Safe Speed Forums

Just a quick question. A road near me is being re surfaced and its normal 30 mph limit has been changed to 10mph by these rectangle shaped yellow limits that say max mph 10.

almost all the other drivers seem to be doing about 20-25 and I am holding up traffic when I keep to 10.

Guy in a garage aong the road said that if you do over 10 ou woud get 'nicked by police'

Is it the case that these rectagle yellow signs are not under the same law as the main circle ones?

Im worried now as i did about 20-22 when keeping up.

Thanks

Rob

The guy in the garage is taking the mick , Rob, they are advisory signs but are a sensible limit if you don't want stone chips on your paintwork or windscreen from flying chippings. Go with the flow, Rob but be wary of following too close to the guy in front, if you don't want too many chips on your bonnet or windscreen.

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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.

What you describe sounds like advisory limit signs (not mandatory ones):





If it's not black text on a white background, with a red ring around it (a la , the exception being the sign), then it's not a prescribed mandatory speed limit sign.

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

Theyre not quite like that, theyre the ones I see on motorways usually.

They are rectangle, yellow and on a little tripod thing and say 'max speed 10' they look like the workmen have hastily shoved them up.

Nothing electronic on them, just rectangle and yellow.

Am I right in thinking no limit under 20 can be enforced and only the circle limits can be enforced?

If it does not have a red circle round it then it is advisory and cannot be enforced as a speed limit.

Yeah. There's an NSL I sometimes drive along and outside someone's house there's a rectangular "30" sign - but it's white on black. I was wved down by a horsey-looking woman one day when driving along there at about 40, and she irately drew my attention to it and asked if I understood what it meant. I told her that it LOOKED like a very amateurish attempt at conning passers-by into thinking it was a 30 limit outside that house (probably hers!), but that as it was the wrong shape and colour, it had to be regarded as "advisory" and could therefore be ignored.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone go as purple as she did! I told her that she was welcome to take my number and report it if she felt otherwise but I never heard anything more. Don't know if the old witch then went off into her shed and torched the reflective yellow "bird box" on a crooked grey pole that she'd doubtles been working on!

We had some 30MPH "signs" with a black circle in a "pretend" village near us, that the local council put up (very foolishly) until they could force through (illegally in my opinion) a "proper" 30MPH limit, just to keep the local scarecrows happy.

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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.

And guess what...there was a report in our local paper (only last week, some month or so after the 30MPH limit being passed), that 80% of traffic is ignoring the new 30MPH limit...suprise, suprise, especially when the mean speed of the road was recorded at approx. 45MPH and there is approx 8 buildings fronting the road in this "village" which, according to Dept for Transport Guidelines (2006) should have at least 20 buildings fronting the road.

(Goood luck on pasing your test soon, Alice, no doubt your driving and road safety skills will improve greatly afterwards.) (Just a little note for my friend , Alice)

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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.

Now, I've got a lot of lovely lady friends, (one has even got an HGV license and can;t stand "dawdling" drivers) but (and appologies to Claire, Teabelly and any other ladies on this site that appreciate that "speed DOESN'T KILL"). Why, why, why does it nearly always seem to be "ladies" who constantly whine on about, "speed killing", speed limits needing to be dropped, etc, etc, etc., when in my experience, many don't drive more than about 5-10 thousand miles per year, max, and wouldn't know how to get out of a skid or tricky situation on the road if their life depended on it?

If they were to only take an active interest in driving, above and beyond running the kids to school or a two mile trip to the supermarket every week, then I might start to take them seriously BUT in all reality ,they are whining on about something they know VERY little about. I don't whine on about what washing powder is safe for the environment, because, quite honestly, I don't have a clue, BUT I'm sure I know as much about what makes a safe washing powder, as the majority of these women, know about road safety.

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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.

Probably because (with apologies to all our "house-husbands") they are more likely to be involved in looking after children or other vulnerable people in situations where pedestrians mix with motor traffic. Thus are more likely to feel, rightly or wrongly, intimidated by fast - not necessarily speeding - traffic.

Also I am puzzled why, if some one is going to fake a speed limit sign, they don't use the proper colours.

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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

I believe this has something to do with the law. Copying exactly and erecting a false road sign is going to be breaking some law or other. To erect any other road side sign is probably breaking a local by law and would be removed by the council, if they felt fit to do so, but probably wouldn't result in any further action. So by ercting "pretend" speed signs, you may confuse the "gullible" into believing that it is a lawful limit but haven't broken any serious laws in doing so...a bit like the camera people trying to "scam" the "gullible" into believing that cameras save lives.

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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.

Sorry, but I have to...

Yes, it's getting a bit silly now when road safety (and peoples lives and livelyhoods) are being influenced, by nothing more than raw illogical emotions, instead of logical , proven, factual, practical experience and know how.

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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.

Or be able to stop on the gritty surface.

I would expect anyone, even you weepej, to be able to stop on any gritty surface (or icy surface) at any speed, not just 10MPH, but the distance would be relative to the speed you were travelling, not the fact whether you could stop or NOT.

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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.

Of course you can stop, but on freshly gritted surfaces you may well have thousands of little ball bearings below your wheels, hence your stopping distance at any speed is increased so you're asked to slow down so as to reduce your stopping distance.

..as if drivers don't take that into consideration, in addition to a whole lot of other things.
If conditions at the time and place dictate a speed of 5mph, you do 5mph - if they dictate 15 or 20 or 30mph then you do 15 or 20 or 30mph. The probability that conditions dictate 10mph, and not lower or higher, is actually pretty remote.
You're living in a fool's paradise if you imagine that a figure printed on a stick dictates a safe speed under any and all conditions.

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

REALLY?, how long have they been using ball bearing to surface roads?....do you ever venture out on the roads, Weepej?

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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.

All the time, and particyulary on a cycle you appreciate the lack of grip you get on freshly gritted roads a whole lot more.

Most of us learnt that when we were still in school, and many of us learnt the hard way. I still have scars on my elbows and knees to remind me

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