Does Speed Kill?

  

Does Speed Kill?

(This post is featured in Surveyor Magazine - December 2013 edition)

We must decrease speed and make everyone safer. To do this designers are putting in vertical and horizontal realignments on existing roads. Speed limits are being reduced. Police cameras are being erected and mobile units despatched to stop this huge menace.

Except. That is not quite correct is it?

The amount of deaths on our roads is no longer decreasing substantially, and yet safer routes are being implemented every week. So what is going wrong?

Nothing in that sense, but everything in another.

We have bottomed out as a nation as far as casualties are concerned on the highway. In other words, you will never get zero deaths on the roads. It’s not possible. Stupidity, bad driving, lack of concentration, bad luck, weather, faulty mechanics – all these are random acts and are impossible to design out.

So should we stop trying to make our roads safer? No. However we’re going about it in the wrong way.

For starters I am not anti-camera, but I am anti-cameras being placed in the wrong locations.

It is a fact that mobile speed cameras and static speed cameras are placed to help reduce speeds, but they are not placed in the locations where they are needed for safety. Have you ever seen them outside schools or sports arenas? Or, outside hospitals or elderly residents housing complexes? NO. 

This is because camera units have to be self funding. If they were placed where they would be effective in deterring stupid driving, they wouldn’t generate income. So they are placed in areas where speeds are high, and this tends to be where speed limits are being broken. However, the public is not stupid. Many authorities are turning perfectly good 50mph or 40mph designed roads into 30mph roads. This is where the cameras are stationed. 

The natural speed of a road is not the limit, but the design speed curves, widths, verges and locations. A semi-urban 5m wide lane dual carriageway should never be 30mph, yet councils are reducing these speeds due to a problematic junction or roundabout further up the route. Their thinking is if the approach speed is reduced, then the accidents will reduce. However, my studies have concluded these types of accidents are due to low speed hesitations and mis-timings. Nothing to do with speed, but confidence - lack of, or too much of.

I have looked at hundreds of accident statistics over the years. Less than 1% of these accidents is due to speed alone. Most are non-concentration, carelessness, weather, drink/drugs or non-driver faults (i.e. pedestrian’s fault - very common). Yet there is a common belief that the road must be realigned and the speed reduced, as that is the only answer. This not only misses the point but means the majority of users on that road get a road which is slower for no apparent reason, and so naturally drivers drive to the design speed. I will mention this a lot, but designers must design to the natural speed and desire line of vehicles. 

Too many are designing to force drivers to follow white lines and speed limits that are clearly wrong. I will cover this in my next column.

The problem with reducing semi-urban road limits to 30mph, is that ‘genuine’ 30mph roads such as those in a built up location, means there is no formal reduction in a speed limit. 

As you can see in the pictures (above), why should both of these roads be 30mph? 

Drivers will clearly see a lack of danger in the semi-urban route. 

In fact we all know driving at 30mph past a school at 9am is more dangerous than driving at 90mph on a motorway. 

Not that you’ll find a speed camera outside a school, but you’ll find a camera over the M4 near Chippenham!

Find The Engineer

www.findtheengineer.com

0845 021 2468

New Group Structure

New Group Structure

Find The Engineer is proud to announce it has been merged into First National Recruitment Group Ltd.

Along with Sister companies and brands We Are Recruitment, Cotterell & Gifford and First National Recruitment we can offer a complete package of expertise to any market sector in the UK, Europe and abroad.

Call 0845 021 2-4-6-8 

for more details on what we can offer you, or visit

www.findingtheengineer.com

www.cotterell-gifford.com

www.wearerecruitment.com

Rest & Relaxation

Rest & Relaxation

So everyone in the Engineering sector had a nice break over the festive period? Well I suppose most consultants did, and those in the public sector, but a fair few engineers and technicians worked harder over Christmas keeping roads clear, drains unblocked, electricity running and Santa’s sleigh oiled and squeak free! 

For the rest of the population it was a time to eat, drink and enjoy. That is often done at a nice restaurant or hotel over the festive period. So do we spare a thought for all the cooks, waitresses, maitre d’s and bar tenders’? I never did until now.

Find The Engineer recently acquired the company Better Recruitment, which specialises in hospitality and catering staff, both permanent and temporary. This was incorporated into our We Are Recruitment brand. Well when acquiring the business we did not think too much about the time of year. Most times when putting engineers into careers or payrolling contract engineers, Christmas is a time when the timesheets are scarce and the panic of payments for all engineers on a Friday are eased. However for hospitality and catering staff on a contract this time of year was the busiest, and boy did we know it.

The payroll and collating the timesheets was not a problem, the main problem was the rota that the staff were on. The timesheets would arrive at any time of the day and night, the staff had trouble getting timesheets and contracts signed by shift managers too. Our problem also, was that the banks were shut and so money transfers had to be planned in advance, which meant a lot of educated guessing on how many hours a person may do over the holidays. You cannot afford to underpay a contractor, but you cannot afford to overpay them. Literally. Wow! What a learning curve.

