Safe Speed Forums

From today's Shropshire Star:

http://www.shropshirestar.com/show_arti ... ?aID=44935

quite right, the slow coaches, grandmothers an flat caps are just as dangerous as the speed freak morons.
In a well lit dry road, no wind 50mph limit with no other hazards 30mph would be un-acceptable and onstitutes driving likely to endange, 3 points and a sixty pound fine shuld be a minimum.

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Why not put on speed limiters we have the technology only idiots break the speed limit

Well thats an interesting statement, what if the driver is uncomfortable going more than 30 mph, what if their reaction time limits them to that speed?

Who is to say what hazards are on the road, what about sharp corners where speed has to be lost for safety?

How do you justify such a statement?

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Former Military Police Officer and accident investigator

Don't just blame the lead vehicle unless it was blocking attempts to pass.
Perhaps the lead motorist felt that 35 was nice. Now in that case the cortege might have been caused by many other reasons - lead vehicles following too close or being too timid - no safe overtaking oppertunities ---road design such that folowers felt it not safe to pass.What was speed limit on that road ?Perhaps it was 40 or 50 , and those following felt that with the current level of speed enforcement it was cheaper to follow.

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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

It just goes to show that supporters of automatic enforcement by numbers have no clue at all about safe driving in the real world.

Forcing people to drive faster than they are comfortable or capable of is even more dangerous.

What we should do is make overtaking more acceptable and in some cases easier.

We should allow a 10mph leeway on the speed limit while overtaking for instance, provided the manouver is otherwise "safe". Most US states have this allowance.

We should make more opportunities to overtake, extra lanes, longer straight sections.

We should remove speed cameras, especially from prime overtaking spots. And SPECS should be outlawed.

But most of all we need to educate the public that it is OK to overtake and it is OK to be overtaken.

We had posters on the back of buses in Belfast a while back 'educating' people about overtaking:

"Today, overtaker.
Tomorrow, undertaker."

Is this the sort of thing you mean?

I remember trying to overtake a woman on an NSL road when she was driving at 30mph. As soon as I attempted to overtake she accelerated up to 50mph. As soon as I overtook she slowed right down again, and even though I got stuck behind another slow driver for the rest of the road I never saw her car again (there was only one side turning, and it doubled back on the road).

Slow drivers really get on my nerves. Even on a former NSL road that has been reduced to 40mph you get 30mph drivers who still find the need to brake for and cut the corners! After the corners some of these drivers drive with one wheel on the verge! So they are slow and dangerous.

It would be great if a policy for letting others overtake when driving under the speed limit were introduced. It would ease congestion and improve road safety. I remember being stuck behind a tractor on the trunk A31 for over half an hour once on a summer weekend. I hate to think how long the tailback was. I also wondered why the tractor was travelling so far!

This is one case where an Amercian law would be very useful here. I think the ticket you get states "Delay of 3 or more vehicles unlawful"

Basically once you have more than 3 cars stuck behind you, you have to pull over somewhere and let them past.

Of course, if that law was implemented here, the chances of getting done by it would be non existant. There just aren't enough police out on the roads where it would be useful to enforce it.

Hmmm, interesting. Trouble is, our roads are much more crowded than in the USA.

Indeed. It comes down to enforcing it on the correct type of roads.

I've seen pictures of the roads in that area, and it appears to be mostly SC NSL little twisty roads that would probably be great fun if no-one else was around.

I'm not suggesting that you get done under this law whilst trying to find somewhere to park in a town centre.

The question is, where to draw the line?

[quote="Lum"]This is one case where an Amercian law would be very useful here. I think the ticket you get states "Delay of 3 or more vehicles unlawful"

quote]

Didn't there used to be a similar law in this country - remember years ago farmers in the Norfolk Broads got a shock when creating tailbacks to get ticketed -.Whether on statute now ????

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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

Wouldn't work at all for us truckies. At a legal maximum of 40 mph on single carriageway roads, it takes, oooh, a minute for three cars to be stuck behind us just after pulling in to let a load past. We'd never get anywhere!

I think a law should be passed against '40mph everywhere drivers' as these are the most dangerous - they never signal either.

