Bad road design creates dangerous parking

Lets face it folks, the general view of our wonderfull Government and local Authorities is that cars and Motorists in particular are a GREAT way to screw more taxes from us all.
What passes for "road planning (??)" is farcical. This is what I think goes on in road planning meetings :-
Does It looks good on a drawing board" - Yes,
Will it work?? - NOT a hope in Hell!!
Is it Cheap? - You bet it is!!
Will it frustrate drivers?? - of course it will!!
Is it safe?? - Don't know about that yet but hell let's see what happens Eh?!!
Is there room for a Speed (oops! sorry "safety") camera on it? - You Betcha!!
Is there a chance of increased revenue from that camera or parking restrictions?? - Definitely! We'll do it that way then: to hell with the repercussions for the people in the area, who have to live with it. The Election is 3 years away, and they will have forgotten about it by then.
It seems to me that the Government and local authorities are determined to return to the days when all motor vehicles had to be in convoys, and have a man walking in front with a Red flag.

Lets face it folks, the general view of our wonderfull Government and local Authorities is that cars and Motorists in particular are a GREAT way to screw more taxes from us all.
What passes for "road planning (??)" is farcical. This is what I think goes on in road planning meetings :-
Does It looks good on a drawing board" - Yes,
Will it work?? - NOT a hope in Hell!!
Is it Cheap? - You bet it is!!
Will it frustrate drivers?? - of course it will!!
Is it safe?? - Don't know about that yet but hell let's see what happens Eh?!!
Is there room for a Speed (oops! sorry "safety") camera on it? - You Betcha!!
Is there a chance of increased revenue from that camera or parking restrictions?? - Definitely! We'll do it that way then: to hell with the repercussions for the people in the area, who have to live with it. The Election is 3 years away, and they will have forgotten about it by then.
It seems to me that the Government and local authorities are determined to return to the days when all motor vehicles had to be in convoys, and have a man walking in front with a Red flag.

Our council is finally coming up to scratch with clearing overgrown bushes that hide signs or oncoming traffic and the public is encouraged to let the council know of any driving obstructions. It is in my view the council's responsability to foresee the need of people to park their cars and the need of the traffic to flow safely. There are enough departments within the council to tackle this problem, write and petition to your council to have them take responsability for the safety of their roads. We pay road taxes and income tax as well as VAT so I reckon that we are entitled to well laid out new roads and improved layouts of old ones.

Why bother to look at the traffic on a roundabout if you own a ciroen saxo with big bore exhaust. You can just hammer across. Its best when the old fogey in the boring family car on your left has just entered the roundabout, keep going he will undoubtedly brake, shake his grey locks and reach for the vallium. What about priority you say. My right of way!

I detest the bad road design this story rightly bemoans. The best design of a street is a straight road with odds on one side and evens on the other.

this is the most amazing site i've ever clicked. thanks guys and keep on working it.

On the A59 at 16:30 on 29:05:09 between Gisburn and the turning for Barnoldswick a black VW Golf Sport TDI reg no PF06ZJZ was driving up my backside when I was doing 60 mph (the speed limit for this stretch) when he overtook at about 75mph only to be held up at the junction to turn right for Barnoldswick. He must have been in a hurry to have caught up with me when he was not in sight behind me a few minutes earlier. I hope he enjoyed the frustration of waiting.

A little later near Bolton Abbey at 17:00 a grey Ford Focus Zetec SA09YLJ was also up my backside trying to intimidate me to go faster.

Minutes later again driving towards Harrogate a Renault Laguna PJ05JFU coming towards me overtook and had to squeeze in between two other cars.

The smaller ugly looking cars for nancies have the worst drivers generally.

I went to Milton Keynes one in 2007. It was wonderful to get home yesterday.

Housing estates with poor road design and parking like this are springing up all over the country, not just Swindon, assuming that's where you're from. Ever been to Milton Keynes?

Steph, you've got the wrong end of the stick. Firstly, I never said "plan", I only said "approve". The developers submit the plans and the council approve them. The same council then complain about the parking and suggest we don't park on bends. There are no straight roads so that is a physical impossibility.

Secondly, we bought the property because, as I already said, it has off-street parking - as do all the houses around here. The problem is that there are no visitor spaces, nor capacity for pretty much anything you can't get on your drive.

So in simple terms for you, my whinge was that the council approved the road scheme, but then later blame problems with the approved scheme on us because of it.

Councils do not plan or design the layout of roads in newbuild developments. They adopt the roads from the developer once the development is complete. Each development will be built to a specification of an average vehicle ownership - which is usually much lower than any average. This means many houses do not have adequate parking provision which results in the 2+ car households taking up space in the street.

What people forget too quickly these days is that driving is a privilage not a right. If you want to own several vehicles (or even just one) then you need to live somewhere where you can adequately accommodate them. Why would you move to a new house knowing what the roads and parking provisions are like, and then complain about the parking?!! It's like buying a house near Heathrow Airport and then complaining about the noise from all the planes!

If you think that's bad you should try living where I am in London. We've got speed humps everywhere and I swear my recent garage bill is because of them. Local councils just seem to do what they feel like these days without any regard for residents.