New government (lower) speed limit plans?

[RobBentley]

Hi All.

What do we think of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8009364.stm

How long until we're driving down the motorway at 60MPH :-(

If it happens I think i'll move to germany!

 

[RobBentley]

Personally I think 20mph is too slow. Its all well and good saying 1 in 20 people are killed vs 1 in 5 and 30 but if there are 4x as many collisions at 20 it negates anything.

Personally I think 20 is too slow. The driver will be spending more time gazing at their speedo to check they're not going to get 3 points for doing 24mph than actually looking at where he or she is going.

 

[turbonutter69]

I think they are going about it all wrong. Education is the way forwards in my opinion. Limiting engine size/power etc for new drivers is another option I think.

 

[obi_waynne]

Driver standards and driver education will reduce the accidents. In a 20mph you spend most of your time looking at your speedo instead of watching the roads! We have one round here through Sandwich and it is a real pain.

It also means that congestion becomes a bigger problem and that can't be good for the envrironment so lets set the greenies on the safeties and see who wins

20mph can be too fast in some weather conditions and setting a lower limit does very little IMHO to make our roads safer. It does however give extra scope for the police to catch drivers going at 25mph and issue a fixed penalty notice.

Add a compulsary retest at ages 30, 50, 60,70,75 and then each year and we will have safer roads.

As an alternative and this is a great idea, use the IAM as a driver educator and give lower car Tax to all IAM licence holders.

 

[Prince]

Unless the put a speed camera on every road I really don't see it working. 20mph near schools is correct, but everywhere else is too slow. I don't even need 2nd gear for that! I think the government need to realise that it's not always the speed, but in fact the driver that cause a problem. Is 20mph whilst on the phone better than 30mph fully concentrating... Of course not!

I agree that new drivers should be limited, even if it's just until they have driven for 1 year. Maybe the theory could involve some actual education to help new drivers understand the dangers of driving like an idiot. The problem is though, the paragraph I have just written only tackles half the problem. What about drivers who are just as bad but have been driving for years? This could then involve re-testing. It comes down to the point that making people drive slower is the easiest way to go about making the roads safer. Maybe a counter-arguement is the way to go? If the speed limits are lower then congestion will be higher meaning more pollution. Get some enviromentalists involved and see what happens. We'll probably all be told we can drive at 30 if if we a drive a G-Wiz!!

All in all, I understand the difficulty of the situation, but the easiest option isn't all ways the best. The government need to think long and hard about this and not blame the speed of the car, but the driver instead.

 

[CitizenErazed]

On the lowering to 50 front, they needn't bother, I've noticed everyone seems to drive between 45 and 50 these days anyway, when I first past my test I was amazed to see everyone driving at 70 but then a year after onwards every car on the road seems to be about 50 MPH round here, overtake them and just get stuck behind another doing 45. (Then it really annoys me how as little of a hurry as they’re obviously in they then don't slow down for towns) Personally I'm under the opinion that if it's an open road out in the country with no pedestrians around, then speed limits are really not needed, I'm not sure why they're there on open roads and motorways, so limiting to 50 is pointless.

As for in towns and villages, I've always said that whilst I do tend to often speed on open roads, I wouldn't speed in towns and villages because there are people around, so I'm all for limits in those areas, but 30 to 20? 30 seems fine to me, it seems a problem with those idiots I described earlier who are doing more then that though. Isn't this an area where hazard perception should play a big part? Whilst you do occasionally get the drunk who jumps into the road out of nowhere, surely most of the in town accidents could be avoided if the driver is alert and paying attention to the world around them. Utilizing good driving.

Putting it at 20 will just add frustration and therefore make people less calm, thus less alert and aware, more likely to have an accident by not noticing the hazard, even if they aren't frustrated, they'll be daydreaming. 20 for a short stint outside a school fine, the whole town? nah.

The of course there's the traffic issues as you've mentioned, there will be more cars in the city at any time as they haven't managed to get out fast enough Lol, it will become more clogged up, people will be driving at 20MPH between traffic jams. It'll be quicker to walk at that rate. Plus has anyone thought about the years off your life that stress takes?

Ok I went a bit daft at the end there, but still, I think 50mph is a pointless waste of time. And 20 MPH is not much better. We need to focus on improving drivers’ hazard perception, alert/ awareness.

 

[Twamgl3]

This is old news. The reduction of speed limits takes place all the time where there is a high enough number of road traffic collisions leading to serious injury or death (try six in five years).

It really does boil down to drivers having the skills and education not to rag it round and drive beyond the boundaries of their skill and their vehicle's capabilities.

The police generally call every crash a road traffic collision (RTC) rather than a road traffic accident (RTA), for the reasons described so beautifully in the film Hot Fuzz. There is always someone at fault for the crash, whether they meant it or not.

