would you make any major changes from the current limits?
20mph around schools during school time? 30 mph otherwise? 100 mph on motorways or would you scrap them entirely? Maybe have different limit depending on the conditions - like they have in France?
Could you go faster if your car had better brakes & tires? Does it matter this would give the police an enforcement problem?
30 limits in residential areas are adequate. Maybe reduction to 20 around certain areas, however better crossing facilities for pedestrians and more "personal responsibility" on their part would be more useful than limit reductions.
Some 40/50 limits may be reviewed, some just are not needed especially if they are to feed a strategically placed speed camera. Some, of course, are justified.
Raise limits on motorways to 85mph for cars and reduce the times at which lorries can either use motorways or overtake. I.e. prevent use or overtaking at peak periods. Incentivise lorry companies to use motorways at night, e.g. lower road tax etc. Either make undertaking legal or make "middle/outside lane hogging" a 3-point penalty.
Better motorway training for new drivers, again, much more important than simple focusing on speed.
As I've 'matured' I've come to realise that, for some urban areas, 30mph is too fast and 20mph would be more appropriate, however a blanket 30 mph limit for 'built-up areas' is, in my mind too restrictive. Our nearby town is blighted by young drivers in pimped-up small cars driving around at high speeds. In response, the local authority has installed 'traffic-calming' measures (restricting the road width at intervals and installing humps) which have absolutely no effect on the antics of the said youngsters. If the Police would act against these tearaways by stopping them and explaining that unless the anti-social behaviour ceased then their vehicles would be impounded (many are not road-legal, and I'm sure there are reasons to stop them and even prosecute) then maybe some relief would ensue. Instead, I was visited and questioned for overtaking a slow-moving (15mph as she joined from a side-road) Driving-school car (I doubt that I exceeded the speed limit during this manoeuvre, and it was only in the opinion of the driving instructor that his pupil was 'startled' by my action). I suppose said instructor wanted me to follow him/her through all the subsequent width-restrictions. (I do give learner drivers appropriate consideration, but I'm not prepared to treat them as I would a funeral courtege.)
Paint a large yellow cicle onto the road wherever there is a road-traffic death. Anyone caught exceeding the speed limit over the top of such an obvious sign of danger should receive extra penalty points and fines. Speed cameras in the same location only serve to p155 people off but "driving over somebodys' grave" ought to make them think. The French have a system of sticking black cut-out shapes of dead people by the road to serve the same purpose, I believe. I've often wondered if the banning of airbags and safety belts would instil a greater deal of respect for the road. Maybe it would help if airbags were replaced with sharp metal spikes? Motorway 80, dual carriageway 60, urban 30, town centres 20 or less?
18 months in physio after a ****er hit me doing 40 in a 30 zone whilst trying to put his seatbelt on. His truck was also on the wrong side of the road.
Motorway: 80mph Dual-carriageway: 70mph or less (depending on number of junctions, bends etc) Main road: 60mph Urban areas: 30/20mph
Slight thread drift - has anyone else noticed how junction warning signs on new stretches of motorway/dual-carriageway are now at 2/3 mile and 1/3 mile rather than 1 mile and 1/2 mile? Could very easily become 1 km and 1/2 km. Call me paranoid but...
I would go for 85 or 90 mph on 3 lane motorways. Car brakes and tyres are so much better today than they were when the 70 mph limit was brought in 25 years ago (was it really that long ago?). It would also fit into the reality of how fast traffic actually moves. Not sure whether I am justified in saying what follows, but if you assume the majority of people have a strong sense of self preservation and the majority of people have exceeded the 70 mph limit on motorways, this could be due to fact they feel safe exceeding the current speed limit by 10, 15, or 20 mph, depending on the vehicle in which they are travelling.
Spikes on steering columns is an interesting idea. So in the event of a small shunt, the spike springs out and impales itself into the forehead of the driver? That'll learn him, eh?, not to drive like an idiot !
