Everything we know about traffic-calming is wrong - Page 9

On Wed, 07 Jul 2004 22:34:47 GMT, Dave Kahn <dkahn400@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

>>> But is there a proven alternative to speed bumps, round
>>> or flat tops, and the raised platforms our Council are
>>> fitting at each minor road junction?
>>
>>Yes. Cobbled Streets. Durable and encouraging of
>>slower driving. Oh and I kinda like that Yankee idea
>>of 4-way stops!
>
>The French largely gave up on them after 1968 as the
>cobbles made good ammunition for the students to throw at
>the police.

The Belgian village I lived in until last year had cobbles
through the centre. Didn't slow anyone down a great deal
(unlike the single-vehicle wide railway bridge at one end of
the main through route) and was very noisy. Needed relaying
most years.

Still liked them though.

Dave Kahn wrote:

>
> The French largely gave up on them after 1968 as the
> cobbles made good ammunition for the students to throw at
> the police.
>

The drivers round these parts just learned that their
suspension systems nicely rejected the frequencies causes by
cobbles at 30mph. Of course, on a non-suspension bike, its a
different story.

Our local council tried short patches of cobbles laid more
haphazardly to make them bumpier, instead of speed bumps.
The cars were also quite noisy going over them at speed.

- Richard

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 at 22:34:47, Dave Kahn <dkahn400@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>On 6 Jul 2004 06:58:56 -0700, jad29@le.ac.uk (James) wrote:
>
>>Yes. Cobbled Streets. Durable and encouraging of
>>slower driving. Oh and I kinda like that Yankee idea
>>of 4-way stops!
>
>The French largely gave up on them after 1968 as the
>cobbles made good ammunition for the students to throw at
>the police.
>
Obviously you haven't been watching this year's Tour de
France with a great many cobbled areas for the bikes to
fall over on!

Actually, I think a lot of Paris streets still are cobbled -
whenever there have been riots, they have always been used
to throw at police, it's practically a tradition!
--
Annabel Smyth mailto:annabel@amsmyth.demon.co.uk
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/index.html Website updated
6 June 2004

On 6 Jul 2004 06:58:56 -0700, jad29@le.ac.uk (James) wrote (more or
less):

>"taywood" <taywood@deadspam.com> wrote in message news:<2jp20jF13iilkU1@uni-
>berlin.de>...
>> Marc Brett wrote:
>> > Everything we know about traffic-calming is wrong
>>
>> But is there a proven alternative to speed bumps, round
>> or flat tops, and the raised platforms our Council are
>> fitting at each minor road junction?
>
>Yes. Cobbled Streets. Durable and encouraging of
>slower driving.

Not actually durable - you'll often find structural
subsidence in cobbled streets. The surface is quite long
lasting tho' - but at the cost of having /very/ low grip,
and even worse in the wet!

>Oh and I kinda like that Yankee idea of 4-way stops!

--
Cheers, Euan Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122 Smalltalk
links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk)
http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk

> >Yes. Cobbled Streets. Durable and encouraging of slower
> >driving.
>
> Not actually durable - you'll often find structural
> subsidence in cobbled streets. The surface is quite long
> lasting tho' - but at the cost of having /very/ low grip,
> and even worse in the wet!

Subsidence depends on how it's been set. The stones
themselves will last centuries - there are examples of
Roman surfaces still around. Sod grip. You should drive
more slowly - as you already do when you have no grip
due to adverse road conditions. The purpose would have
been achieved.