Sunday Times: Death row: Britain's most dangerous road

How many of them were bikers with a deathwish? Most of the "black"
roads in the AA road atlas's risk map are those frequented by
motorcyclists out for a thrill.

None of the cases mentioned were bikers. The road has to be experienced
before speculative comments are offered. The A59 is a road full of traps
for the unwary. It's not simply a matter of driving more slowly as some of
the hazards are casued by poor road layouts in such a way that the hazzard
is difficult to anticipate by the average motorist travelling at what seems
to be an 'ordinary and safe' speed.. I have traversed the route in both
directions by bike, motor bike and car and have had buttock clenching
moments on every occasion. It's a shame as the A59 is quite scenic and forms
a nice loop for me from Leeds to Harrogate then Skipton and back home. The
nearby A65 is the prime venue for motorcyclists' premature deaths.

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 18:34:37 +0100, Tony Raven
wrote in message :


So its all your fault Guy. Everyone keeps going fast so they don't
infringe your patented technique.


No, no, you've got it all wrong - they are driving as fast as humanly
possible in the certain knowledge that this is the SafeSpeed for the
road :-)

No, they are trying to cross the dangerous bit as fast as possible in
order to give themselves less time in which to have an accident (c) PS

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

vernon levy wrote:


The road has to be experienced
before speculative comments are offered. The A59 is a road full of traps
for the unwary. It's not simply a matter of driving more slowly as some of
the hazards are casued by poor road layouts in such a way that the hazzard
is difficult to anticipate by the average motorist travelling at what seems
to be an 'ordinary and safe' speed.. I have traversed the route in both
directions by bike, motor bike and car and have had buttock clenching
moments on every occasion. It's a shame as the A59 is quite scenic and forms
a nice loop for me from Leeds to Harrogate then Skipton and back home. The
nearby A65 is the prime venue for motorcyclists' premature deaths.



So you put up some signs saying something like "20 foot diameter holes in road
in several places, all obscured from view until 10 foot from hole". Let's even
assume that this particular statement is true i.e. that the holes exist. How
many drivers would actually reduce their speed to the level required to avoid
plunging into one of the holes?

If labels on cigarette packets warning that smoking causes death can be ignored
by large dollops of the the population then warnings of possible hazard
situations on roads obviously only need to be read by those whose driving is not
up to standard. Ask any 20 year old male how good a driver he is and you'll find
that they are more than capable of avoiding hidden holes with only 10 foot of
advance notice :-)

--
Terry Duckmanton.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/terry.duckmanton
A website mostly dedicated to cycling
http://tduckmanton.bravejournal.com
A daily log of my cycling exploits

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

Notice that the road is a bit iffy
Slow down.

Drove down the A4074 this evening with some **** about 2 metres behind me. I
slowed down to about 20 from about 55mph to give him the message to pull
back: at which he started fuming and beeping then he overtook at some
ridiculous point and almost collided with an oncoming car.

Jeez.

The A59 is Britain's most dangerous road, with 43 fatal or serious
accidents over three years.

One thing that galls me, is the inference that it's the road that's dangerous.
It's the ****s that aren't driving safely, driving to take into account the
type of road it is and the conditions on the road that make the danger, not the
asphalt width, number of bends etc.. Never blame the drivers... blame the road
:-(

Here in Norfolk, we get similar headlines periodically about the A1065
(Swaffham - Fakenham), the A47 (Acle straight in particular). Having driven the
roads (and cycled along the A1065), the roads are perfectly fine - but you do
get some twits driving far too fast, overtaking on blind bends, overtaking when
there's oncoming traffic... but what the heck, it's obviously all the fault of
the road...

Cheers, helen s






--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
**$om $

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off--

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote:

One thing that galls me, is the inference that it's the road that's dangerous.
It's the ****s that aren't driving safely, driving to take into account the
type of road it is and the conditions on the road that make the danger, not the
asphalt width, number of bends etc.. Never blame the drivers... blame the road
:-(


Yes it is people driving inappropriately for the conditions but just as
you can have dangerous cycling facilities you can have dangerous road as
well. It all comes down to the design. If you have junctions with no
sight lines there is a much greater probability there will be a
collision than if visibility is good.

Having said that I have no idea whether the A59 is a dangerous road or not.

Tony

On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 08:56:31 +0100 someone who may be Tony Raven
wrote this:-

Yes it is people driving inappropriately for the conditions but just as
you can have dangerous cycling facilities you can have dangerous road as
well. It all comes down to the design. If you have junctions with no
sight lines there is a much greater probability there will be a
collision than if visibility is good.

This is not as great as the road "safety" lobby claims, due to risk
compensation.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

"Zog The Undeniable" wrote in message
news:4156f987.0@entanet...
Sufaud wrote:

Sunday Times (London)
September 26, 2004

Death row

The A59 is Britain's most dangerous road, with 43 fatal or serious
accidents over three years. Nine of our readers are condemned to die
by the end of next week on roads just like it. Yet a few hundred
thousand pounds would save some of those lives and many more to come.

How many of them were bikers with a deathwish? Most of the "black"
roads in the AA road atlas's risk map are those frequented by
motorcyclists out for a thrill.

The article did say they ignored motorbike stats to get the A59.

cheers,
clive

"Tony Raven" wrote in message
...
dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers wrote:

One thing that galls me, is the inference that it's the road that's
dangerous.
It's the ****s that aren't driving safely, driving to take into account
the
type of road it is and the conditions on the road that make the danger,
not the
asphalt width, number of bends etc.. Never blame the drivers... blame
the road
:-(


Yes it is people driving inappropriately for the conditions but just as
you can have dangerous cycling facilities you can have dangerous road as
well. It all comes down to the design. If you have junctions with no
sight lines there is a much greater probability there will be a
collision than if visibility is good.

Having said that I have no idea whether the A59 is a dangerous road or
not.

I remember a great bit of tv news once.. There has been a bad accident on
the A77 dual carriageway at a side road junction. The reporter was
interviewing a police inspector, trying to get a "killer road" sound bite
out of him. He replied by pointing out it was a straight bit of road with no
sight line problems and fired the question back - why do these accidents
happen?

There was still an outcry when they went out and caught dozens of speeders
in the area of course.

Simonb wrote:

Drove down the A4074 this evening with some **** about 2 metres
behind me. I slowed down to about 20 from about 55mph to give him the
message to pull back: at which he started fuming and beeping then he
overtook at some ridiculous point and almost collided with an
oncoming car.

SO it is all your fault for making him overtake dangerously (c) PS

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University