscure places to hide them, and put at points where you are deliberately likely to speed (ie from a 50 to 30 transition etc..)

They should just silently one day stop collecting the film from gatsos and leave them be.
 
MrLOL said:
Fixed speed cameras dont bother me.

They are usually well sign posted, painted bright yellow and easy to avoid

They act as a visible deterrant to keep people to the speed limit.

The ones i detest are the mobile speed vans which they park in obscure places to hide them, and put at points where you are deliberately likely to speed (ie from a 50 to 30 transition etc..)

They should just silently one day stop collecting the film from gatsos and leave them be.
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The point of the speed limit it to stick to it at all times, not just because you see a yellow camera and drive slow just at that part of the road. Mobile ones probably are better because they catch you unaware of being caught so your driving as you normally would but both should be scrapped except 30 zones.
 
I think it's time there was a smart traffic light system in places like London, which would get traffic moving and lower emissions. It's all the start-stop and sitting in queues that massively increases it.

I don't agree that there should be a turn left on red. I just don't think UK drivers could be trusted with it.

I also don't agree that speed limits should be raised. I think it would lead to more aggression and intimidation on the motorways and I think it would make overtaking more of a chore than it already is. If I'm doing 70 on the left approaching a truck I shouldn't have to nail the throttle to get out in traffic that is doing 95 in the middle lane. Increase the speed limit and that will only get worse.

I would get those light-up signs on the motorway to read 'keep to the left' in with their other announcements, to remind people. Roads where people are very good at keeping left, like the M20 for example, flow better than the other roads in the area where people aren't able to keep to the rule. I find that the traffic backs up around people who aren't conforming, with traffic trying to get round them.
 
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Yateszy said:
The point of the speed limit it to stick to it at all times, not just because you see a yellow camera and drive slow just at that part of the road. Mobile ones probably are better because they catch you unaware of being caught so your driving as you normally would but both should be scrapped except 30 zones.
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It doesnt work like that

Hidden speed cameras have no visible detterant and instead are there just to catch you and fine you.

Fixed cameras are visible and force you to keep the speed limit because you can see them.

If somebody was speeding and ran a child over, would the fact he got a speeding ticket further back down the road matter ? No

Would have been better if the road had fixed cameras and the driver was driving on the limit in the first place.

If a road has speed cameras all along it, people wont usually bother constantly accelerating and decellerating, they'll just stick to the speed limit.
 
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