what Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 THE government is to cut the national speed limit from 60mph to 50mph on most of Britain?s roads, enforced by a new generation of average speed cameras.The reduction , to be imposed as early as next year, will affect two thirds of the country?s road network. Drivers will still be able to reach 70mph on motorways and dual carriageways and 60mph on the safest A roads. Jim Fitzpatrick, the roads minister, defended the plan, which will be the most dramatic cut since 1978, when the national speed limit was reduced from 70mph to 60mph. ?There will be some in the driving lobby who think this is a further attack and a restriction on people?s freedom,? he said. ?But when you compare that to the fact we are killing 3,000 people a year on our roads, it would be irresponsible not to do something about it. I?m sure that the vast majority of motorists would support the proposals.? Full Story --- *groan* This is just getting silly now. It's not the new limit that annoys me too much (but it will if 50mph is imposed on the huge open roads which are easily safe at 60mph) but those stupid average speed cameras. They make you too self-conscious of your speed, so you're paying more attention to the speedo than the road. Most accidents are caused by lack of observations (i.e. crossing into the opposing lane without looking far enough ahead, moving into the next lane without properly checking your mirror, etc), not speed by itself. It's not the speed that kills anyway, it's the sudden stop that gets you. And they want these cameras to cover up to six miles? That's just crazy. Why not make better use of the money and make roads safer - some of the blind, narrow corners you get on some B roads are total death traps. Driving in a straight line on a wide open road isn't dangerous... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Battery Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Whats always annoyed me is how the speed limits go up and down between short distances so you cant always be sure what the limit is and there are no signs anywhere, just speed cameras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84Mark Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Agreed with +what on this one. Average speed cameras are dangerous. Especially in busy traffic when its important to keep your eye on the road and the car in front of you and not your dashboard to constantly check your speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilsbury Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 You shouldn't need to keep checking your speedo, surely you can estimate what your speed is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicane-UK Veteran Posted March 8, 2009 Veteran Share Posted March 8, 2009 Insanity. So as technology improves, and as cars are better at stopping quickly with improvements in braking / tyres / suspension / braking assistance / abs, etc they take a draconian step like this? Insanity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouldy Punk Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Whats always annoyed me is how the speed limits go up and down between short distances so you cant always be sure what the limit is and there are no signs anywhere, just speed cameras. I hate that too. The A1 is awful for that. One minute it's 70, the next it's 50 with a speed camera just over the brow of a hill to catch you out. Pilsbury: Estimating isn't good enough. If the speed limit is 40 and you estimated you were doing 41 - some cameras will get you for that. When they were making the M1 wider, they had the average speed cameras up all over the place with a limit of 40. The limit of 40 was there to protect the workers on the road - fair enough. What annoys me though, is when there aren't workers there, like a Sunday, and the road is empty, the limit is still 40mph...and you can't just go fast between the cameras like you used to be able to do because they're the average speed cameras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d4v1d05 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 ?There will be some in the driving lobby who think this is a further attack and a restriction on people?s freedom,? he said. ?But when you compare that to the fact we are killing 3,000 people a year on our roads, it would be irresponsible not to do something about it. I?m sure that the vast majority of motorists would support the proposals.? Would be nice to see which of the 3,000 deaths per year were done on a national speed limit road, as opposed to people being drunk and doing ~90 in a residential area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
what Posted March 8, 2009 Author Share Posted March 8, 2009 You shouldn't need to keep checking your speedo, surely you can estimate what your speed is? No, sorry, I, with many other people, cannot tell the difference between 49 and 51mph without looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zivan56 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 We used to have "photo radar" vans about 10 years back, which would take a picture and send you the bill if they caught you going over the limit. They would park them at random locations, and this caused a huge uproar with thousands of people getting tickets. Eventually, they stopped using them because everybody was so against it (I believe it became an election issue as well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84Mark Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 You shouldn't need to keep checking your speedo, surely you can estimate what your speed is? If you've been doing 70mph on a motorway and all of sudden you're limited to 40mph on the exact same road it can be very very difficult to stay below without constantly checking your speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Veteran Posted March 8, 2009 Veteran Share Posted March 8, 2009 I find that I'm more alert driving faster. Going slow makes me look at things I shouldn't like the radio or why the mat in my car is creeping up the wall of my footwell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 would they still catch you if you stopped at the side of the road for 10 minutes and drove through at 100mph later? