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British Village Requests Removal From GPS Maps
longacre writes "The tiny village of Barrow Gurney, England, has asked GPS map publisher Tele Atlas to remove them from the company's maps. The reason: truck drivers using GPS navigation devices are being directed to drive through the town despite the roads being too narrow for sidewalks, which has led to numerous accidents. At the root of the problem lies the fact that the navigation maps used by trucks are the same as those used by passenger cars, and they don't contain data on road width or no-truck zones. Tele Atlas says they will release truck-appropriate databases at some point, but until then they advise local governments to make use of a technology dating back to the Romans: road signs."
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Cut him some slack, he probably just had some Decepticon ass to kick.
Sounds like a great opportunity for the law enforcement officers of Barrow Gurney to make some money issuing fines.
They will take notice of a sign that says "Maximum clearance" though. :)
I like muppets.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=436983
I would expect idiots to ignore them, because the computer voice must be obeyed.
Big, giant speed bumps. Doesn't generate much revenue, but it will send a very effective message.
What?
Put up road signs. Next, enforce the laws with lengthy traffic stops for trucks and strict fines. If one causes an accident anyway, feel free to throw them in jail pending local laws and the installation of signs detailing the laws.
...for local people.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
...basically, by misdirecting trucks via GPS, the machines now have a way to kill us.
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
1. Post sign at entrance to turn off that says "trucks over X lbs subject to 500 fine"
2. Station police officer 100 yards past sign.
3. Profit!
The cake is a pie
Barrow Gurney, instead of trying to do away with this new source of traffic, adapt! Enjoy the opportunity of having all these truck divers going through your locality to develop your economy and move on to the next level!
Everyone knows a truck driver craves fornication with women. Have whores! Put some money into turning an old farm in dereliction into a brothel and import truckloads of east European prostitutes! Then build your economy around this, build hotels, fast-food restaurants, gynaecology clinics, and soon enough you'll be the city every European truck driver wants to stop in!
You just got troll'd!
Also including the size of the fine on the sign would probably do wonders
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
Trucks have gotten really bad up here in around Vancouver, Canada. Especially late at night. They pay no attention to street lights, they simply blow their horn and if your lucky you get out of the way. My father wasn't so lucky a few years back. The driver didn't even deny that he ran the red, just said he didn't see my dad. Actually my father was lucky as he wasn't seriously hurt, although that was the end of that van. Everyone I know has a story about how "they almost got killed by a big truck".
Seriously, who are you? Wikipedia?
Its fairly near to me and I agree with the residents...
It is a death trap and its not just lorries, its tourists who are getting from the west country to bristol. Its a great shortcut between two major roads, but it was not designed for the amount of traffic that gps sends through. They have seen MAJOR increases in traffic since gps became popular.
The roads are built like they are for horse and cart. They wind up and down and they are very narrow with no pavement, people do die there.
Big trucks have some horrendous blind spots, even with all the mirrors. We're (past tense now) taught to clear the lane first. But, in city traffic, things like that and following distance go out the window because everyone is in a contest to see who can be the biggest asshole. And, there is always things like road hypnosis and plain old not paying attention.
Sometimes the "No Trucks" signs get ignored because the delivery location only accessable from that route. But, yeah, I've seen plenty of drivers ignore "No Trucks" signs either because they can't turn around, don't know the road, or are just impatient. I obeyed the signs except in the first condition. The most memerable one I encountered was when a driver hauling doubles wiped out a bunch of utility lines and poles trying to drive down a little country road.
But, keep in mind, just like there are bad drivers in cars, their are bad drivers in trucks. Most know how to handle themselves, even if they sometimes have to get a little pushy, but not all.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
Make a bypass! Problem solved!
What? There's a house in the way? You say it's owned by Arthur Dent?
I'll get the byzantine paper trail started, go tell Prosser to fire up the bulldozer.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
To me, it sounds like a rare instance of authorities caring more about safety than money. Unfortunately, your attitude seems to be more common - to the point that some communities (*cough*Union City, CA*cough) have been caught deliberately and illegally causing unsafe situations in order to increase revenue from traffic violations.
Why arent' the roads big enough for sidewalks?
Because there might be houses or lots of private property in the way?
