Changes to be made to blackspot New Forest junction – five years after second cyclist death there

Being the east side of the Forest I have to agree with you. Roads out that way are flat and open, perfect echelon territory. Fortunately I live on the western edge so I'm rarely over that way.

Unbelievable, a guy with a camera and still cars plough through without stopping. The problem is surely lack of enforcement. A discreet camera and 3 points for anybody that fails to stop would surely do the trick.
I submitted some footage of a driver coming straight at me through a give way to oncoming vehicles sign yesterday. I'm sure they'll ignore it as I was in no danger, but surely we shouldn't be waiting for people to get hurt or worse before we educate drivers as to their responsibilities.

I don't normally watch his videos but at least he got the problem out to more then just a few cycling sites. I wonder if the timings of finally making a decision might have come from this videos impact, especially as it blantantly shows cars blasting through the stop signs. 

Although it is depressing he posted an "update" from seven months ago about the planning being approved finally and still nothing has been done. 

well it is illegal to disturb nesting birds, Wildlife & Countryside act, the majority of  ground nesting birds in the New Forest are on the red list, so moan that it took 5 years to even make a decision to do the change, dont blame laws intended to protect wildlife habitats that it takes a few months longer.

Nothing to do with residents and the national park/New Forest. Had they started in May I'd have cycled up there and gathered evidence for the prosecution. It's illegal to disturb any bird whilst it's nesting (which is why you might see developers netting hedges and buildings due for demolition) and there are even stiffer penalties for Schedule 1 red list birds (which most ground nesters are).

usedtobefaster wrote:

I rode through here today (Sep 8) and the works haven't started yet and there's no sign of any activity.

The change was approved earlier this year and was due to start around May but was postponed because objections over disruption to ground nesting birds.  Birds over humans, tells you all you need to know about the residents and powers in the NF

I've got nothing against protecting wildlife, but this again demonstrates why there needs to be an immediate control on the motorised traffic if it is causing danger to life. It'd be better to keep on restricting motor traffic through that junction for a few months to avoid disrupting the nesting.

ktache wrote:

Good, Bez on his Beyond thekerb did an excellent peice on this junction.

Indeed he did: https://beyondthekerb.org.uk/collision-course/

This kind of slow reaction is confirming my belief that we need to tackle "dangerous" junctions in a much more direct fashion. As soon as there's a fatality (or a significant number of collisions), the junction should have been closed to motor traffic until remediation could be put in place. The remediation could just be something as simple as temporary traffic lights in this particular case until something more permanent can be installed.

It seems kinda backwards that the changes have to be approved (I know that obviously all road changes do have to be approved), whereas leaving a known danger to life in place seems to be an acceptable outcome to the council for a few years.

There's a junction near where I grew up where a mother and two children in a buggy were killed, just three of several fatalities over the past decades. Took them 20 years to finally put in a pedestrian crossing because it still wasn't seen as a priority as it was "just one of those things". It's a steep downhill bend with overhanging trees with a footpath from a playpark at the foot. Visibility non-existent for large vehicles when the trees are in leaf.