AA Zone

Although Traffic Flow is in the 2009 AA Manifesto there appears to be no suitable thread on which to post. As here seems to be the only place where people reply, I'm reposting from elsewhere in the hope that someone will actually respond.

Investigation versus Traffic Delay.

Many of us have strong views on drink driving, speeding etc. Traffic delays due to accidents and road works cause major annoyance and legislation fuelled by frantic press demands pours out weekly.

This said, many of our current motoring problems stem directly from this very pressure and government response. Health and safety, political correctness and over zealous forensic investigation merely add to the problem. Clearly our police officers and other emergency personnel are entitled to safe working conditions and none of us would disagree with their oft expressed desire “to go home alive at the end of our shifts”.

We hear daily on radio that two, three or four motorway sections have been shut down completely, slip roads closed, lanes reduced or rolling road blocks put in force…….and why? An accident, a caravan on its side, a lorry jack-knifed, a fire on the hard shoulder, an object on the carriageway, a chemical spillage, road works, a vehicle in contact with a bridge, an unexplained police incident, an investigation and other recurrent explanations.

Sometimes it is hoped to have the carriageway open “in a day or two”, “by this time tomorrow,” “by tonight or in a few hours” and meanwhile traffic tails back, becomes trapped and the people involved are unable to go about their normal lives for intolerable periods. Millions of working hours are lost, tragic social costs incurred, valuable vehicles and machinery immobilised and costly fuel wasted.

Years ago when a road accident occurred, the injured were released by the fire brigade, if trapped, and taken away by ambulance; police chalked the position of the vehicles and then obtained details of the drivers, vehicles and witnesses and arranged for recovery; the road was then re-opened. In the event of a fatality, photographs would be taken and the Coroner informed. Other formalities were dealt with in a safely parked car or police station and the scene fully examined later. Keeping the highway open was a major priority.

The reason for this post is to ask if anyone is aware of serious research having taken place into cost/benefit between extensive traffic delay and improved road safety. How many drivers the subject of these long forensic investigations and excessive health and safety measures actually come to court, are convicted and banned for life; how many return to the motorway to repeat their offences? How many lives are saved? How is the phenomenal cost of all this inconvenience measured against improved driving standards? What is the justification for hours of repetitive research into the b*****g obvious?

its got to be the drivers who do 30mph in a 60 mph area and seem to think that they can speed up in a thirty, it drives me mental and another thing is the people who drive and brake for no reason arghhhhh

"The highway code states that vehicles should return to their lane after overtaking, I think it should be made law"

It IS the law!!

And OldenBill, spot on. Thats the way this country works now.

You should be in the inner lane then.

I agree completely, and it isn't just dog-ends that get thrown out of car windows,(at speed!),I have seen drink cans, fast food wrappers and boxes, and the occasional apple core flying past my windscreen. Presumably the drivers have consumed these feasts whilst driving, and nattering on their mobiles!. All activities that detract from a drivers ability to control the car should be banned.

Drivers who don't indicate until they actually start turning.
Uggh... are you deliberately indicating late to make sure that no other road user can possibly take advantage of the information, or do you just not understand what the word 'indicate' actually means?

Drivers who do 30mph when there is a 50mph repeater sign on every second lampost.
If you're not even aware of speed limit signs, what else are you not paying the slightest attention to?
People who do 35-40 are even worse because they also think they're speeding

People who think it's "safer" to drive 10-20 mph under the speed limit everywhere because they had a slight skid in snow 20 years ago.
Take some responsibilty for your own driving skills, please. If you're not confident driving at or near the posted speed limit under normal conditions, to the point where you are holding up a line of cars, you might want to consider further training, my friend.

Oh, and car drivers who have a crash once every two or three years, and have never ridden a motorbike, patronisingly telling me how "dangerous" motorbikes are. That may or may not be the case, but if you can't even consistently keep your CAR out of harm's way, you're not in a position to preach to me about bike safety issues.

Ahh... that's better.

If someone as room to undertake you, YOU are in the wrong lane

ChattyCathy, if everyone used both lanes up to the point of filtering in, you wouldn't have to sit in a such a long queue! One of my pet hates is the filthy looks and gestures I get when doing just this...

dont you just want to kill drivers for undertaking lol

1. 4 x 4 petrol eating road monsters, which are driven by erratic, wild-haired mums dropping their well-bred and completely bratty children off to school - particularly secondary schools, on main roads - i could pull up, wind down the window and let out a scream.

2. 4 x 4 petrol gobbling horrors driven by balding, tanned and leathery skinned men of a certain age, lurching up tiny urban roads with cars parked on one side, usully forcing me onto a pavement to get out of the way. They don't slow down. And they NEVER thank you!

3. BMW drivers in Sutton Coldfield, driving so closely behind me, i actually wonder whether they are attempting to mount my car in a bizarre twist of reproduction as seen on discovery channel/ bbc2 etc - cars are metal machines, they don't breed.

4. Mini-cab drivers...whizzing past as they overtake - i have seen passengers heads being whipped back as if supported by necks made of bendy straws, such are the erratic and unecessary speeds reached between one set of traffic lights and another. Also, the tail-gating, frankly astounding behaviour on roundabaouts, pulling up right in front of you without warning etc etc

5. Idiots who stop in traffic and block junctions rather than leave a bit of a gap to let cars in and out.

6. Souped up corsa's, micra's, and saxo's - i don't give a fiddlers fluff if you've got Axel Rose's own amp plumbed into your parcel shelf, when you're playing Pussy Cat Dolls latest abomination to music, it sounds sh*t. Shut it up.

7. Absolute gits around Walsall who know you need to get into the right hand lane to go right for the one way system, who refuse to let you in. And then, just to rub it in, at the last second verge off the the left and vanish around the corner, leaving you to brake sharply to avoid hitting them or ending up on top of the central crossing bit for pedestrians! Why??? Selfish bullies.