Speed Limits

[NewcastleFalcon]

Expanding all the time and already in place in the Transport for London Congestion Zone, and in many other locations across the country.

Personally I welcome it. Already here in Northumberland and the Scottish borders too, and not just outside schools and on housing estate roads, but through villages, and in town.

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/car-in ... 15/07/2022

Wales becomes the first UK nation to make the lower speed the default choice following trials in eight communities across Wales and will be rolled out nationally in September 2023.

The new legislation will not apply a blanket speed limit on all roads, it will simply make the default limit 20mph, leaving local authorities to engage with the local community to decide which roads should remain at 30mph.

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

If it clears the streets of London of the most inappropriate designed vehicles for the 20mph streets of London, that would be just a bonus!

The black velvet Ferrari 599



the glow in the dark Lamborghini Aventador



Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

We have had it imposed for quite a while now in Lydney, at the same time they spent, reportedly, over a million pounds on marking out cycle lanes on both sides of an already narrow road., mirrors clashing is the danger from trying to keep out of the bicycles heaven.
Modern cars are really quite difficult to maintain below a twenty miles per hour speed limit I find.
When I went for the MOT in Gloucester I had two hours to kill so I walked to the nearest shopping centre, about five miles each way, all of those roads have cycle lanes both sides but in all the time I was walking not one single bike using them, in fact the only bike I saw was an electric bike being pushed by a woman through Tesco's car park.

[bobins]

The trouble with the 20mph limits is that they treat the effect, not the cause. There should be more effort to make drivers better at the task in hand...... not slower.

[myglaren]

^ How 'modern' is modern? I find that my 1.8 Civic will trundle along in sixth quite happily, on the level at least.
No difficulty sticking to it anywhere else but may have to use third on a steep hill, like the past two nights when I have had to pick my grandson up from the Metro station about seven miles away.

I have just dropped the Civic off for MOT/service and brakes. There were very few cars/vans/lorries keeping to the 20 limit (past schools too) on the way home.

That Ferrari is sheer decadence.

[mickthemaverick]

The issue I have with the 20mph limits is that they'll only be respected by those drivers who currently respect the 30 limit and not the drivers who speed and cause the majority of the problems. As bobins suggests far better to spend the money on driver education both in traffic regulations and car control!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Unless people enjoy fines and penalty points on licences and driving bans, it would only take one to make sure I consciously was more careful next time I approached a 20mph limit. As it happens with me, the possibility of being fined is all the enforcement required to try to do the right thing and observe the limit as best I can.
Yes its easy to slow down to 20mph on seeing the signs, but maintaining 20mph for the duration of the restriction eg when passing through a village I find is difficult particularly when the road ahead is clear. After being conditioned for 40 odd years to drive the way I do, and at a speed where I believe I can stop at all times within the distance I can see to be clear, yes 20 seems too slow, and its easy to return to a 27/28 mph before the restriction ends without realising it, or endangering life and limb of the villagers!

The road safety benefits reported of the 20 mph limit are encouraging. As far as non-compliance goes, in the twenty-twenties I don't think big brother is short of enforcement tools should a rigorous approach to enforcement be adopted.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Changed the thread title to a more general "Speed limits"

A few pressing problems currently exist which I presume require action to solve, rather than just sitting doing nothing waiting to be hit. One of the methods used to reduce demand for petrol in previous crises was the introduction of national speed limits. There is a significant difference in fuel consumption between 70mph and 55 mph.

Makes interesting reading what the USA did in the Oil crisis of the early 1970's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_lim ... %20rows%20

For 13 years (January 1974–April 1987, federal law withheld Federal highway trust funds to states that had speed limits above 55 mph (89 km/h). From April 1987 to December 8, 1995, an amended federal law allowed speed limits up to 65 mph (105 km/h) on rural Interstate and rural roads built to Interstate highway standards.

In 1995, the law was repealed by the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995, returning the choice of speed limit to each state.

