The road safety thread.

[Baron von Biffo]

Conor Faughnan of the AA thinks drivers are getting the message about mobile phone usage.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...es-226594.html

If Conor took a short trip out of his office and onto the roads he might realise that driving while using the phone is endemic. A more plausible explanation for the reduction in penalty notices is non-enforcement due to cuts.

[Trow]

What happens when one road safety issue outweighs another and who decides. Look what happened here in Cork....
Quote...Three council road workers in County Cork have been suspended after they took an impromptu decision to fill in a pothole they found on the way back to their depot.

It is understood the workers were returning from a job when they spotted a dangerous pothole and decided to repair it.

A Health and Safety Authority officer saw them.

He said they had not put a proper traffic management system in place.

The workers were consequently suspended from their jobs.

The council has declined to comment on the suspensions. unquote.

Fair play to the workers i say.

In support of them, their union reps have said...Quote... "These three workers have exemplary service records. There is a meeting arranged for next Tuesday (2 April) to discuss this with management and we will not be commenting further on the matter until that discussion has taken place."

The incident happened on 13 March at Bothar Guidel Road in Carrigaline. unquote.
More here....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951280

[PaddyJoe]

What happens when one road safety issue outweighs another and who decides. Look what happened here in Cork....
Quote...Three council road workers in County Cork have been suspended after they took an impromptu decision to fill in a pothole they found on the way back to their depot.

It is understood the workers were returning from a job when they spotted a dangerous pothole and decided to repair it.

A Health and Safety Authority officer saw them.

He said they had not put a proper traffic management system in place.

The workers were consequently suspended from their jobs.

The council has declined to comment on the suspensions. unquote.

Fair play to the workers i say.

In support of them, their union reps have said...Quote... "These three workers have exemplary service records. There is a meeting arranged for next Tuesday (2 April) to discuss this with management and we will not be commenting further on the matter until that discussion has taken place."

The incident happened on 13 March at Bothar Guidel Road in Carrigaline. unquote.
More here....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951280

Cork Co Co are extremely sensitive on the issue of potholes recently. They took grave exception to the lad who posted a youtube vid of his dip in a pothole somewhere around Kanturk a couple of months back.
Far as I recall the Gardai arrived at his door on foot of a complaint about him moving council property to gain access to the pothole in order to film the clip.

[fluffybiscuits]

What happens when one road safety issue outweighs another and who decides. Look what happened here in Cork....
Quote...Three council road workers in County Cork have been suspended after they took an impromptu decision to fill in a pothole they found on the way back to their depot.

It is understood the workers were returning from a job when they spotted a dangerous pothole and decided to repair it.

A Health and Safety Authority officer saw them.

He said they had not put a proper traffic management system in place.

The workers were consequently suspended from their jobs.

The council has declined to comment on the suspensions. unquote.

Fair play to the workers i say.

In support of them, their union reps have said...Quote... "These three workers have exemplary service records. There is a meeting arranged for next Tuesday (2 April) to discuss this with management and we will not be commenting further on the matter until that discussion has taken place."

The incident happened on 13 March at Bothar Guidel Road in Carrigaline. unquote.
More here....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951280

There was a few people killed in the country as they did not have a proper traffic management safety plan in place. When working at the corner and on roads staff are meant to have a flag man whom directs traffic and organises a traffic plan so that traffic can go around it. Whilst I disagree with the lads being disciplined there is still a need for a level of awareness considering the recent deaths that happened. All of the staff working on the road have to be in possession of a CSCS card which they get through FAS. Its all been blown out of proportion as per usual by the media and others and its admirable staff working on their own initiative (they should be commended for that) but its no point if they get a bang of a car and go splat on the road .

[Baron von Biffo]

What happens when one road safety issue outweighs another and who decides. Look what happened here in Cork....
Quote...Three council road workers in County Cork have been suspended after they took an impromptu decision to fill in a pothole they found on the way back to their depot.

It is understood the workers were returning from a job when they spotted a dangerous pothole and decided to repair it.

A Health and Safety Authority officer saw them.

He said they had not put a proper traffic management system in place.

The workers were consequently suspended from their jobs.

The council has declined to comment on the suspensions. unquote.

Fair play to the workers i say.

In support of them, their union reps have said...Quote... "These three workers have exemplary service records. There is a meeting arranged for next Tuesday (2 April) to discuss this with management and we will not be commenting further on the matter until that discussion has taken place."

The incident happened on 13 March at Bothar Guidel Road in Carrigaline. unquote.
More here....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21951280

The headline on the article shows typical media disregard for the facts. The suspensions weren't for fixing the pothole, they were for not doing it safely. Whether suspension was a proportionate response is another matter.

[fluffybiscuits]

The headline on the article shows typical media disregard for the facts. The suspensions weren't for fixing the pothole, they were for not doing it safely. Whether suspension was a proportionate response is another matter.

