Road Design on Boyle to Sligo Road At Castlebaldwin
Now I am not an engineer, but I am someone who uses the roads quite a lot. I have travelled on the Boyle to Sligo (N4)every week over the last few years. I was delighted when Sligo County council or the NRA started to work on the the section after Castlebaldwin on the Sligo side. It is definately a major improvement on the road that was already there. I think it is due to finish shortly as they are working on the sides and generally tidying up.
But here comes my gripe: When coing from Sligo there is a turn off to the right and on the main carraigeway there is an arrow for straight ahead and an arrow to turn off right. So far so good you might say, but there is no room for a car to move out to the right they are still on the main carraigeway. Now what really is annoying is that there is a massive amount of a hard shoulder on the left. So why could they not have made the road with a lane to turn right and use some of or all of the hard shoulder for traffic going straight on? Who is getting paid to do a design like this?
Some years back when the Curlew bypass was built a similiar problem existed. If you were coming from Carrick-on-Shannon towards Sligo and wanted to turn off for Ballyfarnon you had to move out to the overtaking lane and wait in it to turn right, if traffic was coming from Sligo. A lethal situation. It took a few years for them to change the layout of that juntion, all they needed to do was to change road markings.
Maybe the same designer is involved with this road design at Castebaldwin.
Declan
www.duignan.eu
Road design at Castlebaldwin

Be aware of the Silent Killer

A new silent killer is now on our roads, it is the new electric cars. When moving off from a parked position and especially in carparks there will be no noise from the electric cars. This can pose a major danger to pedestrians as the walk through the carpark. Just think of you pushing a trolley with wonky wheels and your children running around you, and suddenly a car starts moving out of a space; no warning of an engine starting. I know you could say that the driver should be looking out for me and mine but this is not always the case. Maybe by next year some standards should be in force so that all electric cars will have some form of audible sound before they stat to move.
International standards, which have already been drawn up by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, are expected to be turned into legally binding regulations by the end of next year.

The move comes as the popularity of fuel-efficient hybrid and electric cars grows, as motorists look to tackle soaring petrol and diesel costs.

According to the latest industry figures there are currently 2,353 electric and 128,165 hybrid cars – such as the best selling Toyota Prius – on Britain’s roads. I am not sure what the figure here is in Ireland at the moment. 

Research carried out last year by TRL, formerly the Government’s Transport Research Laboratory, found taking into account the number of vehicles on the road, pedestrians were more likely to be hit by an electric car than a conventional one.

It also found electric and hybrid cars were quieter than conventional vehicles in the first five metres after a standing start, such as at a pedestrian crossing.
Declan Duignan
www.duignan.eu

Car Design for Road Safety

For the last twelve months or more there is something that has been bothering me about new cars. It really came to me in a very real way yesterday morning as I travelled to Dublin. The problem is the position and colour of Indicator signals on modern cars.
It is possibly a style problem,or maybe a cost problem that manufacturers are placing their indicators in the same assembly as the headlights. This makes it impossible to see the indicators working when the lights are on. This also applies in the day time when the vehicle has dipped lights on.
This is now becoming a problem at the rear as well. Some cars have their indicators in the middle of the brake lights. All of this looks lovely of course, but not at all practical and definately not safe. Another gripe I have is the placing of the side indicators in the wing mirrors. I think that the people in charge of granting Type Approval to vehicles should take a closer look at how cosmetic changes are affecting road safety.
Maybe I am alone in my thinking but I would like to hear from anyone else who thinks the same. I intend to do a survey of cars that I feel are posing a safety risk.
www.duignan.eu