Roadworks Frustration.

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

Appears you're an even bigger drop kick than her

I seriously don't understand why you are having a go.

Abuse and name calling.... you don't seem to be old enough to drive, let alone have an opinion about it.

[Express]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Absolutely agree, my point is in 2016 NO-ONE should be stepping out infront of a car with a stop sign and a hard hat and assume the car is going to stop. Any road job that allows that happen is a little behind the times with safety.

There a saying these days in the industry "eliminate the risk", divert traffic AWAY from the work front eliminates the cars and risk, temporary traffic lights eliminates the need for a person stand in front of a moving vehicle being exposed to a potential collision.....etc

Unfortunately Aussie construction has a tendency to reject change and always adopts the "that's the way he have always done it" attitude.

That's a fair point, safety in these environments is a two way street so to speak.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

Appears you're an even bigger drop kick than her

Perhaps you should take time to read the T&C's..........

3. Posts that are disrespectful or insulting to another forum member. Remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as it is expressed in a reasoned manner.

6. Posts that are deliberately argumentative or which fail to respect the opinion of another member.

[sprintman1]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Perhaps you should take time to read the T&C's..........

3. Posts that are disrespectful or insulting to another forum member. Remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as it is expressed in a reasoned manner.

6. Posts that are deliberately argumentative or which fail to respect the opinion of another member.

You should be aiming that at the muppet gloating that his wife nearly ran down a road worker yes?

[Falcon SXR8]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

You should be aiming that at the muppet gloating that his wife nearly ran down a road worker yes?

Honestly mate i dont know how you got that from his story, to me it seems to say he and his wife didn't see the bloke because he was blending in with the background he was standing in front of???? Ive had simillar myself were the lolly pop man was standing just right were he was difficult to see, i wound my window down and kindly let him know, he thanked me and moved down the road a little bit.

As for the op, we all get frustrated with the weird roadwork speed limits sometimes. I just do my best to stick to the limits but the thing that really ticks me off is when your doing 40 in the 40 zone on fresh layed bitumen and a nob overtakes you spraying you with rocks arrrgghhh serenity now serenity now

[Spurious]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

Appears you're an even bigger drop kick than her

You're using this thread for a personal attack? What's wrong with you?

[Spurious]

Originally Posted by BAXRSIX

If it goes to court, get your lawyer to work the following article into your defence, if you are in Victoria...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vic...-1225909847862

In the laws eyes, taking that line of defense to a speeding ticket is fruitless!
For a moment I considered the idea of defending myself, but all I'd be doing is paddling upstream!
The cop got me fair & square & that's the first thing I said to him. It's just super frustrating knowing that you really didn't do anything wrong, no-one was at risk, but the law is the law.

My mum always says "The law is an ***"!

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

You should be aiming that at the muppet gloating that his wife nearly ran down a road worker yes?

Have a holiday, that should give you time to read the T&C's properly.

[Spurious]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Its going on just out of Riddells Creek at the moment, there is a roadworks zone where the guys haven't been working at for months now but they left the signs out, so no one follows the limit anymore.

If people see no workers then they consciously revert back to "driving to the conditions". If we don't see the need to slow down, then we usually won't want too. That is a natural human attribute.

& this is one of my points. I'll freely admit that I've driven quicker than a posted limit within a roadworks zone more than once in my time, & without punishment. Obviously because there was no-one there to see it on the day...AKA "the uninhabited work site".
Of course you slow down for gravel, firstly 'cause it's slippery & second 'cause I too don't want my paintwork dinged!
If you deem there to be minimal risk, you revert back to driving to the conditions.

[Itsme]

So many roadworks here in Melbourne it is actually part of our regular scenery these days, you just got to learn to take a chill pill & chill out, no need to get upset as it is not going to go away.

Cheers

[Spurious]

Originally Posted by jpblue1000

Of those complaining about roadwork speed limit zones, how many are professional roadway engineers, risk managers, OH&S experts or lawyers, and if those who are one I the aforementioned how many are experts in the particular site where the speed limit is imposed?
There are speed zones put in place for many reasons. They don't do it for fun often, people have thought about it, made applications and followed regulation for the protection of everyone.
Relax about it, it never really adds much time to your drive.
JP

You're right, it never adds much time to the drive (unless you're busting to go!!!) & I'm not complaining in general for the sake of ranting, I had a specific gripe & that is the unmanned workzone with reduced speed limits.

