REKLAMA
So yesterday I decided to start going between Trutnov (my home town) and Ostrava thru Poland. I was so annoyed in the morning by going the classic way using our most horrible and overused national road 35 that I will try the Polish roads instead. I have to say the surface quality is amazing and the traffic was like 20 times lighter than on our "lovely" 35. I went northbound crossing borders on Czech 57 to Polish road 41 -> 41 Prudnik -> 41 Nysa -> 46 Paczkow -> 46 Klodzko -> 8 Kudowa Zdroj / Nachod. It was great. I may not saved a lot of time, because there are more highways on the south route, but I saved A LOT on gas. But back to my point.
The 46 after Zloty Stok enters mountaineous terrain with a lot of uphill climbs and downhills and then it comes to Klodzko and there is a HUGE descend to the centre of the town ending with a tight roundabout. I had a bad bad feeling about it even uninformed. When I came home in the late evening I went to the Internet and found all the shocking news, photos and videos of trucks steamrolling everything in its path and crashing thru the roundabout and into the buildings. I know the bypass would be the best solution, but politicians don't give a flying f**k. It is the same here in CZ. But I still think huge improvements could be done to improve safety there even with no bypass. And I will try to lay them out.
First of all there is a complete lack of traffic signs. There is a one sign "Kierowco sprawdz hamulce" which I understand is for driver to check the function of his brakes but you have to understand that not only that everyone might not get that, the sign is way too late. The first warning of Extremely dangerous descend (In polish, english, german and maybe in czech
) should be here https://maps.google.com/?ll=50.432545,16.712339&spn=0.001512,0.004128&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=50.432545,16.712339&panoid=BG8rEH3Sf7n0mzvrslslzg&cbp=12,307.42,,0,5.76 maybe even sooner (just before the crest of the hill that starts the first descend to village Jaszkowka).Then when you go thru Jaszkowka there is a brief uphill and after the crest there is point of no return. Here https://maps.google.com/?ll=50.436998,16.692117&spn=0.001519,0.004128&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=50.436998,16.692117&panoid=OFyv9QbTA7LiTCJ0fVja6A&cbp=12,265.86,,0,-1.4 there should be sign Mandatory 3rd gear use for vehicles above 12t again in 4 languages.
And here on the left side https://maps.google.com/?ll=50.433611,16.680561&spn=0.001519,0.004128&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=50.433611,16.680561&panoid=bmn40UVygHsaW5sZCOurKg&cbp=12,260.66,,0,-3.16 there should be and escape road with a sand pit to catch trucks with cooked brakes because that little tiny miniuphill ahead will not catch anything.
And finally (and most importantly) before the final and the most dangerous part instead of this sign https://maps.google.com/?ll=50.433369,16.675956&spn=0.001519,0.004128&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=50.433369,16.675956&panoid=wKbbW11SXEnmoRbp0ozfbw&cbp=12,260.66,,0,-3.16 there has to be a HUGE traffic sign that reads "MANDATORY 2ND GEAR USE FOR VEHICLES ABOVE 12T" (4 languages).
I think this would greatly increase safety, especially for foreign drivers, who may be not aware of the dire danger that is waiting for them. Locals should contact police and discuss these changes. I'm not sure how it works in Poland but in Czech Rep. the police has authority to change/install traffic signs.
I wish you a thousands of safe kilometers and have a great day !
