Off Topic The Goodhand Arms

So have I, and all of what I saw was a ****hole. In one part I felt very uneasy.

 

Haven't you noticed before that all the classic Roman-Italian wrecks of buildings, with plaster fallen off them, look fantastic under the Mediterranean sun. In the UK, they look exactly for what they are. It's an essential difference.

 

What part? I've been to Bham many a time (my whore of an ex lives there) and I've always thought it was a nice place and never felt remotely uneasy. Even when I went through the park at night.

What roman-italian ruins are these?

 

The everyday classic buildings you see in Italian cities. Get on Google Maps in Street View. You'll quickly see what I mean

 

Reckon they could do with some traffic lights!
[video=youtube;4TEcwkNv6kY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TEcwkNv6kY[/video]

 

I smell STUPID!

 

No, no, no, no, no, no!

See how the traffic flows with no build up of queues?

I was thinking about this only this week when the lights at the junction of St Denys Rd and Thomas Lewis Way were out. I went through at 8:30 and again at 10:30. No queues in any direction, everyone being polite because no-one had right-of-way. Pedestrians being allowed to cross safely. At about 11:00 I had to go through them again and they had been fixed. Surprise, surprise, the queue reached back to Sainsbury's in Portswood.

The junction of Hill Lane and Archers Road in the morning is normally a ten minute queue. When the lights went last winter, no queues in any direction even at rush hour.

In Drachten in the Netherlands they dropped all traffic lights. The result (from Wikipedia): Recently, Drachten received international attention for a traffic experiment known as shared space, a concept pioneered by Hans Monderman. Almost all traffic lights and signs have been removed in the town's centre in an effort to improve traffic safety, based on the theory that drivers pay more attention to their surroundings when they cannot rely on strict traffic rules. Previously the town's centre had an average of 8 accidents per year. In the first two years after the system was introduced, yearly accidents were reduced to 1.

Faster traffic flow, fewer accidents. I LOVE the junction on that clip for that very reason.

Vin

 

Fascinating video. I completely agree with Vin as well. I'd heard of the Drachten experiment and it's success. There were slight noises about the city council possibly doing something similar in Southampton, but nothing has come of it so far. I [and Vin] can't be alone in noticing that traffic flows much more freely when traffic lights are faulty. Southampton, in particular, seems to have an abundance of them, and consequently visitors to the city often make the observation that the traffic here makes their own streets seem empty. One Londoner even suggested that our peak rush hour was worse than in the City, which does seem hard to believe, but the traffic here is very heavy indeed, and much of its cause is because of the stop/go nature of movement initiated by the excess of traffic light systems.

 

The greatest monstrosities are traffic lights on roundabouts! Totally negate the whole point of a roundabout-to ease and maintain traffic flow- as well as making lane discipline almost impossible! How the hell do you change lanes to exit, when there is stationary traffic on your left?

 

Regardless of your observations, as a new driver, there's no way I'd want to face something like the madness of that junction!

 

Completely agree.

Oh, that's understood, RSS. That sort of traffic flow might intimidate even an experienced driver. But just looking at it makes you realise that within the chaotic nature of it, the drivers, riders and pedestrians are actually properly awake while in charge of themselves, and that is something that is being taken away from UK drivers because they are being put into lanes and being dictated to by traffic light systems, etc... The end result is a driver/rider/pedestrian who takes less responsibility and that's really dangerous.

 

They have a function though. Until they put traffic lights on Coppins Bridge (the only big roundabout on the Island) traffic from Cowes couldn't enter the system because the traffic from Newport High Street was virtually non-stop. Now everyone gets a turn and there is no problem if you get in the correct lane (1 of 3) before you enter the system.

 

In the Sun, Rio Ferdinand said he was told he was leaving United whilst recovering at SMS after the last match of the season. Said he didn't quite realise what he was hearing as he was trying to get his breath back. Not the proper way to do things after the years he'd given them.

 

Back home at last. Left the airport and it was raining outside. Good old Southend.

Nice enough holiday, although a hectic start when a member of the group decided to lose the top of their finger on day one.

Dived into the pool, swimming up and got their middle finger stuck in a hole in a dome-shaped ventilation system. Blood everywhere.

Fine now, though!

 

one commentator said that Aston Villa have more points, than they have had shots this season.

 

Awesome stat.

 

A video of hostage David Haines being executed by the IS has appeared online.

 

So awful, but I guess predictable.

Agent Moustache is back in Sweden for the moment but back to Erbil shortly. Will report back in.

 

In Northampton, they recently spent millions putting traffic lights on a Roundabout in the town centre. My council at payments are now young towards rectifying that cock-up

 

I've just completed my first cycle sportive. I rode 25 miles in 1 hour 39 minutes, and averaged 15 mph. I'm pretty pleased with that. I wore my Saints top (umbro championship stripes) with pride. It is of course possible that they made me go faster!

I think I've earned a beer.