Tyre blows out? Should have been maintained properly.
Round a corner and crash into a tree? Should always be able to see beyond your braking distance.
Hit a drunk stepping out into the road? Should have seen that there was someone by the side of the road and be prepared to take avoidance action.

Perhaps draconian, but everyone should be limited in their first year of driving in much the same way as motorcylists are, and above a certain cut off point only IAM or similar need apply. None of this will work because people will continue to defraud the DVLA, VOSA and their insurance companies - they don't usually get caught until its too late.

 

[J0K3R]

Maybe Jay Walking laws should be bought in against Pedestrians, who feel it is their god given right to walk out across the road, irregardless of what's coming, expecting you to stop, despite the fact that us, the drivers, are paying all the tax for the concrete they are treading on. If pedestrians only crossed roads at crossings and parents taught their children not to run out in the roads, then the statistics would become irrelevant. You could be driving down a residential road at 40, see a sign post for a crossing, slow down, stop for the crossing if necessary then continue on your journey. People respect wild tigers because they're dangerous. You wouldn't walk up to one and poke it with a stick. They should have the same respect for roads. They are dangerous. Don't go for a stroll on them. Stop trying to punish drivers and start educating the pedestrian, who if they stayed on the pavement except for crossings, their would be a massively significant drop in road deaths, negating the need to try and blame it all on the people who spent lots of money and time learning to control their vehicle and NOT damage it on annoying people.

 

[dpsubaru]

Please log onto this and abuse these idiots who keep saying speed kills - yes we all know it does but it is NOT the major cause of deathson the roads and dropping the speed limit will likely have the opposite effect. Note i suspect the idiots comments at the bottom of the article likely live in the city and use public transport:
http://www.scotsman.com/latestnews/Cut---speeds-.5191714.jp#3958397

 

[obi_waynne]

It would be better to sign the petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/noNSLreduction/ than get involved in trying to have a battle of wits with the unarmed!

 

[jc denton]

Hi All.

What do we think of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8009364.stm

How long until we're driving down the motorway at 60MPH :-(

If it happens I think i'll move to germany!

I think speed limits should be binned & a proper driving test created.

Safer drivers not safer roads is what should be aimed at. & for that we need a proper driving test & proper instructors (who can handle a car). I mean how backwards is our test? learner drivers still have to thread the wheel!! how many cars are without PAS these days? learner drivers dont even have to do an emergency stop anymore.

The only thing in the current driving test about breaking, for example is a couple of questions in the theory test based on the official stoping distances set sixty years ago with a ford anglia, which didn't go above 60mph. If speed limits where set again in the same way to suit the stoping distances of modern cars the national speed limit would probably be around 150mph.

I suggest that new drivers should have to show Competance, Alertness & Confidance...CAC, (Im still working on that). Rather than follow a system of bull$hit.

Any new driver can learn to follow the system & pass they're test. It dous not mean that they learn to drive, they do that afterwards. imho.

New drivers should be able to take their test driving however they want, & the examiner should be competant enough to decide if they're safe or not, without having to use any predefined system or checklist.

Finland has a proper driving test. Where new drivers spend a certain amount of time on a skidpad before they're even allowed on the road. Already I can think of several successful rally & F1 drivers from finland.

 

[HDi fun]

I think speed limits should be binned & a proper driving test created.

Safer drivers not safer roads is what should be aimed at. & for that we need a proper driving test & proper instructors (who can drive). I mean how backwards is our test? learner drivers still have to thread the wheel!! how many cars are without PAS these days? learner drivers dont even have to do an emergency stop anymore.

The only thing in the current driving test about breaking, for example is a couple of questions in the theory test based on the official stoping distances set sixty years ago with a ford anglia, which didn't go above 60mph. If speed limits where set again in the same way to suit the stoping distances of modern cars the national speed limit would probably be around 150mph.

I suggest that new drivers should have to show Competance, Alertness & Confidance...CAC, (Im still working on that). Rather than follow a system of bull#!#!#!#!.

Any new driver can learn to follow the system & pass they're test. It dous not mean that they learn to drive, they do that afterwards. imho.

New drivers should be able to take their test driving however they want, & the examiner should be competant enough to decide if they're safe or not, without having to use any predefined system or checklist.

Finland has a proper driving test. Where new drivers spend a certain amount of time on a skidpad before they're even allowed on the road. Already I can think of several successful rally & F1 drivers from finland.

I agree with all the sentiments but we still hear of people getting tickets from mobile speed cams. That tells me one thing - they're no looking ahead. Giving them a sixty quid fine and 3 points won't improve their driving skills and attention at all. But it will slow them down. I'd rather be hit by someone doing 69mph than be hit by someone doing 96mph.

I hate to bring it down to this level because it really does not address the real issue, which is that the driving standard in the UK is rubbish in general. But it's impossible to educate idiots.

If speed limits were removed and replaced with road classifications according to the type of risks and hazards likely to be encountered we'd have a better system and safer roads so long as everyone one paid attention to their driving.