Speed cameras

[DodgeT]

The amount of protection offered to the guys that work there *should* be enough to look after them

If i was working on the motorway, or even leaning on my spade, id like to think that the d1cks were doing 50mph & perhaps more likely to avoid an accident than if they were doing 70 - 80mph.

put yourself in there position for a while... I once had to stop in the hard shoulder in my westy, & to say I was cacking it was an understatement

i always obey the 50mph working speed limits on motorways due to that fact.

[adhawkins]

I agree with a lot of what people have said here.

I tend to obey all speed limits of 50 or below. These are there for a reason (built up areas or to protect the people working on the road for example).

However, it seems to me that the 60 / 70 national speed limit really does need a rethink.

Think about it, that limit was introduced in what, the 1950s? How much has the capabilities of the average car (and indeed driver) increased since then?

Perhaps there should be a 'phases' license scheme (similar to what is in effect in Northern Ireland) whereby for a certain time after passing your restricted to a lower speed limit and (I think) excluded from motorways. The idea being you have to spend a period of time building up some experience of driving at 'sensible' speeds before being allowed to drive 'fast'.

Andy

[windy]

A few facts for you to consider:

1) When approaching a junction (e.g. crossroads) at 30 mph the time you are exposed to "danger" is longer than if you were travelling at 50 mph, therefore travelling at 30 means you are more likely to have a collision with a vehicle giving way at this junction.

2) The level of concentration of a driver who is familiar with adapting his pace to the road and traffic conditions himself in the absence of a speed limit, is more likely to lose concentration if forced to adhere to a speed limit.

How many times have you driven to work along a familiar road and not even remembered driving it?

How many times have you driven along a road at 100 mph + and lost your concentration or fallen asleep?

The tories are suggesting as part of their campaign that proven safe drivers should be allowed to drive faster on motorways.

[scruffythefirst]

if you ever saw the state of a car that has gone into the back of crash cushion on the back of the motorway maintenace lorry you'd slow down a lot in roadworks and when you saw flashing lights on the horizon.  

The amount of protection offered to the guys that work there *should* be enough to look after them

what a load of utter b*****k*

I did some work on the roads this summer (temp job) and it got truly scary sometimes, and this was dual carigeway.  It's not you hitting the workers that's the problem, 50mph is still going to do a lot of damage. its the stuff that falls off peoples cars all the time.  We were working on one side of a dual carigeway and in the outside lane of the other carigeway and exhaust fell of a car going pretty quick and hit a tailgating van, this exhaust flew away from us, hit a broken down car and riccoched across 4 lanes of trafic and embeded itself in a tree about 4 feet from us.  

Youd have to buil a 10ft high wall to protect the workers, and whos going to protect the people building the wall

Saying that though i tend to speed everywhere i can get away with it (safely obviously) except in 30 limits, roadworks and towns.

It still scares the sh*t out of me when i think about what would have happened if that exhaust had hit one of us.

Scruffy

[Martin Keene]

(and indeed driver) increased since then?

With some of the driving standards on display in Peterborough recently, I would say it's gone backwards...      

[chumley-warner]

It still scares the sh*t out of me when i think about what would have happened if that exhaust had hit one of us.

So you do think that the issue is not that people are too dumb and need the amount of molly-coddling they receive, but from what you say no real need for a 10ft wall but instead a catch fence like they use to catch errant downhill skiers from falling of cliffs?

That seems OK to me.

C-W

[Fat Albert]

I'm a School Governor and there are recorded "facts" about incidents in our (and well over 80% of other English) LEA area(s) concerning attacks on juveniles on route to / from school.

All this government (or its predecessor) has ever done is ensure that incidents are recorded more often. There is no evidence which supports an increased risk only evidence of better record keeping.

My company does "a lot" of work with the Highways Agency on road traffic modelling.  Extremely detailed models of roads in England & Wales show that a 5% reduction in traffic volume at peak hours increase flow rate by 25% (i.e. in simple terms the roads are clogged up at rush hour).

