Thursday 6 September 2007

Sat nav road to nowhere

Continental truckers are being led astray in Longendale - and locals are blaming their Sat Navs!Sixteen wheeled lorries are ending up on roads made for horses and carts as drivers follow the eye in the sky technology.And up on farm tracks with nowhere to go.There have been reports of truckers eye balling each other as they come face to face on narrow country lanes.Of lorries riding pavements to squeeze a way through.And drivers desperately trying to reverse and turn around on less than wide roads.Result? People in Mottram and Broadbottom fearing an accident!Villager Janet Gould has seen juggernauts jockeying for space after realising they are on the wrong road.She said: “Really big HGVs are going up Church Brow (Mottram), across the Mudd and coming down Gorsey Brow (Broadbottom).“I often wonder where they are trying to get too!”Janet reckons one way to beat the high tech sat navs is low tech road signs.And she’s pressing Longdendale and Hattersley District Assembly to put them up at the entrance to Mottram.Possibly with a weight restriction they could warn truckers they are on the road to nowhere.With more and more companies relying on satellite navigations for their trucks the suitation could get worse.Although British drivers are getting lost in Longdendale, it’s worse for truckers from across the Channel.They arrive in the UK, switch on the sat. nav and if journey’s end is around here, they could end up in a farm yard or drive near you.

4 comments:

Tom Hagen said...

A lot of these HGV's are fitted out with TMC (Can't remember what it means) GPS or AGPS (Assisted GPS) give out the quickest route according to submitted traffic information.

TMBC and HPBC would need to contact traffic monitoring companies, do your research TMBC and they will tell vehicles not to go down those lanes.

tonydj said...

Blind faith and reliance on technology! The same faith is shown in ID cards, DNA testing, CCTV "security" systems etc.

Meanwhile, the locals get about safely and easily without such reliance, relying on local knowledge.

There is a moral here.

Anonymous said...

Long 'D' endale

repeat 100 times.

Anonymous said...

The truckers are going up Church Brow and coming down Gorsey Brow but at least whilst going along the connecting road they'll be slowed down by the potholes.

The potholes will solve this problem, don't worry. Potholes to the rescue.

Thank God for potholes.