Highways / Local Council

[nickatkinson]

hi all. I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge of how to escalate a request to the highways dept to look into a dangerous section of road.

There have been 25 crashes of varying severity near to where I live. The latest one 10 minutes ago, but around 5 cars have been written off in the last 12 months, walls knocked down and soon, someone will be killed or severely injured...fact.

So, highways don't care at all after me advising them several times about this because no one has died yet, which is pretty much what I have been told by them. I was hoping there was a way to escalate this further as all we get is an automated message from the council saying "sorry we don't have enough funds at present"

I am literally on the verge of getting some travellers to build some non complaint speed humps or traffic calming measures to slow the idiots who crash down, which would solve the problem, but thought if there is a more legit solution, then I would give it a try first.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Ghost]

@nickatkinson
Get as many people as you can to sign a petition.
Go to your local newspaper, and ask if they will run an article on it.

 

[nickatkinson]

This might be an idea too..thanks for that.

 

[Oranoco]

Working in this field myself I would suggest you get in touch with your local councilor and get them on side. Also worth submitting a Freedom of Information Act request in for K.S.I. collisions at this location. Find out who your local roads policing man is and get in touch with him/her and see if they share your concerns

Be aware though that there might actually be very little they are able to do. Seen it happen where a junction is reconfigured at significant cost and the accidents still happen as you can't remove the primary cause which is an idiot driver

 

[nickatkinson]

Definately idiot driver is the main issue. Every single incident had been a young driver under 20 ish and a car which is not designed to be driven fast..

The frustrating thing here is it could be solved for a few thousand pound with a speed ramp or traffic island, if not solved then much improved.

Good call on the councillor too.

Thanks

 

[Oranoco]

Unfortunately it's far from as easy as you suggest. If you introduce a traffic calming feature you are also supposed to bring the lighting levels up to the current standard, you also have to sign the feature from each approach. A simple raised table junction can cost £4,000+ on it's own. Traffic management costs can also hike costs significantly as the need for traffic lights and in many cases full diversion routes.

Any suggested changes to the layout would also need to be designed and a number of detailed measurements taken to ensure it didn't cause drainage issues. And after all of that it would then need to go through a consultation process where people may object to the proposal.

I hope you find a solution but want you to be aware that things in highways are far from as straight forward as many people think