Speed Limits Lowered

[Guest]

.....When my stepdaughter and stepson were learning to drive they were both taught that speed limits were not in fact limits but were TARGETS.

Apparently when you take your test nowadays if you are in a 40 limit area you are expected to do 40 and not treat it as a maximum speed area and travel at about 37 ( the way I was taught many, many years ago......

 

Quite true Jeff, in most cases.

 

Test candidates are expected to reach 40 mph in a 40 limit, as long as traffic and conditions are not adverse.

 

It's not a very safe principle to apply universally to all roads and limits though.

 

So many narrow, winding country lanes have the blanket "National Speed Limit" of 60 mph for single carriageways, where even 50mph around some of the blind bends is risky enough.

 

If drivers were expected to do 60mph between Ludham and Potter on the A1062 for instance, it would be ludicrous, since it's not wide enough for buses or trucks to pass each other in many places. Yet 60mph is the official speed limit, all the way,  between the two villages.

[Paul]

Interestingly a 2013 FOI request relating to the average speed cameras on the A149 confirmed that the ameras were at that time out of action following an act of vandalism. The "can't afford to operate them" is difficult to understand as the operating cost of SPECS cameras is very low, hence their increasing popularity.

 

I generally support cameras along with any other sensible initiative to make our roads safer, though one or two things do irritate me. firstly is the way speed limits are set, and for this I'll use an example local to me, in our little corner of NW Leicestershire, but I'm sure this happens everywhere. The A447 is a mostly rural A road running from Coalville to Hinckley, a distance of 12.8 miles. along it's route it runs through four villages , Ravenstone, Ibstock, Nailstone and Stapleton. In Ravenstone the limit is 30mph part way where houses line the street and thre is an uncontrolled cross roads, then 40mph for a section where houses stand back from the road and there is a second, light controlled cross roads.

 

In Ibstock the limit is 30mph for the entire length of the village, including past two schools, in Nailstone the road passes the edge of the village with a crossroads with no restriction and in Stapleton the limit is 40 on the approaches then 30 through the village centre. About ten years ago the remainder of the road was restricted to 50mph due to the number of accidents reporting casualties. The total was 13 over the previous three years along the 12.8 miles. of those ....

 

7 were at or near the Ravenstone crossroads in the 40mph limit. despite listing casualties at all 7 ambulance or paramedic services only attended two.

3 were along the stretch adjacent to the schools in Ibstock though thankfully none involved children.

1 was a motorcyclist travelling at excessive speed around bad bends in the 40mph stretch approaching Stapleton

1 was a drunken driver leaving a public house alongside the road after a liquid lunch, into the path of a bus.

1 was a vehicle pulling out of the blind crossroads at Nailstone, hit by a motorcyclist travelling below the 60mph limit.

 

Local residents have long campaigned for change. Ravenstone residents want the 30 mph limit extending through the village, but despite the concentration of accidents in the 40 section no changes have been made. Ibstock residents have been asking for a 20mph limit by the schools plus a restriction on parking which causes severe visibility issues approaching the crossing, but again to no avail. The limit by the pub, in the middle of nowhere was 40mph anyway. Nailstone residents have been campaigning for improvements to the junction, or at least a viewing mirror so that cars leaving barton lane can see around a blind bend immediately to their left but agai9n, nothing can be done. Andfinally anyone with any sense knows that the bad bends approaching Stapleton should be included in the 30mph limit, especially as there is a pub car park entrance between them.

 

I don't have much of an issue with the 50mph limit being introduced but the issue remains that it has done nothing to help in the areas where the accidents that led to the change actually occurred. This was highlighted very catastrophically last autumn when a young man from Ibstock was knocked from his bicycle and killed in the 40mph section through Ravenstone. Still, Leicestershire County Council will sit back and say that they have taken steps to improve road safety on the A447.

[johnb]

Two most frightening experiences being driven in Norfolk:

 

On top of a double decker bus between West Somerton and Great Yarmouth. Despite being at night, the driver  didn't use headlights. As we rounded every bend, mostly at a greater speed than I would have wished, sure the driver wouldn't be able to see anyone coming the other way, the bus felt as though it would tip over. Maybe we just aren't used to out of city public transport.

 

 

The other time was our son, still "learning" insisting that drivers had to keep close the speed limits all the time, despite not being used to driving along country lanes. Also told to "fill the space in front" as cars moved forward. Despite my protestations both to him and his instructor, I was out of date. Two accidents later he learnt that dad wasn't as stupid as they thought. Fortunately he learned the lesson and has driven many miles for 10 yrs within further incident.

 

 

I won't tell him the average speed cameras may not be working, though!!!

[grendel]

my trick is to get on the motorway and set my cruise at 65 mph, then I settle back and enjoy the ride, I am near enough the speed limit to be comfortable, have enough extra speed to get past lorries, and lets see anyone intimidate my cruise control into going too fast by tailgating me (though people in the middle lane doing 50mph when everything else is going faster do annoy me) Cue my pulling up close behind in inside lane, then moving out across 2 lanes behind them, overtaking and then going back in 2 lanes.

Grendel

[Viking23]

Take time to think about this...

If you think that to drive safely on country lanes, ie to be able to stop in the distance you can see, and safely stop, then think again...

If the vehicle coming the other way is driving as slow as you, then when you see them, you both have to stop in that same distance, that you thought you could stop in.

So if the road is too narrow for two vehicles to pass, then a collision is inevitable, and unavoidable.

You need to be able to stop in half the distance you can see.

Now if the driver coming the other way is driving faster than you... you have even less space to stop in...

Hmmm...

On our country lanes, we assume there is a horse in the middle of the road around the next corner... as most of the time there is.

Add to that the pot holes hidden at the fringes, and freshly cut hawthorn twigs, you soon realise that country lanes are not that good after all.

[grendel]

and from personal experience watch out for tractors towing centre wheeled 30 to 40 foot trailers when they turn left and the back of the trailer swings across to block the road in front of you.

Grendel