You may have seen articles in the media regading proposals to grant local authorities more powers to reduce speed limits on rural, urban & residential roads. This process is out to public consultation, you have an opportunity to submit your opinion. Not sure if the powers that be will listen to opinion, but at least those who agree/disagree have a chance to make some input. Article: Speed limits on rural roads could fall to 40mph | Politics | The Guardian The consultation document: http://assets.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2012-32/consultation-document.pdf The consultation questionnaire: https://consultation.dft.gov.uk/dft...nsultation/subpage.2012-06-25.4353207460/view
just means when you go round that sweet left-hander that uv perfected at 90(typo meant 60) fully committed ul be greeted by someone sat at 38! shit the bed
its all part of the game , will just have get up even earlyer on a sunday for a B road blast to avoid all the numptys
What the safety lobby would really like is for all vehicles to be stationary. That way, there would be next to no accidents (other than drunk pedestrians tripping over them). So there is a constant pressure to lower speed limits, tending to zero miles per hour. This has to be resisted. There has to be an acceptable compromise in life between fun and risk. It is not right for authorities to establish this compromise at the lowest end of the scale. Bike riding is inherently high fun/high risk. Tiddliwinks is low fun/low risk. How many members of the safety lobby actually ride motorbikes, or enjoy car rides (in a sporting sense). It's so easy to legislate against activities that you have no interest in. Ban golf courses I say. All those dangerous balls being whacked about, not to mention the danger of death by lightening strike in a thunderstorm.
What annoys me is that I failed my HGV test for not driving fast enough, one of the particular roads he picked me up on I did not think was safe enough to drive at 40mph because of all the parked cars and pedestrians, it just goes to show sometimes you cannot win. In the examiner's defense though he is a biker (even if it is big sofa bikes) do I can understand why he is so hot on checking all around mirrors, shoulder etc, but I did not have a problem with that, I was so busy looking in my mirrors I hardly had time to see ahead.
"Failure to keep up with road and traffic conditions". I remember that one (driving test no. 1) Weird that the police couldn't give a toss about that and once you have the bloody licence, you can creep about like a senile blind bat causing all sorts of frustration (caravan owners please note) and raising the likelihood of accidents without anyone ever pulling you over for a quiet chat. Go 10 mph over the limit whilst concentrating fully on the job in hand and you are up before the beak. Funny old world innit?
Jeez Glid, are you ever going to stopped posting things I was just going to say? I mean, it's like you are me, but 10 minutes in the future. It's damned scary, is what it is.
who really cares the limits are never enforced anyway I live in a small village, short street 30 mph tossers come around each end of the street posted at 30 mph and every 6- 9 months a wall or bulding is taken out, reducing the speed limit is going to make zilch diffference because speed limits are not enforced political postering is all this latest announcement is about
In this leaflet it shows that we are already driving below the speed limit on rural roads, so what's the point of reducing the speed limits other than giving councils the opportunity of earning more bunce by catching people speeding within the new lower speed limits..? But that's not as worrying as giving local councils power to reduce urban speed limits. Christ, I don't trust my local council to empty my bins, give them this kind of power and they'll go crazy, every town and village in the country will be reduced to walking pace within a couple of years. And to those of you who've said 'who cares?', don't start crying when your favourite rat run becomes unrideable due to slow traffic, police and average speed cameras, you've got a chance to have your say right here. If you don't use it you lose your right to whinge.
Thats what really hacks me off you get stuck behind someone on a unrestricted road doing 40mph then you get to a 30 limit they just carry on at 40 regards Steve B
How true, and its always some coffin dodge hunched over the wheel with specs that look like their`re wearing pint glasses and have no idea what they`ve done!
The reason for reducing speeds is more sinister than we realize, with resources from countries such as Iran costing mare or being harder to acquirer, and fuel duty increasing AND with the general cost of living rising, The Government is under constant pressure to do something, especially from the rural community as they feel the pinch greater as having to rely more heavily on their cars for everyday things. Rather than lower fuel tax (cos that would be silly) its better lower speed limits which means those most effected will burn less fuel saving them money. Short-sighted however as it will mean journey times increase, impacting more on businesses who will be less productive and in turn shall will be forced to raise their prices to stay afloat passing that cost onto the already hard-up consumer!
Not to mention the fact that these urban speed reductions will likely result in an increase in air pollution (as motorists go through town using a lower gear and higher revs than before), something the very implementation of the lower limits aims to improve. No, I strongly believe the only reason for implementing these lower limits is to raise revenue through speeding fines.
I have more than a sneaking suspicion you may be correct. The significant increase in average speed cameras on virtually all arterial roads through Nottinghamshire during the last 2 years has also coincided with speed limit reductions that few people understand. I spoke with a couple of local traffic officers (police, not Highways Agency) who are also bikers & they couldn't understand the need to reduce the speed limit on roads such as the A614. It was previously a national speed limit road with a good surface, open views & no dwellings on either side. They said the installation of average speed cameras together with a limit reduced to 50mph supported their suspicions of income generation by the county council. There is perhaps a learning point here: To be aware of possible speed limit reductions & to be in a position to avoid transgressions. Whilst it would be nice for democracy to grant us some input on this proposal, UK governments are good at payng lip service to we taxpayers. it is interesting to see how much revenue is made from some speed cameras. Looks like some of them are active & the local authorities make money from them. I suspect the map refers to static cameras.
Its actually a double ploy by the Govt. They will reduce all the speed limits then get people off benefits and into work carrying the soon to be mandatory red flags in front of all moving horseless carriages. Mark my words. Its not speed that kills, it's the loose nut behind the wheel. In any case, I always have believed that speed cameras have always been about fundraising. Setting up a mobile camera on the exit from a 30 into a 40 and doing you for 35 proves that this is the case. (yes its naughty boys school for me!) I do not have an issue being caught fair and square by Police who stop and discuss your speeding infraction,
Indeed it does. Where average speed cameras are concerned, you only need to see the reduction in accidents on motorway roadworks since the use of average speed cameras to see that they work, and it's a foregone conclusion that they will be rolled out across the country in due course. Our speeding days will soon be over.