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SojIrOu Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 double post* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilsbury Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 No, sorry, I, with many other people, cannot tell the difference between 49 and 51mph without looking. It won't be set off at 51mph - it would be at least 55mph to meet ACPO standards. And if you are in heavy traffic, surely it would be doing around the same speed as you want to be? :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 When will they learn that its not speed that kills, its the lack of attention to the road. Weather your going 70mph or 50mph, if your not focused enough, your very likely to crash. The government is trying to play God, they cant do that, simple. Road surfaces are also a big part in road safety, there is a NSL road near me, its probably half a mile long, before it drops to 30mph, then on to a 40mph dual carriageway, its always being resurfaced, having pot holes filled in ect, some of those pot holes get extremely nasty too. And I can think of some very bad roads round here too. So much for "great" britain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chconline Veteran Posted March 9, 2009 Veteran Share Posted March 9, 2009 A lot of times I've found that the rapid speed changes on a segment of road is more of a profit generating machine for the police rather than safety. Besides temporary construction zones (Other than the fact that there are obviously no workers Wednesdays at 2am yet there's a large array of polices...) I don't find changing speed limits is really 'safety'. Just let them drive as fast as they want on a large open freeway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noveed Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 What i thought the limit was 70, im taking lessons still and whenever i see the National Speed limit Sign i smash it up to 70. Never done 60 when i see the sign and my instructor has not said anything either. It is distressing though keeping to the limit when you can see an empty road infront of you for miles ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwjw1 Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 maybe they should just do away with a speed limit and let Natural Selection run its course...but then that puts the people who actually have brain cells in jeopardy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhapimp Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 well slower speed limit means more angry people on the road, causing more accidents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shockz Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 maybe they should just do away with a speed limit and let Natural Selection run its course...but then that puts the people who actually have brain cells in jeopardy. Great idea (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilsbury Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 What i thought the limit was 70, im taking lessons still and whenever i see the National Speed limit Sign i smash it up to 70. Never done 60 when i see the sign and my instructor has not said anything either. It is distressing though keeping to the limit when you can see an empty road infront of you for miles ahead. I thought learner drivers were limited to 45mph? Edit: That's only Northern Ireland, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacemf Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 on my car ive set an audible warning when i go above 70mph, which is fine for the motorways, but the other roads i cant set a speed limit or anything.... best solution is for cars to be more intelligent, and warn drivers of changing speed limits, like in the news mercedes :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbba Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 What i thought the limit was 70, im taking lessons still and whenever i see the National Speed limit Sign i smash it up to 70. Never done 60 when i see the sign and my instructor has not said anything either. It is distressing though keeping to the limit when you can see an empty road infront of you for miles ahead. 70 is motorways and dual carriageways. If you've been doing 70 on a single lane road with a national speed limit, you've been speeding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbba Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Pilsbury: Estimating isn't good enough. If the speed limit is 40 and you estimated you were doing 41 - some cameras will get you for that. I heard that speed cameras are set to speed limit + 10% + 2mph. When they were making the M1 wider, they had the average speed cameras up all over the place with a limit of 40. The limit of 40 was there to protect the workers on the road - fair enough. What annoys me though, is when there aren't workers there, like a Sunday, and the road is empty, the limit is still 40mph...and you can't just go fast between the cameras like you used to be able to do because they're the average speed cameras. You can't expect them to take them down whenever there's no workers, they'd be pretty busy. Plus the speed limits are also there because the carriageways are often narrower when there's roadworks under way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouldy Punk Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 I heard that speed cameras are set to speed limit + 10% + 2mph. That is a myth and shouldn't be trusted. Some local authorities will allow 10% extra, some will allow a couple of mph extra, some will allow 0.1mph extra, others will allow nothing extra. Assuming you're OK doing 32 in a 30 might work some of the time, but it won't work for a lot of cameras. Of course, you have to bare in mind that most car speedos aren't accurate. They're designed to err on the side of caution. So, if you're speedo says you're doing 33mph, you probably are actually only doing about 30mph - which will be fine for any speed camera that is set to flash at 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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