If thats your 2 cents worth, what do you want to do with the change ?
Hats off to you for your job and your daily drive to work. Through your motoring taxes you help all NZers have a good roading system.
Shame you spoil it when you go for a bludge on the 10 speed..
Bet you wear lycra....
While I agree with the poor and inappropriate use of rumble strips. I am finding the worst offenders of road in intrusion is the increasing number of raised tarmac reflectors at the sides - In urban situations these reflectors coupled with pedestrian crossing extensions (bulbous raized parts) into the lanes are a greater hazard. This forces the cyclist when passing to move into the motorists lane, there is no room for both.
I'm a local Ranagateki /Feilding ite like you Gary, and I've noticed these rummble strips on roads with verge barley wide enough for a single bike to pass down. Halcombe Road being a case in point. Whilst in principal I do like them as it provides a line between us and them, they need to improve the quality of the shoulder before making a division that motorists will see as 'our' and 'theirs'.
its not so much the debate of primary road users or indeed who or what that means....but surely if they have had to put a rumble strip down the sides of the roads to let drivers know they are straying off the road then there is a need to re-educate drivers on how to drive? Ever heard the term "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff", in this instance the cliff is the road side verge that we cyclists are expected to ride on....
Having read a lot of the comments I wonder if it is time for those who are the organisers of cycling events and other cycling bodies to have a conversation with the roading authorities to discuss the total design,upkeep,additions(rumble strips etc)and maintenance of the roads.This would bring all the pionts into the design phases.
Rumble strips are designed for a said purpose. However I am of the opinion the design could be changed to make them safer and still do the task they are designed for.
Hi I manage Tri Events and have allready had a discussion with Transport N.Z and expressed my points of view re these.
Unfortunately they consider that they have done all the testing and consulting (Yeah right) and won't change their mindset.
Part of their mindset is to put all the prevention pieces in place, target speed instead of addressing the need for people to be taught how to drive correctly. All we need is an accident or death to really push the issue to them.
Cheers
It seems that the Transport Agency does not take individual approaches seriously but just wants to deflect any comments particularly if they are adverse.
The answer has got to be an organisational response from Ridestrong, BikeNZ or? which addresses the concerns of cyclists and possibly at ministerial level unless there is a cycle friendly soul in Transport Agency.
I am not aware that any of the research they refer to takes account of cyclists. The overseas application of rumble strips is often not as an edge line to waken dozy drivers but to separate carriageways ie on slip roads or motorway approaches. Also New Zealand, for reasons probably only known to its contractors, uses a very high profile for the strips of about 10mm compared to 6mm in UK. From the bureaucrats' point of view at Transport Agency it would be a convenient way of spending budget headings. Conversely they would be resistant to removing them because they would have to finance this from a maintenance budget.
The root of the problem is that the Transport Agency does no take cyclists seriously or understand them.
Keeping left would be fine as long as the quality of the roads at this point were as good as the piece the motorists drive on, and the roads were a little wider.
We are all paying for roading maintenance either through our taxes or through our rates. Transit have just let the maintenance contract for a major section of roading covering the southern part of the Waikato through to the Central North Island. Tax funds.
Hamilton City Council has a fund (from rates) for roading establishment in Hamilton.
I totally agree with Christian. You can't even sit inside bike lanes without riding over glass. But then, the only other time rumble strips would annoy me is during races because if you you to make an attack, you'd have to ride over them which stuffs up your bike. :(
Lets clear up a few things first. Roads exist to move the Kings (or Queens for that matter) army, transport and trade of goods is secondary and being an entertainment centre is a long way down the list. I use our tansport network in all manners as Linehaul truck driver, car driver, motorcyclist and occasional cycling and walking.
The real problem here seems to be the "racing cyclists" on unsuitable tyres doing race speeds on a public highway. If you fit your bike with suitable tyres and ride to the conditions of the road and traffic there should be no control issues at all. I spent a year once doing a 10km round trip commute by bicycle, had no punctures as i fitted suitable tyres and observed what was on the road.
As a truck driver doing over 3000km a week inevetibly fatigue makes an appearance from time to time even with good lifestyle choices and obeying the LTSA hours regulations. Now that buzz from the left can be a lifesaver. You should be aware to that often when any truck or car leaves the road the driver often panics and swerves back across the road into oncoming traffic, i'm sure you've all seen the classic tyre marks. This shows that rumble strip on left fog line is in fact a suitable place to have it.
Yes the design could be changed perhaps but we cant have a minority removing a safety device that benefits many and only causes greif for unsuitable race type bikes with unsuitable tyres travelling at speed and then only during a small percentage of their entire journey.
I see the mission bay stop sign incident mentioned above. Perhaps we should get rid of stop signs??? They cost me too much diesel and break wear????? Just as ridiculous as removing rumble strip!
So remember folks fit suitable tyres and tubes and travel at a speed that allows you to avoid hazards.
This is the sort of attitude which keeps cyclists in the gutter. There is no hierarchy of road use. Roads exist for all to share. Truck drivers need to understand and learn to drive safely around cyclists. If you need a 100 kilometre strip alongside the road to stay alert you have a problem and one which costs the rest of us $50,000(?) a kilometre. And is it sensible to have the alerted driver veer into the centre of the road and oncoming traffic? (The Transport Agency denies this happens by the way.) The problem for cyclists is not about the width of tyre. It is more that the margin within the strip is inadequate at 1 metre and inconsistent meaning that the cyclist riding inside the strip has to cross the strip into the carriageway where the margin is restricted. I reallly think you've got to look outside of your own small square of experience. Many of the cyclists who have problems with rumble strips are from overseas and they do ride bikes with wide tyres. Often these are heavily laden and slow moving. The problem is not just for narrow tyred racers.
Rumble strips are a number eight wire solution to a problem. Unfortunately they are expensive, probably costing $100million to install across New Zealand. What we have is an audible alarm created by a strip along the road. They also cause annoyance to a range of people using the road and living near it. Why not have an audible alarm in the cab thereby avoiding the physical and noise nuisance to everybody else?
Volvo have already developed a system which monitors driver actions and sounds an alarm if driving is erratic. One could have a simple but loud timed alarm in the cab or an alarm activated by roadside triggers.
Rumble strips separating the smooth part of the road from the shoulder are outright dangerous for us road cyclists:
- When crossing them we are likely to swerve or crash because of the roughness
- They increase the amount of debris accumulating on the shoulders
- Unless you want to have a flat every few kays you would be foolish to ride on the so 'improved' shoulders.