So time for a rest in January. No not really. This is the time that that strange phenomenon occurs whereby the government expects all its agencies and local authorities to spend all their money before the end of March or risk losing funding the following financial year. 

This means we have already been inundated with calls from clients asking for short term contractors with a lot of experience to help finish designs and schemes and help get them built. Luckily so far, we have many good engineers on our books, and as we know them all personally, it is easy for us to put the right ones with the right clients. This is a very busy time of year for us, whilst the hospitality industry has slowed a little giving us breathing space in that area. 

But wait, under our We Are Recruitment brand, we supply teachers too, and now the new term has started and a lot of teachers are ill and schools need temps quickly!! All hands to the pumps! I’m looking forward to a summer holiday if I have the time to have one! 

Happy new year!

Call us on 0845 021 2-4-6-8

www.findtheengineer.com

Great British Engineering

Great British Engineering

In the last blog I stated I would talk about great British engineering projects currently ongoing. 

I had lots of people recommending products and schemes to me. It is a really good feeling to know that the UK does still manufacture and create things. A different story to what we hear and see in the media. 

It was really difficult to narrow down the three I wanted to discuss, and of course I have to mention the Olympics; a good showroom of engineering achievements. 

As this is was originally for TEC magazine, it wouldn’t make sense to mention non-traffic related schemes, so in reverse order my top 3 exciting engineering projects are: 

Trampower’s new green and commercially viable tram and rail set up. 

Based in the northwest, Trampower have developed a tram that is half the weight of the trams in current use and the rails can be installed with minimal foundation and construction effort. 

The reason this project is exciting, is that Trampower uses existing technology and parts and utilises them to create an amazingly good looking and truly green system. Small towns will hopefully realise they can afford this system in their urban landscape. 

No 2 is the Brompton bike. 

Yes its engineering, look at the folding parts, and the beautiful design, and it can be put on a bus or train and used on our roads safely. The Brompton has been around for a while, but only recently it is an export champion. This British bike is selling well outside the UK, and people should pay more attention to its engineered brilliance. 

At first glance it looks like a child’s bike wheels have been fixed to a scaffold frame, but its genius is in its lightweight and how it folds up ridiculously small. Made in UK too, and used on British highways, though not by enough people in my opinion. 

Lastly, and this engineering encompasses everything about British engineering in my eyes. 

A car that involves truly mad but genius engineers, a truly mad, creative leader, built in a shed (literally), and has ridiculous but cool written all over it. 

Yes, I present the Bloodhound SSC project. It really is built in a shed on one of Bristol’s quaysides, it’s made from parts donated by British companies, it is being used to showcase engineering to schools and colleges, and it really is a car (with an F1 engine and rocket strapped on mind) that is going to go 1000mph in South Africa to break the land-speed record. 

What I really love about this project is that Richard Noble who headed the past project that broke the record is doing this to break his own one! Madness. 

But fantastic engineering and creativity all in one um… shed!

        

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www.findtheengineer.com

Institutional Failure

Institutional Failure

In the last blog I mentioned how there are more technical vacancies than engineers to fill them in the UK. 

So why is this? 

The first reason a lot of people give me is that not enough people are coming through the colleges and universities with engineering qualifications, and this is correct. 

However more people are leaving the engineering field at the beginning of their career and also leaving early towards the end of their career rather than not going for a career in engineering in the first place. As an industry the whole engineering sector including colleges, employers, developers, governments, local councils, recruitment companies and institutions need to focus on the real reasons why there is a shortage. 

There is not just one answer. 

Many women I’ve known in the engineering sector have left as they felt it was chauvinistic. Having witnessed this I can’t deny engineering has a male dominated ‘old boys’ feel in some cases. Women are also not promoted or paid as well as men. 

Unlike I.T, leisure or retail industries, engineering is not seen as ‘hip’ enough for teenagers to consider it as a career. 

I didn’t, I was never cool at school, but really wanted to look for something cool for a career, I just fell into engineering by being naturally good at numbers, designing and problem solving. Something I and other business owners have to do every day. 

Engineering Institutions traditionally represent the engineering employer and employee. There role was, and still is to lobby government, academies and engineering sectors in improving working practices, standards and  qualifications. However, today that is not enough. Institutions need to work closely with colleges, universities and employers in encouraging people into the industry, and work even harder to keep them there. 

Another role institutions need to do is liaise more with recruitment companies to promote the commercial sides of the sectors. Engineers need to know about commercial practices. Recruitment companies need to do a lot more in working with colleges and universities to encourage graduates to take roles in engineering. 

Even more than that, institutions have to be going into schools at an early stage and make pupils excited about engineering. To make people excited about engineering institutions, government, recruitment companies and academies need to stop thinking of engineering as just road building, metal shaping, telephone fixing and boring (in both senses). 

