Keep Death Off Rural Roads 27 February 2017 at 12:33AM in Campaigns corner 19 replies 13.5K views

cairndog

I live in the Kent countryside which makes me apparently one of only 20% as 80% live in urban areas.

Lucky me you may think but unfortunately 59% of fatalities occur on rural roads!!

If YOU live in a rural area you can help to do something about this by signing a Government Petition now at:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/176763 (sorry not able to post a link).
The petition ends on 11th July 2017 and there is more information on that website. Unless we get enough signatures we are stuck with a 60mph speed limit so please, please sign and ask your friends and neighbours too.
Thankyou.

MataNui

Another well meaning but poorly thought out and ultimately pointless petition.

I have seen Swiss cheeses with less holes in than this idea. I also live in a rural area so know exactly what you mean. Sorry but i wont be signing simply because its impractical, unworkable, unenforceable and would impose a bankrupting cost on some of the most financially stressed local authorities in the country.

p00hsticks

MataNui wrote: »

Another well meaning but poorly thought out and ultimately pointless petition.

One would think that people raising these petitions would at least make sure they contain proper sentences that make grammatical sense, rather than nonsense like this

"There are no pavements or lighting leave home on foot with a buggy straight on to a road with a 60mph limit - unacceptable."

robin58

As always pointless petition on the 'keyboard crusaders' favourite website.

We as a country can't afford what we have now and they expect local authorities to pay to put things 'right' in thier eyes.

How about coming from the other way. What about the poor driving that causes the fatalities in the first place. Or no traffic no fatalities.

As for sat navs, maps for the brain dead.

steampowered

I personally agree with the petition. People seem to drive unbelievably fast and dangerously on a lot of country roads. I've always thought that a 60mph limit seems extremely high for this kind of road.

Enforcing it is another matter though ... it wouldn't be cost-effective to put pavements or speed cameras on country roads.

MataNui

There is estimated to be just under 200k miles of 'C' or 'Unclassified' road in the UK of which about 80% is rural. BUT.... Using the criteria in the petition that should also include a lot of the 'B' roads which would double that figure. Pretty much all of that will currently be covered by the national speed limit. The petition wants to change that to 30mph.

Some of those roads will be in frequent use, others only suitable for serious 4 wheel drives. The petition makes no distinction. The monumental task of re-classifying and determining what roads should be reduced will fall to local authorities. The bankrupting costs of signage on these roads (some of which will never even be seen) will also fall to the local authorities.

Then of course you will need to enforce these limits. How? Anyone really think for a fraction of a second the police will put someone with a speed gun on a road nobody uses? The idiots who tank it along these roads wont suddenly stop doing that because there is a sign.

So in brief this petition is to put thousands (or tens of thousands) of signs along hundreds of thousands of miles of road at bankrupting cost to local authorities. Those signs will serve no purpose at all. They will be ignored by drivers and the limits they specify wont be enforced by anyone ever.

Yes 60mph on these roads is unreasonable and stupid but we already have laws that can be used against people like this. Personally i would much rather my local authority spends its money on social care etc over erecting pointless speed limit signs in places nobody is going to do anything about anyway.

Gloomendoom

As a rural dweller myself, I may start a petition to revert the speed limits on country roads back to those in force before 1965.

MoneySavingNovice

I also live in a rural area. In my view the countryside is already over lit, which causes problems for wildlife. I am also not in agreement that it’s a good idea to install unsightly pavements alongside rural lanes, they are not needed and installation of such pavements would damage many of the roadside hedgerows. I am also of the view that there are already too many unnecessary and unsightly road signs and road markings, in my view these might give some motorists a level of reassurance which means that they travel at a higher speed than may be desirable or legal. Finally given the limits on council budgets this proposal has to be unaffordable.


All that said, I can see the argument for changing the national speed limit on singletrack roads to 30 miles an hour. Changing the national speed limit means that no changes to the road signage or layout of the roads would be needed, only a simple rule change.



That said I don’t believe it make much difference in reality.

usernameisvalid

I live in a very rural area and it would be lovely if we could reach the giddy speeds of 60mph, but it's rare if we can

Tractors, hundreds of them

Cars pulling trailers

Elderly people in their 80's and above still having to drive as no public transport, crawling along at 20mph

Pot holes everywhere as the gvt can't afford to maintain the roads

Cows crossing , sheep escaped, badgers, foxes, pheasants - the list is endless

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

I love rushing through the countryside at 55 plus. So I won't be signing.

Robisere

I signed. If you didn't, then you don't agree with it. No need to blather on about it, just don't sign.

It's called democracy. I also shared it to FB.