Safe Speed Forums

This is bunk - if someone thinks that 150mph is appropriate, should we accept that? By the same token, if the Pace Car drivers think that 24mph is appropriate, then who are we to argue?

which implies that their speed was not safe for the conditions.


do you have a choice at the moment?


if that's the speed they want to do then fine, as long as they don't deliberately stop people overtaking.

that was my point. But the road itself was capable of being driven at 100mph and was also legal for cyclists to use, which was the question I was answering.

Some drivers did not select a safe speed for the conditions! So changing legislation therby allowing drivers to select their own safe speed would improve matters exactly how?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Would it make it worse? You're saying they are already driving to fast for the conditions so presumably the police - if there were any - could pull them over for dangerous driving.

Another good point - with decline of proper police supervision -are offences like dangerous driving and without DUE care and attention which are difficult /impossible to detect unless speed in excess of limit dying a death --

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

the same penalties are available NOW, without changing legislation to allow individual drivers the ability to choose their own safe speed limit.

So what is the benefit?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

nope, you can still prosecute speeders and have an increased police presence. That we don't is a failure of organisation, not an inherent problem with the speed limit.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

that you could drive at an appropriate speed without having to worry about getting pulled over?

increased police presence - where - when the increase is all about the number of "uniforms" on the street - PCSO s i think

The policy of using the speed limit as the ultimate in sanctions has resulted in this "failure of organisation"-- problems with evidence --get in a camera - that it won't catch drunks/dangerous drivers below the speed limit don't matter --from us paying out a fortune for policing - we're now making a pretty penny - thank you very much - not so much a failure , as a calculated rundown.
It led to the belief that as long as we drive below the limit we are safe - then we get anger by parents as cars go past schools at 25 mph - when 10 could well be too fast.
Thats one of the problems with this religion of "if i don't break it i am driving safely"

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

but the point WAS that in a case where the road had cyclists and pedestrians AND a speed limit, some drivers were ALREADY choosing a speed that was not appropriate. I don't think all drivers are good enough to be trusted with that decision. I don't even think that over half should be trusted with such a decision.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

I agree on the poor driving bit - - but as long as they don't knock a cyclist off, ( nothing against cyclists , just in case i get bitten)do it in front of a police manned van , or break the speed limit, with the decrease in Trafpols the chances of them even getting educated are rare.Thats the negative effect the "speed kills " religion is having.
According to your logic - we go back to the man with red flag, when what is needed is a return to the old tried and trusted ways .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

HOW? HOW on earth do you get that from my logic? READ what I have written, and tell me exactly how you think I am implying this?

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

So - we reduce compulsary speed limits and enforce - and reduce some more and then some more because the numbers of trafpols are dwindling. We still get the bias that our roads are unsafe - too much time spent looking at speedos perhaps/drivers bored ,literly to death. The limits go down some more - because drivers can not be trusted - back to the era of the horseless carriage , the birth of the AA and ultimately because of taking this to the ultimate extreme and because there are now no traffic police we must force all drivers to drive dead slow --thats the ultimate path of downward speed limits caused by enforcement.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

[shakes head]
so now it's also simple existence of enforcement that is wrong rather than the simple existence of speed limits.

see my other posts, read what I have written. Don't put your fears into my opinions.

In the situation described above the solution would not be to reduce the speed limit, it would be to grade separate the road and remove the cyclists and pedestrians from the mix.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

funny, but when I was in France most people seemed to be driving at around 70mph on the autoroutes despite the limit being 80 (and a bit).

But isn't this strong evidence that limits are no substitute for proper driver education and proper road policing?
We cannot take the responsibility for setting appropriate speeds away from the driver - because we cannot know every second of everyone's journey what the road, traffic and hazard conditions are. Not even externally limiting cars to the speed limit at all times gets even remotely close (no pun intended), as there are lots of times when someone at the speed limit is way too fast for conditions.
The only way is to educate drivers properly so they can and do judge appropriate speeds correctly, and to properly police them for when they fall out of line.

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

No, it's simple enforcement, rather than intelligent enforcement, that is the problem.
While there are plenty of inappropriate speed limits already the existence of speed limits is no the point; the main issue is the rigid and ridiculous enforcement of them to the detriment of better Bib enforcement of other offences that have far more effect on safety.

That's a bit of a non-sequitur, but I'll indulge you and clarify my position:

I believe more than half of the drivers on the road do not have the ability to determine when a speed over the posted legal maximum is appropriate or safe.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

May I ask you why you believe this?

I, on the other hand, believe that such drivers are in a small minority - but my belief is based on decades of experience and observation, in many different countries.

Look at it this way, if just one driver in every 100 is a complete plonker, it's that one you'll notice - not the other 99. And if you see 1000 cars in a day you will encounter ten plonkers.

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

25000 miles a year (mainly) on the M25. Now I've moved to the north it's probably not quite as apparent. The 'half' number is recogition that half of all drivers are below average.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.