Dangerous Ramps Hurt cyclists

Bee

Depending on what I am doing I

Walk
Drive
Cycle
Motor Cycle
Commute on Bus/Train

Around many areas of Dublin DCC has installed really badly designed road ramps / pedestrian refuges that increase traffic congestion, dangerously disrupt emergency services,create extra pollution and noise never mind make life much more dangerous for cyclists. In some case they actually slow traffic but of course screw everything up for the vast majority of law abiding road users.

During the recent rain I happened to cycle off the Sth.Cir Rd/ Portobello /Rathmines/Ranelagh areas. Many of these roads now have these ramps etc.

Has anyone noticed how bad these ramps are for creating huge pools of water? The poor designs create the pools when the nearest sewer is full/blocked etc. After it rains the stagnent pools are full for ages. Previously, prior to the ramps/pedestrian refuges, water flowed along the kerb. If a kerbside sewer was blocked the water simply flowed to the next one along the street. This is now impossible due to the amateur engineering of the ramps/pedestrian refuges retaining the water and blocking kerbside flows. Many of the pedestrian refuges are actually concave at the centre. The central drain gets blocked and the result is a huge pool persisting on the pavement until the weather dries it up!.

I have been soaked on numerous occasions due to the stupid designs, making cycling extremely uncomfortable. The most dangerous thing they create is of course cyclist being forced to swing out into the middle of the road to avoid a wetting never mind making a bikes brakes temporarily ineffective.

Anyone any comments?.......

Bee

Victor

I generally concur. While some scheme are better than others, it can be difficult to make a scheme suit all users. The shemes generally do not affect emergency services at a material level.

Originally posted by Bee
In some case they actually slow traffic

The objective is to slow traffic and they generally seem to have been sucessful at that. A report by the city council on such scheme indicated that the typical speed* in such areas dropped from the high 30s (mph) to the high 20s.

* The 85th percentile, the speed at which not more than 85% of traffic is travelling at.

Bee

The shemes generally do not affect emergency services at a material level.

Talking to the Paramedics arriving at St .Vincent's (should be compulsory for the ramp designers!) would tell you otherwise.

Unfortunately folk like Dublin City's Chief Fire Officer etc are dependent in many ways on DCC so they are the least likely to lodge a complaint with DCC about problems created by ramps etc.

There are many better designs than the amateur ones inflicted by DCC

I remeber watching BBC a while back and there were very many well thought out negative comments by London's emergency services.

Something along the following...

Bee

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/3091358

999 patients 'killed by speed bumps'
By Joe Murphy, Whitehall Editor, Evening Standard
27 January 2003
Speed bumps are killing hundreds of Londoners each year by delaying 999 crews, the head of the ambulance service has told the Evening Standard.

Measures such as road humps and traffic-light rephasing - which are supposed to improve road safety - are actually costing many more lives than they save. Up to 800 victims of cardiac arrest die in London for every minute of delay caused - compared with a total of 300 who die in traffic accidents each year.

The warning was made by Sigurd Reinton, chairman of the London Ambulance Service (LAS). He said: "For every life saved through traffic calming, more are lost because of ambulance delays."