ban cat's eyes?

[benny hedges]

ok peeps. how do i go about kicking this off....

cats eyes in the road - or to be more precise, the slippery metal housing.

i want them removed from our roads.

im sure you must have made an overtake or turn and had a 5p/50p/5p moment when the edge of your tyre clips these infernal things?

im sure when they were introduced in 1933 they were a great idea, then in wartimes, the justification for lining our roads with them was so cars could drive with just pilot lights and not be seen by the passing luftwaffe bombers :/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_eye_(road)

these days, 99% of them are still there.... nearly all have no 'cat's eyes' in them but the metal stud remains in the road as a hazard to bikers.

especially in the rain, it only takes a little bump to make the tyre lose grip so why are these things still in use?
they serve absolutely no purpose but are still put back when roads are resurfaced.

with modern vehicle and road lighting, reflective white lining and no luftwaffe bombers, i don't see why they are still there, apart from making someone rich.

so does anyone else agree on a campaign / petition to get them removed as roads are resurfaced, in the interest of road safety?

[Wicky]

Never had a problem with em - though cats might disagree

[firestorm996]

When they are there (still with the reflectors in I mean) they are genuinely useful.

However when you thwack one with your foot, while stretching your legs at 70mph I can confirm they bloody hurt! Found this out the hard way earlier...!

[VTRDark]

I agree with you. If only they could redesign them so they are not so slippy, even if the metal was painted with paint with sand/grit in it. They could do the same with the paint for road markings. I just don't understand why they can't throw some sand in it.

I have seen a Bikers petition somewhere that has mentioned cats eyes but can't seem to find it. But while surfing I looked up the MAG site and they have a petition and want road users to report road hazards. It's worth ppping an email off to them, see what they say.

http://www.mag-uk.org/en/campaignsdetail/a6831

http://www.getagripuk.org

I never new about the reason behind them being made. Very interesting history lesson there mate.

(:-})

[seb421]

ok peeps. how do i go about kicking this off....

cats eyes in the road - or to be more precise, the slippery metal housing.

i want them removed from our roads.

im sure you must have made an overtake or turn and had a 5p/50p/5p moment when the edge of your tyre clips these infernal things?

im sure when they were introduced in 1933 they were a great idea, then in wartimes, the justification for lining our roads with them was so cars could drive with just pilot lights and not be seen by the passing luftwaffe bombers :/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_eye_(road)

these days, 99% of them are still there.... nearly all have no 'cat's eyes' in them but the metal stud remains in the road as a hazard to bikers.

especially in the rain, it only takes a little bump to make the tyre lose grip so why are these things still in use?
they serve absolutely no purpose but are still put back when roads are resurfaced.

with modern vehicle and road lighting, reflective white lining and no luftwaffe bombers, i don't see why they are still there, apart from making someone rich.

so does anyone else agree on a campaign / petition to get them removed as roads are resurfaced, in the interest of road safety?

Agree strongly I hate having to cross them say you've made an over take on a wet motorway and your crossing back into the left lane on a left sweeping bend it makes the move back into the lane longer than it does if your going round a bend to the right, when / if the wheel hits one of these its not nice feeling the bike slip on it and struggle for grip in the dry its not so much an issue but yes on a wet road I would rather it wasn't there on the motorway, I have headlights so don't need them anyway

Have you been down the A6 Blackrod bypass at night? They have gone crazy with them last year it's like a landing strip at Heathrow!

With modern technology you would think they would have been replaced with somthing less obtrusive like super hard wearing luminous / reflective type paint say every three or four white lines one of those could be special type paint if it's possible



Sent from the Bat Cave via Cup and String

[MacV2]

OK My two penneth worth.......


Firstly I think that Benny is talking about the old style proper cats eyes. Metal foot embedded in the road, with a rubber square in the middle.



I don't think these have been used for years TBH.

As for painting them with grippy paint, good idea in principle, you could get dole scroungers or community service squads to do it.

In today's health & safety culture can you imagine the cones, road closures, temporary traffic lights you'd have to put up with ?

As for hitting them on a wet motorway, well they are not cats eyes they will be reflective studs, mainly plastic I think, but don't you have enough room on a 2 or 3 lane m/way to avoid them? As it's also raining grip is reduced anyway....er... slow down.

All white lines are reflective, the gunk they use has crushed glass in it IIRC, Ok it wares out over time & is none to grippy when wet even when new. As for painting every other line in super florescent special paint, again see comments on health & safety above. Then add in the cost!!

They spend little of the huge amount of Road Tax we all pay on the bloody roads as it is....

Pot Holes anyone?

Rant over, phew I can go back to being silly now......

[lloydie]

when i over take i plan for the cats eyes .
i move in between them much safer than going over them
but if that fail i take then head on

[Kev L]

Ah Mac thats better I thought you had put your sensible head on for a minute there. Normal service has been resumed.

[Eclectic]

I used to ride a Yamaha yz100 when I was a 17 back in 99/2000 and the headlight was so bad that at night out on A roads I'd have to sh1t myself watching the turns just a hundred yards ahead in the cats eyes to know where I was going. So for that experience I say keep 'em.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

[VTRDark]

the headlight was so bad that at night out on A roads I'd have to sh1t myself watching the turns just a hundred yards ahead in the cats eyes to know where I was going.

I don't think they should get rid off them totally as they do serve that very purpose. In fact I love it when there no lighting on motorways and all you have is the cats eyes to guide. It's like playing an arcade game with only one life But they should be made safer for motorcyclists. They should also deal with the manhole covers, white/yellow paint, potholes, the list goes on....They should re design them so as old damaged ones need to be replaced, just replace with new biker safe ones.

We have roadworks everywhere at the moment anyway, so why don't they just sort the lot out in one hit. Dig a hole, fix pipes water leaks drainage etc, put biker safe drains/manholes in place, re-lay new road surface, apple biker safe road marking paint and biker safe cats eyes and while they are at it, make rubber lamposts that bend over when I hit them.

(:-})

[benny hedges]

mini solar led's would be a better option imo.

/goes off to inventing shed....

[lloydie]

mini solar led's would be a better option imo.

/goes off to inventing shed....

yes and I think they have them already .

[tony.mon]

Cat's eyes? They're the dog's bollox.

You can play slalom games when you're bored, ride in Braille listening for the kerthump, kerthump, kerthump; when it goes quiet you've gone off line.
You can decode the Morse message you get as you go along, but to be fair it's mostly just a string of letter I's. Which puts that bloody song in your head, about having been all over the world and (I, I, I) can't find my baby- one for David Cameron, I think.

They are a great test for a well set up front end, on full lean drift out onto the cat's eyes, if you get a tank slapper there's still some work to do, but if not it's set up ok.

And frankly, with the old eyesight not being what it was I need all the help I can get.

[Image]

I've never had a problem with cats eyes, yes I slip a little, but the area of it isn't large enough to bring me down or seriously effect my control. Usually just a bit of a wake-up call.

[firestorm996]

...the result of hitting a cats eye at 75mph... Boots were on their last legs anyway but this has finished them off!