Seriously, we all understand that roadworks are costly, time consuming, necessary & logistically challenging for those involved, but that's why it's even more surprising when one is forced to reduce speed for as many kilometres of roadway as you'd care to count, & you don't see a single worker.

& let's face it, who ever makes these regulations needs a good
Eliminating the risk means taking cars out of the equation, but what we see are cars going 40, 60 & upto 80kph through work zones & within feet of workers. So obviously there's a level of safety applied but not a complete elimination of the risk.

[Spurious]

Originally Posted by b0son

You mean, the same people who think a footpath next to a busy 80kph road doesnt warrant any protective measures for pedestrians?

It's funny you know, I've always said that, to the point that I have actually warned my son that being on a footpath is no measure of safety.
I personally get nervous walking down a roadside footpath. I've been witness to what can happen when vehicles mount kerbs & hit pedestrians. It sadly can happen all too easily.

I've often wondered who conspired to put roads & paths together.

[poppa smurf]

B.I.L. used to work in main roads, civil works department......he reckons the amount of signage that must be placed by law now is ridiculous, however he states the amount of folks who ignore them is unbelievable.

to the feller/girlie who lost the lollypop man in amongst the other lights......been there, done that, oncoming traffic, flashing lights everywhere and overhead lights and I lose stop lights everytime, I've gone through a couple of lights now that I couldn't tell you what colour they were, didn't see them......my wife did, I hate citys at night.

so my sympathy is with you.......

gets a bit annoying though, i will admit, to slow to 25 KPH on a Sunday evening in the middle of nowhere.......but the B.I.L. reckons the signs have to stay to protect the public until ALL work has ceased by law.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

done that, oncoming traffic, flashing lights everywhere and overhead lights and I lose stop lights everytime, I've gone through a couple of lights now that I couldn't tell you what colour they were, didn't see them......my wife did, I hate citys at night.

Now you know why you have to slow right down as it gets very confusing!
your brain can only process so much through confusion.

[pottery beige]

sign blind

[XR6WGN]

I don't mind slowing down to the slower speed but what really gets my goat is when you have one lane closed. You can plainly see it so you give yourself plenty of time to get into the open lane (might even be courteous and let a few people in) and then 10 or so cars think that it their god given right to come screaming up on the inside and just push in!!! No indicators and no thanks!!!

Now that is what annoys me with road works. (Sorry two minute rant over with - need a cup of tea Hommmmmm )

[JAJH]

There's 2 things that irk me with roadworks...first is they always seem to do it at the the most inconvenient time, like early morning during peak hour traffic which causes the most disruption and second, the amount of workers it takes to do the roadwork. I amazes me that you can have 20-30 guys at the roadwork site, yet there is always only a handful of them actually doing anything. 5-6 of them having a chat, another 4 -5 sitting in trucks, 1 holding the go slow sign, 3 leaning on shovels and another 3-4 sitting on eskys having a chin wag and a smoko. Sounds like our taxes not at hard work to me!

[kazawaki]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

You should be aiming that at the muppet gloating that his wife nearly ran down a road worker yes?

[ford71V8]

I've reread my post a few times. I don't understand where the confusion is.

I certainly wasn't gloating

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by JAJH

There's 2 things that irk me with roadworks...first is they always seem to do it at the the most inconvenient time, like early morning during peak hour traffic which causes the most disruption and second, the amount of workers it takes to do the roadwork. I amazes me that you can have 20-30 guys at the roadwork site, yet there is always only a handful of them actually doing anything. 5-6 of them having a chat, another 4 -5 sitting in trucks, 1 holding the go slow sign, 3 leaning on shovels and another 3-4 sitting on eskys having a chin wag and a smoko. Sounds like our taxes not at hard work to me!

I think thats with everyone contracted out to government jobs, its happening out here, not so much with 400 blokes on site and 4 working and 396 doing SFA but its taking forever and a day to do something that you would knock out in a month tops on a private job.

As soon as someone wins government work people enjoy padding out figures and taking their sweet time.

[Express]

It’s been a while since I was in the game so I won’t swear it’s still the same today but one of the obstacles we faced with Council work was the unions wouldn’t allow an employee who was employed to do a job to do anything outside of that job.

