Be careful in the Peaks...

AidanR

According to the Road Safety Foundation 4 out of the 7 most dangerous roads in Britain reside in the Peak District:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10454356.stm

How many of those are motorbikes skidding out in the rain I don't know, but it's a little sobering nonetheless!

Tom Butcher

Motorcyclists seek out some of the roads in the Peak to ride like maniacs - it's not really the road that is dangerous so much as treating them like a race track.

Bunneh

Indeed Mr Butcher. There's a road that goes around the back of Rivington and the motorcyclists hit it at well over the 30mph speed limit. Some morons have changed the signs to read 80mph and it's a very narrow stretch of road. Sheep are also known to wander on the road from the nearby grazing land.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 1,,0,11.33

it's a wonderfully painful climb which ever way you go!

flet©h

If you read the report they also rated the roads excluding collisions involving motorcycles. None of the peaks scenic routes appear on that list.

From: http://www.roadsafetyfoundation.com/

Top of this year’s persistently higher risk roads is the A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton, known nationally as the Cat and Fiddle. A 50mph single carriageway, running through the Peak District National Park, the route has severe bends, steep falls from the carriageway and is edged by dry-stone walls or rock face for almost all of its length. It is popular with tourists, heavy goods vehicles and high-powered leisure motorcyclists. Fatal and serious collisions on this section have risen by 127% in the last 3 years rising from 15 in 2003-2005 to 34 in 2006-2008, with most crashes at weekends during the summer in dry, daylight conditions. Police records show that the vast majority of casualties were motorcyclists, from outside the local area, male, and with an average age of 35.

The Road Safety Foundation report also lists the UK’s top 10 highest risk roads when collisions involving motorcyclists are excluded. These are not traditionally scenic routes or tourist areas, but tend to be a combination of rural and more built-up sections, with frequent junctions, varying speed limits and used heavily by local commuters.

Much more reasuring since I ride regulalry on the A621 and A625 which were also in the original top 5.

AidanR

...unless you get taken out by a speeding biker! :shock:

Red Rock

Bunneh wrote:

Indeed Mr Butcher. There's a road that goes around the back of Rivington and the motorcyclists hit it at well over the 30mph speed limit. Some morons have changed the signs to read 80mph and it's a very narrow stretch of road. Sheep are also known to wander on the road from the nearby grazing land.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 1,,0,11.33

it's a wonderfully painful climb which ever way you go!

I was going up there a couple of weeks ago when a biker pulled a wheelie, lost control, and came straight at me. Thankfully he regained control and didn't run me down. I ride motorbikes too, and think w@nkers like that should have their bikes and driving licence taken off them.

Mike67

I see they now have big, yellow, average speed cameras on the Cat and Fiddle, the most 'dangerous road' on the list, as a 'safety measure'.

Am I right in thinking these work by reading the FRONT number plate???
As most of the accidents on that road involve motorcycles I can't see how it will make it any safer.

Still at least they'll never catch me on my pedal bike

OffTheBackAdam

I'm not unsurprised, the Cat & Fiddle is a cracking road in a good car (Memories of a Civic Type R), but you do have to remember that there are other road users & animals, bits of wall, etc.etc that occupy the road too.

Splottboy

Not the roads that are dangerous...

TWOT Motorbike and Car/Van drivers are what's dangerous.

Mike67

I suppose there's the Winter factor to consider too. I'd like to know how many accidents there are by season.

I used to commute (by car) over that road daily for around 6 years (I know I know...why didn't I move house) and didn't hang about. Drove faster on the straight/open bits and slower on the bendy/windy bits. Common sense really. I never hit anything and nothing hit me.
The only time I came close to an off was in Winter when the guy in front did a full 360 on ice and I had to try and stop on the same patch he'd just driven over The gritters had obviously missed a bit or it had been washed off.

As for the speed cameras, it's a shame we all have to drive more slowly (now 50mph limit) at any time of day, on any part of the road, quiet or not, because some people drive way too fast and fall off/over.

That's that off me chest