Alternative to speed ramps

rainbow kirby

I live in Firhouse and in the past few weeks they've added speed ramps in the area, as well as constructing a roundabout as a safety measure at a junction on a hill. (Nice idea)

Argh. Those ramps are a disaster. I've a dodgy back at the moment... and it's boneshaking on the 49 coming in from town. Quite a few of them are very badly placed too.

OMcGovern

I propose "speed mines".... a bit like land mines, but they only go off if you break the speed limit....

You do realise, that in our lifetimes, we're probably going to end up with GPS or RFID tags in our cars. Tracking our speed will become much easier....
So enjoy these "dark ages" of speed detection !

Rovi

saobh_ie wrote:

RainyDay wrote:

What's the best car to go over speed bumps at 50 mph?


A company car.

A stolen car, great fun I'd imagine. 60 to 80km/h, speed bump. KaBANG!

Actually, it's a 4x4 off-road racer with big tough wheels and tyres and long travel slinky suspension.

These things laugh in the face of speed bumps, potholes, humpback bridges, etc, and give rise to much entertainment in the removal of tailgaters.

Allegedly.

Ahem!

Cough!



.

Corben Dallas

The speed bumps in finglas are vicious! they're the old type(no one makes these anymore) that are just shaped angled red bricks, they are just plain dangerous. Everytime I go over there i can feel bits of my suspension falling off. They should be changed.

I know speed bumps also are their to stop joyriders, but its not as if they give a feck about wreckin the cars wheels/suspension, its not their car.
I would really hate to live in an area and have to drive over those old type every day.

iregk

I think speed ramps are good as long as they are made correctly. the rubber ones that are about two foot wide are fine adn slow you down. however in tallaght i have seen some horrendous ones. around teh corner from my mothers house there is one that no joking is just under 2ft high!!! you'd need a land rover going over it, council job and basically a big lump of tar dumped on the road, shaped and painted.

In anyones language thats ridiculous.

saobh_ie

Agreed, hit one of those angled brick ones in Finglas doing 20km/h or something, pedestrians were passing me, and it was like driving up on the kerb...

would have been better off... damn pedestrians thinking they can pass me... lol

Bee

How can any intelligent road user find anything positive about road ramps?

Dublin City Council show a total disregard for all road users safety by continuing to give contracts to their “friends” (sorry, after a “public tender” of course ) to install road ramps.

These ramps kill people

Most serious of all is the delay which ramps cause to emergency vehicles.
Ambulances rushing an injured patient to hospital may have to slow to a ridiculously low speed to negotiate a ramp; in cases of severe injury they may have to find an alternative route to avoid the ramps altogether.

Every second counts to a heart attack victim. Remember the Traffic Dept of DCC has built ramps outside of hospitals, for heavens sake! how idiotic can they be?

I would love to see one of DCC’s joke “Traffic” engineers travel with a seriously ill relative either suffering a heart attack or a spinal injury and watch the fun the ambulance driver has as he loses seconds getting the victim to an A&E or the joy the paramedic has in getting a line into a stroke/heart attack victims vein with clot busting drugs whilst bouncing over the ramps.

Of course DCC continously ignore the disabled and the elderly, they don't give a damn.

Ramps discriminate against the severely disabled, elderly frail people, and those with serious back or neck problems.

Disabled people may have to travel in a wheelchair strapped into a vehicle. Jolts from speed ramps may cause such persons severe pain, and even permanent injury, as a result they may be unable to traverse ramps safely and are thus prevented from using the road altogether. Ramps in residential areas may effectively prevent these people from leaving their own homes by vehicular means.

Ramps bus routes present a serious danger to bus passengers, especially the elderly. The jolt caused by a ramp whilst walking along the aisle, or using the stairs on a double-decker could easily cause a fall, resulting in serious injury

Anything braking hard on ramps will be more inclined to lose control and skid with tragic results.

Now I could go on about the numerous increased traffic dangers created by ramps but I will be interested to see what you guys think.

Bee

cyclopath2001

Bee wrote:

How can any intelligent road user find anything positive about road ramps?

Because they are the lesser of two evils? One alternative is to trust motorists to observe drive at approprate speeds. In Ireland, that doesn't work. What alternative would YOU propose?

Bee wrote:

These ramps kill people

Evidence? Statistics?

Bee

Cyclopath2001, you are missing a fundamental point. Road ramps especially the unprofessional implementations by DCC affect more than just road users and I re-iterate-

They are dangerous to the elderly,disabled and all compliant road users. Thug joy riders and loony cyclists are not slowed down or made more careful road users by ramps. Joy riding cars speeding over them can lose control or can skid more easily due to the uneven traction created by them. I expect the recent fatality in O'Connell St will highlight uneven traction at the Spire. The front wheels of the bus were on the new pavement, higher that the rear wheels on the older section of the road. This may have resulted in poor braking and skidding. Cyclists often cycle around the outside of speed cushions or cross the ramps diagonally to reduce the impact ignoring other road users.

