Safe Speed Forums

I believe the number of people killed / seriously injured on our roads went DOWN the year after the "Red Flag Act" was repealed!



For what it's worth, I WAS reasonably happy with the regulatory systems currently in force. OK, I think there are very good arguments for raising the motorway limit to come into line with the rest of Europe, and a few other bits and pieces, but the whole thing (more or less) worked AND delivered year-on-year reductions in KSIs. This was in the days when policing was done by policemen armed with a huge amount of training AND (for the most part!) discretion. You need to ask yourself WHY our accident rates have remained static since the introduction of cameras.

Coincidence?

I have a confession to make. There was a time when I used to think almost exactly like BH. When I drove in the country and came across a 50mph limit, I remember thinking that it was there for a good reason, and that anyone breaking it deserved to be penalised! However, I never believed in the 70 limit on motorways.

The concept of speed cameras and cameras monitoring traffic lights may have been worthwhile in the beginning. I can well remember how some traffic used to speed along the A4 through Chiswick at 60-70mph. That's a thing of the past now, for the most part.

But then the authorities got greedy and the Labour government, which has always seen the motorist as a milch cow or a goose to lay golden eggs for the treasury, added its blessing. The result is that we now have insanely low speed limits on major trunk roads which are often dead straight and relatively free from pedestrians, such as this stretch of the A4 at Sonning, Berks., whose speed limit has recently been reduced to 30. The yellow sign just beyond the bus stop says "new speed limit in force". We don't have one yet, but I wonder how long it will be before the obligatory speed camera shows up. Apparently, the excuses are still being worked on for that.




Well of course they are. It now takes so long to get from A to B if observing the speed limits that cars have to spend a great deal longer on the journey, so at any time, there will be many more cars on the road. This photo was taken on a Saturday morning before 10am. Perhaps I should show you what it looks like on a weekday at 8:15am because of this speed limit.