Safe Speed Forums

So there I was, this evening, returning from Scotland down a beautiful, and lightly trafficked M74. And a beautiful, clear, dry evening it was too!

Soon, I saw one of those new matrix display signs that displayed the message: "Drive according to the conditions".

"sound advice!", I thought... so I did.

About 20 miles further on, I passed a second sign displaying the message "Thank you for driving safely".

"Well", I thought, "it's nice to get a pat on the head once in a while"!

So, imagine my surprise, (and confusion, fellow forumites!) when, about 20 miles further on again, I passed under a third one saying "know the limit, stay within it".

I think it's very misleading and confusing to, one minute, exhort motorists to drive according to the conditions, and the next, exhort them to stay within the speed limit! I mean, I could have been prosecuted for following the sage advice on the first sign!

....and yesterday's "prize" message, was a distracting message displayed on one of those overhead gantries, saying something along the lines of "Don't be distracted from your driving"!

Here’s a stupid and obvious one which, sadly, we need in this country!!!

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

What drives the Road Industry to believe that all road users need this mass of 'control'?
The desire to implement every conceivable message no matter how pointless or unnecessary?

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

You know, I was only thinking that myself today as I was driving along the A5. At a certain cross roads, there is a "slow down" flashing light, which sems to flash no matter what speed you are travelling and as you probably know, the A5 is straight with pretty good visibility and although there have been accidents on this cross roads, in the past, you would have to be pretty short sighted not to be able to see approaching traffic for several hundred yards.

So if we need flashing signs, put up by "the ones that know best", warning us that we are approaching a cross roads on a main road, that might have short sighted people pulling out on us, what happens when we approach a cross roads with no flashing sign (which must be 99.99% of the ones in the country), do we automatically assume that there will be no one at all ever likely to pull out in front of us and continue at our set speed regardless or are we still entitled to think for ourselves and observe what may be about to pull in front of us?

I'm sure it will get to the stage, whereby through evolution, that in a few years time, there will be drivers so born , that cannot react without a prompt from a flashing sign with the correct "order".

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

In Poole today, a sign next to some traffic lights:

"Motor vehicles: stop here when light is red".

How does that differ from other traffic lights, exactly?

Because all road traffic has to stop at traffic lights, clearly cyclist are not required to stop for these

We have a few of those in our neck of the woods as well. There's a particularly notorious one near Westonbirt, which flashes, "SLOW" regardless of what speed you're doing. The big problem is, it's so bright that at night it's positively blinding.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

Is there an advanced stop line for cyclists? A lot of drivers, especially PSV, seem to get confused about which is the motor vehicle line and which is the cyclist's line and such a notice might usefully inform them. If there isn't an ASL then I agree that the notice is as useful as a "Do not throw stones at this sign" notice

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Didn't seem to be, and it was quite specific about stopping at the light rather than at a specific place. Might try and get a pic next week.

WARNING! People of a nervous disposition are advised not to read this post!


Just a quickie, but I honestly don't think this is specific to Scotland or roads. The warning signs, caveats, don't drink hot coffee, incident form-filling for a prick, (see what I did there? ), is endemic in our society today and permeates just about every walk of life!

What a ridiculous place we, in the 'civilised world?' live in.

But I have a plan I'm working on travelling at the speed of light and I think I'm close! Once I've built my 'ApolloLight' or I may call it 'LightSpeed'* , (You heard it here first, I hope ), in about 20 years I can make a new life out there on a world like ours that I hope isn't as up as this one...

Who's with me?

(Bit of topical stuff there)

*Of course we all know speed kills. So I expect to die long before I reach 300,000,000 metres per sec. There's probably going to be a child in the way or something...

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Be careful, travelling at the speed of light without council "officers" authority can be detrimental to your health. Speed kills and boredom "rules".

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

I really do have to laugh at the "officers" that rule the council offices these days. When I was a kid, they were "office workers" and real officers were in the army, navy , air force or police. But these days any spotty oik who "works" in a council office (probaly getting the tea from a machine) is entitled to class themselves as an "officer"...dream on kiddo.

Another name that we used to have for them was clerks which was probably a shortened version of "council berks".
Whereas now they are a shortened version of council office workers. i.e council officers

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Can anyone imagine life in Britain if all the council "officers" went on strike for a whole year?...no nor me...when did they start?...

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

In this case, I think it's that they (er, I mean, "WE"!) have forked out all that money for those big matrix display signs and now put these messages on "because they can". Of course, the other day, they were saying somethig useful, like "Accident after Junction XX - long delays", but most of the time they just put these messages on them, I suspect, simply because they're there!

Perhaps there is some technical reason why the signs have to be illuminated all the time? But, if that is the case, couldn't they recoup some of the cost by selling advertising space on them

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

The most pointless of all are the motorway matrix signs displaying, "FOG"

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

Rather like "Fire Exit" in Braille

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Be more use if they stated on the board ,which junction you were approaching ,with reference to the accident ,and how far the queues extend .But then folks like me would get off and try to get round the delay .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

One niggle of mine is where you travel towards an island like the one near me, a DC , and you see "SLOW DOWN" about half a mile before the island. If anyone actually slowed where it tells you to start slowing down you would never get there! I usually go way past that until I get about 200 yards away, at which point simple engine braking is enough depending on which vehicle I am using.




When I travel around the country, as I do, I always have a local radio station tuned in. Of course what usually happens is they tell me when I'm already stuck in it

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.