There's lots of old towns with roads so narrow that just a single car can pass; horses weren't that fat when those were built.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=+Barrow+Gurney&hl=en&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=13&om=1
Don't taze me, good buddy! 10-4
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
Just put up a sign saying "Toll Road for Trucks: XX $" and watch how truckers do a quick reverse and disappear forever.
How the heck you you expect the police to fill their tase quota without picking off a trucker or two? Sheesh people these days.
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
Here's what else can happen if you ignore those signs:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q101/djpaultimberman/maxHeadroom2.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdgAMYjYSs
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
It doesn't matter if you design the thing to block and be hit by a truck reasonably safely and not serve any other function.
At the entry roads to the village put up barriers that will block vehicles above a certain height. Most trucks are taller than normal vehicles that would fit.
Or set up a chicane designed to block vehicles which won't make it through the village.
Then put up a big traffic sign with red circle and a red slash across it with a symbol of a truck inside the circle - "No trucks". This is so you can justify the fines etc to drivers that ignore it and hit the barriers/chicane.
It's better to have the trucks stuck outside the village than inside the village - damage to stuff that's designed to take the damage, easier to clean up the mess, doesn't affect village as much, etc.
If you're lucky you might be able to place the barriers where it's much easier to tow the trucks away.
Don't be silly. We shoot and bludgeon our truckers here.
Don't be such a pansy.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
It isn't capitalised. An articulated lorry is exactly the same thing you would call a semi-trailer rig. A big-arsed steel thing with a stopping time of a fortnight and 18 wheels which really doesn't care whether you call it a truck or a lorry when some bastard pushes you in front of it. Funny thing is, most drivers call the tractor a truck when it's without its trailer. The mad sods even race the things. (WARNING: Flash video embedded right there in the front page)
Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
Hmm, not always... reminds me of a story. A truck driver underestimated the height of his trailer and promptly got stuck under a bridge. As a huge traffic jam swelled up behind, the truck driver and sheriff walked around the truck, rubbing their chins. The driver tried reversing, but got only tyre spin and fould smelling smoke. It was really stuck.
A motorist walked up and introduced himself as; "John Cooper, I helped design this bridge, maybe I can help".
Much walking around, chin rubbing and head scratching ensued, amidst the spiraling honking and abuse.
"I think we're going to have to bring in hydraulic lifts and raise the bridge slightly" Said John Cooper.
"Ungh, my boss ain't gonna like that" Said the truck driver.
Just then, a kid, riding by on his bike stopped, dismounted, took of his cap (this was before compulsory bicycle helmets), looked up and down and said...
"Why don't you let some air out of the tyres?"
I heard that as a Bill Engvall routine.
Cop pulls up and asks "Ya get yer truck stuck?"
Trucker: "Nosir, I was delivering this overpass and I ran outta gas!"
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
Except of course that it isn't. A more accurate, if less mnemonic mnemonic, would be "A pint is a pound in the US and exactly nowhere else."
Outside of the states, we know that "A pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter." Because, you know, a proper pint is 20 fl oz. Not sure why you Americans have such funny little pints.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
Tele Atlas have a complete monopoly on GPS maps, why the $£%@ cant they be FORCED to put height and weight limits on their maps by the government, on pain of having their rights to sell removed.
Its not only me, I know a load of drivers who have e-mailed tomtom and the like over the last 7 years, asking for the ability to enter the fact that I am in a vehicle 40ft long and 16 foot high and 8 foot six wide on the screen and not be sent down 7 foot wide roads with 9 foot six high bridges.
We dont do it for fun. You try reversing it when you come to the restriction.
As for the arseholes who suggest fines:
(a) For most drivers the company pays, and a lot of the rest are based in east Europe, and would not pay anyway.
(b) No driver would go there if he knew how to avoid the problem. Its not about saving money or time, its about lack of info on the alternatives - how do we know the other road is better if its not shown as better?
Teleatlas could fix the problem but won't. regulation is needed.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
One solution could be to petition the government to upgrade the highway through town or build a ring road.
Another, considerably less friendly option, is to install one helluva hairpin turn in the main road. Easy enough for a passenger vehicle to navigate at playground speed, but impossible for a transport truck.
Maybe the ideal solution is to install a toll booth system. If a vehicle exceeds a certain weight (or physical dimension), they'll need to pay at the initial toll booth. Then, install a series of toll booths along the route with a police radar of some fashion. If the vehicle exceeds the posted speed limit, they need to pay another toll in order to proceed to the next segment.
