78 replies to this topic

[Big Man]

Drive safe and within your capabilities based on experiance, training and condtions!

The speed limit is there for a reason. yes 20mph outide schools at peak times is I believe to be worthy. Dropping a perfectly "Normal" 60mph to a 40mph will no doubt cause more accidetns with more frequnet dodgy overtakes by the frustrated and inexperianced etc. How often have you been stuck behing an artic doing 40mph on a non dual carridgeway "A" road...well its doing the speed limit and it is frustrating.

I seriously as stated before doubt the ability of the police to enforce unless camers sprout up all over the place !!! In a certain county I know ...there is a large city...in the large city there is a traffic department...deployed on a regular basis covering that city...including the A1 and major routes are.......or should i say is one traffic car.

Reponse officers are too busy to sit out with "speed guns" so unless there is a serious goverment input updating legislation will be a purley academic and Neighbourhood teams will only target speeding as a result of feedback in desiganted areas from the residents...not necessarily the area where you could knock off loads of speeders at £80 a pop.

Not sure how much the Police get back form a ticket ..But think it is a very small percentage and must be used for specific purposes.....traffic enforcement etc.

on a side note....imagine NOT being able to modifiy your mini form factory spec to increase performance.....thats what there trying to do in the EU re mnotorcycels at the moment...madness utter madness.......anyone seen ghostrider !! wonder what the mini alternative would be?

rant over

[firstforward]

I disagree they will not be able to police A roads etc, just because they have difficulty now does not mean they cannot in the future, maybe near future at that. It is my understanding that a new and better type of GPS system has/is being developed that is far more accurate, works inside most buildings and when perfected can be used easily for such a purpose, we really are on the "Eve" of big brother. Do you remember some years ago the EU tried to get all classic cars limited to use within a 3 mile radius of your home. Yes it was unanimously rejected but in the interests of CO2 emissions or safety or whatever excuse they may want to dream up they could easily ban all older car so new cars have the necessary technology installed to track us.

The New GPS that I mentioned above (that does not use a GPS signal) is really going to transform what and how they will be able to track individuals easily and accurately. Cars will be on a virtual railway track, monitored and with little or no driver input except to say keying in destination. This may all be a good thing; my only concern is what amount of input will Joe public will have to reject all this if we wanted to. I guess to opt out will be at a financial cost until it’s too expensive.

[lrostoke]

Speed limits are mostly rubbish and nonsense.

On an A road the speed limit for a car is 60mph, vans over 2.5 tonne its 50 mph and hgv's over 7.5 its 40mph

I've got a 1955 Landrover, leaf springs, drum brakes probably weights close to an unladen van, yet it could legally do 60mph, yet a Merc Sprinter is stuck to 50 mph with its ABS,EBS,airbags, disc brakes all round.

I'd hazard a guess a lot of rural accidents/deaths are motorbikes, Ive got one of those to :)

[TfcIan]

I drive about 1000miles a week and the most frustrating thing in the world is people driving at 40/50 in a 60mph limit, on a straight open road on a nice sunny day. I drive for a living and being constantly held up by inconsiderate people on the roads p*ss*s me off!

I can see why people take risks to overtake as I do to, at the end of the day its not the people driving at 60 that cause accidents, its the ones driving too slowly causing tailbacks, refusing to pull over and let people by. The effect of this is causing people to get annoyed and try and over take, people trying to overtake the people following the slow vehicle with a possible collision if the cars in front don't use their mirrors before pulling out. Cars in junctions further up seeing the tailback of cars, and then pulling out in front not wanting to get caught up in the tailback.

Another pet hate...people that do 40mph on a slip road to a motorway!! Im not sure what goes through their mind, they know the slowest vehicle is going to be travelling at 50/55mph so why do 40? Its quicker to slow down to 55mph from 70 than it is speed up from 40 to 55.

With the limits being reduced this will just make things worse, along with most speedos now over reading, people will actually be driving in 40 limits at about 36mph if they go by the speedo and limits....just plain crazy!

