Near Miss of the Day 137: Needless - and dangerous - overtake at pinch point

gunswick wrote:

i have to go through these everyday, just take the lane.  Make sure you do it about 50m away, so not too close and not too far, check carefully over your shoulder first before you move and be prepared to brake to be safe.  I've never got abuse for taking the lane as most people obviously understand the reason, its partly for their benefit.

Ocassionally some plonk will still try to overtake near it, at which point you can point at the island and they tend to back off quickly.

Sometimes they overtake on the other side of the island which initally was offputting but now seems fine really (for me) as I am safer with a physical barrier.

^^

That.

There's nothing wrong with the road infrastructure in the video - that overtake is down to a lazy/ignorant driver and nothing else.

Pedestrian islands are there because the road is either too wide for vunerable users to cross in one go, the speed limit is too high to allow it on a standard road width, lack of visibility or a few other reasons. 

If there's no apparent reason for one being there before an island gets put in theres a survey done to assess the number and type of pedestrians crossing  within 'X'm of the site against the volume of traffic then a calc done (PV2 survey) that works out the requirement for crossing type.  It could be that there's a requirement for it to be there, just not necessarily apparent when you're looking at it.

brooksby wrote:

This similar 'pedestrian refuge' is on my commute:

https://goo.gl/maps/SNsTKLTenp52

I get passed either on my side (squeezing through!) or by vehicles passing the wrong side of the 'refuge' about once a week.

It's right on a long, straight road, just past a secondary school, where the speed limit goes up from 30 to 50 (in the direction you're looking), with a hatched central area for no apparent reason, and a junction to a main road in a couple of hundred metres.

The no apparent reason for the central hatch markings is to discourage  overtaking on that section - if you go back a couple of hundered metres there's another pedestrian island, the distance between the two islands and the fact its on a slight bend means there's nowhere near the stopping sight distance required to allow a safe overtake at that speed limit. Single line there instead, it would only be a matter of time before some numpty went for it after the first island and ploughs into the second one.

The markings are Dia 1040 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions -  Part of the carriageway which vehicular traffic should not enter unless the driver can see it is safe to do so.

It will (should - there's no accounting for everyone...) discourage a car on car overtake, I'd expect a car to overtake a bike as the lane+ markings look wide enough to not be in the opposite lane whilst doing so. The road is wider on a bend to allow the sweep of an hgv in both directions at once,  you then have to reduce the lane with back down to 3.65m for 'normal' traffic to keep them segregated.  The markings are wider than the island to allow some clearance for wing mirrors and to encourage drivers to keep a bit clear of the island - islands get close passed too.

Moist von Lipwig wrote:

brooksby wrote:

This similar 'pedestrian refuge' is on my commute:

https://goo.gl/maps/SNsTKLTenp52

I get passed either on my side (squeezing through!) or by vehicles passing the wrong side of the 'refuge' about once a week.

It's right on a long, straight road, just past a secondary school, where the speed limit goes up from 30 to 50 (in the direction you're looking), with a hatched central area for no apparent reason, and a junction to a main road in a couple of hundred metres.

The no apparent reason for the central hatch markings is to discourage  overtaking on that section - if you go back a couple of hundered metres there's another pedestrian island, the distance between the two islands and the fact its on a slight bend means there's nowhere near the stopping sight distance required to allow a safe overtake at that speed limit. Single line there instead, it would only be a matter of time before some numpty went for it after the first island and ploughs into the second one.

The markings are Dia 1040 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions -  Part of the carriageway which vehicular traffic should not enter unless the driver can see it is safe to do so.

It will (should - there's no accounting for everyone...) discourage a car on car overtake, I'd expect a car to overtake a bike as the lane+ markings look wide enough to not be in the opposite lane whilst doing so. The road is wider on a bend to allow the sweep of an hgv in both directions at once,  you then have to reduce the lane with back down to 3.65m for 'normal' traffic to keep them segregated.  The markings are wider than the island to allow some clearance for wing mirrors and to encourage drivers to keep a bit clear of the island - islands get close passed too.

I know about the one nearer the school, (obviously) I go through there too but I don't ever seem to have the same problems.  I've begun to put it down to "I can see a 50 roundel, so I better start accelerating NOW".

I didn't appreciate that's what the hatching is for... It doesn't work 

PRSboy wrote:

'Traffic calming' rubbish like that should be removed.  They do nothing other than make a perfectly safe stretch of road more hazardous when halfwit drivers like that misjudge.

But these are pedestrian refuge islands, designed to keep some vulnerable road users safe (and they do that very well. removing them May make it safer for cyclists  but would definetly increase the risk to pedestrians and as this looks like the access to a residential area there are probaly more of them

If they weren't present then drivers of this level of selfishness/ignorance would be more prevalent (because there's space I will pass)

It is very difficult to design against the actions of the utterly selfish driver, after all they see fit to overtake despite the presence of 2 islands, a junction and appropriate signage and road markings. Opening it up would just mean they do the same move only faster

StraelGuy wrote:

I've been close passed going through a pedestrian island, not fun. Dunno why they have them really, they're an incitement for morons to close pass cyclists. 

Come on Mr Guy, give pedestrians a break, they suffer from motor mania just as we do.