I've just watched two complete @rses drag race their tw@tmobiles at 50 or 60mph in a 30mph zone at 7:15am, straight through a point where a child was killed recently (driver was doing more than 30 but not much as I recall). I don't think the speed limit at that spot needs to be changed but a pedestrian crossing is essential and I am amazed one hasn't been installed since the accident.
Harsher penalties for flagrant and/or frequent abuse of the speed limit is a good idea and impounding and scrapping of perpetrator’s cars (complete with sound equipment!) is an excellent proposal!
Agree with reassessment of 40/50 limits, I know several that could be 60 quite reasonably. Not sure I'd want to see the Mway limit raised to as much as 100; I know most of you lot are pilots and have great reactions, but there are too many dimwitted idiots out there that shouldn't be let loose on a tricycle!
Interestingly, a minor, unclassified, otherwise unrestricted road near me has just had a 50mph limit put on it. Personally, I wouldn't dare try it at 50 mph......from a safety viewpoint, 40 is more to the point - the road is only just wide enough for two cars to pass, and has lots of bends
They've started sticking these shock messages on petrol pumps round here, something like 'two thirds of speeding deaths are on rural roads' or something similarly impossible to prove. So looks like narrow roads are in the spotlight. Probably makes sense as they are far more dangerous than dual carriageways and motorways, you only need some young boy-racer to come speeding around a corner on a lane to ruin your life. It's too easy for boy racers to afford cars nowadays, when I were a lad it was too expensive.
Speed limits will soon be enforced rigidly by average speed cameras everywhere just to cut carbon emissions. Claiming it's due to safety will soon be forgotten, they are already putting the technology in place to check our speeds over long distances on safe roads like motorways. If they get a GPS receiver in every car like they are trying it will be easier still, speed on that country lane and the ticket will be in the post. I even suppose it will be technically possible to look at the sharpness of the bend and width of the road and use that to decide a specific 'safe' speed.
Why not just do away with speed limits everywhere, also do away with speed cameras/bumps/traffic calming measures and police camera cars.
Just fit speed limiters to every car that read transponders and set the maximum speed at any location to the safe limit.
Overnight you have saved a massive amount of money but also lost a lot of revenue, sacked loads of administrators, saved thousands of hours of court time and probably saved many lives.
Oh yes I forgot, the speed freaks and Jeremy Clarkson ass sniffers wont hear a word of it (probably invoke the Uman Rite act).
Oh yes I forgot, the speed freaks and Jeremy Clarkson ass sniffers wont hear a word of it (probably invoke the Uman Rite act).
Why not while we are at it, regulate how much C02 we emitt, those that breath more pay more...... Those that breath less pay less....of course those that are dead pay nothing, that is, until they start to decompose..and then the cost goes up again.
Hmmmm how much for a transponder that knows where I am all the time?
Hmmmm how much for a transponder that knows where I am all the time?
You're probably carrying one already. Some people refer to them as mobile 'phones, but they are really electronic tagging devices that the men in black have tricked us into carrying everywhere with us.
Grumpy not-that-old man mode There is a little sh!t aged 19 who lives nearby and has just passed his test and he drives at sixty or seventy along the back roads near here in his souped up stupid wee car. There are tractors, JCBs, horses, people walking on the road, oh aye and me.
This is on very narrow country roads. There are holes in a drystone wall at a blind hairpin where people keep on going through itand he's treating it like a race track. Only speed limiter that wee git will understand is a cricket bat round the side of the head if I go down to his house and tell his mummy. Fos
Slight thread drift but important because it would improve traffic flow and avoid some people risking overtaking in the wrong place. I believe that in the USA they have a law that requires slower moving traffic,e.g. caravans, tractors etc. to pull over at the first available safe place when the build up of traffic behind gets above a certain number of vehicles. I think the number is about ten but i'm not sure. It would be a nice law to have here in the UK.
I suppose said instructor wanted me to follow him/her through all the subsequent width-restrictions. (I do give learner drivers appropriate consideration, but I'm not prepared to treat them as I would a funeral courtege.)
