Ramp Clearance

Dades · 01-02-2005 5:42pm #1

I know this has cropped up before under a few posts, but only in passing.

Anyone know if there is minimum clearance for cars to get over the highest Irish (or Dublin) ramps?
In other words do the councils have a maximum height that they are allowed make the ramps?

Some of those bad boys are like feckin' mountains.

Any info or thoughts appreciated!

monster_fighter · 01-02-2005 5:46pm

On Monday (?), Pat "the Plank" Kenny reported that there are no guidelines for ramps.

shakenbake · 01-02-2005 5:55pm

I remember a few months ago they put some SERIOUS ramps in the phoenix park. About 7 in a row!

They were so bad that they actually dug them back up! I thought they weren't ever going to come back. But, they have! Having said that much better
than the first time, but still a pain in the hole.

I have to stop thinking about this stuff, I can reallllly feel my blood pressure rising ! Mark my words I will go postal someday over this ****. You'll all see me on rte news !!!

Dades · 01-02-2005 6:18pm

Thanks guys (for confirming my worst fears)!

I guess it depends on the mood of the roadworkers on the day.

LOL - Pat "The Plank" Kenny.

heggie · 02-02-2005 2:58am

has anyone noticed the amount of 'unofficial' ramps popping up around dublin. Any time theres any roadworks, they always fill the road back in much higher creating a ramp, and eventually, pot holes either side of it

DoctorEdgeWild · 02-02-2005 5:32am

^^^

Thats actually so true, most ramps are built so poorly that the ground either side of them dips considerably making them twice as much of a killer to those of us in the lowered community.

Also, is it just me or should a ramp on a 30mph road (I know it kph now but I've been away since Dec. 8) allow a motorist to safely pass over it at 20mph?

There are ramps out there that you HAVE to go about 7,8mph over or destroy your car. How does this make sense? I am confused

.

Alun · 02-02-2005 8:51am

DoctorEdgeWild wrote:

Also, is it just me or should a ramp on a 30mph road (I know it kph now but I've been away since Dec. 8) allow a motorist to safely pass over it at 20mph?

Surely a ramp on a 50 km/h road should allow you to drive over it at 50 km/h? If not, then shouldn't there be a case for lowering the speed limit, rather than installing ramps to artificially lower the limit to some arbitrary level determined by the whims of the people who built the ramps?

DukeDredd · 02-02-2005 9:56am

Didn't some old dude in Dublin sue the coucil over speed ramps near his house and win? He said that they totally screwed up his back from driving over them every morning and evening.

Dades · 02-02-2005 12:13pm

DukeDredd wrote:

Didn't some old dude in Dublin sue the coucil over speed ramps near his house and win? He said that they totally screwed up his back from driving over them every morning and evening.

Now we just need someone to sue and win after their car gets screwed up...

Class action, anyone?

Seth Brundle · 02-02-2005 5:27pm

Alun wrote:

Surely a ramp on a 50 km/h road should allow you to drive over it at 50 km/h? If not, then shouldn't there be a case for lowering the speed limit, rather than installing ramps to artificially lower the limit to some arbitrary level determined by the whims of the people who built the ramps?

Now that there is a 30kph limit in place, you may see many councils putting these limits in housing estates.

FX Meister · 02-02-2005 5:34pm

Has anyone noticed the ramps on tthe Eastwall road that are actually completley flat, the first one is about 3-4 inches high and then the next few are just cats eyes and the red brick effect of the ramps. Why?

Atomic Pineapple · 02-02-2005 9:33pm

Alun wrote:

Surely a ramp on a 50 km/h road should allow you to drive over it at 50 km/h? If not, then shouldn't there be a case for lowering the speed limit, rather than installing ramps to artificially lower the limit to some arbitrary level determined by the whims of the people who built the ramps?

Well ramps are put in specific places to slow cars right down in areas of danger to people crossing the road etc.. so there not meant to allow you go the speed limit there meant to slow you way down

DoctorEdgeWild · 03-02-2005 3:43am

FX MEISTER -

Yeah, I drive over them every day going to training - they make me laugh until I realise we paid for them. Seriously can anyone explain them?

DAFFODX - Isn't that what pedestrian crossings are for? I understand your point but there are in place 24 hours a day on 30mph roads, seriously damaging cars. Surely the responsibiltiy to slow down should be left to the driver in charge of the vehicle, not the lump of concrete on the ground?

edmund_f · 03-02-2005 8:52am

thought they were all being ripped up in the UK?. You must remember that the people deciding on these things have goverment cars+drivers and never actually have to drive. The people know, KNOW, that anyone with lowered suspension (put on cartman accent) is the devil,, THE DEVIL DAMMIT, (take off cartman accent) and therefore can be safely ignored. Yes that means you reading this.. what you gonna' do?

Dades · 03-02-2005 9:41am

edmund_f wrote:

The people know, KNOW, that anyone with lowered suspension (put on cartman accent) is the devil,, THE DEVIL DAMMIT, (take off cartman accent) and therefore can be safely ignored. Yes that means you reading this.. what you gonna' do?

I'm gonna buy an SUV of course! (Not)

Still, it's kind of ironic that people are getting hot under the collar about driving SUVs in the city - when in fact it's much more an "off-road" driving experience in the city than outside it...

