A Completely Unrelated Series of Thoughts.. Part 5

[James]

I have a question... what do the squiggly lines mean in Britain? Here, if we want to get your attention, we'll put rumble strips in the road. Those get your attention quick.

The zig-zag lines go on each side of a pedestrian crossing. If you look at the magic roundabout one you'll see they're broken in the middle and have some dotted lines across the road, and traffic lights on the pavement. You're not allowed to park on the zig-zags under any circumstances. It's to give a bit of clear space so drivers can see pedestrians about to cross. It also highlights the crossing a bit more.

[TraderJake]

Oh, okay, stateside generally we just have a sign and crosswalk lines, but more and more alternative features are being employed, such as flashing lights on signs, fluorescent yellow signs, and actually placing led lights along the crosswalk lines.

[Hydrobond]

I've noticed that a good way to make drivers slow down is to not have any markings on a road. It's amazing how comforting pavement markings are, especially edge lines. I could be on a road without edge lines and be driving much slower than I would on a road of the same width that has edge lines.

There is a town in England that did away with all traffic laws and have seen much safer streets because of it.  Unfortunately, you can't do that over here because the asshats will just use it as an excuse to to 100 down a city street.

Edit:  After reading the article again, it's just one road in the town - Handford Road in Ipswich England.

edit edit:  And there is apparently a guy in Holland who has been doing this to more than just one street.  He has converted 12 Dutch towns over to no-traffic-law areas.

[TraderJake]

In the US, the government would be sued for such an action. Hell it already is for any major accidents that occur on the roads regardless of whether it meets standards or not.

[James]

I've noticed that a good way to make drivers slow down is to not have any markings on a road. It's amazing how comforting pavement markings are, especially edge lines. I could be on a road without edge lines and be driving much slower than I would on a road of the same width that has edge lines.

There is a town in England that did away with all traffic laws and have seen much safer streets because of it.  Unfortunately, you can't do that over here because the asshats will just use it as an excuse to to 100 down a city street.

Edit:  After reading the article again, it's just one road in the town - Handford Road in Ipswich England.

edit edit:  And there is apparently a guy in Holland who has been doing this to more than just one street.  He has converted 12 Dutch towns over to no-traffic-law areas.

There's nowhere in Britain without road "laws" (Isle of Man doesn't have speed limits but it's not really part of Britain). Do you mean road markings? I know there have been some tests with no markings.

[captain_nintendo]

Sup.

[Hydrobond]

I've noticed that a good way to make drivers slow down is to not have any markings on a road. It's amazing how comforting pavement markings are, especially edge lines. I could be on a road without edge lines and be driving much slower than I would on a road of the same width that has edge lines.

There is a town in England that did away with all traffic laws and have seen much safer streets because of it.  Unfortunately, you can't do that over here because the asshats will just use it as an excuse to to 100 down a city street.

Edit:  After reading the article again, it's just one road in the town - Handford Road in Ipswich England.

edit edit:  And there is apparently a guy in Holland who has been doing this to more than just one street.  He has converted 12 Dutch towns over to no-traffic-law areas.

There's nowhere in Britain without road "laws" (Isle of Man doesn't have speed limits but it's not really part of Britain). Do you mean road markings? I know there have been some tests with no markings.

Yeah, you still aren't allowed to hit anyone, but they did away with all street signs, lane lines, traffic lights and speed limits.  In my mind, by taking away the speed limit you take away the crime of speeding, which is what I meant by "traffic laws".   Rules regarding accidents and personal injury are still covered by person property and civil protection laws, they are not really traffic laws in my mind.  (I hope that makes sense to someone besides me.)

[James]

Yeah, you still aren't allowed to hit anyone, but they did away with all street signs, lane lines, traffic lights and speed limits.  In my mind, by taking away the speed limit you take away the crime of speeding, which is what I meant by "traffic laws".   Rules regarding accidents and personal injury are still covered by person property and civil protection laws, they are not really traffic laws in my mind.  (I hope that makes sense to someone besides me.)

What was this article you read about it? I think you might be confusing speed signs with actual speed limits. Over here residential speeds are 30mph unless otherwise signposted. i.e. we don't have signs every 1/4 mile saying the speed limit is 30mph. If the road has lamp posts within a certain distance but no speed signs, it's a 30 zone.

So for them to take away speed limits would require a sign to say there is no speed limit. (Or, more likely, 60mph which is what the maximum limit of a single lane road is)



In other news... I ordered a new heatsink for my PC the other day and I chose delivery on Friday. I was looking forward to getting it before the weekend (geek, phargh!) but there was no email when I got home from work today saying it had been dispatched. I eventually got one at 5:28pm saying the goods had been "picked", as in taken from a shelf in the warehouse. They close at 5:30pm and I haven't had an email saying it's been dispatched.

Edit: Forget that, I got another email saying it was dispatched at 7:27pm, so it will come tomorrow.

[captain_nintendo]

Don't make me split this non random series of thoughts into it's own deserving thread

[Tynstar]

What Rick said

On a side note it is going to be 114 degrees here today.

[den68]

mmmm, toastie.

[Tynstar]

mmmm, toastie.

Yeah

[Alabama-Shrimp]

just one tiny note on driving here in sunny England, take away the "rules" and they cant drive people here need to signs and road marking to know what they are doing.

go to Malta wheer they drive on the same side and have soem marking and its a much more free flowing and aware driving as evryone dos what they want when they want and it feels alot safer as they are all know anything can happen.

[TraderJake]

Don't make me split this non random series of thoughts into it's own deserving thread

Don't make me merge the split topics back together.

[Hydrobond]

Yeah, you still aren't allowed to hit anyone, but they did away with all street signs, lane lines, traffic lights and speed limits.  In my mind, by taking away the speed limit you take away the crime of speeding, which is what I meant by "traffic laws".   Rules regarding accidents and personal injury are still covered by person property and civil protection laws, they are not really traffic laws in my mind.  (I hope that makes sense to someone besides me.)

What was this article you read about it? I think you might be confusing speed signs with actual speed limits. Over here residential speeds are 30mph unless otherwise signposted. i.e. we don't have signs every 1/4 mile saying the speed limit is 30mph. If the road has lamp posts within a certain distance but no speed signs, it's a 30 zone.

So for them to take away speed limits would require a sign to say there is no speed limit. (Or, more likely, 60mph which is what the maximum limit of a single lane road is)

It was an article in US News and World Report called "How They Do It Better" and went through a few issues describing how they are handled in other countries. 

"Giving Drivers the Benefit of the Doubt"

On Hanford Road in Ipswich, England there are no stop signs, no posted speed limits no lane lines and hardly any traffic lights.  Yet drivers politely edge aside to make room for other drivers, they slow down and they yield to bikers and pedestrians.  Ipswich is the latest European city to test a novel theory: that traffic signs can actually cause accidents by giving drivers a false sense of security.

After that, the article talks about Holland and interviews the a traffic planner from Holland. 

edit:  found an online copy  http://www.usnews.com/usn...ticles/070318/26intro.htm
scroll down for the sub-article about driving.

edit edit:  I'm surprised Brazillian ethanol use wasn't one of the articles.