Median barier for Kapiti coast

[Eddieb]

I've just read (On Telecom wap news) that Transit are going to install a wire rope barrier on the section of highway up the Kapiti coast where everyone keeps having head on's.

Transit admit that if an accident occurs it "could add to traffic delays and create more problems than it solves but they will go ahead with the barrier".

If an accident occurs it will bring traffic to a standstill for hours, ambulances won't be able to get to the crash site until traffic in the opposite direction is stopped and the road cleared so that ambulances can travel up the wrong side of the road.

It will be total chaos and bring the kapiti coast to it's knees as there will be no way round it.

[sAsLEX]

mmmmm cheese grater how fun

[sedge]

I guess they want to try it for a while find out how crappy the result is and then petition for an alternative. Of course that wont be much comfort to the people stuck half way round for hours on end some future Friday night.

Heh heh... be interesting trying to reverse the Ambulance all the way back to Pukerua bay.

What about the times a car or truck stops on the side of the road and you have to squeeze around ? (about once a fortnight) you wont be able to do that with a barrier there, commuters will love that, oh and now you can't turn round and go home either, great.

I must buy bolt cutters (or a sword) to clip the cable... make a mount down the fork leg, also good for removing cage mirrors on the fly when they pull out on you.

Who comes up with these ideas ?, stupid reactive decision making from people who have no concept of the actual road itself (apart from a mid week, mid day 'fact finding' journey out to Fishermans table for a taxpayer funded booze up... )

Sedge.

[Deano]

If an accident occurs it will bring traffic to a standstill for hours, ambulances won't be able to get to the crash site until traffic in the opposite direction is stopped and the road cleared so that ambulances can travel up the wrong side of the road.

That will be great for the poor sods trapped in their car after an accident, bleeding to death while waiting for an ambulance that is stuck in traffic.

[Artifice]

most likely there will be 1km long sections with small gaps at either end for just such a situation.

[750Y]

I can't figure out why people are crossing the centreline along there & wiping each other out, wouldn't mind betting the morons are too busy taking in the view.
anyway it's good news for the cagers.

[vifferman]

Who comes up with these ideas ?, stupid reactive decision making from people who have no concept of the actual road itself (apart from a mid week, mid day 'fact finding' journey out to Fishermans table for a taxpayer funded booze up... )

But of course. And then on the return journey, when they're meandering all over the road "looking at the view" from the ethanol haze inside their heads, they think, "Phark! Wooden tit be groovy if there was a pharkin great cable down the road wot I could use to navigate back to the orofice!"

[Mongoose]

The scarey part is that some plonker decides they are GREAT and they will breed all over NZ, we will becaome a nation of road users devided by wire

[Hooks]

Dumb fucks the lot of 'em !!!
Transit have the most stupid staff per square in inch of any collection bureaucrats that I have ever encountered !! They spend so much time contradicting each other that it's amazing they even managed to make a decision at all ....

[Blakamin]

un-freakin-believable.... that and the 80k limit.... hey, lets all turn in our vehicles and walk along SH1. why the f*&k not? who needs vehicles anyway!


Dark Ages anyone????

[MD]

I don't know Guys this might work. This could be the only time I ever support Transit & LTSA but they have to try something and NOW. I drove south there today and it is scary watching idiots hug the centreline. The Haywoods hill wire barrier experiment worked. Its psychological, drivers see a paint scratching object at eye level invading their "personal space" so they stay further left !! Mission accomplished.
1.They are only going to do 700m to see how it works before going the whole 5kms -sensible approach I reckon.
2.One News said tonight that in emergencies the wires can be flattened to let vehicles over. But that raises the question, if it can fold over then how is it going to hold back the weight of a car/truck at speed?
3.Unlikely the wires will act like "cheese cutters" to riders because any impact will mostly be at a slight angle rather than at right angles i.e we should glance off , not impact full on.Yeah, I'm guessing that one. Someone else test it for me.

[Mongoose]

3.Unlikely the wires will act like "cheese cutters" to riders because any impact will mostly be at a slight angle rather than at right angles i.e we should glance off , not impact full on.Yeah, I'm guessing that one. Someone else test it for me.

Its that slight angle approach that helps with the cheese cutter image, imagine if you would a leg run along a wire rope stretched nice and tight.
The fold down part, I imagine that would be the ability to drop it rather than it just fold down with pressure, if Ya follows wot I mean

[scumdog]

It's the old dollar thing kids, the cheese-cutter only has to prevent one fatal crash and it's paid for itself - and how many bikes actually crash on that stretch of road - and slide across the centre-line? Thats what the polys and bean-counters look at
Time a proper 4-laner was built up to the P.N area.

[Deano]

most likely there will be 1km long sections with small gaps at either end for just such a situation.

Currently, emergency vehicles could squeeze down the centre line to access a crash, but not if theres a wire rope running there - Dr Chris Lane of Pram Medics is concerned about this aspect also. (see todays Dom Post)

1.They are only going to do 700m to see how it works before going the whole 5kms -sensible approach I reckon.

Dr Chris Lane is also quoted saying the area they will put the wire rope is NOT where the accidents are occurring.

Seems perfectly logical given LTSA's past performances.

[Lou Girardin]

It's not the wire that'll slice and dice you, it's the bloody posts.
If someone sues Transit as a result of hitting one of these barriers I'll gladly contribute to the fund.

The barrier can be collapsed to allow access over it.
If I was using that road I'd be most worried about being tail-ended and sliding into the posts and that's a common type of accident.