Ajax

Speeding on the roads will be socially unacceptable as drinking and driving.
Best we make sure the speed limits are expectable and applicable.

What does the 50mph speed limit do, lets get that one sorted
If it needs to be 40 make it so, otherwise it should be 60

I spend all my time just sorting out what the speed limits are
------------------------------------------------------------------------
We want 20 40 70 and 80 on motorways only and put them where they will do the most good and save live.

Whats your view???

Adrian F

Justify these speeds as non of them make sense unless you can prove the logic for them. Why 80 on motorway why not 100 or 40? why 20 why not 10 or 30.

greg.g

I have noticed a trend just recently to drop the national speed limit
from 60 down to 40 or 30 between some villages on A roads.
Now i can see the logic in slowing down through inhabited areas,
but on leaving these villages, the speed limit remains untill you
are through the next village 2 or 3 miles down the road.
If this trend continues, in a few years time, we will have a blanket 30 to 40 limit

Greg

Ajax

Adrian F:
If you propose this, you tell me how it should work.
Or are we saying no speed limits anywhere.

IF SO YOU WON’T GET ANYWARE COMPAINING FOR THAT!

If you want to eat an elephant do it in small bites, think about it.
3 road speed limits is better that what we have now, lets agree on something

Ajax

.

[Edited by Ajax - 5/26/2003 11:10:59 PM]

Ajax

greg.g:
well spotted, blame the councils, not the polce.

they set the limit, for us

Ajax

Thought we were gone sort this out, come on any ideas????

dave_gt

The biggest difficulty in strictly policing speed limits is applying correct limits in the first place. Indeed these limits will differ in various weather and traffic conditions not to mention the skill of the driver. On a particular road a top driver in say a Porsche 911 may be safe at 100mph where I would be safe at 80mph in a Primera. Thats why I prefer the old method of police discretion.

Mrx

Motorways or Dual carridgeways didn't have speed limits in my young days This mean;t there was a place to go fast ( none populated areas ) and placed where you were a danger to others 30 zone schools etc,
But now you have nowhere to put your foot down unlike Germany
Revenue MONEy is the king now if you go fast wether its safe to do so or not you make up the Quota issued to our traffic police.
Take speed limits off motorways it might stop people hogging the outside lane ;- Quote I am doing 70 so I am staying here unquote.
Just me opinion

dba

speed limits should be variable,like the weather,and the traffic flow and the time of day

Blobster

The French have a system where the speed limit on dual carriageways is lower for poor weather and higher for good conditions.
Makes sense to me.

NotoriousREV

It's not as easy as giving blanket speed limits, each road needs to be analysed on it's own merits, but it needs to be done properly.

Shining example:

The village I used to live in had a major A-road running through it. 75% of the houses were on one side of the road, the local shop and post office on the other,no pedestrian crossing. Local population mainly elderly, also a fair few kids. This road was a national speed limit and a couple of people were killed each year. So a local campaign was started for the road to become a 30mph limit through the main part of the village. Apparently there is (or was) some rule about a new speed limit can only be applied if 80% of the traffic travels within the speed limit proposed (why? If 80% of the traffic only did 30, we wouldn't be campaigning for a reduced limit [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] ).

Anyway, following a couple more deaths, we were eventually awarded a 40 limit for our troubles.

Fast forward 10 years, 2 miles up the road from the village on the same main road they have recently introduced a 30 limit where there are no houses and no building of any kind fronting on to the main road, and no junctions other than at roundabouts. At one end of this stretch of road is the village I lived in (with 40 limit) at the other end is another village (40 limit) so the net result is that you are allowed to speed up for the residential areas but must slow down for the unpopulated bit. Makes no bloody sense to me.

Another thing that makes my blood boil is the introduction of a chicane near my house. The main road that my estate is off is a 30 limit and is very twisty (I live in a New Town and the roads were built this way to maximise housing land and reduce speed). On one side of the road is a railway station, on the other is my estate so you get a fair few pedestrians etc. crossing when a train comes in. But of course, rather than being able to concentrate on whether there are pedestrians about, you have to look at the chicane and see if you have right of way over any other vehicle, taking into account the 4 junctions that are housed within the chicane, plus taxis stopping for fares. Downright bloody dangerous.