Just stop putting obstacles on the roads ya bassdrinkers.

edmund_f · 03-02-2005 9:51am

amusing to think that the people in the know decide that large lumps of concrete in the middle of the road will slow people down. All the car manufacturers do is design a machine that can easily take them without slowing down. Noted that most of these are priced outside of anyone that would normally have any social influence. Thus these are just targeted at the DEVIL CARS. Or at least that logic works in my head.

Alun · 03-02-2005 10:31am

draffodx wrote:

Well ramps are put in specific places to slow cars right down in areas of danger to people crossing the road etc.. so there not meant to allow you go the speed limit there meant to slow you way down

Yes, I agree that in some places they're (not there !) used in circumstances like that, like pedestrian crossings for example, and I've no problem with those, although the comments regarding their variable and arbitrary design and size still stand.

Here in Bray, the Boghall Road, which is a reasonably main thoroughfare, has speed bumps virtually along it's entire length, but they're so slight that you can safely drive over them at 50km/h which is the limit on that stretch. You can drive over them faster, but it gets increasingly uncomfortable as your speed increases ... or so I'm told. In this case they're acting as a speed control measure pure and simple.

Dades · 03-02-2005 10:42am

Alun wrote:

Here in Bray, the Boghall Road, which is a reasonably main thoroughfare, has speed bumps virtually along it's entire length, but they're so slight that you can safely drive over them at 50km/h

There's nothing wrong with that type - i.e. the type you can actually drive over at your limit, but discourage you from going any faster.

It's the ones on the 50kph roads that when you drive onto them you can't see the horizon anymore, that bother me.

There's loads of the feckers around where I live.

Boggle · 03-02-2005 12:06pm

Its a paiin in the ass alright - there's a new one outside my parents house which is massive and the brother's after damaging his bumper already. He reckon's a load of people are after damaging their cars despite crawling over it so he's going to try and get the car fixed by the council...

...good luck to him but I'd doubt they'll help him out.

liamo · 03-02-2005 1:47pm

DukeDredd wrote:

Didn't some old dude in Dublin sue the coucil over speed ramps near his house and win? He said that they totally screwed up his back from driving over them every morning and evening.

Here is the article in the Sunday Indo

Dades · 03-02-2005 2:16pm

liamo wrote:

Here is the article in the Sunday Indo

Ouch!
I could just imagine running over one of those big ones at full tilt. The pain... the sparks... the cash!
Interesting that the max is supposedly 100mm.

Out with your rulers!

liamo · 03-02-2005 2:54pm

The Atheist wrote:

Interesting that the max is supposedly 100mm.

Yeah. The contractors mustn't take a blind bit of notice 'cos there's such a difference in the height and angle of ramps from road to road in my area.

Also, I've noticed that the ramps with the shallowest angle and lowest height seem to be more abundant in the more affluent areas. Would this be because there'd be an absolute outcry if a few BMW's and Merc's got damaged compared to - for example - a complaint from me that my 10 year old Astra got a knock?

edmund_f · 03-02-2005 3:22pm

doubt it has anything to do with BMW's or whatever, it is because

(a) the more affulent pople either control councellors, or are councellors and therefore can directly influence these things, i.e. if the council workers installed your standard pleb speed bump in an affulent area they would get fired.

(b) they want to attract the DEVIL CARS

Dades · 03-02-2005 5:26pm

Hmmm.

I think that might be conspiracy theory.

It's probably more a matter of stopping them before they're put down. Like before the builders turn up.

The worst ramps I ever met are behind Ranelagh outside some pretty nice gaffs. You couldn't even classify these as ramps - they were KERBS.

All sharp and pointy.

`__
/....\

stratos · 03-02-2005 8:55pm

Well as we copy England in most things we may see them removed. It has bee'n found in London that road ramps cause cancer clusters. Local residents are Ingestiging carcongenic fumes from cars de-accellerating and then accellerating away at the ramps. Also as the ramps were mainly on suburban roads the effect was worse. So they are doing away with ramps whilst trying to get the main arteries moving again thus taking traffic off the suburban streets. So I'll guess we will do half of that anyway.

lomb · 03-02-2005 9:33pm

stratos wrote:

Well as we copy England in most things we may see them removed. It has bee'n found in London that road ramps cause cancer clusters. Local residents are Ingestiging carcongenic fumes from cars de-accellerating and then accellerating away at the ramps. Also as the ramps were mainly on suburban roads the effect was worse. So they are doing away with ramps whilst trying to get the main arteries moving again thus taking traffic off the suburban streets. So I'll guess we will do half of that anyway.

lol everything is an experiment (its easy to experiment with other peoples money) and when it doesnt work they do some other experiment thats destined to fail. politicians have all the foresight of an amoeba.

stratos · 03-02-2005 11:08pm

True the above. I saw a scenario where a safety commitee looked at qauds.They concluded they needed roll over bars. Now I know nothing about bikes or qauds, on the face of it it sounded like a good idea. The accident rate shot up once the roll over bars were added. I asked a guy why. He said "man you need to be able to lean into a corner on those things, the rollover bar got in the way, and the damn things turned over. It's amazing the unforeseen outcome of any action. (or the stupidity of commitee's).

Dades · 04-02-2005 11:03am

stratos wrote:

True the above. I saw a scenario where a safety commitee looked at qauds.They concluded they needed roll over bars.

That's daft.

It's quite obvious they need stabilisers. They should put 'em on motorbikes and Jeeps too. And drunks.

edmund_f · 04-02-2005 11:07am

next they will be getting the GAA to pad their hurleys?

may you live in interesting times..

Ramp Clearance

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