View Full Version : Speed signs in West Banks Ave.
What idiot had the idea of putting these stupid smiley face speed indicators in the high school road.
Knowing what speed their cars are doing ain't going to slow the "cruisers" down,it now gives them a speed to beat as they run up and down trying to impress the school girls.
Why not do something constructive and put down speed bumps, if they have to replace the suspension on their cars it will slow them down.
I dropped my daughter off at school this morning doing 25mph. The new signs stated i was doing 38mph and gave me a sad face. Its impossible to do 38mph when following a school bus. Are they set wrong or was i still half asleep at 8.50am. :roll:
Apocalypse
05-Oct-04, 20:37
lucy they are set up wrong as me and ma mates went RUNNING past it and it said we were RUNNING at 34 mph and i think its a stupid idea but they are ment to have little speed cameras as well [lol]
They had them outside South School where they told me I was doing 38 MPH.
I had just parked next to the kerb and there was no other vehicles moving on the road.
I know I wasn't doing 38 MPH because I didn't hurt myself getting out of the car.
Makes you wonder how accurate the Speed Cameras are!
What are you lot like?
Some people are tryin to do something positive about the speed of drivers in this town and all you lot can do is moan.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to shut wick down altogether and start again.
Or perhaps one of you "concerned" drivers could try and find out who controls the sign and have them look at it. Or you could start teaching a new course at the college, "Whining for Dummies".
The smiley sign worked fine for me when it was at the south school.
Whats wrong with kids walking to school these days, its the fact that there is a street full of cars dropping off and picking up that causes most of the problem in the first place. I also think that there should be a separate driving test for "people carriers" as most of the "parents" who drive them dont seem to have a clue what they're doing.
I like the smiley faces - they are harder to ignore than the straight forward speed signs as they actually catch your eye. I like the fact that they make you sit up and take notice. Even when we are complaining about them it means we have actualy noticed they are there. That has to be a good thing.
Speeding is something which it is incredibly easy to do and to do without meaning to. Anything that reminds us we are in posession of a potential lethal weapon and makes us think about what we are doing with it is ok in my book
Well said Squidge :D :D :D
Trust our one and only Squdge to keep a proper perspective on the world
[lol]
Weel done
Golach
Squidge, you are absolutely right. If they are set up correctly they work like magic and people do notice them and seem to obey the advice.
Perhaps a few more of them in places where speed is a problem might provide a solution.
Zael, where do people carriers and walking to school come into it.
Any time I have been in a car and the sad face has come up, the driver has slowed down so they do seem to work.
No problem with the signs in the right place, they were great as you went into Watten.
They give you a heads up as to what speed you are actually doing.
I don't think they are aimed at people dropping kids off at school.
I just don't think they go far enough.
Why don't you come up to the high school and watch the "cruisers" going up and down, something will only happen when someone is killed and then its too late.
They may have worked at the south school but the cruisers aren't out to impress primary school kids.
As for them indicating the wrong speed, one was taken down after one day and then put back up so I suspect that there have been complaints about what they are actually indicating.
If its a start to something more solid good and well but we need something else to slow them down.
tides of pentland firth
06-Oct-04, 22:07
Speed bumps would be a great idea at West Banks Avenue. It's like a drag strip at lunch times and one day someone will get knocked down. The bump wouldn't really afect the big slow moving busses but the corsa's that do the street in seven seconds, it would make the (non-essential) ride a bit uncomfortable.
I went past the sign this afternoon and it told me i was doing 32mph, when i was reading 25mph on my gps system which is 100% accuratre! I did it a second time with the same results.
There are speed bumps in golspie which make my car bottom out' and it has normal suspension.West banks is on my way home so that is definatly a useless idea.
Speed bumps would be a good idea in front of the school. I noticed the speed bumps in Thurso that are cobbled are a lot flatter than the ones used down south, so it is better for your car but still makes you slow down
dragonfly
07-Oct-04, 15:15
I certainly think they should install them outside of Mount Pleasant Primary in Thurso as kids have to cross the main Thurso-Castletown road. Granted the speed limits there have just been reduced from 30 mph to 20 mph during school entry and exit times,(but who will pay attention to that??) I think the smilies would have a more visual impact than a signpost
tides of pentland firth
07-Oct-04, 21:10
West banks is on my way home so that is definatly a useless idea.
So making the road a bit safer for the 900 bairns is a waste of time as it would add 30 seconds to your journey?
They want to line more of the street with zigzags, get some of that bright red road surfacing, half sized speed bumps (lozenges?) and make it a 10mph safety zone. And that goes for the street outside all of the schools in the county. If more of the kids would walk (or if the parents would let them) all the streets outside schools would be safer, so many parked cars (and parking/leaving cars) makes for a very dangerous stretch of road for drivers and pedestrians alike.
The red tar that is being used a lot now is like a bottle when its damp or wet, so i dont think that would be safe(until it is grippy when wet).
Has anyone thought that if an accident should occur some of kids kamikazie way of crossing the road could be , in part, to blame.Enforcing the 20mph limit at 9am and 3.30pm i assume would work best.
How many children have been injured by vehicles outside the school?
AR, I was thinking more of the stuff you get as you approach a roundabout, the really grippy stuff, not sure whats in it but it works :)
tides of pentland firth
09-Oct-04, 14:14
How many children have been injured by vehicles outside the school?
Not too long ago a boy took the wing wirror of a car as he ran agross the road. If he had been an inch faster he would have got knocked down.
Isn't there a 30mph limit already? I don't think the 'cruizers' no that so what difference would a change in the limit make?
Crossing the road heedless of traffic?
I would have thought that by High School age they would have been taught Road Safety.
