Bogus safety and ignorant engineering from the Highways Agency

Cyclist killed on A12 at Marks Tey on Sunday 13th July 2003
It appears a minibus collided with him as it joined from a slip road.
Exactly the sort of merge being proposed by the Highways Agency.

Cyclist killed on A12 at Eight Ash Green on Monday 26th August 2003
Another slip-road collision just two miles and six weeks from Marks Tey. How many deaths do we need before the Highways Agency stops pretending everything is rosy?

Pressurise the road safety minister

Criminal proceedings

Having been arrested for Wilful obstruction that meant three trips to court but what a surprise! the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence. A complete waste of taxpayer's money and the police have made themselves look very silly. Now the boot is on the other foot and I'll be chasing them for their outrageous behaviour.

The fax below put them on notice but having politely pointed out to them there was a big elephant trap ahead they still jumped in. I know coppers have big feet but now we know they have even bigger mouths.

Protest log

Tuesday 15th am

Nicked for cycling!

Unbelievable - Arrested and charged with Obstruction.
Put in the cells for THREE AND A HALF HOURS (Official complaints will be winging their way soon)
Very pleasant ride - I can see why people like to ride on this road - smooth.
On Anglia TV this evening - good publicity
Highways agency still in denial
Bail condition prevent me doing it again at least until Friday
Have a volunteer for Tomorrow ... We'll see as it may be better to build on what we have proved.
National implications for making cycling on dual carriageways out of bounds at the whim of the police mean well known figures will be on the legal case to add weight.

Monday 14th am

Bit of an experiment! Worked fine. No probs cycling. Abuse and honking of horns but no stupid driving. Police stopped me but let me go this time

Police let it be known they will arrest me if I go on Tuesday. Fax to chief constable as follows:

Today as I was cycling down the A12 I was stopped by one of your officers and told I was causing an obstruction... but this time she would let me go.

Please inform your staff that I do not need the permission of Essex Police to ride along the public highway at any time I choose.

Please also be aware that any officer who suggests that cycling along a dual carriage way in a proper and safe manner is an obstruction will be the immediate subject of an official complaint. This bizarre suggestion is equivalent to saying it is illegal to cycle on a dual carriageway or that cars have precedence over cycles.

You may want to know why this is such an important issue: It is because the Highways Agency is designing junctions which it insists are safe but have the same killing zone as resulted in the death on Sunday of a cyclist at Marks Tey on the A12. I am determined to continue this protest even though many people will be inconvenienced. I am sure you put cyclist's lives before a bit of lateness. Details at www.eminent.demon.co.uk/roadsafety.htm.

Lots of press coverage.

The Highways Agency has been caught-out proposing a "safe" junction which is a real killer, and came up with a design for a cycle track just 18 inches from the A12 dual carriageway.

I have tried getting the top management of the HA to do something but guess what...
...so it is time to take direct action.

From 14th July the A12 around Witham will be effectively reduced to a single lane as I exercise my right to cycle along it. This will continue until the acting chief executive delivers a proper action plan of how he proposes to address the serious safety risks and plain incompetence in in the Highways agency.

Links on this page
Press release Bogus safety Ignorant engineering Cyclists ignored for long enough

Press release

*** PRESS RELEASE *** 11th JULY 2003 ***

Big delays on A12 until Highways Agency climb down over cycle safety

From Monday 14th July the A12 in the Witham area is likely to see long delays as Peter Fox, Witham safety campaigner, exercises his right to cycle along it in the rush hour. This is because the Highways Agency won't address the issues of incompetent engineering and bogus safety assessments. It emerged at the recent public enquiry into the Hatfield-Peverel to Witham link road that cyclists would be expected to cycle just 18" from the busy A12 without any barrier and a monster roundabout which is obviously extremely dangerous for cyclists "posed no threat to two-wheeled vehicles"!

It is over seven weeks since writing to the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency (the government agency which looks after trunk roads) asking for action to deal with these issues of incompetence and bogus safety audits. Still no response (apart from a last minute irrelevant brush-off which only highlighted their contempt for the public). It appears the only way to deal with an arrogant organisation like this is to use direct action.

Therefore Peter Fox will be continuing this protest until the Chief of the Highways Agency comes to Witham and delivers an action plan for making sure that cycle safety is properly dealt with in future.

Peter Fox says : "Cycle campaigners are used to getting the brush-off from clueless highway engineers, but now we have a clear case of top management refusing to take action on very serious safety matters. I'm going to teach them a lesson they won't forget - Ignorance and arrogance is not an excuse for killing cyclists." He continues: "Basically the Highways Agency is dishonest. When challenged they give evasions and weak ‘maybes' but nothing ever happens. That's why I'm insisting the (acting) Chief of the Highways Agency to come in person."

