Comments on: A38 Closed

By: Baz_k

Baz_k — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:29:52 +0000

This morning I have had a discussion with Gloucestershire Highways about the junction and they are going to run their evaluation process to determine what they can do about it.

I will keep you all informed as it progresses

By: Baz_k

Baz_k — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 07:37:16 +0000

Having looked at the phasing a number of times to see if there was a chance that it was something to do with the lights changing too quickly or anything like that, I have seen that they are perfectly fine. The main problem is that people jump the lights. Indeed while I was observing, there was a large lorry that was not even an “amber gambling” but just jumped the red light at speed!

In the first instance I think that Traffic Light Cameras are in order and I will chase that up as soon as I can to see what is required. I also want to look at the pedestrian crossing to see if it is really necessary. Why not go under the bridge? But I have not walked that yet so do not know where it ends up on the Quedgeley side.
The other issue is access roads – I did use the contractor route and it is not brilliant. I will bring this up again with QUVL and see about sensible solutions to this issue.

By: G Note

G Note — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:26:59 +0000

That crossing is dangerous, end of discussion! Who ever put it there needs to be sacked staight away! It’s bad road planning! The speed limit on that road is 70 MPH for crying out loud! Teenagers think they can walk out in front of you with out any regard for the cars or their life. Get hit at 70 and then tell me you are invincible. I don’t like seeing people waiting there to cross that junction, it only takes one idiot to wreck a life.

In terms of the junction just being for cars, I don’t really see it as being a problem, no more so than any other junction. You always get risk takers, people jump lights all of the time. Again, one way we are going to help prevent it is to put a camera on the junction, each car that jumps the red light gets to feel the force of the law. (Hopefully ban the person so they will think twice! Life is far to fragile and precious to be lost by a mindless idiot).

By: holbeach miserable

holbeach miserable — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:50:50 +0000

If the accident is due to a bike crossing the carriageway, then again this is not due to a bad road, this is due to bad ‘road sense’ by the cyclist. Which comes down to education. When I was at school we had cycling proficiency tests for free. We all brought our bikes to school, and we had lessons on how to ride safely. I can only assume that this is a costly measure, and has since been cut from schools.
If it is simply a collision between car & Bike when both are travelling in the same direction, then what do we do?

Green cross code man… We laugh now when we think back at the advert’s, but hey, we all knew the dangers of the road (and traffic was much lighter in those days, so the danger was actually less).

On a side note, I assume that I am not alone in seeing ridiculous behavior from teens these days? Many a time I have been driving down the road, and teens will just wander into the road and just stare at you whilst walking! They seem to think it is ‘Big’ to force a car to brake sharply to avoid them! Are they too stupid to understand that a 1.5 tonne car travelling at 25/30 MPH will do a whole load of damage to a body weighing 80kg if they both come into contact with each other?

I agree with your comment on the Tesco crossing. The crossing in question was inherently dangerous, having to cross traffic on foot, with no traffic lights etc to stop traffic, but this is totally different from the Kingsway junction on the A38.

On natural selection, if there is a path which gives a safe crossing point but you choose to take a less safe shortcut and get wiped out by a car, then you have assessed the risk and chosen to take the gamble… you have to live with the consequences. You dont want to get hit, then walk the extra yards… Easy!

By: flumper

flumper — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:56:24 +0000

Occasionally accidents happen, yes you are right.

The driver who drove into the wall down Woodvale was an accident – caused by a bad driver. Luckily this is an occasional accident, it’s not happened again – taking into consideration the speed at which repairs are made in this place, we’d have no wall left.

At the junction, we have had the accident last night, the white Audi a couple of weeks ago, the motorbike accident in the same week, the accident back in November, there was also a minor one I saw a couple of months ago, then add on the near misses, where impact was avoided. I personally don’t consider these to be occasional accidents. They are also pretty serious ones if todays article in The Citizen is to be taken into consideration.

If these accidents (injuries/deaths) can be avoided, whether it be by waving a flag (I think the guy is a little over the top) or a few extra signs to prevent “Human Error” then surely its worth doing?

Barry has just won a victory after Tescos promised action over “dangerous pedestrian access”. He did this to prevent an accident happening here. From what you’re saying this should be left as “accidents happen”, there is a path, you just need to walk further… Or maybe we go with your theory of Natural Selection?

By: holbeach miserable

holbeach miserable — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:37:53 +0000

Flumper,

The junction is safe, all the lights are phased correctly.

Occasionally accidents happen and the majority of the time accidents are due to human error.

So what do we do, have a guy walking in front of a car waving a flag?

It’s nothing to do with people travelling fast, there’s a 70mph limit on the road and even then, when the lights turn to amber, there is plenty of time to stop.

Bad drivers cause accidents, not the road itself.