The story reports that police in London – the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) – have made 27 arrests in connection. The article says:
Police say those most often targeted are young people who are normally forced to pay such large amounts for genuine insurance that they jump at the chance to get what appears a good deal.
Reading into that, one has to conclude that those arrested were guilty of just that. However, I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t another common denominator involved.
I also pointed out that NCC had already decided it was going to do this, no matter what people thought about it. They said as much in the leaflets they sent out (click the image to see one for the Wilford area). So it initially came as a bit of surprise to discover motorists were being stopped along Haydn Road – where 20mph has already been imposed – and being canvassed on their opinions. This was happening about two weeks ago albeit months after the leaflet went out.
But now we have moved a little further. NCC apparently didn’t like the results it was getting from the canvassing.
As I pointed out in that last article, RoSPA recommends 20mph limits on roads where the average speed is already below 24mph, and where the road looks like it should be 20mph in the first place. Haydn Road doesn’t fit that bill in any way, shape, or form, and I suspect that NCC has now realised this and is anxious to regain lost ground.
So last week, I noticed that traffic monitoring devices have been installed on all the roads where NCC is planning on introducing 20mph limits. You will note that these devices – those double-black wires across roads, which are used primarily to monitor traffic speeds over a period of time – have gone in at least a week after the Haydn Road canvassing exercise, and therefore several months after NCC announced it was going to do this anyway by sending out its stupid leaflets.
This apparent attempt to gather the right sort of data after a decision has already been taken is bad enough, but let’s take a look at where they’ve put these monitoring devices. Firstly, on Ruddington Lane, which is now a major thoroughfare after the closure of Wilford Lane. Instead of the hundreds of cars that used to go along that road, you now have many thousands each day, and in the extended rush hour created by the tram works and other idiotic road improvements and utilities works everywhere else (it now lasts anywhere from 3.30pm until 7pm) Ruddington Lane is gridlocked by people trying to pass through Compton Acres to West Bridgford and beyond. Traffic is at a complete standstill for the busiest part of the day.
Maybe those responsible are not as dumb as you might think. I suspect that they know full well that the average speed of traffic being monitored now is going to support their moronic 20mph policy, and that’s why they’re doing it. They know that no matter what speed people drive at along Ruddington Lane when it’s quiet (or when Wilford Lane was open), the huge number who are virtually stationary now will pull the average speed right down. I’m sure this will come out in their “public consultation meetings”. Of course, if they are as dumb as you might think, then they are just producing highly inaccurate and flawed data.
If we rule out the “dumb” card, it only leaves vindictiveness towards the motorist as the motivating force.
They’ve also put a set of wires in on Gregory Boulevard through Hyson Green. This road is also busy during rush hour, but in the last week – running as it does alongside the Goose Fair, with the numerous road closure and restrictions that last for a week as a result – the road has been gridlocked for much of the day. Again, highly misleading traffic speeds will have been recorded.
In fact, the mass of road works which are causing chaos in the City at the moment have pulled the average speed down on ALL roads, and these monitoring devices are installed in multiple locations where traffic used to move freely, but doesn’t anymore. It is totally pointless trying to get a measure of normal road speeds under these artificial conditions. Pointless – unless you are deliberately trying to obtain misleading results for some purpose.
Tonight, a lesson overran by half an hour as a result of the rush hour lasting until well after 7pm on the Ring Road. London Road into the City was at a standstill for some reason (and a sign at Trent Bridge proclaimed a lane closure for still more road works). The Aspley Lane works on the Ring Road are far from complete – the official end date is December – but a sign has now gone up outside Wollaton Park (Middleton Boulevard) advising of delays there when “junction improvements” commence later in October there. So the idiots have sanctioned yet another set of major road works amidst all the other incomplete works still in progress.
And through it all, they will be monitoring average traffic speeds in order to justify their idiotic 20mph plan.
I will say again:
20mph is too slow for many roads – and add that creating purposely inaccurate data to support the plan isn’t fooling anyone
The local comedians who pass themselves off as councillors in Nottingham appear to have very short attention spans to go with their complete lack of any common sense whatsoever.
I have frequently mentioned on this blog that on top of the total waste of money that is the tram, and its multitude of long-term road closures, they are adding additional road closures for other purposes on a daily basis, making it impossible to get through from one side of the City to the other. Even when a route is open, there is tons more traffic using it because it can’t go via it’s usual alternative route, which will be blocked.