This is not simply a matter of a single road scheme but the rotten culture within the Highways Agency.

The engineering details and the very simple requirements of the required Action Plan are on www.eminent.demon.co.uk/roadsafety.htm

Peter Fox is a member of Witham Cycle Campaign, Colchester Cycle Campaign and is a business consultant.

Contact Peter Fox Tel: (01376) 517206 Mobile: (But may not get answered for safety reasons) 07776447651

Note: The Chief Executive of the Highways Agency was Tim Matthews but he has just resigned to work in the public sector.

PDF version

Bogus safety

According to the Highways Agency in evidence to the Public Enquiry this proposed junction has passed a "Stage 1 Safety audit" with "no problems identified for 2 wheeled vehicles"

Anyone looking at it will see that a cyclist travelling along the yellow line will meet traffic moving around 40 mph along the blue. This is incredibly dangerous. On a normal junction there is a Give-way line and a zone behind where vehicles can wait.

There is something very wrong with the Highways Agency methods or people if they can claim this is safe. This indicates an urgent need to review their methods.
Even though this was pointed out to the HA before the public enquiry they made no attempt to take the alert seriously. This indicates a rotten culture of denial which needs immediate attention from top management.

Ignorant engineering

Here is the overall scheme. New road on the south, cycle track on the north. Putting the cycle track on the north was initially rejected out of hand (too expensive) by the HA. A north side track (a) avoids roundabouts and bottlenecks (b) neatly splits pedestrians and cycles which was why Witham Cycle Campaign recommended it.

Notice how the cycle facility is shown continuing round the bend at the Hatfield Peverell end. Why? This will become a little-used driveway. An example of engineering by felt-tip-pen. Clearly it looks good to have a yellow line but is totally irrelevant.
Part way along the track the Highways Agency refuses to buy a minute strip of land so that the cycle track can be kept at a decent distance from the dual carriageway. At the public enquiry it kept stalling on the actul cost then made one up and added a nought! According to the Highways Agency 18" (half a metre) is OK. And only under serious pressure at the public enquiry did they concede that they could (no promises of course) put a barrier in. Only the HA could think that this was acceptable.
Originally the HA dismissed the idea of a North side track. When spending millions letting car drivers get to work more quickly why are they so ignorant of the need to try to keep pedestrians and cyclists apart?
The killer roundabout! This does have a bad accident record at the moment and it is easy to see why when you look at the many risk factors such as a petrol station and conflicting movements. The HA's response - Increase the speed of the traffic and complexity of the junction! - (Just off the right end of the map is another normal roundabout so that's pure nonsense.)

What this shows is that the HA have bizzare ideas about road design and no concept of practical cycling.

Cyclists ignored for long enough

The game is up! As the Highways Agency won't address these serious issues willingly it will have to be forced. Hence the need for direct action.

Until the acting chief executive of the Highways agency visits Witham with a believable Action Plan this will continue.

I have sketched out what such an action plan needs to cover in (PDF document).
Basically they need to:-

find out how this nonsense was allowed to happen in the first place
work out how to get and use cycling knowledge
urgently fix the way they evaluate safety of junctions
rebuild the public's confidence in a discredited system

Contact: Peter Fox email address image Tel: (01376) 517206

Letter to road safety minister - David Jamieson - 12th July

Dear Minister,

I do not know if you are aware of the direct action being carried out to force the Highways Agency to do something about their bogus safety analysis and the ignorance of their engineers as regards cycling, but as of this Monday the A12 in Essex will be effectively reduced to a single lane until the HA address these serious organisational issues.

The details are on the web site www.eminent.demon.co.uk/roadsafety.htm

This action is necessary because the HA have refused to address this issue. - So if they won't do it voluntarily then they must be forced.

I have written a specification for an action plan which is attached and also available on the web site. What I would like you to do is endorse this specification. I don't think you will have any trouble doing this as you will see that the specification is eminently sensible, to the point and very necessary.

What you might like to do in addition is to set a deadline for the HA to implement their action plan.

Please remember that this direct action will continue until the Chief Executive of the HA has delivered a believable action plan to me. They have had 7 weeks already and cyclists are fed up of waiting for ever for nothing.

Peter Fox

Notes:
* This email has been posted on the web site.
* This is not about a single proposal but the way the HA operates.

Thanks to Trevor Johnson for this apt cartoon (I always wear a silly hat) which reminds us that cycling is fun