motoring – Hinterland

Country roads a ‘significant’ risk to young drivers: these are Britain’s most dangerous rural roads

Ivan Annibal — Mon, 17 May 2021 09:38:44 +0000

Something we probably would have guessed but a depressing read nonetheless! This story tells us:

New research has revealed the most dangerous rural roads for young drivers as data shows they are more likely to crash and be killed on country roads than any other age group.

Motorists aged 17-24 are already known to be involved in a disproportionate number of accidents but the research released by the AA Charitable Trust has found that they are also at greater risk on rural roads compared with other age groups and other road types.

The research, by Agilysis and the Road Safety Foundation, found that 71 per cent of all young driver fatalities take place on rural roads. Department for Transport figures show that across all age groups, 57 per cent of all deaths occur on rural roads.

Rural Yorkshire’s residents subjected to ‘misery’ due to influx of motorbikes, says crime commissioner

Ivan Annibal — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 04:26:42 +0000

Here is another spin on unwelcome “townies” in a rural setting. This is a thoughtful article showing that we need to remember there are two sides to situations like this. We do need to soon start welcoming visitors back to rural settings if we are going to have any tourism jobs left for the longer term. This story tells us:

As residents of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national parks and surrounding areas braced themselves for a continuation of what some claim has been record numbers of motorbikes visiting the county in recent weekends, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan said residents were being subjected to “alarming and unfair behaviour”.

Her comments follow calls from members of a Yorkshire Dales National Park advisory body to launch vehicle-free days to recapture the tranquillity of the strictest lockdown period and chairman of the North York Moors National Park Authority Jim Bailey stating the area was not the place for “noise for the sake of making noise”.

Mr Bailey said while those living in the park area needed to be accommodating as it was unclear how visitors may have been affected by the pandemic, there was “a need to be more tolerant, and that goes both ways”.

Meanwhile, residents and visitors to the national parks have made scores of complaints this week about motorcyclists using machines with noisy illegal exhausts.

Heather Walker, who lives near Grassington, said she had been suffering “ear blasting” noise from motorbikes from 5am on a weekend morning until dark.

Trees could be alternative to speed cameras

Ivan Annibal — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:58:44 +0000

Lets hear it for the trees – now that the nation’s forests have been saved from being sold off like so much family silver, our sylvan buddies are already proving their positive worth as this article in the Daily Telegraph explains.

“A trial in Norfolk found that creating avenue of trees and hedges had a dramatic impact on motorists’ behaviour.”

The experiment at four villages showed that drivers dropped their speed because of the cut in their peripheral vision.

In all there was a 20 per cent drop in the number of motorists driving at 40 to 60mph and overall average speeds fell by 1.5 per cent.

At the same time trees were regarded as more suitable for the countryside than other traffic calming methods which are used in towns.

Parish councils have told the Department for Transport that the trees not only reduced speeding but also softened the landscape.