SYD:more on Old Road

From the MCC delegates list, a followup on the previous story. From stuff
said in the MCC meeting it looks like the journo who wrote the original
story is now digging about looking for info on the safety audit and
other stories surrounding this. Including the identity of the "Peats
Ridge Action Group" which some of you may remember, and which is utterly
unknown to everyone except the people saying they put the speed limit
in place because that group asked for it.

Note also that the bit about turning bays *was* heard by someone at
the committee meeting and has been seen in documents. They didn't get
the funding doesn't mean they didn't ask!

Note the bit about the letters page with some residents saying the
speed limit is unreasonable. Anyone able to scan that?

============
Front page of the Central Coast Express Advocate

http://www.expressadvocate.com.au/article/2006/08/08/1562_news.html
photo
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abikebloke/d6bae656.jpg
L to R
MCC of NSW Delegates: Brian Wood (Chairman, Safety Committee, Sean Hawley
(Safety Committee), Clinton Hayes (Vice-Chairman), Guy Stanford (Chairman)

Those able to read a copy of the paper will find a further explanatory
article not available on the web, as well as some letters from locals,
pointing out that "speeding motorcycles" is only a small part of problems
up there and that they feel the reduced speed limit is unreasonable.


This follows a response to last weeks article. last weeks article here:-
http://www.expressadvocate.com.au/article/2006/08/01/1503_news.html

Here, it appears the Police felt confident they were going to get the
Black Spot funding for speed pursuit alone.

Not one mention of crashes.

The crash problem is to do with the road quality or Black Spot problems
(see definition below) at a few curves with dips or whoopsies and
misalignments or reducing radius curves. The interaction of riders
displaying poor judgement or skill with a point on the road that requires
a sudden and higher level of skill leads to crashes and injuries and
deaths.

The road needs fixing. This will directly deal with the road toll and
reduce injury through reducing crashes. Concurrently, it requires riders
to improve their judgement, their perceptions of risky spots and limits
of the road and their own ability.

This requires a more complex solution, which includes co-operation,
information dissemination and a credibile framework.

We don't need dumb policing where speed is the feature of a low-grade
movie that has lost the plot.

This latest release is from the same crew that put exhaust stickers on
the agenda as an "Old Road Tax".

The first article makes it appear that the Police were bullying the RTA
and Council, to grab the road funds for their own agenda or story line.
That would be corrupt.

The funds are for road engineering improvements to reduce crashes.

That is what we are standing up for. Even if we can't get the other
half of co-operation.

This is developing into an "Us and Them" situation that may become
intractable.


::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
BLACK SPOT DEFINITION

"The Black Spot 1999-2002 - An Evaluation of the First Three Years" -
Bureau of Transport Economics, Report 104, Commonwealth of Australia 2001

In Chapter 1, under the heading of "Causes of Road Crashes", the above
report contains the following passage.

"One crash causation model suggests that drivers' performance level
varies with time because of factors such as lack of concentration,
fatigue, drowsiness and illness. The demands of the road environment
vary due to factors such as traffic flow rates, geometric features of
the road and type of road. Drivers normally adapt their performance
level to the demands of the road system. A crash occurs when the drivers'
performance level is insufficient to meet the performance demands of the
road environment. Most of the time, driver capabilities exceed performance
demands. Black Spots are points of peak performance demand. Engineering
improvements in the road network lower the performance demands on the
driver. This increases the safety margin between the driver's performance
level and the performance level demands of the road environment, and
reduces the probability of a crash."



Now, replace "driver" with "rider" in the above passage and read it again.

This gives a good picture of the purpose of funds for "black spot
programs", that they are engineering improvements to improve safety at
specific sites that have a known crash history.
===========

 

Interestingly the "other" bike road, Royal national Park, seems to be
getting fixed as we speak. Beautiful smooth hotmix is being layed from the
Stanwell Tops end.

 

about bloody time.