Don't hit these in the Westfield..

[oioi]

KILL THEM KILL THEM ALL

[budgie]

All for them--well signed all the ones i've seen.

people just trying to jump the queue as usual.

!!

[Boomy]

All for them--well signed all the ones i've seen.

people just trying to jump the queue as usual.

!!

It sounds like they are now yes, after loads of people crashed.

[nikpro]

Boomy;

you always seem to be anti anything that stops drivers doing what they want!

You say these barriers can cause injury and write off cars - how fast do you think they accelerate in those couple of feet?

the cars are probably doing no more than a couple of mph yet you state they can cause serious injury. Why is it in another thread you see nothing wrong with straying a couple of mph over speed limits?

Any other system that is perfectly safe would do exactly what those 'tail gaters' are hoping this system will do - let them through.

They deserve a damaged car for being ignorant - better than a damaged pedestrian IMHO

[Tubs]

Guys, these rising bollards are more than adequatly signposted (no motor vehicles appart from busses and taxis usually) the opposing lanes are normally seperated by an island (that usually contains the gubbins in that controlls the bollards themselves) and there are signs saying that the area is covered by CCTV.

The lane widths are also very restricted (making it fairly tight for a single decker bus.

It's "obvious" that you should'nt try to pass through unless you're driving the approprate vehicle type.

About once a month in Cambridge some brainless muppet tries to run the bollards to take a short cut to save a bit of time and the result is what you see in the video clips.

The lady in the sliver car (second clip) after failing to get through on her own then tries to follow the bus through, if it was'nt blindingly obvious to her she should'nt have been attempting it she should not be allowed to retain her driving licence.

Once the car has been impailed on the bollard it suddenly dawns on the numb nuts driver that a) it wasn't worth it and b) the ensuing traffic chaos is specifically their fault.

In all but a very few cases the "accidents" happen as shown on the video clips, an approved vehicle passes over the bollards and the aomeba driving the following car/van/lorry thinks "If I'm quick I'll get over before the bollards go back up"

Er....... no you won't.

The reason that the cars get so badly dammaged is that they are normally accelerating hard to clear the bollards before they go back up.

The council quiet rightly fines these idiots for their trouble and your insurance will probhably be null and void in this situation too.

The police in Cambridge (at least) normally succesfully prosecute these ******s as well.

As you can tell I have absolutly no sympathy for the (for want of a better word) "drivers" whose cars are dammaged by rising bollards.

They can whinge all they want but it's purely down to their own behaviour.

I drive busses for about 40 to 50 hours a week in central Cambridge and I can honestly say that it's been a real eye opener.

The driving standards are generally appalling, regard for the rules and of the road is scant as it respect for other road users and enforcement is is practically non existant.

Chaz.

Couldn't agree more.  

Tubs

[steve_m]

They deserve a damaged car for being ignorant

No they don't, that's an odd thing to say.  Why would somebody deserve to have their car damaged  

[nikpro]

They deserve a damaged car for being ignorant

No they don't, that's an odd thing to say.  Why would somebody deserve to have their car damaged  

Good Old Punishment for being a pratt behind the wheel

[Boomy]

Boomy;

you always seem to be anti anything that stops drivers doing what they want!

Bollards.

A guy mentioned he saw lots of crashes most probably due to insufficient signage.The results seem to have involved crashes.I don't believe that is a safe and sensible system and something better could be put in its place.

As someone else mentioned, if you used such a device on your property to keep out burglars and one got injured, you would probably be in a whole lot of trouble.

Likewise if that were a device in a factory, one where passing a flashing sign resulted in any potential incidents at all, it would be closed down and altered i'm sure.

Cameras.

Millions (i dare say) around the globe hate the way cameras are ripping off people, the tactics that are being used and the way the funds are raised and will continue to be raised.I don't believe it is a fair system and something better could be put in its place.

I have never said i don't want bollards, i have never said i don't want cameras.

Most people ignore that though once the blinkers are on.

I may go into business and produce keyboards with "DON'T SPEED THEN" and "DON'T HIT ANYTHING" keys.I would make a fortune i'm sure.

We just go round and round in circles tbh mate.Iirc, last time this stuff cropped up you tried to tell me that all cameras had reflective stripes around them, were not allowed to be hidden, could only be used in accident black spots and were positioned and set based on scientific study.

Yet i (and thousands like me) can drive relatively short distances and show that to be total rubbish.

I will say again, i'm not anti camera when they are used correctly, but the current setup over here is a laughing stock designed SOLEY to get money.

It has spread like a disease and people are being brainwashed into thinking it's a good thing by various means.I see through it, some do not.

The latest scam as i'm sure you know is to send you on a course instead of giving you points.

A constant supply of victims, pure genuis.

So, whether it's a council worker painting the yellow lines around a parked car and then putting a ticket on it, having to pay for running into bollards or breaking the limit in a specs zone, we are being royaly screwed imho.

They have no interest at all in your driving track record or the fact you may have made a simple mistake in amongst all the confusion either, oh no.

Guilty as charged, cough up like all the others, you speeding scum.

Mark my words, if nothing changes, one day there will be riots over this.

You already have people blowing up cameras and moving road signs for goodness sake.

Like i said before though, all the time they could hyperthetically slap a 10 mph limit on motorways, safe in the knowledge that some people would then accuse you of speeding for traveling at 13 mph, they will never give up.

Lots of roads have had limits lowered due to the "speed kills" bandwaggon rolling through for example.

Yet everyone, including you,would have been perfectly happy to drive at the higher limits before they were lowered.