Well, these comedians are now in the process of introducing blanket 20mph speed limits across Nottingham. An “information leaflet” they sent out – given to me by a pupil – can be seen (and downloaded) by clicking the image on the left.
To start with, the fact that they say that they are “proposing” these changes is a complete joke. They’re already doing it. And they ARE going to do it, everywhere, no matter what you or me might think or say. They don’t give a damn about anyone’s opinion unless it fits in with the one they already have. That’s why they will glibly quote residents as having said that they “support lower speed limits”, and yet ignore any opposing views.
Get it into your thick skulls, Nottingham City Council:
20mph is TOO SLOW on many roads, and certainly on some of those you have included in your blanket!
Most of the data they keep quoting – when they do actually use any data – relate to the likelihood of death if hit by a car travelling at 20mph or 30mph. Yes, if you’re hit by a car travelling at 30mph you’re more likely to die than if you’re hit by one going 20mph. That’s why 20mph speed limits make perfect sense outside schools, where the likelihood of a poorly-raised or badly supervised child running out is greater.
However, putting a 20mph limit on roads like Haydn Road – shown below – is the height of stupidity. It is really just too dumb for words.
The problem for the driver is that on these larger roads – and especially long straight ones like Haydn Road – sticking to 20mph is difficult. Cars are simply not designed to go at that speed all the time, and it is easy to go over. That means the driver will be spending time looking at his or her speedometer, so the likelihood of an accident could increase – even if it isn’t a fatal one.
Another problem is other drivers. The vast majority do not observe 20mph zones as they would 30mph ones, so someone who is actually doing 20mph will get tailgated and overtaken often – and believe me, if I’m in a 20mph zone I can guarantee that 90% of other drivers WILL tailgate or overtake. It happens over in Aspley, and now it happens in Sherwood.
These drivers aren’t notching it up to 60 or 70 or anything once they pass you. They’ll continue to drive at less than 30mph – but they simply don’t stick to 20mph, and they get impatient if they’re behind anyone who does. And this, too, can increase the risk of an accident – not just the overtaking, but the frustration created.
My pupils almost always feel pressured by this. They say so in no uncertain terms, and it leads them to make mistakes, because they’re looking in the mirror instead of looking ahead. They will still feel pressured once they pass their tests – when I’m not there to use the dual controls. For God’s Sake, I feel pressured – and I’ve been driving over 30 years!
So that then raises the issue of enforcement. Enforcing these 20mph limits effectively will cost a fortune, and to finance that, more people will need to be caught. Applying the 10% + 2mph guideline means going over the limit and getting ticketed is much easier than it is in 30+ zones, and none of the borough councils are in any way averse to deliberately twisting the rules to make money. Last year, for example, I accidently typed “62” instead of “61” into a parking ticket machine in West Bridgford and got a PCN as a result. The scumbags wouldn’t accept my argument that the parasite in the uniform that was too big for him had seen me buy the ticket in the first place, and wouldn’t respond to my subsequent complaints.
THIS is what they will end up doing with these 20mph zones if they try to enforce them. They will screw motorists even more. And that’s only if it remains a civil matter (involving PCNs). If the police are dragged into it and Fixed Penalties are involved, peoples livelihoods could be at stake – just to massage the egos of a bunch of politically correct teenage bureaucrats with ideas above themselves.
Just staying with Haydn Road for a moment, it’s also worth pointing out that all the side roads joining it have got speed bumps on them, and are so narrow that you can’t do more than 20mph anyway (and people seldom do). Percival Road, shown below, is a prime example – they’re all like this, and the picture doesn’t do it justice as there are usually far more parked cars than that.
Yet the Council has already spent thousands erecting pointless signs on these roads – a cost above and beyond that of installing and maintaining the speed bumps over the years. And this is before their “consultation”, you understand. So we’ll just have to pretend that there is a cat in hell’s chance of them realising they’re wrong and taking the signs down.
What of the accident statistics for these areas which are destined to be smothered with 20mph blankets? Maybe once every few years someone will get knocked over – and that’s a worse case scenario – but that’s all. It’s not like there is carnage all year round, and along miles and miles of roads.
So what, then, of the propaganda being spewed by the City Council? In that brochure, they say:
The Wilford area… has a mixture of shops, schools, community centres and residential streets.
It’s a pointless statement that could be applied to any road in the UK. But it continues:
A 20mph limit can help to establish sensible sharing of the roads where people live and socialise and reflect the community and residential nature of the area.
