Safe Speed Forums

The other day a VAS was installed in my village on the main road just near the turning where I live joins it. Now, I don't have a problem with this except...

...the sign is errected on the side of the road to flag speeds as motorists LEAVE the village. After this point the road widens and leads out to open countryside after a few hundred yards.

You might think that there must be a school or something at this point but you would be wrong. There are just a few houses.

Malcolm's cycnical analysis? The councillor who campaigned for this sign lives on this stretch of road.

What other explanation can there be for not positioning the sign to warn traffic as it approaches the narrow village centre where the doctor's, shop and school are.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

As an aside, We have a VAS warning of a dangerous bend (Its not really clear why it is dangerous but with the number of vehicles that have ended up in My Mothers front garden well into double figures by now I can assure you that it is ).

The VAS seems to be effective, but I do wonder what the "Rules of engagement" are? This one (to my mind) is too far back from the hazard it is warning about. Some 10 seconds at 35mph. To my mind this time gap should be much lower, nearer 5 seconds so that the gap between warning and hazard is within the short term memory buffer.

with the current longer gap most people will have flushed the memory of the warning from STM buffer by the time they reach the hazard and may even have started to speed up again....

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

So, after a few days the VAS has stopped working. Flat batteries due to the heavy load of warning almost everyone passing that they were over 30mph?

Is there an argument that these signs be set at 30+10%+2mph rather than 30mph on the nose?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Eh, hundreds of vehicles negotiate that bend with no issues at all, why is it "dangerous", it's just a piece of tarmac right? Surely what's dangerous are the people that take it too fast?

Just as a gun or knife can be dangerous in the wrong hands, they are both just pieces of metal until used wrongly.

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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.

As I understand it, if the flashed up warning is too close to the hazard, drivers look down to see what speed they triggered it at, just as they should be concentrating on the road ahead.
Of course you should be just getting on with driving no matter if you trigger a warning - so it makes sense for the trigger speeds to be set appropriately.

What is the speed limit? Most signs are placed with the help of a table which gives a distance for the expected speed on approach.
Lettering on signs has to be sized according to a similar table.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Bad road engineering (by diversion of resource towards proxy treatments instead), resulting with deceptive-looking roads.

That wouldn't be the first time this has been answered.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Ah.. isn't that the argument many drivers use for exceeding the speed limit? Hundreds have exceeded it without issue, so it must be safe?
You seem to be implying that they are correct!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Deceptive looking roads for whom? Again,hundreds negotiate the corner perfectly well, so what causes a few to fall off it?

Most likely, inexperience?

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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.

Rephrasing your question slightly, those few negotiate hundreds of other corners perfectly well, so what causes them to fall off that particular one?

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

I had the chap who runs the Company who make them most keen for us to meet esp since I keep promoting them for free on National TV & Radio ! But we have yet to meet.
I agree that there are many that are annoying when they flash up 'Slow down when you are still in the 60 heading for the 40mph (as occurrs nr to me at the moment!). Although at least that one is as you come into the row of about 6 houses.

I detest the one's with camera's flashing up they need to be abolished - it is like a threat !
I have yet to learn who sets them to what but all over the Country they are different there seems to be so little consistency that I guess they are whatever the locals in charge of them want ! Hardly basic Road Safety & engineering of a predictable hazard warning at all.
I would assume that it is flat batteries ! - they do seem to be run off 'boxes' with leads to so I assume that is correct. I am sure a close up look will tell you!
What if they were set to a solid speed when below 10%+2 and only flash when above ? Bearing in mind if a speed is estimated to be 'too fast' for the 'normal' conditions.
They should never be used as a substitute to sound engineering and the corner one sounds like it has been ! Let's hope these are not now totally overused ! That would be a shame ...

I don't prefer that they 'flash on' either, I'd rather they only blinked from a static image as that is less distracting. And I don't mean that they can then be ignored, much more that they act as a guide and advisor and that is all they need to be, that helps to keep people reminded and they can then adjust their speed or the reminder of the bend ahead etc.
If people mis-judge a bend then we must have engineers in to help resolve the problems - perhaps a white line to help see the bend's curve. Is it a 'reducing radius bend' ? If so then a RRBend sign would be very good ...

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