bombus wrote:
mpaton2004 wrote:
Ernest Marsh wrote:
mpaton2004 wrote:
Single carriageways with nothing more than white paint dividing vehicles with a closing speed of possibly 140-160mph. You think that would improve safety? What have you been drinking?
I dont recall reading that... and I re-read it to check.
It merely says SUITABLE roads.
I cant think of any myself outside of motorways apart from a few hundred yards.
I was referring to the post from "bombus", sorry for not quoting.
Frankly, I don't really see much point in trying to discuss this with you. Sorry.
All right, maybe that was a bit harsh. But I wasn't too impressed with the "closing speed of 140-160mph" argument (or the stupid "drinking" remark).
As RobinXe says, what is it about a closing speed of 140mph which is unacceptably dangerous compared with a closing speed of 120mph? Or would you prefer the single carriageway NSL to be reduced to 50mph or 40mph? How about 30mph? 10mph? 1mph? Where does it stop, and why?
And where (as I previously asked) is the evidence of accidents resulting from people travelling between 60 and 70mph on single carriageways? Where is the evidence of this happening from the days before Barbara Castle, when the single carriageway NSL was 70mph? Also, many good single carriageway roads have been reduced to 50mph in recent years, but I've never seen a shred of evidence that this has reduced accidents, which there would logically be if your assertion was correct.
Simply saying "Oh no, permitted free-travelling speeds would be higher, therefore that would be more dangerous" is a typical assumption made by camera advocates for which no evidence is ever provided, because it's supposedly "obvious". "Slower is safer". That's why 15 years of cameras and lowered speed limits have only resulted in the infamous fatality gap. In other words, people are dying because of these incorrect assumptions. I've never even seen a camera advocate acknowledge the indisputable difference between impact and free-travelling speed, let alone try to explain their relationship. Simply ignoring that difference (and other things like it) because it's "too complicated" or it "threatens to make cameras look less effective" or "there isn't really a difference and speeders just pretend there is because they want to go too fast everywhere" is outrageous and won't do anything to save lives.
Also, I know it's only one road, but the A6144(M) was a single carriageway with a 70mph limit until a couple of years ago. Despite it not being as high quality as many single carriageways, I don't recall hearing about accidents resulting from the oh-so-high speed limit.
_________________
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Conservative Way Forward:
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