Someone please pass me the sick bag! What are they suggesting? That people should walk around on roads regardless of traffic? They already do that in neighbourhoods where a single helix in their DNA is as high up the evolutionary ladder they get, and that’s where those bloody accidents I mentioned come from in the first place. It’s all wishy-washy bullshit, designed to appeal specifically, for example, to people whose brains have been turned to jelly because they’ve just had a baby and who “want to see safer roads” for when little Kylie or Jason grows up. It’s a little ironic, since Kylie or Jason will likely grow up either to be a statistic, or to make the statistics themselves – all because of the ineffectual way they’ve been brought up in the first place. And even more ironically, those very parents who want “safer roads” will be the worst offenders when they start taking little Kylie or Jason to school!
That the scheme is a foregone conclusion can be seen in the statement:
A formal, written consultation will take place in October 2013 where you can have your say on which roads should be included or excluded in this scheme.
Can you see that? Residents will be consulted over is which roads will be included – not whether or not the scheme itself should go ahead at all. Nottingham City Council have no intention of backing down on this, no matter what anyone says. All they want is to be able to sift the responses for the ones they like the sound of, and to oppose or smear those they don’t.
Is there any conclusive evidence that 20mph limits actually work? Well, no. However, most councils across the UK are introducing these 20mph limits, and their supporting evidence is based wholly on the circular argument that it must work because everyone else is doing it. Nottingham City Council is no exception – it’s only evidence for 20mph being beneficial appears to be that Newcastle has done it. And somehow, Newcastle has come to the startling conclusion that accidents have fallen between 20% and 60% in streets where 20mph has been imposed. No mention of the type of road, or the times of day – just this idiotic blanket statement that the fools at Nottingham’s City Council can pounce on without having the slightest clue if it’s true or not, or why.
If it were true, then 20mph limits should be introduced – and it would be hard to argue. But the Newcastle scheme only started in 2008, and even then it only reached full blanket level at the end of 2011. Accident statistics are notoriously complex, and no one – anywhere – understands them fully. So there is no way that a mere 18 months of data can be used to definitely prove that 20mph limits result in massive reductions in accidents. I would lay odds that some of the roads in Newcastle which haven’t been restricted have also seen reductions in accidents. That’s what happens – the numbers go up and down all by themselves, and cannot be attributed to single events like the introduction of lower limits, and it is misleading and unprofessional to attempt to do so.
And then, what of the places Nottingham City Council is targeting? If you look at the RoSPA site on this topic, it says of 20mph limited areas:
20mph limits are most appropriate for roads where average speeds are already low, and the guidance suggests below 24mph. The layout and use of the road must also give the clear impression that a 20mph speed or below is the most appropriate.
The Department for Transport (DfT) also advises 20mph limits on roads where the average speed is already less than 24mph. The decision by the Council to apply a 20mph limit to Haydn Road is clearly in breach of this. Haydn’s original speed limit was 30mph, and the layout (width) most certainly did not make it a “low average speed” road. Absolutely nothing, therefore, can justify applying a 20mph limit to it, and Nottingham City Council has just steamrollered over the very guidance it quotes in support of its draconian behaviour. The situation it has created is therefore potentially much more dangerous.
Another council doing this is Bristol. Interestingly, the police comment:
We do not oppose the introduction of 20mph schemes but encourage all to look at other ways that we can promote reducing speed limits effectively.
As with any other speed limit, 20mph zones will be treated in the same way in that enforcement will not be routine but intelligence led. Where there is evidence of excessive speed, we will take action where appropriate.
That first sentence is very telling. You see, from what I can gather, Nottingham City Council IS going to be trying to enforce these limits – and especially on Haydn Road! And yet I cannot see how they’re going to manage to get the police to do it, which means it will remain a civil matter. Quite frankly, I don’t think they know how they (the Council) are going to enforce it.
I had a pupil on test this morning, and as I was travelling to pick her up I hit traffic. At 9.30am, it was far heavier than usual, and I quickly realised something other than the idiot tram works were involved. And so it was.
Severn Trent were in their absolute element. Big hole in the road, barriers, temporary traffic lights, and people standing around apparently doing sod all.
