Road speed limit cut to 50mph ?

Originally Posted by Nidge

And cause major tailbacks, if you have one car doing 50MPH the car behind him is doing 45MPH if you've got quite a few cars following the car at the back will be stood, this is caused on the motorway when you see the matrix signs saying 50MPH, it will cause loads of tailbacks because it's causing a knock back effect with the traffic.

If they upped the speed limit there's be no tailbacks whatsoever. Do they have tailbacks in Germany?

That's not true at all. The reverse, in fact. Tailbacks in heavy traffic, where reduced speed limits are in effect, are caused by people ignoring the reduced limits, screaming up behind someone who is obeying the reduced limit, and then slamming their brakes on. The act of sudden braking causes a feedback of heavy braking right down the line of traffic that gets progressively more severe as it goes, until eventually it brings the lane to a standstill.

Anyone who spends any amount of time on the motorways knows that the safest place to be in heavy, moving traffic is lane 1, where the truckers know a thing or two about maintaining a steady speed. Try it next time you're out, and enjoy the feeling of cruising along steadily while all the t0ssers in their BMWs and Audis pelt along in lane 3 and narrowly avoid rear-ending each other.

[rogerdraig]

Originally Posted by Derek S

In my experience the majority of fatals are usually down to a combination of drink/drugs/inexperience/showing off/grossly inappropriate cars and speed rather than speed alone.

Some roads, while technically 60MPH, shouldn't be anywhere near that speed but enforcing it without a massive expansion in cameras (which have their flaws) or some type of GPS blackbox fitted to cars (part of a pay as you drive scheme from HM Revenue and Moneygrabbing?) would be next to impossible.

If you want to seriously reduce the number of fatalities look at the whole testing/licensing of drivers. It's ludicrous that you can pass a test in a 1.2 litre punto with no experience of driving in rain, at night or on a motorway and then go out, buy a knackered old Subaru etc. and load it up with a bunch of your mates for a tear around the back roads.

Phased licensing as to the amount of passengers/power of car is the way forward as far as I'm concerned rather than a blanket dropping of speed which will be ignored by 99% of drivers anyway.

couldnt agree more staged licences for types of car and on the passenger thing it was muted a while back that new drivers shouldnt be allowed to carry unlicensed passengers for so long after passing test especially for the under 25s

i would go further and say every one should resit test every 5 or 10 years and at the very least pass a high way code test over those times.

[tweetypie/8]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/dri...cle5864847.ece

here we go again ,might as well get a tricycle and make every one happy .

THE government is to cut the national speed limit from 60mph to 50mph on most of Britain’s roads, enforced by a new generation of average speed cameras.[from the article]

i am all for it,give it a years trial and see if it has a significant effect,also the police should be seen to enforce it rigidly anything is worth a try to reduce the carnage on the roads.

The proposal is for speed restrictions on certain single carriageway roads.

In my experience the main problems with driving on such roads are :-

People wanting to overtake at all costs whether visibility or road conditions are suitable, or not.

The fact that many HGV vehicles are restricted to 40mph on such roads, which encourages the point above..

I would be in favour of restricting cars to 50mph on some roads, if the trucks were allowed to go at the same speed (conditions allowing) & a reasonable average speed could be maintained 'in convoy' ???

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Rob M

Agreed.

I went shopping yesterday, was nearly run off the road 3 times by idiots coming around corners half on my side of the road half on theirs. I got cut up twice on roundabouts by people in the wrong lane. Had to stand in front of someone's car in the carpark to stop it rolling forward and hitting other cars whilst Mrs-M-to-be went to put a tannoy call out for the driver because they'd left their handbrake off.

None of these incidents was caused by speed, they were all caused by the fact that the idiots behind the wheel should never have been given a damn driving licence in the first place.

Correct but all such incidents are less dangerous at lower speed. There's no doubt about it that speed isn't the only factor in serious accidents but equally there's no doubt that the higher the speed, the more serious any given incident will be whether due to an idiotic driver or a mechanical failure - especially if you happen to be a pedestrian who comes into conflict with a car.

Oh and yes I am a driver just in case Russ is wondering.

---------- Post added at 22:08 ---------- Previous post was at 22:04 ----------

Originally Posted by Moldova

Just another money making scheme thought up by ministers desperate to make more money penalising the motorist, the clue is in this quote

Ministers plan to use average speed cameras, which monitor speeds over distances of up to six miles

Measuring speeds over 6 miles will have fines pouring in and probably cause more shunts as cars box together on long journeys, well thought out by idiots without a clue.

It won't have any fines pouring in if drivers do what they ought to be doing and pay attention to their speed. Given that speed cameras are well signed and national limits well advertised, I'd say the real idiots are those who just can't help getting fined and racking up points!

[Jambone]

Apparently those who're ignorant enough to comment on the driving of everyone who's ever got points on their licence, has never been stuck behind 'Doris' on an empty lane...
And apparently has never been in a hurry either.


Hmm..

Originally Posted by Jambone

Apparently those who're ignorant enough to comment on the driving of everyone who's ever got points on their licence, has never been stuck behind 'Doris' on an empty lane...
And apparently has never been in a hurry either.