I think of all in the community not just road users. In one minute, a fast-burning fire can destroy a building. One minute can be the window of opportunity for a critically injured child, heart attack victim or other medical emergency. A criminal can escape the scene of a crime in less than a minute. For fire, ambulance and police vehicles, every second counts. A delay of just one minute due to speed ramps ... can mean the difference between life and death. Inefficient traffic flow on an access route to a hospital puts lives at stake. Liability issues associated with traffic calming are never considered due to our so called "Traffic engineers"

Someone who I have a lot of respect for is Sigurd Reinton, you can interpret his quote on a pro-rata basis for Dublin; "THE Chairman of the London Ambulance Service Sigurd Reinton, called for a review of traffic-calming policies in London earlier this year, said:"We remain concerned about the extent of traffic-calming measures in the capital and the knock-on effect of delayed ambulance response times to emergency calls. "We feel that the focus on reducing road deaths by cutting traffic speeds through the introduction of traffic-calming measures is well-intentioned but misplaced. Despite a reduction in average road speeds between 1995 and 2002, the number of road deaths in the capital actually increased from 217 to 280 a year during this period. He added: "We believe the focus on reducing road deaths alone through the implementation of traffic-calming is too narrow. We should be focusing on all avoidable death or, at the very least on accidenta ldeath - including medical accidents such as heart attacks or cardiac arrests. Road deaths are only the tip of the iceberg ."Last year there were 280 road deaths in London but approximately 8,000 cardiac arrests. It is estimated that a reduction of one minute in average ambulance response times could save in the region of 500 lives a year. Discussions continue to take place between the Service and other key agencies"

Think of the entire community endangered by ramps

Bee

daymobrew

Bee wrote:

Of course DCC continously ignore the disabled and the elderly, they don't give a damn.

Remember that, beginning March 2003, DCC turned off audible traffic signals (for the blind) because "some sighted pedestrians had complained to the City Council that they were being confused by the tones and were walking into the path of on-coming traffic" (quote from a NCBI article - an update of the one linked).

The sighted pedestrians weren't looking! They have obviously forgotten the Safe Cross Code. Morons.
DCC said that they had a duty of care to "all pedestrians" though I feel that the more vunerable (and that doesn't mean 'stupid') need to be shown more care.
Thankfully DCC are turning the audible signals back on.

cyclopath2001

Bee wrote:

Cyclopath2001, you are missing a fundamental point.

I dislike speed-ramps too, they make my lawful cycling more uncomfortable and sometimes more dangerous.

The point is 'what is an alternative, effective way to limit the speed of those road-users who ignore the laws and who ignore the safety and well being of others'?

I've already made a proposal (mandatory GPS tracking of all motor vehicles), what's yours?

gobdaw

I suppose the suggested Dublin City Council new speed limits ( 30 kph/18 mph) seem interesting, especially if, though unlikely, that a serious policy of enforcement is put in place by the powers-that-be.
During "rush hour" average car speeds in the city are much less than this, sometimes less even that walking speed, so the proposal should have little efect on daytime journey times. It would impinge on off-peak journeys which is when traffic calming measures are required.

Mucco

Bee wrote:

Someone who I have a lot of respect for is Sigurd Reinton, you can interpret his quote on a pro-rata basis for Dublin; "THE Chairman of the London Ambulance Service Sigurd Reinton, called for a review of traffic-calming policies in London earlier this year, said:"We remain concerned about the extent of traffic-calming measures in the capital and the knock-on effect of delayed ambulance response times to emergency calls. "We feel that the focus on reducing road deaths by cutting traffic speeds through the introduction of traffic-calming measures is well-intentioned but misplaced. Despite a reduction in average road speeds between 1995 and 2002, the number of road deaths in the capital actually increased from 217 to 280 a year during this period. He added: "We believe the focus on reducing road deaths alone through the implementation of traffic-calming is too narrow. We should be focusing on all avoidable death or, at the very least on accidenta ldeath - including medical accidents such as heart attacks or cardiac arrests. Road deaths are only the tip of the iceberg ."Last year there were 280 road deaths in London but approximately 8,000 cardiac arrests. It is estimated that a reduction of one minute in average ambulance response times could save in the region of 500 lives a year. Discussions continue to take place between the Service and other key agencies"

Think of the entire community endangered by ramps

Bee

Those remarks have since been withdrawn:
http://london.greenparty.org.uk/news/417