Safe Speed Forums

I regularly do a run from Aylesbury to Oxford and back. I can't remember the name of the A road in question because I use satnav, but it runs through Stone, and across the M40 at Junction 8. At some point it changes from Bucinghamshire to Oxfordshire. The road is of a similar standard and danger level in both counties.

Travelling from Aylesbury, several sharp, possibly dangerous corners are marked with the black signs with white chevrons indicating the direction of the corner, so far so good..

..cross the border into Oxfordshire and much gentler long sweeping bends are marked with similar signs only more numerous and with bright yellow borders causing some drivers to slow down unnecessarilly and feel stupid (and piss off the queue of following cars)

On the return journey things get more disastrous, we have a few of the oversigned corners described above. Then we have one corner that tightens up greatly half way through, signage for this is of the older style without the reflective yellow borders and I have seen many drivers caught out by it, enter the corner too fast then panic brake and nearly lose it when they realise their mistake.

Other times I have seen the corner warning signs flattened and pushed into the hedge by someone who thought that this corner obviously isn't as dangerous as the ones with the reflective yellow borders.

Surely consistant signage on this route and between counties generally would prevent many accidents.

(also, can anyone explain why SC A roads in Oxfordshire are 50mph, yet single-track dirt tracks between farms in the same county are NSL?)

And at night, there's so much glare from over-signing that it f*cks your night-vision up.. Or maybe I'm getting old.

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

I think there is a very good case for text under the standard bend warning sign saying "BEND TIGHTENS" as many road users seem to be incapable of driving so that they can stop in the distance they can see to be clear and don't use the limit point to assess the severity of bends.
BTW I notice from "Know your traffic signs" that the "series of bends" sign has disappeared although out on the road it is still there but sometimes whoever put the sign didn't know the difference between a double bend and a series of bends.
The road you are talking about is the A418 (I was brought up in Great Missenden, so know the area well).

Well, the bend tightens one is perhaps a bad example (and I agree that it would be a good sign to have) but IMO, signs should have some kind of order of severity, so a eg. sharp bend sign for up to a certain level, then you can put yellow around it, then you can have the black and white signs and finally for the worst you can have a yellow border around the black and white signs.

Road users seem to assume that this is the case anyway and then get caught out upon leaving sign-obsessed Oxfordshire.

Of course some councils use bend signs with a speed indicated which if adhered to gives a comfortable passage around the bend.
Over the Channel they use mandatory speed limits to indicate the severity of a bend. In a 90 kph limit you will often get a 70 kph limit followed by a 50 kph limit or even a 30 kph limit. Again if you stick to the limits, unlike the French, you will go round comfortably.

I know the signs you mean. I generally work on the principle that even in a "normal" car (ie. VW Bora, poverty-spec Vectra or knackered MkIV Escort) you can double the speed given on those signs assuming it's not covered in ice of something, thought it may not always be comfortable

Even some of those are signed unnecessarily low, and then you get one muppet who thinks that sign is law... argh!

..which is probably the closest thing you'll see to a valid and acceptable use of speed limits.

Cheers
Peter