There had been what appears to have been a major leak on one of the only roads into Nottingham still unaffected by tram works, ring road improvements, gas main replacement, or the building of “quality developments of affordable 2- and 3-bedroomed housing” on green belt land. The temporary lights were still up this afternoon around 3pm, so try to avoid that end for a day or two (and especially during evening rush hour, which is bad enough down that road anyway). I can’t see Severn Trent finishing this off any quicker than usual. (Edit: the lights were finally removed late – very late – on Sunday)
It would be unfair to blame Severn Trent completely. After all, they’re just doing what they usually do, as well as they usually do it! The real culprits are those in the Council who have restricted so many roads because of the tram, or who have rushed into “improvements” within five minutes of the grant cheque being cleared without waiting for the tram works to finish.
And don’t forget it is the bloody Marathon on Sunday. That already involves closing off even more roads (and I bet the ring road at Aspley Lane is down to one lane at the same time – the berks won’t pass up a chance to rub salt into the motorists’ wounds like that). (Edit: They actually went one better. The only road through Clifton – the roundabout at Farnborough Road/Green Lane – has now got 4-way (count ’em: FOUR way) traffic lights on it. They appear to have sanctioned tram works there before any of the other routes have re-opened).
There is a word that rhymes with “banker”. It describes completely those people who allegedly “work” for the County Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council.
Tonight I was wending my way along a route designed to take me as far away from Wilford Lane (and the tram closure there) as possible in order to go home. I’d successfully gone from Woodborough to Edwalton, heading towards Keyworth, when guess what? The berks had cut the A606 near to the Wheatcroft Garden Centre down to a single lane. It looks for all the world that they’re farting about putting a new pedestrian dropped kerb!
I’ve said it before, but it is a deliberate policy to cause as much disruption to motorists as possible. It can’t possibly be anything else. It’s just one major blockage after another, and Nottingham is becoming an absolute pit to live and work in.
I also noticed today that they (City Council, I think) are replacing the street lighting along Swansdowne Drive in Clifton – the only route remaining between the Varney Road shops and the Ruddington side. There are yellow barriers around every street light, and there’s no way traffic is going to be able to get by while they’re pulling out lamp posts and putting new ones in.
Well, there was yet more chaos on the roads today. I also saw a story on the local news tonight which tells how a concrete girder for a bridge has snapped as they attempted to span the Fairham Brook. With the Brook being all of 15 feet across – and with it being something that, as kids, we used to cross using planks – it doesn’t fill you with much confidence.
Furthermore, out on a lesson tonight I noticed that they were just setting up “4-way control” temporary lights at the 5-ways junction on Coventry Lane at Balloon Wood. Unless that was just overnight – and it looked like serious business with the number of people there – it looks like the chaos is going to be backed up to that side of the City.
Oh, yes. And this morning as I travelled towards the City from Wilford Hill along the A60 I was relieved to see that the temporary lights at Boundary Road had gone. My joy was short-lived, though. Because they’ve just moved about 200 metres along the road to the fire station. It would appear that Rushcliffe Borough Council is waging all-out war in its quest for the perfect junction for pedestrians. It’s hard to believe that so many motorists can be inconvenienced for such long periods merely to put down fresh tactile paving and dropped kerbs.
What makes it even funnier is that the latest location involves the most underused road imaginable. I think it is even a cul-de-sac. (Edit: They have installed a pedestrian crossing outside the fire station).
You really would think that those morons in charge of road works would start to get the message, wouldn’t you? So much so that – as I’ve said before – the total chaos on Nottingham’s roads can only be deliberate.
Today, there was almost gridlock on the south side (all along the ring road, all through West Bridgford, and all around Wilford and Ruddington) as people tried in vain to avoid the Wilford Lane road closure. But the best part was that on the A60 in Bradmore, and just to add insult to injury, some other morons identified as Severn Trent Water had got temporary lights up. These were there all day.
But the real problem is that they didn’t need to be there. The hole they’d dug was on the grass border next to someone’s house, and did not even extend as far as the path, let alone into the road. But of course, Health & Safety bullshit means that plastic barriers have to be put up to move the pedestrian walkway a certain number of metres away from any earthworks, and it then demands that if the walkway then comes within so many millimetres of the road then the road must be restricted and traffic lights put up. And this is what happened.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if the idle, lazy contractors were anywhere to be seen – but whatever time of day it was that they dug the hole, there was absolutely no one there to do even the smallest amount of labour any time from 12pm onwards. I noticed that around 6pm the lights had been pushed out of the way – and I doubt that it was Severn Trent who had done it.
I also encountered another Severn Trent road block this afternoon (and I’ve forgotten where it was). Again, temporary lights were up.
