Cyclist killed

[magnatom]

As is often the case, things are a bit more complex and murky than BM makes out. I'd seriously recommend reading the report.

I think BM often points out that things are a bit more complex!

 

[dodgy]

As is often the case, things are a bit more complex and murky than BM makes out. I'd seriously recommend reading the report.

Indeed, and it's here http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/PedestrianGuardRailingaReviewofCriteriaforInstallation.pdf

Dave.

 

[BentMikey]

I have a stalker!!!

 

[Tynan]

railings don't stop peds crossing the road at dangerous places?

 

[magnatom]

I have a stalker!!!

I know the feeling......

 

[Origamist]

I have a stalker!!!

No, just paranoia!!!

 

[Wolf04]

I have a stalker!!!

Well we did warn you about the lycra

 

[BentMikey]

I had a real stalker once, it was not fun!!!

 

[HJ]

Pedestrian railings aren't put in place to improve safety, their only purpose is to make it easier for motor vehicles to drive faster.

railings don't stop peds crossing the road at dangerous places?

Railings are there to coral the peds in, they don't always work, I fairly often see peds walking down the wrong side of the railing at the site where this cyclist was killed...

 

[Tynan]

nothing always works, it sounds like a place where peds want to cross the road even though they shouldn't

 

[HJ]

nothing always works, it sounds like a place where peds want to cross the road even though they shouldn't

They are at a cross roads, there are crossing lights, but people will go round the outside of the barriers because the pavement gets too crowded. Also people start to cross below the barrier (i.e. down the street) and then have to go along the wrong side of the barrier when they get to the far side. The evidence from cities on the continent shows that accident rates drop when this sort of street furniture is removed, as drivers have to change their behaviour and drive more cautiously. There will always be those who do things they shouldn't because they think they are immortal, ie RLJs who say they do it for safety reasons. But I am straying off topic here. Sorry.

The point is while the barriers may have been put in with the best of intentions (increasing safety), the effect has been to make things more dangerous by giving priority to the least vulnerable group of road users at the expense of the more vulnerable. Yes the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

 

[BentMikey]

Funnily enough I had two senior school students do spectacular vaults over some railings in Catford on the way to work yesterday. Quite impressed, but not so much with the timing of doing it 10 seconds after the lights changed to green. No matter, I waited anyway.

 

[Tynan]

makes perfect sense HJ, I suggest that the railings will safe peds' lives given that there is traffic

modifying the traffic's interaction with traffic is another more ambitious goal

I do understand the cars and bikes and people all together theory rather than the thundering artery of death, lot of work to make it happen though I suspect, especially in a lot of road layouts