I can understand the problem with Primary School children because of their inexperience but if they don't know how to cross a road by Secondary School age then they will never learn and will have to go through life having to have mummy hold their hand every time they move.
Surely they know to look before crossing the road. Traffic is not a concept unknown to them!
tides of pentland firth
09-Oct-04, 18:24
If a red corsa (you know who) comes flying down West Banks weaving in and out between parked cars, eventually someone will get knocked down.
Yeah, those signs are a great idea, but the ones outside the highschool are calibrated wrong, i got the sad face while doing about 26mph, it said i was doing 34mph so it made me take my eyes off the road to check my speed as i new fine i wasnt doing anything like 34mph.....so those great little signs could end up being a danger if it's giving an incorrect reading and distracting your concentration from the road, but that is the first one of those signs that i have seen that has given an incorrect reading, hopefully it's just a one off cos' they are a fantastic idea.
Maybe this is stating the obvious but isn't it against the law to break speed limits? Ergo, why don't the police go to the high school a few times and start arresting people. After the first half dozen get huge fines, the rest might get the message. Of course while they are there they might have to arrest the drug dealers, and the thugs who are beating up kids for money or just for kicks. Guess that would be too much like hard work eh?
Naefearjustbeer
10-Oct-04, 02:00
I know every time I see one of those signs it makes me slow down even if I am not going to fast. But I can see why a young loon in his car will try to see how fast it will go and outside a school is not the place to be trying speed trials. If there is a problem with speeders at the school the police should be standing at the roadside in the bright yellow jackets with a speed gun!!!!! and not hiding behind hedges out oin the country roads trying to collect the new stealth tax that motorists are getting hit with these days.
Anyone speeding within the 30 mile an hour signs deserves all they get if they get caught. [evil]
I live on an estate in Thurso where they have two of these wonderful new speed bumps, one on either site of the loop, all nicely cobbled in red brick. Flippin' useless, some people are using them as a launch pad, especially vans! I have one just up from my house and it scares me as some loon comes flying down or up the road (which is worse as they speed up to get over it). We did have 20mph signs up on the estate at the beginning when it was being built but only when some of us complained to Millers to do something about the speed, but some beggers kept pulling them over/covering them up and eventually they disappeared altogether. I don't know how people can go over these things fast, I value my suspension too much. When we had the little tar strips, several on either side of the loop, things were a little slower. The ones done by the council up from Mount Pleasant Primary are much better quality, better put together and there is more of them. I dread to think what will happen when the top layer of tar goes on the road as then the "bumps" will practically disappear. I'm all for speed bumps, but only when they've be constructed properly. Please could someone put better ones on our 'circuit' of an estate before someone gets hurt or worse. [mad]
tides of pentland firth
10-Oct-04, 15:38
Ergo, why don't the police go to the high school a few times and start arresting people. After the first half dozen get huge fines, the rest might get the message.
the police should be standing at the roadside in the bright yellow jackets with a speed gun!!!!!
Exactly. If nothing is done I think someone who lives in West Banks should hide a camera in their window and play it to the polis. It would definitly make for some shocking viewing.
People wonder why we have no faith in the police. If they took a 30sec walk along the street and stood outside the High School everyday the problem would be solved. I seem to remember them saying they were going to do this but it only lasted a couple of days. [disgust]
There is a simple solution to the problem.
Close all these roads completely and then there will be no traffic which can go too fast.
Anonymous
11-Oct-04, 12:28
WHY DONT THEY PUT SPEED CAMERAS BESIDE THE SCHOOL??!!!
when i was walking 2 school a driver pretended that he was going to run into me. WHAT AN IDIOT. They go to fast past the school, Arent they wasting petrol??
I agree with Kit Kat, if the police would only patrol for a few lunch breaks it would definately ease the problem. The excessive speeds the boy racers go up and down that road is ridiculous. To pick up on the other point raised, then yes it will deter the dealers also, or maybe even a particular ice cream van!!!!!
Do the police not realise what is going on in West Banks during school hours, it would put so many parents minds at ease if we knew the police were patrolling making our childrens safety paramount.
Anonymous
20-Oct-04, 11:57
I just want to say that I have emailed the Highland council about speed cameras in West Bank Avenue. i have suggested that they install them to stop drivers from speeding.
Pedestrianising the section of West Bank Avenue outside the school would solve the problem completely and permanently as would blocking the road in the centre outside the School.
The large concrete drainage sections across the road would be very cost effective, would not be time consuming to enforce and would be 100 per cent successful.
Filled with soil and containing plants they would also be pleasing to the eye.
Why do people insist on making simple things complicated?
Or perhaps it is just some perverted pleasure they get from thinking "Hee, hee! I got somebody into trouble!"
tides of pentland firth
20-Oct-04, 22:56
Great idea, but what about the people that live in West Banks Ave., Hood St. and Seaforth Ave?
I'm not a good detector of sarcazm, so dont mock me.
Tides, that's a perfectly reasonable question and deserves a serious answer.
If the road is blocked outside the entrance to the School then residents can gain access from either the Francis Street side of from Newton Road. That would, in fact, be far better than Pedestrianising it as it would also allow access for deliveries etc. and not stop access to any of the roads you mentioned.
The residents would also benefit by the fact that the road would no longer be used as a short-cut betwen Francis Street and Thurso Road and would therefore not only be safer but quieter as well both during school hours and at all other times.
It's a cheap, simple solution used to effect in many other places.
If it causes more problems than it solves then it can be easily removed and if it works well then a more permanent and attractive setup can replace the Concrete Pipes. Either way little is lost except the cost of a few "Man (Oops!) Person-hours setting it up initially and removing it if it doesn't work. All the other parts can be re-used for other things if nor required.
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