So the goverment plans to reduce country road speed limits from the national speed limit to 40mph, they say it will cure deaths on B roads etc.....! A lad I know died only a few months back after they reduced the limit from 60 to 40 so that worked then...NOT. People don't give a toss about the speed limit they do what ever speed they like and then give you the bird if your driving at 40 round me! I say get rid of 17-21 year olds in 1.6l pocket rockets that may help down my way! And fix the god dam roads! BBC News - Speed limits: 40mph plan for country roads
I saw this on the news earlier Arthur, Im guessing this is going to be another government sledgehammer and the nut scenario? I have just been looking around on google trying to add some weight to this thread, for what I can see the death toll has actually fallen, but increased on "rural" roads? One thing that could possibly have some saving grace? Is perhaps the local authority will have to pick up the bill on an already thinly spread budget, but this will only delay the process? One thing for sure, we can expect to see an increase in speed cameras on our favourite stretches of road from now on?
Or is it just another goad to evoke a reaction, followed by a back down to a less draconian but planned change to the law that will leave the masses believing they've scored a victory. It's happened before, most noticeably with the poll tax. If anything comes of it, I'll sell the bike, sell the sporty cars and buy something bland and cheap to replace them and cross out driving on my hobby list.
I belive track days will become ever more popular? So we can do below the speed limit in our cars to the track, cause the gridlock and chaos they want, have a good thrash around and come home. Not to mention the increase in emissions, time spent at the wheel and road rage incidents that could come about?
It’s not the speed limits on rural roads. Moreover the state of the roads themselves, at least that’s the case out here where the roads tend to be higher than the fields. Pot holes, cracks, erosion causing bumps, dips and uneven cambers especially the on bends. And don’t even get me started on the crap the famers leave all over the road whilst they are driving their dangerous equipment covered with spikes and sharp edges. Then add in the mix of young Sterling Moss would be’s who think they on a race track or the old hands driving pissed safe in the knowledge that the police rarely venture out here. None of which will be bothering me today now as its over cast and looks like rain any minute plus the hot water is playing up, so that’s my Sunday sorted.
Just what councils need right now spending thousands and thousands of pounds changing signs and advertising ect .I thought we are in a double dip.?
I think it's just another popular headline grabber to deflect attention from other problems. Plus it's totally unenforceable, the authorities(?) can't manage road safety, traffic control or speed limits on trunk roads with all the technology available never mind hundreds of miles of single carriage way under the control of tin pot local morons.
Another part of the problem, is that people are just not trained to drive safely at speed, or understand just how much distance shrinks at speed. For example, in my town we are surrounded by exactly the windy, countrified 60mph roads the govt it talking about... and the only other route out is the motorway. Therefore, it stands to reason that kiddies in my town are going to have to learn to safely negotiate these roads at the speeds that entails... but you can guarantee their whole driver learning experience will be had at speeds no greater than 40mph. It then follows quite naturally that the first time they get up to 60mph (probably with their mates yabbering on in the car) they wont have the faintest clue how to deal with it (i.e. what gap to leave to car in front, how far ahead to look for hazards). Never understood why learners arent forced to spend at least a few hours learning high-speed (60+mph) driving.
Yet another ill thought out scheme. This country is losing its sense of humour. Whatever next? If they are aiming to reduce deaths, it will make sod all difference. About a year ago, a boy racer in his little citroen went and lost control coming from a 60 limit into a 30 nearby. He ploughed headlong into a tree, killed his 3 passengers, but survived himself. Would a 40 limit have stopped this? No. He was doing between 90 and 100 at 1.30 in the morning and didn't give a toss what the speed limit was.
That's the funny thing about the goverment, do they actually think that people give a shite about speed limits are they so thick that they think people wil reduce speed if they change the law... all they will do is make more law brakers... Half the reason there is more deaths on the roads each year is there is more sodding drivers... I mean where do they get these people who do the math....make me laugh all the goverment care about is revenue, road tax, taxed insurance, vat, and god know all the other taxes we all pay as a result of motoring!
I haven't read every post, soz, but i'm pissed after having a bloody good day out thrashing the bike. But, if the wankers spent our 'road tax' money on the roads, instead of about 5% of it, there wouldn't be so much of a problem. The roads are a bikers nightmare. We xont crash, we run out of decent road. And as for the standard of driving...........another kettle of fish... Off to bed now for a bj.
Hey folks, I don’t believe the likes of making all B road’s a 40MPH limit will change the death tolls one iota. I think the biggest problem is there are too many MP’s or law makers with nothing left to discuss other than creating stupid rules that don’t benefit anybody and waste massive amount of money trying to implement for a while before spending even more money turning everything back the way it was before! The motorist is just an easy cash cow target the government keeps exploiting over and over again, I wouldn’t mind paying all the over the top prices for the likes of road tax and such if the tax was actually spent on the roads instead of being swiped to pay for other crap! The biggest leap I made in my road awareness and driving safety was going for my bike test almost 13 yrs ago! Holly crap sorry for going off on a bit of a rant.