Engineering involves rockets, inventions, technologies, nature, practical science and much more. Institutions must modernise fast, change their working practices, keep up with the technology and discoveries of tomorrow, then start preaching to convert. 

My next blog will discuss the exciting engineering projects being undertaken in the UK this year.

Call us on 0845 021 2-4-68

www.findtheengineer.com

It's All Doom & Gloom

It’s All Doom And Gloom

Recession? Recession? We’re apparently in the second part of a double dip recession and the doom mongers are shouting again!

This is not just a recession, but the worst ever apparently. You could say not just a recession but an M&S recession. With M&S’s projected profits down by 1%, Clinton Cards toppling over and Greece all over the floor. Greece is no longer the word! 

Public sector staff have been on strike annoyed with having a pay freeze whilst the private sector quietly suffers pay reductions. Cuts, cuts and more cuts in everything, and banks are not lending, with mortgages almost impossible to get.

Let’s look at the recession in another way. A recession is a natural occurrence of free trade. Things that go up, must come down. So, there are no cuts, there are savings being made due to overspending. Mortgages are difficult to get as banks are stopping people spending what they can’t afford. 

A recession is a way of clearing dead wood and spring cleaning the financial dirt away. So from another view, M&S may have set their targets too high in the first instance. 

Do we really expect Clinton Cards to never close shops when the online ‘design-a-card’ industry is flourishing? Will no one ever go to Greece again on holiday and spend money there? In reality, public spending is up compared to 3 years ago, salaries are rising now by 1% and there are more vacancies than unemployed in the UK.

Wow! That last statement seems strange. However, as a recruitment company specialising in engineering jobs, we have more vacancies than we can shake a stick at. Good hourly rates, great salaries, great benefits and the jobs are real career progressors. 

The problem is all the vacancies are for qualified and skilled specialisms. And that is where the gap is. There are not enough qualified engineers and technicians out there to fill the gaps. Many councils are filling the gaps as they have to get projects completed. 

However they are often filling them with under qualified personnel. They have no choice. Private organisations cannot do this as they need to achieve profits so they cannot spend large sums on training, so they suffer with the shortage.

The answer is that if councils and private companies offered better rates and salaries then the vacancies would be filled. Right?

But we are in a recession, a time for clearing out the chaff. Put up salaries to fill that gap and prices go up, leading to excessive spending. In the short term this would benefit the economy, but maybe a spring clean would be round the corner sooner rather than later.

                                               Call us today on 0845 021 2-4-6-8

www.findtheengineer.com

Find The Engineer launched now

Always filling vacancies. Engineering Recruitment specialists. Find The Engineer was Co-Founded by Nick Brown & Mark Ralph who's aim has always been to provide the very highest level of customer service, offering specialist recruitment excellence in Engineering across the UK. Find The Engineer have filled vacancies within an hour, the company have matched the right engineers to the right employers every time.

The owners are passionate about providing the best service they can.

Nick Brown MREC MIRP

Nick is well known and trusted as one of the best recruitment professionals in the industry. He has an unrivalled knowledge of top professionals and boasts over 10 years of Civil & Structural Recruitment experience. Formally a Commando with HM Forces, Nick has worked in the most extreme of environments and his focus, dedication and determination in life has helped with the rapid growth and expansion that we have recently experienced.

Mark Ralph BSc MIoD MIHE

Mark is actively engaged in research & business development for the company. He takes an active role in all aspects of the business to ensure continued growth from customer recommendations and as an Engineer himself with over 15 years of working with Local Authorities and Engineering Consultancies his input and client knowledge is second to none.

Find The Engineer Profile

Being fast at filling vacancies. Engineering recruitment at its best. Find The Engineer are experts in providing Permanent, Temporary and Contract positions and with over 10 years of recruitment excellence across the UK with offices in Bristol, Slough, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Abu Dhabi to aid with our expanding Middle Eastern Client base.

They offer recruitment expertise to the Civil Engineering, Drainage, Highways, Buildings, I.t, M&E, Environmental, Marine, Infrastructure, Structural Engineering, Traffic & Transportation disciplines.

Find The Engineer Recruitment was part of the Traffic Solutions group of companies, known as Traffic Solutions (Recruitment). Due to rapid expansion and a wider client base outside the traffic industry it was decided that the company needed to broaden its appeal with a name that reflected its role in providing work for any engineer. Still closely associated with the team at Traffic Solutions, Find The Engineer Recruitment continues to carry the same care and attention to its clients and work today.

Disciplines

They cover all aspects of engineering recruitment from civil, structural and rail to I.T, M&E and Electronic.

Disciplines covered are:

• Civil
• Structural
• I.T
• Highways
• Construction
• Traffic & Transport
• M&E
• Electronic/Electrical
• Drainage
• Rail
• Residential
• Maintenance
• AutoCAD/MX
• Consultants
• Site supervisors