[BBC News]Police promise on school speeding

[Cret]

Not wanting to hijackthe thread but why is 50 and 40 absurd?

 

For numerous reasons that have been delved into in greater depth and with more eloquence than I could, on numerous previous occasions.

 

As has been pointed out quite rightly many times previously the kind of drivers that cause the problems are not generally the 'normal' decent people who pay attention to what they're doing behind the wheel be it at 40, 60, or 90mph, they are the idiots that drive with total disregard for the law/other people who already ignore the laws of the road anyway and thus would ignore any new ones that 'restrict' them more.

 

I am not any kind of speed freak that thinks the roads are fine & we should be free to do as we please as that just doesn't work. Common sense should be used however.

 

At present the situation is ridiculous - we have wide open roads with dual carriageway such as through santon and richmond hill where there are 50 limits in place. Daft and as I have said they tend to get ignored by many people anyway.

 

On the flip side there are tons of twisty country single track lanes with tight bends, high hedges, horses/sheep/ramblers/oncoming traffic etc potentially round each bend, and they are derestricted ffs! They are the roads that should be looked at more carefully.

 

This has been done over & over anyway so I'm not getting further into the issue of national limits.

 

As I have said - I am all for the enforcement of 20 limits that are in place at present and even cameras at lights if they are cost effective.

[Albert Tatlock]

But we're having it in English, and ironically the English (along with almost the entire of the rest world) have long since recognised the importance of a national speed limit, and are in fact reducing their speed limit on country roads, such as the ones that are unrestricted here.

You missed the point.

[Tuna Sandwich]

But we're having it in English, and ironically the English (along with almost the entire of the rest world) have long since recognised the importance of a national speed limit, and are in fact reducing their speed limit on country roads, such as the ones that are unrestricted here.

 

They are also talking of increasing the 60 national limit to 70 as 60 is inappropriate on most dual carriageways, they are also talking of raising the motorways speed limit to 85mph (87.5 actually) in line with the 140kph on similar roads in Europe.

 

Remember, when the UK national limits were introduced, there were relatively few cars that were capable of going much more than 90mph, and safety(in all areas) has also come a long way.

[stookie]

They are also talking of increasing the 60 national limit to 70 as 60 is inappropriate on most dual carriageways,

 

Think you'll find the national speed limit is already 70 on a dual carriageway and has been for a few decades since the end of the 'oil crisis'.

 

Cret, a dual carriageway is a stretch of road where the traffic is separated by some kind of central reservation - more airport than Richmond Hill or Santon

[Tuna Sandwich]

OOps Stooks is right. I will have to check my sources. It may be a rise on all "A" roads. I will get back to you.

[stookie]

Stookie, as far as red lights are concerned, I cannot recall the last time someone running a red light injured or killed someone. In fact apart from annoying law abiding motorists (like us), what harm does it do? Is it really worth spending 10s of thousands of pounds on? Or would it be better to spend that money on more appropriate measures to cut crashes?

 

But isn't that a bit daft? Exactly how long after a light turns red is it safe to drive through? Just checking for future reference.

 

I haven't heard of any fatalities caused by people going the wrong way down a one way street, but if we all adopted your laissez faire attitude to the rules of the road, it wouldn't be long before there were plenty

 

I disagree with inappropriate speed limits also, finding them hard to respect and that's a large part of the problem.

 

Are the markings on the Old Castletown Road you refer to bordered with a solid or broken white line. If the latter, it's fine to go inside them with caution, I believe.

[Tuna Sandwich]

But isn't that a bit daft? Exactly how long after a light turns red is it safe to drive through? Just checking for future reference.

 

I haven't heard of any fatalities caused by people going the wrong way down a one way street, but if we all adopted your laissez faire attitude to the rules of the road, it wouldn't be long before there were plenty

 

I disagree with inappropriate speed limits also, finding them hard to respect and that's a large part of the problem.

 

Are the markings on the Old Castletown Road you refer to bordered with a solid or broken white line. If the latter, it's fine to go inside them with caution, I believe.

 

That is not the point. The point is that by possibly running a red light nobody gets hurt, but some may get annoyed. It has nothing to do with driving down one way streets the wrong way. I am not saying it is right or condoning it in any way. I am saying it is not worth spending tens of thousands of pounds of tax payers money, that could be used to improve roads and infrastructure that actually will improve road safety.

 

With regard to my "laissez faire attitude to rules of the road" in nearly 30 years of driving I have never had a single point on my license. Can you say the same?

 

The markings on the Old Castletown Road are broken, so yes, you can drive over them, but unfortunately 95% of drivers don't and this makes it very dangerous for pedestrians.

[Mr. Sausages]

That is not the point. The point is that by possibly running a red light nobody gets hurt, but some may get annoyed.

 

Don't be stupid, stupidhead. Do you know how many accidents occur each year when someone has gone through a red light and hit traffic? Neither do I, but it's lots. And the worst thing is, it's usually one driver's word against another. One of them's lying, but you can't tell who.

[Cret]

Have to agree with the sausageman there. It's daft to suggest nobody gets hurt by people running red lights.

 

Try telling that to a lad I know whose car got Tboned by a silly bint that drove straight through one without even slowing down (i believe it was a lipstick/mirror moment).

[Tuna Sandwich]

Have to agree with the sausageman there. It's daft to suggest nobody gets hurt by people running red lights.

 

Try telling that to a lad I know whose car got Tboned by a silly bint that drove straight through one without even slowing down (i believe it was a lipstick/mirror moment).

 

So the fact that the red light was there was irrelevant. The crash happened because the "bint" was doing her makeup.

 

Sausages and Cret, I will look up the stats and get back to you.

[Mr. Sausages]

When you'll no doubt claim to be trolling again. I don't need any stats - I used to deal with incidents like that every bloody day.

[Tuna Sandwich]

Statistics are hard to find but this makes interesting reading

 

http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/finalreport.pdf

 

As does this

 

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=10832

 

I can not find any actual statistics though. Many links "claiming" reductions but also many not. However, Running a red light was not mentioned as one of the 13 major causes of accidents in the IOM2004 report (as far as I remember).

[Tuna Sandwich]

When you'll no doubt claim to be trolling again. I don't need any stats - I used to deal with incidents like that every bloody day.

 

A phrase about a dead horse and flogging comes to mind. I'll bet the horse did not run a red light!!!

[stookie]

That is not the point. The point is that by possibly running a red light nobody gets hurt, but some may get annoyed. It has nothing to do with driving down one way streets the wrong way. I am not saying it is right or condoning it in any way. I am saying it is not worth spending tens of thousands of pounds of tax payers money, that could be used to improve roads and infrastructure that actually will improve road safety.

 

With regard to my "laissez faire attitude to rules of the road" in nearly 30 years of driving I have never had a single point on my license. Can you say the same?

 

Rather than missing the point, you haven't answered my question. How many seconds after a red light appears is it OK to go through and will those be your seconds or mine (one thousand, two thousand, etc)?

 

I know - let's just give up and drive like in India, ie anywhere in the road we feel like. Good example India actually, because they have a terrible mortality rate and also no respect for rules of the road.

 

For the record, I've had a clean licence for 33 years, but that just means I haven't been caught as we all know

[Chelski]

it's those pesky saxo boy racers!! They will be the death of themselves... but how annoying are they.. very. and the age range 16-24.. the most dangerous age for the insurance companies...

Had a few following my arse lately and i just feel the need to slow down to say, hey slow down we're not in a rush, but what do they do, just overtake.... grrrrrrrr