Safe Speed Forums

In the Isle of Man, they have no restrictions outside built up areas, have compulsory probation periods for new drivers who cannot travel at more than 50 mph while displaying an R badge for 1 year, and hit mobile phone users when driving with hard fines and bans. There are no speed cameras in sight but with good trafpol levels.

Surely this is a reasonably similar policy to what we are wanting in the UK.

My question is, what are the KSI /Accident stats for the IOM? Does anyone know? I saw a sign that mentioned 140 casualties in the last 3 years which seems high!

I thought about asking the same when IOM came up as a subject in another thread, then it occurred to me that these numbers are not necessarily going to be representative, because IOM has a significant section of public road that is used as a world famous race circuit. This attracts a higher proportion of people who want to try themselves "against the circuit" at other times of year, and consequently may result in a high KSI figure. If the circuit wasn't there, then the data would be useful, but as it attracts some of the more dangerous groups (like born again bikers), the numbers will probably proove that de-restricted roads are much more dangerous than the current UK set-up.

The IMO also has a pretty small population and I imagine a proportioally high number of visitors. That could also skew the figures.

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

Although the mountain section of the TT course from Ramsey to Hillberry is currently derestricted there are plans to put a limit on it, presumably 60. I believe that because a number of the trafpol are keen bikers there is much more discretion and education involved in speeding pulls on bikers than you would expect on a lot of the mainland.

All the more reason to actually see the figures and compare them against the mainland. If they show a poor safety record, we can continue speculating about the causes and we're none the worse off. But if they show a good safety record... wouldn't that be something worth knowing about?

From the consultation document Tomorrow's roads - Safer for everyone here

The Road Safety Initiative advised the public of the number of road traffic accidents on the Island over an eleven year period between 1993 and 2003. These included 112 fatalities, 1042 serious injury casualties and 3857 slight injury casualties. The Department is committed to reducing the number of road traffic accidents by 2% per annum despite traffic continuing to increase, and wide-ranging measures were proposed to assist with achieving this target.

Proposals and consultation responses as follows.

Introduce maximum speed limits according to road hierarchy designation with a maximum of 60mph on strategic routes and a maximum of 70mph on the Mountain Road.
General Support? NO

Raise the age for passing the practical driving/riding tests to 17.
General Support? YES

Extend the period of ‘R’ plate restriction from 1 year to 2 years.
General Support? YES

Reduce the legal level of blood alcohol content from 80ml to 50ml.
General Support? YES

Introduce ‘Route Alert’ schemes to raise awareness of hazards on the routes with the aim of reducing casualties.
General Support? Limited response

Increase periodic testing of vehicles and aim to be testing cars over 10 years old by 2010.
General Support? YES

Introduce further safety initiatives to promote safer motorcycling?
General Support? YES

Parking enforcement to be undertaken by the Department of Transport in addition to the Police and Traffic Controllers
General Support? YES

Introduce Safety Cameras?
General Support? NO

Increase fines and penalties according to seriousness of the offence?
General Support? YES

Other interesting snippets

Whilst it may be true that the speed of vehicles does not of itself cause accidents, it can be certain that excessive speed will lead to accidents. This is through driver error or the actions of other road users being more likely to occur and less likely to be avoided. Serious consequences of an accident occurring at high speed will be greater than if the accident happened at a lower speed, that is if the accident had not in fact been avoided by virtue of the low speed being more forgiving of driver error or unexpected actions by other road users.

One strong and undeniable consensus emerged from the public’s response, that whilst safety improvements may be made by engineering and road design or enactment of strict legislation governing speed limits, these improvements may be negated by drivers behaviour and taking greater risks so that the emphasis should be on modifying road user behaviour through better education, training, publicity and enforcement.

The speed limits proposed, i.e. 70mph on the Mountain Road, 60mph on strategic routes; 50mph on Secondary routes, 40mph on Local roads and 30mph on Local Access Roads have been determined as a result of analysis of traffic counts and speed surveys. The analysis shows that 85 percentile of users of these roads do not currently drive faster than the proposed limits. The 15 percentile drivers who occasionally exceed these limits are those who feel most threatened by the proposals but this should not prevent Government from setting acceptable limits and attempting to prevent excessive speeds and serious road traffic accidents.

Safety Cameras
Many also voiced the opinion that speed cameras have been abused by authorities in the UK, and that they appear by their positioning to be in non-logical locations i.e. that they are used principally as a revenue earner rather than a road safety priority.

The full report makes for an interesting read

edited to add accident data, D'oh!

The plans to implement an island-wide speed limit were in fact shelved late last year. See:

http://www.iomguide.com/news/general-news.php?story=697


Shows that making your voice heard can be effective.

_________________
"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

It's amazing how they can get it so right there and so wrong over here.

I'm sure the ten year statistics are vastly over represented by the TT and other racing events. It would be interesting to find out the proportion.

Well found Mrs Miggins. Very interesting stuff, but the one sentence that stand out is
So not having limits isn't a problem there. I'm starting to waver, but I'm still inclined to keep limits just so the BiBs have something to get the wallies with when they can't prove a more serious offence.

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

My favourite bits are

One strong and undeniable consensus emerged from the public's response, that whilst safety improvements may be made by engineering and road design or enactment of strict legislation governing speed limits, these improvements may be negated by drivers behaviour and taking greater risks so that the emphasis should be on modifying road user behaviour through better education, training, publicity and enforcement.

and

Many also voiced the opinion that speed cameras have been abused by authorities in the UK, and that they appear by their positioning to be in non-logical locations i.e. that they are used principally as a revenue earner rather than a road safety priority.



Isn't this what we've been saying? Add that to their proposal that speed limits, if set, should be set using the 85th percentile and you have what appears to be sensible policy making.

Now that will be widely unpopular in the IoM if implemented

_________________
"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