Council workmen are currently erecting new signs at the junction of Cheap Street and Market Street to allow cyclists to turn right.

It is a well known fact that cyclists can't read road signs, so what is the point.

Thank you Tony Vickers for causing an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.

I will bet you £50 that there is STILL a cycling question at the next council meeting???

Quoted from BrianB

Council workmen are currently erecting new signs at the junction of Cheap Street and Market Street to allow cyclists to turn right.

It is a well known fact that cyclists can't read road signs, so what is the point.

Thank you Tony Vickers for causing an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.

I sometimes ignore them in my car; like on a Sunday.  Fair play to Vickers, I say.  Put-up or shut-up seems the common way these days.

I would love to know the cost of these signs and putting them up!!! A couple of thousand at least???

Quoted from BrianB

It is a well known fact that cyclists can't read road signs, so what is the point.

Good point, well made.

Just to develop it a little further, it's also pretty clear that quite a few car drivers can't read signs either - otherwise why would they keep hitting the bollards, screaming up the hill to the Tesco roundabout at 80 plus and parking in places clearly signed as being restricted.  Surely we could save hundreds of thousands locally by ditching signs aimed at motorists.  Come to think of it most people have GPSs these days so why bother with direction signs?

Also, white lines - what's the point?

I think we're onto something here.

So how is it safe for a cyclist (emerging at a slower speed and less acceleration) to turn right bit not a car??


Of course it is anti-car WBC so safety is feck all to do with it!!

I think people have just got fed up of certain people moaning at council meetings!!! Let's be honest, if you wanted to turn right before, the police were hardly likely to chase a cyclist and give you a ticket???

It's not like it's even on an approved cycle route... The Newbury & Thatcham Cycle Plan on the WBC website show that cyclists should be using Cheap St/Kings Road West, but not Cheap St and on to Bear Lane.
http://www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=13201

Surely if cyclists want to turn right at the junction they just swerve over on to the pavement and whizzed round the corner long before the actual junction.  Most cyclists I see round town use the pavements as much as the road anyway!

Can anyone confirm the cost of these signs??? West Berks wouldn't provide me with the info.

Quoted from richard.garvie

Can anyone confirm the cost of these signs??? West Berks wouldn't provide me with the info.

£72.11s.6p for the signs and  £1,000 for the person at WBC designated to answer all the Richard Garvie questions.

It would be nice to know, I can't see why they would not want to disclose the figure unless it was something obscene!!!

Quoted from richard.garvie

It would be nice to know, I can't see why they would not want to disclose the figure unless it was something obscene!!!

You obviously have a bee in your bonnet regarding our cycling councillor but really the cost of a few signs to use as ammunition against him is getting a bit over the top or am I wrong.

Quoted from richard.garvie

It would be nice to know, I can't see why they would not want to disclose the figure unless it was something obscene!!!

Signs and road markings would be supplied to the council by a sub-contractor who has competed on price for that tender....  Providing you and the world with the 'cost' of the signs may be seen as disclosing commercially sensitive info.  "How much??!!!.... My brother-in-law's mate's uncle could supply them for a fiver less than that!!" etc............ zzzzzzzzz.....

I assume that's why they haven't given you the info you're after....

Is anyone in the Council listening!!!

From Newbury Today 26th August 2010 http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/Article.aspx?articleID=14354

"West Berkshire Council could be called upon to remove unnecessary road signs which confuse motorists.
The Government is urging councils in England to cut down on road signs, railings and advertising hoardings in a bid to make streets clutter-free."

There seems to be a lot of argument on this forum about wasting public money. If it was a couple of hundred pounds used from the "vanity project fund" that is put aside each year (200k), then I guess that's alright then. However, if it was only a couple of hundred pounds, the council would have no probelm with issuing that figure, would they??? Or is this just another example of a lazy local authority that hates giving information away???

Quoted from bill b

"West Berkshire Council could be called upon to remove unnecessary road signs which confuse motorists.
The Government is urging councils in England to cut down on road signs, railings and advertising hoardings in a bid to make streets clutter-free."

My point exactly! We all know that traffic flows much more smoothly when the traffic lights break down. Road signs, traffic lights and white lines should all be abolished.  We'd all drive much more carefully, £millions would be saved and poor people who can't afford satnavs would end up in the middle of nowhere which is the best place for them. We need leaders like Richard Garvie, whoever he is, to make this happen!!!

If Tony Vickers wants anything spent on cycling, lets spend it on road safety and encouraging more people to get on their bikes, not pointless signs. The main issue for me though, is that User23 was scrutinising my call for a review of planning decisions based on the cost, yet no objections to wasting money on vanity projects such as this. Did you know that West Berks has a £250k vanity project fund??? Ok, it's 250k set aside for councillor projects each year, but most of it is spent on things like this, which maybe benefit one or two people. Where is the value???

As has quite rightly been stated, cyclists wishing to turn right on this busy corner, risking their safety, will do so without the aid of traffic signs allowing them to do so!

Road Safety....