Safe Speed Forums

12 signatures. Number 10 will be drafting the legislation overnight.

What a load of unadulterated tosh. The real issue here is how people like half-a-brain Andy get to vote.

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All views expressed are personal.

I know. It's not speed really.. it's driver error and we should really focus on how to improve or develop skills and awareness in all road users to best potential first and then the speed issue will dissolve into the "nothing" it really is.

Only.. speed infringements create cash. Safety measures .. real ones.. which work.. ..er . um .. COST cash.

Let''s be brutally honest here.

By the way .. great to see you posting here again.

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Warwickshire County Council are cutting many rural speed limits on the strength of a DfT Circular 1/2006.

IF the government allow local authorities to cut speed limits to 40Mph, transport in rural areas will be put back to 1930s standards. Pre 1974 local councils spent an absolute fortune improving and widening many miles of road between rural communities to make them safe for the then national limit of 70 Mph. If cuts in speed limits go through, the investment of our far sighted forefathers will be completely wasted. Cutting speed limits will also increase fuel consumption for rural drivers. It would appear that today's politicians have had their brains washed by well organized anti speed campaigners and greens, who's main aim appears to be to bring back the Red Flag Act and turn the UK into a third world country when it comes to transport. If road safety campaigners were serious about actually reducing accidents they would all propose annual eyesight tests. However, as they get most of their funding from the transport industry it would appear that they would prefer more accidents at lower speeds.

I expect that most rural accidents are caused by tourists going relatively slow watching the scenery not the road ahead. Reducing rural speed limits to 40 Mph will not cut accidents as most rural accidents occur in locations where the safe speed may be as low as 30 or even less than 20 Mph. Cutting the current allowed maximum of 60 Mph will actually encourage some drivers to go faster where road conditions do not allow higher speed.

Many rural road accidents are caused by drivers foolishly swerving to avoid small animals like rabbits and pheasants. Killing something like a sheep is surely preferable to risking you life, running over things like rabbits and pheasants wont even damage your vehicle. Similarly parking in potentially dangerous locations like in blind bends and over the brow of a hill can be easily avoided. Pedestrians should not always follow the highway code to the letter, crossing over to the side of the bend where you can easily be seen from a reasonable distance is advisable

Keeping rural speed limits at the current 60Mph is more important now the prospect of spy in the sky satellite tracking and road pricing looms on the horizon. It would appear that there are plans to put lower limits on every road except the more expensive trunk roads. This will restrict choice to avoid the routes with the highest rates and still get to your destination in a reasonable time. It could be said that rural speed limits are almost impractical or impossible to police, but with spy in the sky tracking, they can get you anywhere between two fixed points. Any average driver is faced with the prospect of becoming a criminal he is skilful enough to complete his rural journey at an average over 40Mph. I seem to remember of something in New Labour's "clause 4 " about allowing people to attain their full potential, not much sign of it in policy when it comes to driving.

It is pretty obvious that those leading the call for lower rural speed limits are almost exclusively townies who are probably not good drivers themselves. This country is being wrecked by narrow minded people who because they can't do something safely themselves think that nobody else is capable of doing it either. Like the Foxhunting Ban, policy is all about trying to destroy the rural economy so that ten bob fat cat city dwellers can " Escape to the Country " and take the homes currently occupied by indigenous rural people. Like the road fuel tax escalator, its all part of a general trend for ethnic cleansing by stealth. Rural Post Office closures are also likely to be considered if the legal time taken for collections / delivery significantly increases.

Well said, Brosen99. Common sense all through that post, shame our politicians/local govt officials don't possess any!

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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.

Yes, it would have been sufficient to drop the red coats and those little brass bugles - if they'd worn dirty country clothes, people would have thought they were just taking the dogs for a run in the field.

And if they wore hoodies they'd get the cities on their side...

There's many a true word said in jest, Johnnytheboy. The "hunts" could bridge the class divide by running outreach projects to share their hobby with poor city children. I like to hunt myself - I once shot a sparrow with an air gun, and I believe it's legal to go seal-clubbing in Newfoundland.