Yes and yes! Most people think NSL on a single carriageway is 50mph or less. My dad had to go on one of the speed awareness courses and he was the only person in the room apart from the instructor who knew it was 60! There were other things he saw on that course which makes you wonder how some people passed their theory test. I think one of the things was what is the speed limit on this road, when there was a side road with a 30 sign on it. Apparently everybody said 30 when it's quite obvious that the 30 sign marks a change in speed limit from the current road.

The 40mph slip roaders really grind my gears, they could get up to 80mph before they joined the dual carriageway but stay at 40 and then when they do join it and you go to get past them, they fly off at 70! There's a NSL sign at the start of the damn slip road, that means it's NSL!

I'd bet most accidents are caused as a result of people like this, yet they're probably not the ones involved in the accident. I know the speed limits aren't a target but going ridiculously slow compared to it is just... ridiculous.

20mph zones are just stupid, I understand the ones near schools with the '20mph if lights flashing,' some kids can do stupid things and that's a lot of kids in one area, and the limits only for a few hundred metres.

I know a lot of roads which should be a lot higher speed limit than they are. We have restricted dual carriageways around by us and they're at 40mph, one of them doesn't have any houses or anything, just a bus stop halfway down it, a T-junction and a couple of roundabouts every half mile. There's no reason why it shouldn't be at least 50mph. Which of course I don't do...

Some people take speeding to an excessive level, but doing 35-40mph in a 30 zone when it's clearly safe to do so just seems like the sensible thing to do to me. It's a shame common sense is absent in parliament (I'd say these days, but has it ever been present there?).

[lrostoke]

Sort of related, I've just had a NIP come through 36 in a 30 zone at 3:20am..

I remember it well A59 I went through a speed camera, my own fault every speed camera on the A59 is 40mph , this one is 30mph I just forgot the limit for that stretch.
I'd call that more unlucky than dangerous.
But 6mph over at 3:20am empty road...no arguing with a machine

[Big Man]

I disagree they will not be able to police A roads etc, just because they have difficulty now does not mean they cannot in the future, maybe near future at that. It is my understanding that a new and better type of GPS system has/is being developed that is far more accurate, works inside most buildings and when perfected can be used easily for such a purpose, we really are on the "Eve" of big brother. Do you remember some years ago the EU tried to get all classic cars limited to use within a 3 mile radius of your home. Yes it was unanimously rejected but in the interests of CO2 emissions or safety or whatever excuse they may want to dream up they could easily ban all older car so new cars have the necessary technology installed to track us.

The New GPS that I mentioned above (that does not use a GPS signal) is really going to transform what and how they will be able to track individuals easily and accurately. Cars will be on a virtual railway track, monitored and with little or no driver input except to say keying in destination. This may all be a good thing; my only concern is what amount of input will Joe public will have to reject all this if we wanted to. I guess to opt out will be at a financial cost until it’s too expensive.

GPS to enforce speed would be the way forward (damn shame)....... however I can see in the future the Police having very little to do with Speeding despite it bringing in huge ammounts of revenue for the govermwnt (not the police) ....however in the service there are drastic cuts to be made whereby there are already five year plans showing reductions in resources and funding in all areas. Not expansion.

Cheers

BM

[Merryck]

I thought about thsi the other day when I heard it.

There are many roads near me that could do with being 40 zones. The issue isn't the fact that they aren't allowed to change the limit, it's just a massive pain in the arse! They have to put up signs all over the place (Which ruins the look of the countryside, and increases road furniture - which is proven to increase accidents) and they have to go through all the correct channels.

My way around it was simply to introduce a 'reccomended' speed. Those who are unfamiliar with the roads, and those who want to abide by the law would be able to drive at the reccomended limit, this wouldn't be a legal speed limit, but those found disobeying could be charged with driving without due care (there's another one about driving too fast for the conditions I think). That way it would still be enforecable, wouldn't require a load of beauracracy and as it's a different system would be able to be changed quite easily. (Again, nearby there's a road that has recently had a corner shaved off it. I's made it into a completely different road allowing you to see for ages instead of having a blind corner on a fast road).