I absolutely and unconditionally agree...but please don't lump lorry drivers in with that lot! I don't like sticking to 40 on big wide A roads, but ultimately I make my living from my driving licence and I can't afford to start racking up points.
There used to be a "gentleman's agreement" between the police and HGV drivers - you go a bit faster and we'll turn a blind eye - but now there are no traffic police left and cameras pick up speeding lorries, we're stuck with doing 40. Many are campaigning to have the law changed, but in the meantime, I'll stick at 40 and pull over or wave people past when I can.

Indeed. I've often found that in times of poor visability, truckers will signal me past by putting their left signal on, on a stretch of road I know (from memory) to be straightish and that they will be able to see well enough to determine if it's safe.

If I don't know the road though, I'm always wary of taking this chance, they could be signalling left for another reason.

Either way the effort is appreciated, and you never see it from the 40mph Rover driver.

Rythm Thief, I won't be lumping you in with the 40 everywhere drivers, you poor buggers have to stick with it or do something that will cost you your job, livelyhood, etc. You have my sympathies.

I had one pratt doing 35 on a 60 limit who when I tried to overtake pulled out onto the other side to block me, did this twice to me. So I waited till he was nattering on the phone, dropped a gear and overtook without indicating.

All I got was him flashing his main beam and then he put it on permanently.

Have yet to get anything like that from trucks, have had a few flashes to let me know I can pull in though

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Gordon Brown saying I got the country into it's current economic mess so I'll get us out of it is the same as Bomber Harris nipping over to Dresden and offering to repair a few windows.

Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is done.

http://www.wildcrafts.co.uk

I get that all the time, well usually just the ones who speed up, but people generally being awkward if you try to overtake.

I just don't bother indicating or giving any other sign that I intend to overtake now if it's a car I'm overtaking, unless there is someone behind who may also try to overtake. It's just not worth the aggro. I can generally get past someone before they've even noticed and thus by the time they go to speed up it's already too late.

I'm quite sure this is against the principles of being a good courteous driver but I find it safer than getting stranded on the other side of the road after someone decides to speed up.

Trucks OTOH, I'm quite happy to tell them that I plan to overtake since they're generally decent about it and it's not like they're going to speed up suddenly anyways

While the '40 everywhere' driver is indeed annoying, it is, thankfully, still quite a rare creature. A far more prevalent creature is the '50 everywhere' driver. You will encounter several of these on any journey of ten miles or more. And, let's face it, it takes the patience of a saint to sit behind one of these for mile after mile when it's perfetly safe (and legal) to do 60. Problem is, getting past them isn't quite as easy as getting past the '40 everywhere' variety - particularly if you're not driving a powerful car, and it's almost impossible not to exceed the limit in the process unless you're fortunate enough to encounter one of those exceedingly rare long and empty overtaking stretches.

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

I've forwarded a link to this thread to a friend of mine in mid-Wales, he's sent me this in response:

If you'd like to post a reply on my behalf, please do. Basically, the other
reason this story appeared in the SS is because of a fatal RTA at
Middletown, about 200yds east of the end of the 50 and the start of the NSL.
A BMW collided with a van, killing the van driver. I don't know in which
direction either were going, nor if they were both travelling in the same
direction. However, from the location of the accident it's safe to assume
that one of the drivers (the BMW one possibly) was involved in an overtaking
manoeuvere, as it's the only spot within 2 miles either side that it's
possible to overtake, and the A458 east of Middletown is worse than the west
side. So, to summarise, I can easily imagine that this accident was caused
by the BMW driver's frustration at being stuck behind something and then
getting him/herself in a compromising situation. As I say, these are
*assumptions*, and not statements of fact.

On the subject of tractor drivers, I was stuck behind a tractor from Halfway
House as far as the A483 Welshpool bypass, just west of the roundabout with
the A458 at Buttington Wharf. A total distance of 8 miles, and he did not
pull in once. The tailback he caused that afternoon was horrendous! I've
been told by a HGV driver who's driven tractors on the main road that if a
farmer/whatever is causing a tailback, he HAS to pull in every 2 miles, or
shorter. If he doesn't, then he's liable to have his collar felt by traffic
police. Oh, I'm sorry, there's no such thing as traffic police, is there?!