Southern Region |
Southampton are one of the latest local authorities
to install the arguably
dangerous road furniture known as "Armadillos".
Their function is to
separate bicycle lanes from other traffic, and on the
surface might appear
to be a good idea. It is interesting to note that this
form of road furniture has
not received approval for installation from the
Department of Transport.
However there is evidence from around
the country where these have
been installed, that larger vehicles whose road
space
has been reduced,
regularly clip them and in fairly short order they break
up. After a break
up this leaves an almost invisible hazard, of a 17mm screw
head proud of
the road surface.
Also on the point of reduced road width, every
motorcyclist has tales
to tell of occasions when they are forced to take
avoiding action by
another road user who hasn't seen them. If the avoiding
action required
is to swerve left, you can imagine the carnage which would
be caused
by a motorcycle clipping one of these artefacts.
Another hazard is a trip hazard to pedestrians
crossing the roads,
in particular at night, when the walker doesn't have
any advantage
of headlights. This will be aggravated if the local authorities
in future
decide to save money by turning off street lights at night, which
is
being considered by many of them around the country, to try to meet
the
budget cuts being imposed by central government.
These Armadillos have been installed in Church Street, Shirley.
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