If people want to speed they will, and no change in the speed limit will change that.

[firstforward]

Speed limits are mostly rubbish and nonsense.

On an A road the speed limit for a car is 60mph, vans over 2.5 tonne its 50 mph and hgv's over 7.5 its 40mph

I've got a 1955 Landrover, leaf springs, drum brakes probably weights close to an unladen van, yet it could legally do 60mph, yet a Merc Sprinter is stuck to 50 mph with its ABS,EBS,airbags, disc brakes all round.


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+1 and I have a bike.

Edited by firstforward, 17 July 2012 - 08:34 PM.

[PaddyShepherd]

The accidents are caused by bikers speeding along the road. They come over the crest of the hill too fast and slam into the back or side of someone pulling out who hasn't seen them.

I cannot understand how these accidents can be blamed on bikers. The common biker will ride no faster than the common car driver. Many of them are just as law-abiding as car drivers and obey speed limits. If the biker is speeding, then yes, chances are that if he wasn't, the accident wouldn't happen. However it is just as likely for a car to come over that crest too fast as it is for a biker, and if anything I'd say the car is less likely to be able to slow down, as many bikes have brakes much more powerful than cars.

It's not just bikers that cause problems.

[firstforward]

Well the bike I ride in my opinion has pretty much the best brakes on a bike you can get, but a bike will never out brake a car, correct me if I am wrong but I think you will find a lot of bike accidents happen at a weekend with riders that only ride weekends. I might be considered in that category and from my experience a lot ride way too fast at times including myself. That said every near miss I have had is not so much down to speeding; it’s always been in town riding where drivers or even pedestrians simply do not see me and that’s when riding at a slower speed.

[PaddyShepherd]

Well the bike I ride in my opinion has pretty much the best brakes on a bike you can get, but a bike will never out brake a car, correct me if I am wrong but I think you will find a lot of bike accidents happen at a weekend with riders that only ride weekends. I might be considered in that category and from my experience a lot ride way too fast at times including myself. That said every near miss I have had is not so much down to speeding; it’s always been in town riding where drivers or even pedestrians simply do not see me and that’s when riding at a slower speed.

A high performance bike can often outbrake a common car, and the majority of bikes that get ridden 'too quick' are high performance bikes, and yes definitely with that second point, others simply do not see bikes often enough.

[firstforward]

Sorry mate disagree on the brakes.

[Cooperman]

Well the bike I ride in my opinion has pretty much the best brakes on a bike you can get, but a bike will never out brake a car, correct me if I am wrong but I think you will find a lot of bike accidents happen at a weekend with riders that only ride weekends. I might be considered in that category and from my experience a lot ride way too fast at times including myself. That said every near miss I have had is not so much down to speeding; it’s always been in town riding where drivers or even pedestrians simply do not see me and that’s when riding at a slower speed.

A very skilled driver will tell you that you should have 'near misses' almost never as you should be anticipating the actions of other road users and be 'spatially aware' at all times.

[HARBER07]

If they lower the limits, they lower the limits. Whether I choose to ignore them or not is another matter.

[AndyMiniMad.]

I have no problems with the 20mph limits in built up residential areas..In fact I wish they were policed more..We have loads of young kids on our estate and a fairly straight, wide road that runs straight past the primary school..Ive seen young lads doing 60 or 70mph down that road at lunch times...madness..
And thats the reason the rest of us will just have to put up with the lowering of speed limits, its to expensive to police them properly and catch the nutters...so we all have to suffer..

Dont get me wrong!! im a quick driver out on the open roads, but in town and past schools and hospitals?? Never!!

Thanks to young lads in chaved up 16v corsas and saxos and the like...cheers guys!!