For example a truck driver could stand around chatting to other employees for a couple of hours waiting for a load but wasn’t allowed to pick up a shovel or become involved in any other aspect of the job and this was also the case for a number of positions.

That’s not to say Council day labour isn’t inherently slow but today much of this type of work is put out to tender and it’s the winning Company doing the job that is losing money and I’m only guessing when I say there is every chance they are also constrained by the Unions in what they can and can’t ask their employees to do.

Maybe some of the current Civil Engineers on the forum could provide some input into up to date practices for us to better understand what is happening with road construction.

[Spurious]

I may have sent you all down the wrong path here initially.

If I recall correctly on the day in question, as I entered the reduced speed zone there were only lower speed limit signs posted on the shoulder & NOT any "roadwork" signs, & the other stating the right hand lane was closed.

The whole reduced speed zone extended for about 3 to 4 k's I guess, with nothing to be seen other than road throughout!

I have also taken the step of emailing the local dept' of roads to shed some light on what exactly was going on, on that day - re; roadwork?
I am awaiting their response.

[creative]

Personally it doesnt bother me but I will admit I drive to the conditions at the time rather than taking my eyes off a road to speedo watch.

If I see workers, uneven road surfaces etc etc, I slow down to the correct speed... I see long open sections with no activity, I slow a little but continue paying attention to my surroundings, you know, actually drive and pay attention instead of removing my eyes from the road ahead.

Funniest was on the freeway, tractor grass cutting on the hardshoulder, man in truck with his 80 signs flashing no real danger and traffic flowing g well.... and a HWP sat in the middle of the reservation. People really didnt know what to do. Some were slamming their brakes on, others eased off, lane changes.... all sorts!

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by XR6WGN

I don't mind slowing down to the slower speed but what really gets my goat is when you have one lane closed. You can plainly see it so you give yourself plenty of time to get into the open lane (might even be courteous and let a few people in) and then 10 or so cars think that it their god given right to come screaming up on the inside and just push in!!! No indicators and no thanks!!!

This happens every time two lanes become one. I merge behind the car next to me, the car behind me accelerates past me to get in front of the car I am behind.

It's the age with the mentality "Everything should be given to me as it's my right to be better than you"

[Olbucko]

Originally Posted by Stefan

I hate seeing those damn 40km signs and there is no-one around, but I'm an impatient Sydney sider, always in a hurry and always in a traffic jamb.

On another note but still about roadworks frustration, how long have those muppets been messing around on that bit of road coming into Bathurst from Lithgow? That is the longest going road project I have ever encountered 2 and a half years to build a 2 km piece of road and it looks about halfway through the job, what an absolute embarrassment.

Don't worry, be patient, I read in the local paper that it will be finished some time late in 2017, or was that 2018 ?

[Spurious]

...& how's this for a slap in the face...I have emailed the dept' of planning & infrastructure 3 times since the incident requesting information.

So far they have not responded.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Spurious

...& how's this for a slap in the face...I have emailed the dept' of planning & infrastructure 3 times since the incident requesting information.

So far they have not responded.

It would be nice if they did but....................

You didn't really expect a reply from a government department did you

[4stanger]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Absolutely agree, my point is in 2016 NO-ONE should be stepping out infront of a car with a stop sign and a hard hat and assume the car is going to stop. Any road job that allows that happen is a little behind the times with safety.

Agreed, but similar situation without the hard hat and roadworks, this is what school pedestrian crossing volunteers must do every school day. A friend of mine does this and there are regulations they have to abide by. My friend has plenty of near miss stories as well.

To the op, yes I would get frustrated with your first scenario but still need to abide by the road rules,
your 2nd scenario of follow the police through a restricted speed zone, I would frustratingly follow the police all the way like a safety car in a motor race, if he sped up without the emergency lights flashing, I would speed up to, but still let him set the pace, if he sped up with the emergency lights flashing I would wait till he got reasonable distance down the road and probably speed up as well. Police are the law, they set the standard

[Dash_XR]

If worker signs are out and no one is working call up and report them. They shouldn't be left up.

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by Dash_XR

If worker signs are out and no one is working call up and report them. They shouldn't be left up.

Report them to who?