Maybe not a vote winner, depends on how big a crisis it is judged, so put in the last resort pile for now. These days speed limits quite enforceable should the will be there to enforce it.

REgards Neil

[GiveMeABreak]

Be grateful you don't live here. Drakeford's latest:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62020427

This is really going to have a negative impact on the economy here with delays in deliveries and goods transportation - just what we need at this time. You couldn't make this up.

Outside schools, colleges, hospitals and busy residential areas ok, but not where I am where there are lots of currently 30 MPH zones with nothing in sight. Utterly ludicrous IMO.

[Gibbo2286]

Be grateful you don't live here. Drakeford's latest:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62020427

This is really going to have a negative impact on the economy here with delays in deliveries and goods transportation - just what we need at this time. You couldn't make this up.

Outside schools, colleges, hospitals and busy residential areas ok, but not where I am where there are lots of currently 30 MPH zones with nothing in sight. Utterly ludicrous IMO.

Mr Drakeford is studying the possibility bringing this back for Wales.
https://exoskeletonreport.com/wp-conten ... icle.jpg

[NewcastleFalcon]

Wiki has a specific page on the National Maximum Speed Law (NMSL) Interesting section on Non-compliance

Opposition and noncompliance

Despite federal compliance standards mandated by Congress that no more than 50 percent of free-flowing traffic on 55 mph-posted highways exceed 55 mph from 1981 onwards, which required up to a 10 percent reduction in federal highway funding for states in noncompliance, by the 1980s traffic surveys showed the NMSL was widely violated:

The speed limit had very low compliance, contrary to the commonly accepted engineering practice that says that the speed limit should criminalize only the fastest 15% of drivers:

From April to June 1982, speed was monitored on New York's Interstate highways, and an 83% noncompliance rate was found despite extreme penalties ranging from $100 (1982 dollars, equal to $281 today) or 30 days jail on a first offense to $500 (1982 dollars, equal to $1,404 today), up to 180 days in jail, and a six-month driver's license revocation upon third conviction in 18 months.

Non-compliance was obviously tolerated, or at the time they did not have the tech or the will to automatically assign non-compliance evidence to the offending drivers. The penalties although severe were not a deterrent to non compliance because of a failure of enforcement. As a result the intended measure in conserving gasoline was pretty ineffective achieving at best a 1% reduction.

Regards Neil

[GiveMeABreak]

Mr Drakeford is studying the possibility bringing this back for Wales.
https://exoskeletonreport.com/wp-conten ... icle.jpg

Well the ridiculous thing about this is that cyclists can now overtake the cars (not that there are any here in any case apart form the odd one. This is not going to help the vast majority of people here, but hinder them.

Common sense has gone out the window with this lot.

[Paul-R]

Cyclists always could overtake cars providing neither were exceeding the speed limit.

Now, as to enforcement of the speed limit on cyclists, that's an entirely different kettle of poissons.

EDIT: I know I spelled poissons correctly first time round. Bloody autocorrect.

[Rp0thejester]

It's not just enforcing speed limits on cyclists that's hard to do, let's not forget red light jumping. I think education is required by motorists and cyclists. The 1.5metre gap is reasonable if on a straight road with clear vision. But not on a fast country lane showing a blue pedestrian and cyclists sign. Most people jump on a push bike and just ride with no knowledge of the highway code. And quite frankly Boris bikes in London are something else altogether....

[Hell Razor5543]

When I in primary school (many decades ago) the local Police did a Cycling Proficiency course. There were only 5 pupils old enough in my school, and we all passed the course. Although I have not been on a bicycle for over 20 years I am of the firm belief that, if you want to be a road user, people need to prove they are safe to be on the road. Done properly all road users would then take care and respect the space of other road users. This needs to include pedestrians when they cross the roads (so looking and listening when they cross the road; not just stepping out without looking (and unable to hear oncoming vehicles because of the headphones/earbuds they are wearing) and then making a contemptuous hand gesture when a vehicle has to stop, blowing their horn!).