Safe Speed Forums

Peter Rodger is the IAM's Chief Examiner and has a regular column in their magazine Advanced Driving. He's often expressed very sound and sensible opinions and his column in the Summer 2012 issue is a very good example.

On signing:


On compliance:


On distraction:


There was also a good piece in the last issue on how it is likely to be divisive and counter-productive to put one set of road users on a moral pedestal above others, when safety on the roads depends on co-operation between all road users.

I think at heart he's "one of us"

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I don't suppose you can remember the group he might have been referring to?

Of course, I would agree with this sentiment but I'm not 100% behind him on distraction.

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

Might just begin with "cy..."


The point is that distraction needs to be managed, but can't be completely avoided. Should drivers never adjust the heater settings or change the channel on the radio?

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

That's my point, the point I was trying to make once.

As I put it, necessary verses unnecessary distractions. As near 100% as possible - made ever worse by yet more distractions

How many of us would perform better in bed if a camera, or audience of complete stangers, we're watching?

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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.

Those Cylons - I always admired Lorne Green for the way he dealt with them and the members of his own crew!
He did a pretty good job with Hoss and Little Joe too, while he managed the Ponderosa.


Of course in each of these dramas, the difficulty was in dealing with selfish parties who wanted things their own way against the wishes of others - something Peter Rogers seems familiar with by all accounts!

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

Speed limit signing and signing in general is probably one of the most regulated and consistent feature of road traffic infrastructure. The signing of speed limits is very simple and clear. What is clearer though is that drivers tend not to bother finding out how to read the limit when they really should do. Anyone who thinks it is not consistent or simple is either ignorant or simply wrong as Peter Rodger is or so it would seem.


Well Mr. Rodger, you are wrong. What is strict about the compliance that is policed in the UK, recommendations are only exceptional enforcement of the speed limit or breath-alcohol is carried out below a generous allowance for both offences. How much spirit does he suggest is acceptable? Too much in my opinion; his views are obviously as a result of being misinformed or perhaps not being informed at all.




That's a little far-fetched and wishful thinking. Either that or the views he is expressing are sourced from you, if that is the case my comments above are very accurate.

Sound like he needs to slow down so he can give himself time to read the singage, and that he thinks other drivers drive round too quickly to me!

You are joking. There is no consistency what ever on speed limits, other than the signs them self. If it was, you would not get limits that bear no relationship to the actual road conditions, as are so common nowadays. How can you consider that a dual carriageway with no incoming roads other than at a roundabout, that leads onto a single carriage road that has the pavement separated by wide verges but then becomes narrow with narrow pavements each side, all of which is signed 40MPH, to be consistent?

Here's the quote:


.

Peter makes no mention of clues and conditions just signage. What he perhaps could have added is that drivers make no effort to either understand signage, how it's used and to look for it. In addition to that, if it is seen, it is ignored. Consistent? Absolutely, yesy it is.
What Peter's little article shows me is that he has not bothered to look at the evidence before he has written the article; he is simply sketching what he thinks, almost off-the-cuff or has been fed-a-line from some idiot with an axe to grind. It is such a lazy comment that it is shameful.

That’s just about the most dumb claim I have ever read from a poster, ever, on Safe Speed.

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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.

When I get time, I'll post a few pics of a quarter mile of road near me with four sets of speed limit signs in four hundred metres.
That's consistency.
I'll also put up pics of a new housing area with light-regulated road junctions (X-roads). Three of them, one hundred metres apart. The latest control systems. Every night, going home, at past midnight, they change to red on traffic approach. And no: it is a design feature not a fault. I reported them as faulty, to be told: "it's a child safety feature".
So safe is it that regular users now ignore the reds at night.

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The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

The consistency point was more in connection with lining scheme and markings for bus lanes, cycles lanes etc than speed limits.

But, in practice, if signing or marking schemes regularly prove confusing, it is the fault of the designers, not the users.

I've now dug out the article from the previous issue in which he says:

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

You appear to be assuming that he is mainly talking about speed limits, this may not be the case, consider for example being fined for entering a bus lane to make a left turn five yards too early.

That aside what allowance is there for speeding? There are the acpo prosecution limits, however even if you successfully show you were travelling under that limit if you were still over the speed limit you will be fined. I believe you may have even raised the point that this is to be expected as you are still speeding.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

There are the acpo prosecution limits, however even if you successfully show you were travelling under that limit if you were still over the speed limit you could be fined. I have raised the point that this may be expected if the manner of driving warrants it and you are still speeding. That is in the ACPO speed enforcement guide lines.

Anyone who thinks speed signage is smple, clear and consistent is either ignorant or simply wrong.

The NSL single lane road near my house was 60mph until recently when it was changed to Is it now consistent for that road type, which hasn't changed whatsoever, or was it consistent before?

With what is it consistent? Road width? Population? Lighting? Whether there's a grass reservation distancing people from traffic?

No, It's on a whim.

Look at the many reduced limits to They haven't even looked at the evidence or researched the matter before implementation; just the usual obsessive 'slower must be better'.

I too could present here, pictures of roads where the disparity between speed limits and road types makes a complete mockery of common sense, logic or balance.

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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.

Spot on Tone, there is no logic at all these days.