This was my understanding also. And the forthcoming removal of that power has been reported as triggering a surge in speed limits being lowered from 60 mph to 50 mph.
Well, the councils have got to get the cash from somebody since Eric Picalilli has instructed to stop councils fining people for having the odd cigarette butt in the recycle wheelie bins. AL
Wrong thinking AL, the Councils have got to look more at ways of cutting spending, rather than raising revenue. Or was that tongue in cheek ?
Regardless of speed limits (real or perceived), my main concern at the moment is the state of road surfaces. There are so many really deep potholes on many roads that there is real danger of having an accident, regardless of your riding skill & experience. Should we lobby to get this sorted, not just locally, but nationally?
I'm sorry but this is just not possible, local authorities need as much tarmac they can lay their hands on to create speed humps, like I said they need to put tarmac in the road instead of on top
Speed bumps are to slow traffic down in safety critical areas e.g Next to schools. Most of the potholes where I ride / drive are extremely dangerous at any speed. Filling them would reduce the likelihood of accidents.
One enlightened councillor said last year that they should leave the potholes as it reduced road speeds...needless to say she was well and truly roasted by every motoring organisation in the country. But now we're on the subject of tarmac...road traffic over the last few decades has increased manifold, but how many new roads have been built to accommodate all these new vehicles? Not many, that's for sure. And add to that the fact that many minor roads have been 'traffic-calmed' thereby pushing all the traffic onto trunk roads, and it's no surprise we're seeing the road degradation and traffic chaos we're seeing now. In fact I think it's remarkable how well the traffic moves considering the efforts made by councils and government to fuck it all up. The official line is that there isn't enough money in the pot to build new roads - but somehow there's always enough to build tarmac obstacle courses all over the shop and erect speed cameras...
Road construction and maintenance specification in the UK is diabolical....... ....the majority of the older roads still have a sub-base that is only suitable as a cart-track (which is what the roads were historically) and new roads are now constructed with concrete made from sea dredged aggregate and pulverised fuel ash......which breaks up easily. The road topping thicknesses have been reduced in cost saving exercises.......when slight damage occurs, water penetrates and creeps underneath, which loosens the topping.......frost makes it happen more quickly. Repairs are carried out in most cases by packing a bit of crappy tarmac into the potholes, with no bonding, so it comes out again in five minutes and the greatest waste of cash is the tar spray and chipping topping that most smaller A & B roads get......It's a specification that is just about suitable for a residential driveway, that's all. If anyone ever travelled the A12 along the Boreham bypass, no doubt they will remember the concrete road surface which drummed into the car because when it was constructed the tamp was set too high.........but the point is, the road lasted for years because proper concrete was used. Still........The UK has got an awful lot to learn about building and construction in general.....way out of date...... AL
Outside a local School, they built speed bumps - the square sort that you need to straddle in a car. I have lost count of the number of people who drive in the middle of the road to avoid straddling them, often when traffic is coming the other way but even if you don't do this they distract your attention at a time when, possibly Kids are running into the road. How can making a road more dangerous ever contribute to road safety?
At a school near me they took down the railings outside the front gate cos some girl got her head trapped in them. At the same time they moved the pelican crossing a hundred yards up the road. Brilliant. The resultant increase of accidents where kids belt out of the main gate straight into the road still hasn't convinced the council to put new railings up. No, they put speed humps in the road - the sort you can straddle easily even in a small car. And we pay these people.
Well, I'm sure it is a contributory factor but the speed bumps are just downright dangerous. Actually when they first did said 'engineering' they built a wall at the side of the road on the approach from open countryside that completely blocked the view of the school gates and footpath, presumably to try to slow people down, all it did was make it more likely that someone would be run over. Thankfully within a year they removed this but it does show the kind of thinking that the so-called road safety 'experts' have.... I have 4 Kids, all of whom have attended this School (2 still do) and, to my knowlege, no-one was run over before the road 'saftey' engineering was built, I do know that the local residents are often complaining about the increased noise due to humps, mostly when HGV etc cross them, so much so that the council did actually slightly reduce the height of the one 'solid' bump that the crossing is on. But there are endless similar examples where so called road 'saftey' makes a road obviously more dangerous. Some jobs should be left to people who actually understand the implications of what they do, not just to a graduate/council employee with no life experience other than working for local government...
My point was more about the danger of potholes regardless of speed. However, I do agree that many "traffic calming" measures are a complete waste of time and money and have the unintended consequence of making the roads less safe. I still genuinely think that the state of the roads given flooding, snow, ice, thaw, etc. will cause some serious accidents to folks who otherwise will be driving / riding responsibly. Roadcraft quite rightly suggests that good practice is to look for hazards on the road surface, but the state of the roads (from A roads to country lanes) in my area of the country is appalling. Driving on them in a car is really bad, I dread to think what it will be like when many of us throw our leg over our beloved again in anger in the spring (...invites comments from the usual suspects methinks)!. What do you lot think?
I live in a small village where one or two residents have been lobbying for a 30mph speed limit and all signage that goes with it "to improve road safety" (currently the national speed limit of 60mph applies as we do not have street lights). In the last 20 years, there have been no serious injuries or worse in our village due to road accidents. 1 mile down the road, there have been two fatalities at accidents at a dangerous cross roads in the last three years, but no lobbying for change as the location is at the boundary of parishes and not near residences. Sometimes, personal interest or some other motivation flies in the face of common sense. The obsession with "'elf & safety" can be irritating at best and dangerous at worst. I welcome the views of the forum.
The kind of people who work for local & highway authorities deciding where to put road humps, yellow lines, double white lines, give way signs, etc etc are usually pretty dumb. They don't really understand the purpose of what they are supposed to be doing. That is evident from their resulting handiwork. Pity, but I doubt if anybody smart enough to understand the issues would be willing to do the job.