Going back to the Wilford Lane fiasco, is it only me who cannot figure out why the whole road needs to be closed for 4 months when the road is only about 8 metres wide at that point? I mean, what they’re doing is closing it and not doing anything to it for 90% of that period. It’s just “in the plan”. Obviously, these fools (who comprise Nottingham’s roads department and NET) are incapable of only closing such a vital artery for the shortest time possible, and can only respond to whatever came up on their flipcharts at the undoubtedly copious meetings they held to plan it in the first place.
As I say, it is deliberate, anti-motorist incompetence.
Wilford Lane has now closed for 4 months while work on that waste of money called “The Tram” continues.
Ruddington Lane is only partially open. It closed last September “for approximately three months”, and opened – partially, as I say – nearly a full year later.
On top of this, there are temporary lights on Woodborough Road (again). The A60 towards Mansfield still has temporary lights during the day – and I noticed last week that all they’re doing is re-pointing that bloody wall. The Ring Road has long-term road works (currently at Aspley Lane, but if you read the Council’s propaganda they’re going to be moving as far north as the A60 roundabout at Arnold over an unspecified period of time). There are numerous other closures and restrictions.
This afternoon – well before 5pm – there were huge tailbacks all around Wilford Hill, with people finding alternative routes now that Wilford Lane is closed.
Nottingham has become the absolute pits. As a city – in the geographic sense – it is fine. But politically – in terms of the morons who allegedly run the Council – it is the worst place in the country to live. Wherever you work, your employment is going to be put at risk as a result of the limited mental capacities of the people at both County and City Halls.
Well done Mitch, who passed today with 5 driver faults. This was his third attempt – he should have passed those other two times, but the pupils you have most faith in are often the ones who often end up doing something silly. Not this time, though. A well-deserved licence is on its way!
We had to do a circuitous route to the test centre. I heard on the news before setting out that a train had derailed in Carlton (today was the first full day the line was in operation after five weeks of closure for signal and rail upgrading). The Netherfield barriers were down and there were long delays. We managed to bypass all that – but reports are that the damaged line could take many days to repair, and also the new signals have been damaged.
I recently wrote about the continuing spread of road works in Nottingham, sanctioned by the morons who run our local councils. I mentioned that Mansfield Road in Arnold had new road works, adding to the problems already on the ring road at the Aspley Lane junction, and the closure of the railway crossing on Vernon Road (leading to drivers taking detours via the ring road).
Well, I was on a lesson today and I was planning to take the pupil through Ravenshead at around 6.30pm. Remembering the road works up there, and seeing traffic backed up to the Oxclose Lane junction, I decided to detour via the Bestwood Estate and come into Ravenshead via Bestwood Village.
This would have been fine – except that the idiots have now closed Bestwood Road through the village for road works there too (resurfacing). And they think they’re clever by putting up signs at different stages warning of closures for 6 days, 3 days, and 5 days respectively. In other words, the road will be closed for TWO WEEKS in total. So there’s no way of avoiding the gridlock on Mansfield Road at all.
I repeat what I’ve said many times before. They are total, complete, and utter fools.
Update: The day after I wrote this I checked out Ruddington Lane. It is now open, but has three-way temporary lights at the South Nottingham Industrial Estate – meaning there are still big hold ups there. Unless those are removed, closing Wilford Lane on 27th August will cause chaos. Just to point out again that the work here started LAST September, and was due to last “approximately” three months. The road has been closed for ELEVEN months.
Oh yes. And there are now also three-way temporary lights on the A60 Loughborough Road at the junction with Boundary Road. The council pillocks have allowed Western Power to start work on the electricity cabling near there.
Council.
as they attempted to span the Fairham Brook. With the Brook being all of 15 feet across – and with it being something that, as kids, we used to cross using planks – it doesn’t fill you with much confidence.
Today, there was almost gridlock on the south side (all along the ring road, all through West Bridgford, and all around Wilford and Ruddington) as people tried in vain to avoid the Wilford Lane road closure. But the best part was that on the A60 in Bradmore, and just to add insult to injury, some other morons identified as Severn Trent Water had got temporary lights up. These were there all day.
Wilford Lane has now closed for 4 months while work on that waste of money called “The Tram” continues.
Well done Mitch, who passed today with 5 driver faults. This was his third attempt – he should have passed those other two times, but the pupils you have most faith in are often the ones who often end up doing something silly. Not this time, though. A well-deserved licence is on its way!
Road in Arnold had new road works, adding to the problems already on the ring road at the Aspley Lane junction, and the closure of the railway crossing on Vernon Road (leading to drivers taking detours via the ring road).