You know when you're having a rather agreeable drive on a nice A-Road with lots of nice, sweeping corners, and you're then thwarted by some drooling do-gooder in a Rover 75 doing 43.5mph?

Hm?

Andymusic?

[mrbean]They won't get there any quicker, dear. 40 is a sensible speed. It saves on tyre wear you know.[/mrbean]

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Simon

That's where having plenty of poke comes in handy.

But on narrow country lanes (as originally discussed) you're stuck with Mr Bean's choice of speed.

I bet Mr Bean is thinking like this:

people complain about tailgating but would it exist so much if people drove at a sensible speed? I rarely get tailgated so maybe I don't hold people back from their day to day travel. It's like walking through a doorway and stopping to talk to people with you, would you do it if there were other people trying to get through the doorway?

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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 haven’t read the whole of this post, but can I ask Andy this?

In my local market town, there are corners where you have to do 5mph to be safe. Will you be signing my petition for 5mph in all market towns?

I imagine that many readers here are familiar with Hard Knott and Wyrnose Pass in Cumbria – they are NSL but you have to virtually stop in places, whereas I have no issues with 100mph in other parts if you don’t mind Larry the Lamb wedged in your radiator from time to time.

I find the moor top sheep to be surprisingly quite bright, they are attracted to the road on summer nights because the tar stores heat, but sit on the side, only very occasionally do you find them in the middle of the road itself. The biggest problem occurs when the farmer introduces new Hogs, but even they learn road safety in a couple of weeks, likewise lambs in spring, perhaps sheep have more idea about road safety than some people. As for speeding being antisocial threatening behaviour as some would attempt to portray, you can pass sheep at night within a few feet at 50 Mph + and they never bat an eyelid. Of course you can encounter Kamikaze sheep during the day when they are moving around but they are fairly easily identified and allowed for.

As much as I like to drive quickly at times I eventually came to the conclusion that I should not be expecting other people to drive faster than they are comfortable with. If only to stop me from getting stressed about something I could do nothing about. By the same token they should not try to make anyone else drive down to their abilities. I do reserve the right to think those abilities are not of a standard that should allow them to drive at all though.

I used to work at an FE college, the doorway thing happened all of the time.

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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

Yes, I used to work at a university and noticed much the same thing - if students were going to hang around in corridoors and chat, they'd almost invariably do it at the narrowest point!

This is a normal feature of pubs - standees group and chat in narrow doorways

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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

Lucy, I suspect we've seen the back of Andy. I'm not sure whether he thought he'd get a positive reception here or not, but he didn't like it when he didn't.

13 signatures by the way...

It's all a part of the same rationale as motivation some of the nonsense on the currently-locked thread. You and I know when it's safe to go fast or not, and we don't need arbitrarily low limits to tell us. The reason we know this is training and experience. Most of my journey to work is on roads like this, but I don't do 60 just because I can.

Most at Safespeed believe that the thrust of road safety policy should be to ensure people have the training required to obtain the experience to be able to make these decisions themselves.

Always amuses me that the authorities expect us to select a safe and appropriate speed when driving...

...but that this must be at or below the speed limit. Apparently there's some magical number for each road above which our judgement automatically and instantaneously ceases to work...

Quoted for truth!

This is a nice summation of one of the concepts we must put forth.

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

I can understand the way you feel.....................you parked your car assuming its safety and an 'accident' happened. My question is - would you have decided to petition for change of speed limit had this not have happened?' You are angry, understandably so, and feel that to reduce the speed limit would deter this happening again.
However, this is not how it works. If, and only if, you were successful in getting the speed reduced, all this would do would to be to slow a percentage of people down and the remainder would continue to do as before. I live in the countryside, actually on a single track road, and see vehicles all day long. The majority of drivers take care on the bends and make use of the 60mph where appropriate. yes, we have had a few hits and bumps (one even a fire engine on an emergency call), but I can not see a speed reduction on my particular road would change the way drivers use this road.
The driver that hit your car will be wiser for the crash (we hope), but to penalise ALL drivers, most of whom are sensible is a drastic action.
Take time out - be kind to yourself for a while - then rethink.

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belladonna
'Wisdom is knowing how little we know'
Socrates