The correct solution to ALL our road transport issues is to make it harder to get a driving license, remove the worst 10% of drivers from our roads and watch the disproportionate effect on accidents and congestion. But fat hope of our 'spin' minded representatives taking action which might cost them votes    

[Jon Murray]

A few facts for you to consider:

1) When approaching a junction (e.g. crossroads) at 30 mph the time you are exposed to "danger" is longer than if you were travelling at 50 mph, therefore travelling at 30 means you are more likely to have a collision with a vehicle giving way at this junction.

Whilst your statement appears to be logical, the one flaw with it, is that should the vehicle who should be giving way pull out, then you hit it at 50mph and not 30mph!

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

So, let me get this right. The faster you go across a junction, the safer it gets. Yeah, right! I did this once, at about 40, when I was a learner. It was dark and wet and I simply didn't see the cross roads because of parked cars end-to-end and it was only after I felt the rise and fall of the camber of the more major road at which I was supposed to stop as it passed under the wheels that I realised what I'd done. My mate, who was my supervising driver (it was waaay back in unrecorded history) threatened to get out there and then and walk home!

[mb893]

Quote from a respected source: "Speed is life", 'corse it helps if you're touching Mach 1 and pulling more than 6G.    

I remember reading in Private Eye a while ago that the road 'safety' figures were a bit of a pain for all govs, as it is extremely difficult to reduce the number of RTA deaths from it's current level - a function of statistical math/number of road users.

Speeding in towns/near Schools is dumb and anti-social to say the least - but we've all seen this done (and probably have done it ourselves at some point if we're honest)... Bad driving skills are expensive/unpopular to address, Police actually patroling is VERY expensive so speed bumps/cams is the cheap option - live with it I'm afraid

[Mark Stanton]

I've always thought drivers should be re-tested say every 15 to 20 years and every 5 once you reach 60      

Not that I'm against old folks driving but reactions slowing down and possible eyesight and health problems creeping up - just seems a safe measure for everyone.

We all pick-up far too many bad habits - including speeding    

Compulsory motorway lessons for new drivers together with mandatory skid pan sessions and night drivin   lessons.

Perhaps it could be partially funded with some of the revenue generated by all the speed cameras          and any other money used to improve roads          or provide additional police resources to catch drug dealers and proper criminals    

Blimey its all getting very serious innit      

[mb893]

partially funded

Arrrrgggghhhh...Heracy! Unbeliever! Agent of the dark forces!                      

[Nick Algar - Competition Secretary]

Join the 2004 Speed Series, then you can show how fast you can really go.      

No speed limits on the track    

See you there next year.

[mb893]

Join the 2004 Speed Series

Think you can get away with speeding for 30 seconds on the public highway can't you?          

[chazpowerslide]

I've been following this with interest for a while and there have been lots of good points raised, particularly Buzz's.

I think that the time exposed to danger by going faster ect is a bit of a red herring because if it all goes wrong it also takes longer to stop......... a lot longer and the "impact" is a lot harder too.

What all of us do not realise (or do and will not admit to) is that we all, without exception have a range of individual driving ability.

There are times when we are all but switched off in drive mode (can't remember driving home, changed lanes without looking and cut some poor sod up ect) and times when our sences and skills are so honed and switched on (we can actually brake and swerve before we thought we'd seen that pedestrian step out in front of us because we "knew" or because our experience "told" us it was going to happen) that you know you can effectivley deal safely and effectivley with all the driving enviroment can chuck at you and still make good progress.

The trouble is that hardly any of us realise that we are being crap behind the wheel untill we incure the wrath of another driver and then of course it's all the other guys fault.

If you are able to recognise and manage the times that your crap and raise your game you will be an overall better driver.

Three things that wil make you a better driver are;

Ride a motorbike on the road for at least a year as this does wonders for your anticipation, observation and hazzard awareness skills (you can tell I'm a bike instructor can't you)

Take post test driving tuition, ROSPA and IAM are good places to start.

Admit to yourself the areas where your performance is weak and work on them.

Contery to what we believe we are never as good as we think we are.