Hmm..

sorry, but being in an hurry is no excuse to drive like an idiot - I sympathise with the scenario of being stuck behind a slow driver, but that shouldn't affect what constitutes safe driving on a single carriageway with limited visibility ??

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by homealone

The fact that many HGV vehicles are restricted to 40mph on such roads, which encourages the point above..

I would be in favour of restricting cars to 50mph on some roads, if the trucks were allowed to go at the same speed (conditions allowing) & a reasonable average speed could be maintained 'in convoy' ???

Mmmm, started reading this thread, lost the plot half way through with all the to me to you points of view.

Yours though mate ring soooooooooooo true, it's not the speed limit but the lack of for certain vehicle types that causes problems such as tail backs on minor roads, lets not forget that most of the limits in place today were set 40 plus years ago, it's time the government got it's act together, stopped targeting the motorist for easy fines and got the roads up to scratch.

[rogerdraig]

Originally Posted by Osem

Correct but all such incidents are less dangerous at lower speed. There's no doubt about it that speed isn't the only factor in serious accidents but equally there's no doubt that the higher the speed, the more serious any given incident will be whether due to an idiotic driver or a mechanical failure - especially if you happen to be a pedestrian who comes into conflict with a car.

Oh and yes I am a driver just in case Russ is wondering.

---------- Post added at 22:08 ---------- Previous post was at 22:04 ----------



It won't have any fines pouring in if drivers do what they ought to be doing and pay attention to their speed. Given that speed cameras are well signed and national limits well advertised, I'd say the real idiots are those who just can't help getting fined and racking up points!

50 limit wont save lives on those roads

100mph head on crash will be little diferent to 120 mph head on crash

the only difference will be fine revenue

if they want to reduce accidents on these roads then altering the layout in rural areas would be the way to go

there is no real reason why most blind bends which are mostly part of a road snaking through very old boundaries being straightened out

in recent news several of the deaths have been caused by hidden dips these to could easily be removed by filling in or cutting down the hight of parts of road

any attempt to say there is no money for this is laughable with the amount they spend on installing road humps and traffic islands which serve no purpose other than to pacify the anti speed alliance and are totally ineffective at doing the job could be used instead for making roads safe ( i know it would take time )

as to cameras being well signed i beg to differ plus the police still love thier hidden vans on perfectly straight roads in many areas

Originally Posted by bopdude

Mmmm, started reading this thread, lost the plot half way through with all the to me to you points of view.

Yours though mate ring soooooooooooo true, it's not the speed limit but the lack of for certain vehicle types that causes problems such as tail backs on minor roads, lets not forget that most of the limits in place today were set 40 plus years ago, it's time the government got it's act together, stopped targeting the motorist for easy fines and got the roads up to scratch.

cheers bop - I'm driving at least 2,000 miles per month, recently, I totally agree that measures to help motorists, rather than hindering them would be preferable.

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by homealone

cheers bop - I'm driving at least 2,000 miles per month, recently, I totally agree that measures to help motorists, rather than hindering them would be preferable.

Ouch mate, feel for ya, not missing my average 2000 per week since i went self employed.
I count myself as a reasonable / good all round driver, I check all mirrors constantly, look ahead, left and right, I know who's where and when, in case of. This said, you can't foresee the dicks of the road.
One of my big moans isn't speeders but those who don't go fast enough on any given stretch ) those that do 40ish on the M1 for example............ far more dangerous IMHO

Originally Posted by bopdude

Ouch mate, feel for ya, not missing my average 2000 per week since i went self employed.
I count myself as a reasonable / good all round driver, I check all mirrors constantly, look ahead, left and right, I know who's where and when, in case of. This said, you can't foresee the dicks of the road.
One of my big moans isn't speeders but those who don't go fast enough on any given stretch ) those that do 40ish on the M1 for example............ far more dangerous IMHO

so true - on the single carriageways I hate people who go fast on the straight bits, then slow down drastically for bends or when anyone is coming the other way...

[rogerdraig]

my favourites are the ones who do 40ish through the lanes ( where i would be doing 60 most of the time holding me up ( i rarely overtake unless its really safe ) then do the same 40ish through the 30 areas where i do do 30

Originally Posted by joglynne

A bit off topic but when I was taking an advanced driving course the Police driving instructor used to describe these pedestrians and vehicle using idiots as "Accidents looking for somewhere to happen."

I do wonder whether the whole lot of them are all totally oblivious of the danger they put themselves and others in to.

Funny you should say that, when I was taking my PSV test last year the examiner was an Ex Police officer traffic department, he said exactly the same thing as your instructor, he said 80% of accidents are caused by pedestrians / cyclists not looking what they are doing.

[Angua]

Not teaching learners to drive safely at speed is probably a major factor in the accidents where speed is the cause. At least in Germany they are very fierce in preventing accidents in built up areas and let drivers drive out on the open road and allow them to actually experience driving at speed (100mph +) whilst they are learning.

Speeding does not equal bad driving otherwise the police would be in trouble for starters.

Silly situations where you have a 30mph limit followed by national speed limit then a 40mph limit in the space of a 1000 metres should be sorted out before blanket speed limits of 50mph and average speed cameras are installed.

What is to stop someone hurtling along at 50 mph through an average camera in town then slowing to a crawl for the exit camera (all this without normal traffic jams slowing them up anyway)? Brilliant traffic management it is not!