In short order, one of two things will happen. The traffic will find an alternate route around the town, or the town will have earned enough money to build their own ring road.
The reason you don't understand the problem is that you have no history, and you have too much space.
My house was old when the United States Constitution was first drafted. Am I going to tear it down to make way for trucks? No. My village also doesn't have physical space for a ring road, without some major engineering - a bloody great bridge over the sea on one side, a tunnel or a massive cutting through the hills on the other. The solution isn't demolishing half the villages of Europe to make way for trucks, it's to ban the trucks from places they can't go. And, ideally, ban trucks of this size all together.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
There once was a time when most trucks had TWO people in the cabin, the driver and the "bijrijder" (no idea what the english word his, but his job is to lend a hand). There also used to be "relaxed" schedules. Upon arrival the trucker would be directed to the kantine and be given real coffee and perhaps something to eat while his truck was loaded/unloaded.
Nowadays even trucks with frequent stops and for innercity work do NOT have a "bijrijder", an extra set of eyes, a person who can go out of the cabin and direct traffic, a person who keeps the driver awake and alert. The schedules are intense while the number of delays has only increased. Unless the loading/unloading is at a wharehouse the trucker now often has to help with the loading/unloading.
This all makes for drivers who are tired, overworked and in constant fear of their jobs being taken by whatever is the next low wage country where none of the rules apply.
All in pursuit of the almighty buck. Notice how especially trucks from companies like DHL and other delivery firms that are always pushing the limits drive incredibly unsafely. I know how the routine goes, deliver 100 packages and next day they give you 110. Deliver them, and you get 120. Traffic jam? Just work overtime, that is increasinly hard to get overtime PAY for. The odd thing is that if you look at maintenance records this practive is very bad as the trucks are pushed way too hard and this actually costs a lot of money. Plus the invevitable accidents really start to affect business.
But hey, the package has to be delivered NOW and for as little money as possible.
That is the reason many truckers are a danger on the road.
It is the same reason tech support (who are on orders to handle as many calls as possible) often just says "reboot/reinstall" and tries to hangup.
Want good service/behaviour? Stop squeezing the margins, introduce strict laws and make sure people ain't forced to push the limits just to make a living, because they won't always get it right and a rude tech support guy is bad enough but an asleep driver of a truck is another thing altogether.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Just to clarify things a little...
I've lived most of my life in the village next door to Barrow Gurney. It's barely a village, approximately 400 people... As for law enforcement, it's the local Women's Institute, frowning upon any anti-social behaviour and gossiping people to death.
I used to visit the abbattoir there regularly for fresh meat (braaaiinnns....) but since it shut down, there's no longer and point to visit. Should it disappear off the map, I'm not sure anyone else would mind (apparently including those who live there).
In regard to the actual situation in hand, I can confirm that it's a great shortcut for getting round the area "off-piste". The road section in the main part of Barrow Gurney is very, very wide and would fit several lorries in no problem. The only difficulty is that the rest of the village and all access to it is via narrow lanes (for you Americans read: tarmac'd footpaths) and can get a little hairy even in a car.
I was hoping for one of those horsedrawn ones, with those up-and-down pump handles and lots of brass. It would fit the 'Olde English Village' image too.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
Something else I neglected to mention. I work for the Safety, Standard and Research section of the Highways Agency. Responsible for technology projects with regard to the major road network in England; part of the Department for Transport.
A project has been looked at and is undergoing further discussion (into whether it's DfT's, SatNav companies' or Haulage companies' responsibility) on a separate SatNav system specifically for haulage. I.e. a system that only uses roads with sufficient capacity for lorries. Should this come about it would solve this issue and many of other villages' issues.
"Why don't you let some air out of the tyres?"
This kid did not realize it was the top of the truck that was stuck, not the bottom!For minor offenses for which they don't arrest on the spot, there's no powers of extradition so the summons is quite useless. They'll have to wait until they're caught again in the country, so in nearly all cases the paperwork is far too much so they just ignore it.
They are planning to change the system to the continental deposit method, but only for foreign nationals.
I found a copy of the original correspondence between the village and the TeleAtlas:
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This isn't Amsterdam... # is illegal in the UK.