"High risk" roads

Articles of interest to the AD community, currently in the news.
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Horse
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Re: "High risk" roads

Postby Horse » Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:46 pm

During training I used to deliberately steer clear of 'biker' roads - usually full of other bikers, many RLAT, often a high police presence too. Plenty of other great roads.

Interesting paradox: the site of one of the UK's worst crashes was also a 'safe' piece of road by 'Road Assessment' standards, but had safety camera van enforcement.
Your 'standard' is how you drive alone, not how you drive during a test.

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jont-
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Location: Herefordshire

Re: "High risk" roads

Postby jont- » Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:48 pm

Horse wrote:During training I used to deliberately steer clear of 'biker' roads - usually full of other bikers, many RLAT, often a high police presence too. Plenty of other great roads.

For similar reasons I avoid the Evo triangle. I also don't like sharing the location of /my/ roads on other forums, lest they get popular (although there's bog all interesting in this part of the world anyway :( ). I only wish journalists would do the same (or maybe they do, and that's why some roads feature so often)

crr003
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Re: "High risk" roads

Postby crr003 » Tue Nov 21, 2017 7:08 pm

jont- wrote:For similar reasons I avoid the Evo triangle.

Nothing wrong with it - just don't go on a weekend.

hir
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Re: "High risk" roads

Postby hir » Tue Nov 21, 2017 7:11 pm

crr003 wrote:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_and_Fiddle_Road
Having already spent £500,000 on a number of safety measures (including reducing the speed limit, installing high-friction surfacing, barriers and signs, widening the carriageway, and using mobile speed cameras),[7] in January 2009 it was revealed that Cheshire Council, on behalf of Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership and Derbyshire Partnership for Road Safety, intended to spend a further £1.2 million on installing average-speed cameras along this road.[8] Installation of these cameras began in February 2010.[9] However, the initial operation of the cameras did not go smoothly, because along the full route of the cameras' operation there are a number of shortcuts which have the full national speed (60 mph), and decrease the overall distance of the route. These two factors, when combined, can give inaccurate readings from the speed cameras.[10] The average-speed camera scheme is a joint initiative between the Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership (including Cheshire East Council), Derby and Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership and the Department for Transport, and enables the average speed of vehicles along the 50 mph route to be measured between any two cameras. Cameras will be installed along the A537 and A54 and will be rear-facing.


The wikipedia preamble to the above quoted paragraph is quite revealing:

"The road was named as the UK's most dangerous in a 2008 survey.The single-carriageway route was the location of 21 fatal and serious crashes, and was rated in the EuroRAP report as Black, the highest risk rating. This was in spite of a number of countermeasures installed by the road authority, including motorcycle-friendly barriers. The Foundation attributed this high number of accidents to road user behaviour; indeed, when motorcycle-related collisions are removed from the results the road became one of the safest in the country."


My emphasis.

Perhaps the solution would be to ban all :biker: from using the C&F road? :nono:

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exportmanuk
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Location: Manchester

Re: "High risk" roads

Postby exportmanuk » Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:07 pm

hir wrote:
Perhaps the solution would be to ban all :biker: from using the C&F road? :nono:


We used to use this road a lot with associates at one time but so many cars were crossing the centre line on bends that we took a conscious decision to avoid it.

As for the speed limit, yes you can average 50 mph on a bike provided the road is quiet but most of the time you would be struggling. And anyway if you are making some decent progress you can always stop and admire the view between cameras :lol:
Andrew Melton
Manchester 500

TheInsanity1234
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Re: "High risk" roads

Postby TheInsanity1234 » Wed Dec 27, 2017 10:13 pm

I am aware I'm responding late to this subject, but I've found the Cat and Fiddle in Derbyshire to be an excellent road, on account of having driven it four times. Twice, in beautiful sunny conditions, and twice, when it was snowing.

In the sunny conditions, I found it to be a most enjoyable road on account of being able to overtake very easily, due to a lot of really clear cross views across bends etc. Great fun, and I had no need to worry about exceeding a 50 mph average. I suspect I'd managed to average 25, possibly 30 mph, but certainly no more. It was a nice road on which to practice limit point judgement and trying to use acceleration sense to round the bends with no braking necessary. Good fun.

The second round trip, I passed over it on December 10th, which is the day the snow fell. On the first passing, it was probably 1pm, so mostly well gritted and clear of snow, so no real problems. Still took it easy and made sure to brake gently and included plenty of allowances for possible misjudgements. On the way back, however, it was 7pm, and it had been snowing solidly all afternoon. The result - a road which was completely covered in a mixture of slush and fresh snow. Probably the most entertaining and fun drive I've ever had, driving along in pitch black in my tiny FWD eco hatch on summer tyres (which are the eco-low-friction type), and overtaking massive 4x4s struggling to go anywhere useful. I've never enjoyed a drive as much as that. At one point the snow was so heavy I could not see much more than 15 or 20 metres. It was great fun, and I would love the opportunity to do it again, but perhaps in the day time so I could see where was safest to slither about a bit more ;)

kfae8959
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Re: "High risk" roads

Postby kfae8959 » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:12 am

The Cat and Fiddle has ended up very odd. Last summer, coming back from a conference in Derbyshire, I came upon five vehicles travelling never more than 45 miles an hour on the average-speed enforced section. The view revealed over a mile of clear road, with none of the drivers ahead looking to overtake. It felt rather motorway-like to be on the off side, sliding gently past the whole queue with a single-figure speed differential.


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