Safe Speed Forums

I've started to notice that councils are abusing the use of VAS as a road safety device. They seem to be using them on any road with a new reduction or inappropriately low speed limit.

I think the benefit these have will soon be lost unless they are placed where they can actually do some good.

We need VAS to replace cameras at accident hot spots not allow unrealistic limits to be set.

I notice the ABD have realised this too

Yes they are in danger of being overused and ignored in much the same way the overhead ganty signs are on motorways. The latter are now a waste of time because they are so rarely up-to-date and accurate.

There is also another worrying point - accuracy and reading distance - unless they're accurate they become a joke - unless they're picking up cars in a set distance they also become a joke.

Or say THINK!!! WATCH YOUR SPEED!!!

err.........thanks but I would be much more happier making sure in know what the other cars are doing in relation to me.

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

Personally I think that in the correct situation they are a good idea - I'd rather have a sign say 'oi you're speeding' than get a NIP 3 weeks later...It won't and never will stop the habitual speeder, but it does remind you if you've crept over the limit. Maybe a VAS followed after a few yards by a scamera would work...

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Still driving by numbers though, isn't it?

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I don't know about the accuracy, but here in Norfolk there seem to be an awful lot that are set either at the limit or even below it! Too many of these and drivers will start to ignore them. Typical reaction on seeing one light up is to check speed. If it's limit or just under indicated, then the thought springing to most people's minds will be: 'Piss off! I'm DOING the limit!' followed by likely disregard for the next one they pass.

Too much of that and they will cease to be effective.

Did quite like this idea though (even though I am NOT a fan of cameras):


Cheers, Chris B

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Stultus est sicut stultus facit - a known fact
Stercus accidit - a truism!

new scams in surrey often follow a series of VAS.

However, the pratnerships just spin it to say - look cameras are working.

Oh, now that is snidey.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

There's a few in Warwickshire that activate regardless of speed. One warns of a crossroads, the other of a sharp bend. Not sure of the road but if you drive from Banbury to Rugby (via Southam) you will encounter them both.

There's at least one 50mph one in Oxfordshire that goes off regardless of speed.

These sort of signs are destroy the whole point as I now just ignore them, especially the one for the sharp bend as I know how fast I can take it and it's not exactly concealed either.

Lum, I don't really have a problem with these types of sign - I consider these to be an active variant of the old style side of the road furniture but more obvious. I'd hazard a guess that they are on bends which have 'caught people out' on a number of occasions despite signs and chevrons etc.

Cheers, Chris

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Stultus est sicut stultus facit - a known fact
Stercus accidit - a truism!

It would help if they were speed activated. If someone is stuck behind a tractor, the last think they need is a flashing sign yelling "OMG! slow down for the corner!"

I can appreciate that the speed at which it's activated may be a safe speed for someone in a Scooby but not someone in a Corsa, but when even the Corsa would have no problem at it's current speed then the sign loses revelance and may even increase frustration (and therefore danger of a stupid overtake) if the Corsa driver heeds the sign and slows down even further.

Seen quite a few as Lum reports - but aint these almost as bad as a scam - like the ones on a straight on the wolvey- rugby road - sometimes flash at moderate speeds and take your attention away from the 2/3 sets of crossroads - good idea if placed correctly - these could do with being placed before the x roads

I quite like the idea of those signs, not for the speed limits, but for warning of approaching bends. It may be frustrating, and you may be able to go round much quicker in your Subaru, the same way I could in my Nissan and would get away with even faster in my g/f's Mazda, but thats not the point, I'd rather someone took a bend too slow than too fast.

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The point wasn't that I find it annoying if the speed it set so slow that my Subaru gets a spurious warning, it's when it's set so low than even your archetypal pathetic car (Corsa, 2CV, Reliant Robin, whatever) gets a spurious warning.

I'd rather people take a bend at whatever speed they feel is appropriate. If the bend is misleading in appearance, then signs like "Bend Tightens" should be used, but the one in Warwickshire that I'm basing my example on is not misleading.

Oi! You leave the poor old 2CV alone! That car, even if it wasn't the fastest thing on 4 wheels, could out corner a lot - and on a road with speed bumps, nothing could catch it!

I lived in France for a time and owned one of these useful little tools. One road which I used regularly to go down to the valley was two lane, but with monster speed bumps. If I was in the other car (Renault 25) I had to drop down to around 5-10 Km/Hr to cross them. In the 'Deux Chevaux' they were best taken in excess of 50Km/Hr (yes that's right, 50). If you hit them at that speed or above, you just floated over with a 'duff-duff' sound. Any lower and you'd be sea sick. I regularly used these as good overtaking points

I know lots of people have extracted the urine over the years (Jasper Carrot for one), but it was actually a very good car for what it was designed for.

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Stultus est sicut stultus facit - a known fact
Stercus accidit - a truism!

Which was two peasants and a sack of potatoes over a plowed field...

What they can't do is stop - they are best kept to their design environment which is relatively short trips in a low speed area.

....not forgetting the requirement that they be able to wear their hat! And it was eggs, not potatoes

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Stultus est sicut stultus facit - a known fact
Stercus accidit - a truism!

2 CV - you've got to admire the nerve( and sales ability) of the french - only they would have the nerve to build something that looks like an upturned pram. And then to flog it to the Brits wholesale - a whole generation grew up in them - with long hair and sandles - what a feat

It's very spoddy, I know, but you'll almost never see THINK/WATCH YOUR SPEED on a gantry.

You'll notice that these messages do not have flashers going; this is because they are strategic campaign messages.

Tactical messages (M1 CLOSED AT J31, for example) will be accompanied by amber flashers.

Another subtle point, of which many people are unaware, is that the presence of red in a signal (i.e. a gantry-mounted lane signal) means that the aspect displayed (for example, a red X: lane closure) isn't optional; amber flashers indicate that the speed displayed is advisory.

(On a trip south the other day I saw that they had closed the M1 where it diverges from the A1M; the portal gantry for the M1 was displaying 4 red Xs in a row. I saw two cars go sailing through there, in all likelihood to be met by BiB.)