Treadly and Me

How would you like to come across this in your bike lane?

Now try it without any prior warning. And in the dark.

This is in Malvern Road, East Malvern, and that's exactly the conditions under which I encountered this road hazard last night.
[By the way, I do mean that I came across this in pitch dark. When I took these photos tonight, it was still .]

Here's another view, from the other side:

You can see that it's a substantial ditch by how much of the concrete access pit that's exposed. But in case you're having trouble (and without wanting to labour the point) here's a close-up:

What is wrong with this?

I can think of at least three things.

Firstly, a hole in the road surface like that should never be left unfilled. Even temporarily filled with packed gravel it would be considerably less dangerous.

Secondly, if this hole had been a metre further out into the road—over there where the cars drive—there is absolutely no way it would have been left unfilled. But clearly whoever put this hole here didn't think that it was important enough to fill in properly, presumably because it's just the bloody bike lane.

Thirdly—and most obviously—just one damn orange cone? What kind of traffic management is that? Again, if such a traffic hazard were located where the cars drive, you can bet your gonads that there would be more than just a single bloody witch's hat marking the spot! At the very least there would be a couple of advance warning signs, and one or two of those tall portable bollards would probably be part of the setup too.

Why then is it adequate to mark a serious traffic hazard with one single cone—which could so easily be stolen by some prankster—simply because the hazard is in the bike lane?

Quite frankly, whoever put this hole in the road has completely failed in their duty of care.

If someone hasn't already been hurt at this spot, it won't be long before it happens.

I sincerely hope I'm not the only one who's complained about this.

Yep, that's the same spot 24-hours later. In fact, MLSP passed by at about 9.30 this morning and reports that it was fixed by then.

Well, maybe it was my complaint that got it done but probably it wasn't. Regardless, I'm very pleased that it has been fixed. It's just a shame that it needed fixing at all.