+1

[Baron von Biffo]

Leo the Loon is inquiring into the causes of a significant rise in the number of road deaths.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news...-29227707.html

Maybe, just maybe, the huge cuts to the traffic corps and the effective removal of gardaí from much of the country has something to do with it.

[Count Bobulescu]

Having wasted a good deal of time recently stuck in traffic in Dublin I got to wondering about the viability of variably priced HOT lanes as a partial solution to some of the traffic woes. They are simply a variation on the London Congestion Charge idea.

Specifically, on three occasions I baled on outward bound Merrion Road traffic for what I hoped would be faster progress on the N11 Bray/Stillorgan Rd. only to find myself stuck again, while the bus and taxi lane remained almost empty. I stuck me that at least on the N11 (probably on the M50 too) it would be relatively simple to install electronic transponder readers and give those willing to either pay, or share their cars, an option that benefits everyone in a progressive manner.

Also, rush hour lane reversal would help. It would be easy to convert the six lane N11 into a 4 in, 2 out in the morning, and reverse that in the evening.

High occupancy/toll lanes (HOT lanes) is a road pricing scheme that gives motorists in single-occupant vehicles access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes (or "HOV lanes"). Sometimes, entire roads are designated for the use of HOVs. Tolls are collected either by manned toll booths, automatic number plate recognition, or electronic toll collection systems. Typically, these tolls increase as traffic density and congestion within the tolled lanes increases, a policy known as congestion pricing. The goal of this pricing scheme is to minimize traffic congestion within the lanes.[1][2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_oc...ess_toll_lanes


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging

[Count Bobulescu]

Coming to Connemara?

• Technology: Street Smarts: From Holland, Bright Ideas for Highways
  
  

The first pilot project, done pro bono by the creators, is to become reality this year along a 150-yard strip of trial road in Brabant, a Dutch province on the Belgian border. The idea is that luminescent green road markings painted on the road will make street lighting redundant. This is intended not just to save lighting costs, but also to increase safety by improving visibility on roads that had no lights at all.


A crucial component is a new photoluminescent paint created by Mr. Roosegaarde that, he explains, has much in common with the paint on glow-in-the-dark toys. (Its ingredients are closely guarded.) The mixture is painted onto the roads in the normal fashion, and the markings are charged by sunlight during the day — and by headlights through the night — so they remain visible for 10 hours after nightfall. All of the standard road markings, from lane indicators to emergency shoulders, will appear after sundown in an otherworldly glowing green, which Mr. Rossegaarde says is the color easiest to see in the dark.

[fluffybiscuits]

Yesterday my parents dog got a belt of a car and had to be put down subsequently as a result , now he was old (13) and had developed some health problems but whoever it was drove on and didnt stop. This has made my brother determined to bring the speed limit down on the road as people boot it up and down the road without any care at all and dont obey speed limits.

[Binn Beal]

Road safety requires enforcement; the endless ads and pleas to slow down and drive more carefully are useless as they only appeal to those with a civic sense who probably are not speeding etc in any case.
I wasted several years trying to get a speed ramp (which would be effective) outside the local school but was met with bureaucratic and vested-interest obstruction. Under pressure the council put up (useless) flashing orange lights. Almost every speeder lives locally and knows there is a school there.
Being a direct-action sort of person, I put a hose pipe across the road (black half-inch hydrodare), giving the impression that a farmer or builder was running a temporary supply. It's amazing the effect it had. I'm only sorry I didn't video some of the reactions. And it was effective.

[fluffybiscuits]

Road safety requires enforcement; the endless ads and pleas to slow down and drive more carefully are useless as they only appeal to those with a civic sense who probably are not speeding etc in any case.
I wasted several years trying to get a speed ramp (which would be effective) outside the local school but was met with bureaucratic and vested-interest obstruction. Under pressure the council put up (useless) flashing orange lights. Almost every speeder lives locally and knows there is a school there.
Being a direct-action sort of person, I put a hose pipe across the road (black half-inch hydrodare), giving the impression that a farmer or builder was running a temporary supply. It's amazing the effect it had. I'm only sorry I didn't video some of the reactions. And it was effective.

That my friend is a superb idea...fowarding this on to my brother...

[Baron von Biffo]

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news...-29255551.html

I despair.

[Count Bobulescu]

Legislator pleads guilty to "drunken boating" charge.


Md. delegate to plead guilty to drunken boating

[Count Bobulescu]

Md. delegate gets 30 days in drunken boating crash that injured

Maryland Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. was given a 30-day jail sentence Tuesday for a drunken boating charge related to a collision in August that left seven people injured, including a 5-year-old girl who suffered skull fractures. It could be several months, however, before a final decision on whether Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel) has to serve time. Anne Arundel County District Court Judge Robert C. Wilcox said the sentence would be stayed if Dwyer appealed, which his lawyer promptly did. An appeal sends the case to circuit court.