"New 30mph limit on the A40 Westway is dangerously slow" blog discussion

skintas_2

dam thats why the camera flashed last nite. i live off the westway this road os slow enough. the local traffic in the evenigs is bad enough, esp coming into london part. but then if i go the harrow road into london its 30mph .

MSE_Martin

MsHoarder wrote: »

Martin, raising this in a way which sounds disrespectful to a law that exists to try to save lives is irresponsible given your profile.

I'm not familiar with the Westway , but from a map it looks a couple of miles long at most and has junctions. There is a known problem that drivers coming from a faster speed limit do not slow down immediately when entering city streets again, and accidents are more common on inbound city radials from motorways. So possibly it is due to that?

As stated in the article, the problem is not the speed limit but the number of people disobeying it. However the same people would cry blue murder if speed cameras were suggested. The time saved over a couple of miles is marginal, and generally the destination is reached no faster unless the next queue at a junction clears every time the lights change.

As for variable speed limit areas, these are expensive. When we can't even afford to fix all the potholes, putting all the infrastructure in for one of these on a short stretch of dual carriageway would be madness.



Does your parents' lane have street lights? The law states that roads with street lights closer together than x yards are 30mph limited by default. This was done early last centuary, and works well on 99% of roads for a fraction of the cost of a full speed limit audit.

The law is a codification to help us, to make things safer, to help the country run smoothly. If it is not doing the job or we cannot see that it is - then questioning it is fine.

I am not advocating people breaking the law, but whether the particular rule should change. In this case actually the road has no junctions for four kilometers, and then later stays a three lane dual carriageway for a good distance. There are no pedestrian crossings at all.

Again I may note part of my problem is this hasn't been communicated or explained. There haven't even been (as far as I've seen) any "Speed limit change" announcements on the road.

If this will save lives then wonderful, and I will go with the evidence, yet the evidence is not being communicated well enough (if it exists)

TattyBear

glasgowsoundman wrote: »

Martin,

The Greater London Authority are responsible for the A40. Transport for London would be the agency within the GLA that has direct responsibility for it.

TfL Customer RelationsFax: 020 3054 5306
Email: [EMAIL="enquire@tfl.gov.uk"]enquire@tfl.gov.uk[/EMAIL]
Post: 4th Floor, Zone Y4, 14 Pier Walk, North Greenwich, London SE10 0ES

Would probably be a good place to start.

Good plan, although Martin would probably get a far faster response if he phoned up Boris directly and asked him for a 2 min Daybreak TV interview.

russell07

There's a similar road in Kent (which is a 3 lane 40 limit road) which is routinely treated as motorway (pretty much identical to a motorway). The only difference is there's a slight hill you go up and over and police typically sit over the other side of this to monitor people coming over the brow - so watch out!

I find this actually more dangerous, as it means cars go over the top, slam on their brakes and cause drivers behind potential issues...

Domain.Rider

Some countries vary the speed limit according to the weather conditions, so it's clearly feasible.

Here in Kent, we have a stretch of the A2 that has 40mph signs immediately followed (e.g. within 200yds) by 30mph signs, and vice-versa, in several places. If you're behind a lorry, the chances of seeing both are small...

callum9999

Simon_c wrote: »

I totally agree. I lost respect for 30mph signs a *long* time ago. They pop up everywhere, because local councillors must be seen to do something in response to some in response to a statistical blip, or a campaign from someone who's lost someone close and (understandably) wants to do something, *anything* to stop others going through the same trauma.

I always tend to drive at the speed for the road and conditions with an awareness of the posted speed limit, but not a ridged commitment to stick to it. So far, I've never been involved in an accident that is even remotly relevant to nor have I ever had points on my license.... May be I'm just lucky.

I'm not saying you can't, but EVERYONE who speeds feel they can do it safely (otherwise they wouldn't do it) but as I'm sure you're aware there are many accidents, or accidents that would happen anyway are made much worse, by people speeding.

Alfmuttley

I'm a 'new' user so can't post links but if you go to all the w's hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1938/jun/27/west-way-speed-limit

You'll see that 30mph was considered too slow in 1937. Progress?

IanSF

The speed reduction on this stretch is probably an attempt to ease the 'pile up' of traffic that happens when the road is reduced to two lanes further up the Westway.

Snakeeyes21

russell07 wrote: »

There's a similar road in Kent (which is a 3 lane 40 limit road) which is routinely treated as motorway (pretty much identical to a motorway). The only difference is there's a slight hill you go up and over and police typically sit over the other side of this to monitor people coming over the brow - so watch out!

I find this actually more dangerous, as it means cars go over the top, slam on their brakes and cause drivers behind potential issues...

potential issues? what would they be? surely a driver sticking to the speed limit and driving a safe distance behind the car in front wouldnt run in to any problems whatsoever...

Oh you must mean those already breaking the law will run in to potential issues

mattcanary

Certain laws are an !!! and they should be questioned.

A good driver drives appropriately to the conditions of the road and is aware of other roadusers. A bad driver slavishly looks at his/her speedo without taking on what is happening on the road.

Why does Cambridgeshire have variable speed limits around schools depending on the time of day you are travelling along the road and Suffolk doesn;t??! (just has a blanket 30mph speed limit in villages - in many villages it should be 40mph and some possibly 20mph at points