If someone dares to creep towards those same speeds you and everyone else did on such roads today though, you want to throw the book at them and class them as "speeders".

And i'm not talking about roads outside of schools or roads where situations have changed dramatically either.I'm talking about the ones that make all the local residents scratch their heads and go "huh?" when they see a lower limit or blocks of concrete in the middle to upset the flow.

Anyway i'm waffling now but i can't honestly see them bollards staying the distance.

Be prepared for a copy paste some time with me saying "see, i told you so".

I said the same about speed ramps in certain areas and they took them up

I have been awake for about 30 hours btw so sorry if that is a bit jumbled.

[steve_m]

They deserve a damaged car for being ignorant

No they don't, that's an odd thing to say.  Why would somebody deserve to have their car damaged  

Good Old Punishment for being a pratt behind the wheel

We've all had moments like this, doing something silly, somethng that with hindsight we regret, but surely you can't advocate the damaging of cars just becuse of a temporary lack of comon sense ?

[stu999]

Sorry, but when they have passed gawd knows how many signs, warnings, indications etc, or even drive up to the bollards, 'note' they are there, reverse back and then try and sneak through with a bus etc, then that isnt a temporary lack of common sense.

One wonders how many have their car repaired, and go on to have another go!

Proper entertainment. I say fit more, and ensure that all of them are monitored with CCTV camera's. With the footage captured, they could sell 'The Best Of' DVD's at Christmas. I would buy it...

[Boomy]

Sorry, but when they have passed gawd knows how many signs, warnings, indications ...

Proper entertainment. I say fit more, and ensure that all of them are monitored with CCTV camera's. With the footage captured, they could sell 'The Best Of' DVD's at Christmas. I would buy it...

Yeah but it sounds like there wasn't a decent amount of warni.......ahhh screw it, how much is the DVD gonna be?

[spence]

the cars are probably doing no more than a couple of mph yet you state they can cause serious injury.

They deserve a damaged car for being ignorant - better than a damaged pedestrian IMHO

Glad thats not YOUR child in the pram then in the 1st accident. Ummmm no their not dangerous are they.

Like i said before, very BASIC principles of gate automation is the fitting of ground loops etc, for the saftey of everybody,whether your in the right or wrong.

Why do the coucil yet again think they can do what they like, how they like....................oh i forgot yeah MONEY and because these people are in CONTROL they think they can do what they like and justify it ,then think we will all nod our heads like drugged up sheep and believe their doing a good job.

Funny how the health and saftey at a council won't allow a teacher to help children cross a road when a lollypop lady is off sick. Apparently a teacher isn't trained to help people cross a road. The mere fact the the kids could have got killed,without help, crossing a dangerous road doesn't matter then. Yet these are ok.    

Makes you wonder who are running our councils, I certainly do.

[Boomy]

Taken from the Manchester Evening news:

..this week's catalogue of mishaps has led to fears that lives may be in danger unless they are removed.

------------------------------------

On Monday, a new 4 x 4 vehicle became the week's first victim of the bollards, which claimed a further two on Thursday. First, they tore through the front of a mother's car, narrowly missing her nine-month-old daughter, who was strapped into a chair in the front seat.

Then, hours later, a Metro-shuttle bus, legally entitled to pass through, was left marooned in the middle of the road after the posts struck again.

-------------------------------------------

Thursday's victim, Natalie Kelly, 35, who suffers from spina bifida, said she was in the city centre with her disabled mother and daughter Annie on a shopping and was struggling for somewhere to park. She was outside Marks & Spencer in her Toyota Starlet when she saw a free spot in the disabled bay on the other side of the bollards.

She then followed a bus through - only for the posts to impale the front of her car. "I'd actually had second thoughts about going in and stopped to use the intercom there to make sure that it was all right" said Natalie. "But then I heard this massive bang and knew right away what had happened.

"If I'd have gone any further, Annie could have been killed."

Natalie claims that the warning signs by the side of the road do not spell out the dangers clearly enough - and that she parked in the same spot without any problems a week before."

--------------------------------------------

Sounds like the perfect system doesn't it?  

I also read that there was another company with a safer system that could have been used but the council keeps on using the current system/company regardless.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

I have to admit that I hadn't noticed the pram in the first incident. The vehicle (Merc?) speeds up very briskly, I assume in a vain attempt to beat the bollards seen to be already rising. Because it is now moving fairly quickly the rear end is thrown off the ground and, because the bollard struck first is offset from the centre line of the mass of the car, the effect is to partly spin the car about the point of contact. Pretty frightening for the mother and child. My sympathies with the drivers aren't as generous as Boomy's, but even the hardest hearted amongst us must feel that the pedestrians are innocent (potential) victims.  

[Boomy]

My sympathies with the drivers aren't as generous as Boomy's, but even the hardest hearted amongst us must feel that the pedestrians are innocent (potential) victims.  

But that makes it sound as though i feel sorry for the drivers who tried to beat the bollards.

I don't.

I just feel something that can rip the floor from a car and nearly crush a child needs looking at in terms of safety regardless of why the driver happened to be there.

It seems many people assume that if you get impaled on these, then you must be the type of person who smashes into bollards all day long, cuts under railway crossing barriers as they lower and ignores red lights etc.

I don't think that is the case at all.

I dare say with the newer, larger warnings installed things have improved, but it still seems madness to me to use a system that you know full well will cause cars to smash into it.

If they know some drivers are chancers and others are just plain useless, why put anyone at risk?