Davestamf

We are a very long way from speeding being regarded as unacceptable. Only a couple of weeks ago, a post appeared on this forum expressing anxiety that he may have jeopardized his licence having been clocked at 74mph in a 30mph zone. Without exception, the many responses declared sympathy, wishing him good luck. Separating this type of reckless driving from the Gatso stories is important, and I have no wish to express support to someone who thinks it's annoying to have been caught out at such an extremely excessive speed. I live in a 30mph street. My children cross the road where someone can do this. The fact that every reply was siding with the offender baffles me.

Leslie

I think you have taken the example out of context Davestamf. I understood that the guy was told he was in a 30 mph zone when in fact it was subject to the national speed limit and was not a populated area. I doubt that he would get much support for doing 74 in a 30 area.

Les

Ajax

Thanks for all your replies
I see a lot of complaining

BUT WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT

Any I Ideas, on how to put things right?


[Edited by Ajax - 5/27/2003 7:16:06 PM]

NotoriousREV

Ajax,

Voting for a different Government is a good start.

Ajax

Yep: the Torys will sort it out................

William Hague in a Scooby, I think NOT

Ajax

Thanks for the replys so far::::

Tell me this then:
What bad habits are coming out of every body being s$!t scared of going over the speed limit

My Favourites:

1. Drivers can’t wait to pull out of side roads, blocking the on coming traffic to pull out behind you, only to find them self’s caught in the middle of the road by oncoming traffic, because you are seemingly driving to slowly.

2. You slow down for the speed cameras and they overtake you.

3. The smile of Focus drivers as the burn past you as you obey the speed limit



Oh and the another one

Nobody knowing the speed, so they do 30MPH through every speed camera
(Least this one gives you the chance to out exhilarate them up to the 60MPH limit)

Then they over take you

Anymore ???????????????????????????????

tiggers

OK then - here's what I think!

I spend quite a lot of my time working in America mainly in Arizona and Nevada and have spent a not inconsiderable amount of time on the roads out there as well as being a pedestrian on the sidewalk (or pavement to you).

I have noticed several things that are very different to the way we behave.

Firstly pedestrians only cross the road at designated crossing points partly because jaywalking is illegal and partly because it's sensible to try and cross roads where a ton of metal isn't liable to plough into you ;-)

Speeding although a problem is nowhere near the levels it is in the UK and most speeding is only a few mph above the limit. Having said that when the roads are in the middle of nowhere with no chance of pedestrians people do tend to go a little faster than the limit - hehehe! It also seems to me that when a limit in the US is plainly stupid everyone ignores it (such as the 45mph limit on the 51 in Phoenix last month - ten miles of limit - 4 people working!!!)

So I got to thinking why this works in the US and I came up with several reasons. Less traffic and better organised road systems were the easy ones, but the key for me was that most drivers seemed to inherently want to obey the limits where there was a risk to other road users and pedestrians, but could also clearly understand when the limits could be bent a little. From what I've seen the police take the same line (well on the whole anyway).

So here is my proposal:-

The limits here in the UK are clearly antiquated dating back to times when cars were less safe, but there were also less cars on the road and less people in the country. To me some urban roads are now more dangerous due to these factors whereas it is also obvious to me that empty country roads and motorways are a lot safer due to the advances in car design.

So what I think would be best would be to lower the 30 limits in built up urban areas (e.g. outside schools, densely populated residential areas etc.), but as a compensation raise the limit on the motorways and some of the better A roads.

I would like to see 20mph limits for the former and 100mph limits for the latter (well on the motorways anyway). I think drivers would happily live with the trade off between the two. Additionally though and I think this would be important to the success of the 100mph limit being introduced the policing of the motorways should change.

The police should shift their emphasis from speeding to lane discipline and tailgating etc. - they should basically be able to and in fact be encouraged to pull people over for bad driving regardless of their speed. It would take time, but people would eventually remember what they read in the highway code about the motorway lanes and braking distances etc.

Well these would be my proposals, but I'm damned if I know how to make anyone in authority listen and anyway maybe I'm wrong and everyone here will just shout at me now. Oh well ...

Regards,

tiggers.

john_s

iTrader: (1)

I agree, though until they can tax these remotely by camera, there will be no movement towards this

John.

MooseRacer

un-fecking-believable......http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/2937910.stm