A road speed limit to be cut to 50mph [UK]

Wondermike

Wondermike

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/article5864847.ece

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.
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The new 50mph limit is intended to reduce the high death toll on rural roads, where, in 2007, 69% of car crash fatalities took place. It will apply to single carriage A, B and C roads. Local authorities will have the power to raise the limit to 60mph on the safest roads, but will have to justify it.

Ministers plan to use average speed cameras, which monitor speeds over distances of up to six miles, to help enforce the new limit. The cameras have already been installed at 43 locations. The Home Office is expected to approve their wider use later this year.
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:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:
 
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

What will annoy me about this is that most of the chumps on these roads already only drive at 50mph anyway, so what is this going to do? Add in the fear of getting caught speeding, the fact that a lot of cars speedometers over-read anyway, and soon these roads will effectively become 40mph max speed.

FFS :headbang:
 
Cant see it working to be honest, my journey to work is 25 miles each way, my average speed as indicated over a tank of fuel is 35mph yet my average I always driver at 60 or above on single carriage ways where possible. Unless they have a camera at the end of every road it wont work.
 
Wondermike said:
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

What will annoy me about this is that most of the chumps on these roads already only drive at 50mph anyway, so what is this going to do? Add in the fear of getting caught speeding, the fact that a lot of cars speedometers over-read anyway, and soon these roads will effectively become 40mph max speed.

FFS :headbang:
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Have to agree Mike, the Suffolk section of the A140 is max 50 mph. Following cars doing "50 mph" on there speedo's usually means nearer 45 on my gps readout, then as you say a level of caution some end up nearer 40 mph :driving: :x The main issue I have is that you do not get natural gaps in the flow of traffic as you do normally on a 60 mph road where lorries are limited to 55 mph. So you get people taking huge risks to pull out from side roads due to frustration in waiting for a gap :headbang: I don't know what the figures are regarding accidents, can only assume the death toll has reduced, not sure about the serious road traffic accidents or the overall costs involved.

Ah well at least I don't have to travel up and down the A140 to work any more :wink:

Norman
 
FFS, I wish the British public had some fucking balls!!! Reminds me of the situation in Canada (Ontario, I think), years ago, where they had speed traps on a lot of the bridges on the freeways, meaning traffic was going fast...slow... fast... slow...etc.. The public got pissed off with it and one of the parties said they would get rid of it if they came into power... the public voted and they stuck to it.. finally some common sense!

Makes me sick the way we British are such suckers for the old "you can't put a price on a life" argument, without actually learning the facts... if you're gonna go by that rule, why don't we all freaken walk!

<rant over>
 
I posted on this a few months back when we were discussing speed cameras. From my recollection at the time the plan was more to put these cameras at all the entry and exit points to an area, say a village, and thus catch the motorist regardless of which way they entered and exited the area. Fair enough in those locations where it's a community and no need to be hitting high speed everywhere except for the gatso point.

Moving to a blanket 50mph and then using camers to patrol areas would be a real pain. OK so they lower the speed limit, but I struggle to see it would be effective over extended areas. As noted above while we may blast along at 60mph, slow for a few corners and the average will be way below 50mph.

Of course 2 or 3 cameras in a line over a glorious clear Welsh road would spell trouble :thumbsdown:
 
On the up side, would it mean that there were no more mobile camera's operating in the area at all so you can do some "proper" driving in the area and drive right behind a truck leaving the zone again?

Well, I can dream ...
 
“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.”
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How about investing the money to be spent on the cameras on driver education :?

The roads will soon be covered (more so than they already are...) with zombie drivers just doing the speed limit because that is what the government says is safe :headbang:
 
cj10jeeper said:
Of course 2 or 3 cameras in a line over a glorious clear Welsh road would spell trouble :thumbsdown:
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You hit the nail on the head there... it has naff all to do with road safety, they will put them wherever they feel they can generate the most income.
 
And our fellow European residents are excempt of course. Polish plates anyone?
 
God they should do something useful like sort out the s**t road surfaces instead of wasting money doing this :!:
 
Time for a government change :x Although there's not exactly a great alternative.

They need to spend the money on more traffic cops, people who can actualy judge bad driving. It's crap driving that causes accidents, not speeding :headbang:
 
Yet the mail problem isn't about high speed per se, but INAPPROPRIATE speed. And that's something cameras are useless for. I know plenty of A/B-roads where 70mph is perfectly safe - good visibility, no/light traffic, no junctions, etc - and to limit these to a 50mph is just silly. On the other had, I know plenty of A/B-roads where 50mph is too fast. Hence a blanket 50mph limit is a really stupid idea IMO.

There's bits of the A77 from Troon north to Glasgow with average speed cameras, including a bit of dual-carriageway A-road with a 50mph limit. It takes sooooo much effort and concentration to keep below 50mph. And that worries me because folk spend too much time looking at their speedo and not the road...

I'm much more in favour of patrols back on the road to take action against the unsafe driving (not speeding) that I see on a daily basis. But obviously that's never going to happen :thumbsdown:
 
I assume they're going to 'save money' and just change the Highway Code to state that single-carriageway NSLs are now 50mph.

It just means it'll be easier to overtake the numpties, plus it only means I'll be breaking the limit (in appropriate places) by a bigger margin :oops:
 
srhutch said:
Cant see it working to be honest, my journey to work is 25 miles each way, my average speed as indicated over a tank of fuel is 35mph yet my average I always driver at 60 or above on single carriage ways where possible. Unless they have a camera at the end of every road it wont work.
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There will be a network of intelligent cameras that will all be linked together. It won't be easy to avoid this one. :headbang:
 
Ah, I see. I was concerned about the environmental effects of powering all those boxes everywhere :headbang:
 
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