Motorway Speed Limits Out Of Date?

Conor_3

moonrakerz wrote: »

What I find really dis-spiriting about the whole thing is that no one seems to have looked at the problem in the whole. It appears every time a new person takes over in the local traffic office yet another new traffic calming scheme is introduced - and I am paying for this madness! :mad:

a. As far as I am aware there has never been an accident at this school.
b. This may be a justification for all the measures above - but it is more likely to be that at the time of day when the kids are coming and going the traffic is only moving at walking pace due to the congestion.
c. Finally, why is it necessary to have bright orange 30mph lights flashing at motorists when they pass the school at 2 o'clock on a Sunday morning doing 32mph when the kids are all on holiday ?

Our whole estate is being turned into a 20MPH zone and the area around the school is to get a shedload of signage to say there's a school there. There is no reason for the speed limit and people who go into this estate do so because they live here or have business here and know the school is there. I sent a 5 page letter to the Highways Engineer detailing why non of this was needed and that a proposed central reservation at a road junction would prevent buses being able to enter the estate which is something I don't think anyone had considered.

tomstickland

In my early days as a HGV driver on agencies flipping from days to nights in the same week, I have been at the point where I have been driving down the road perfectly alert and just dropped off without warning, only being woken by the rumble strips. Thankfully it was on a deserted dual carriageway at 4am. Had it been in rush hour and me approaching the back of a stationary queue...

I guess you've never had that happen to you. But that's what's meant by "tiredness kills". I

No, it's never happened to me, but I've never stayed up for more than one night.

I've become a lot more careful as I've got older. I used to be able to survive for 10 hours on adrenaline, whereas now I start to feel weary.

I recently drove 880 miles each way from Stroud to Geneva and did the Dunkirk - Geneva part pretty much in one go in each direction. On the outward trip I left the ferry at 3am and by 7am I had to go to sleep for an hour since I was starting to feel tired.

On the return trip I started at 4:30pm in the afternoon and arriving at 1am with two stops of 20 minutes. I was tired, but because it's a rare trip to make I was able to pump up my concentration levels for the journey. ie: knowing that falling asleep would be possible fatal I worked hard on not falling asleep.

I suppose the reason that I've never experienced a very sudden sleep is because my long journeys have always been special occasion trips, so my adrenaline levels are much higher. Make me drive from Bristol to Scotland and back again continuously without much sleep and I agree that dropping off would be a risk.

Anyway, my contention was with the glib wording the soundbite phrases.

Inactive

tomstickland wrote: »

Maybe your user name is referring to the cranial cavity?

Thanks for that helpful and constructive remark.:rolleyes:

tomstickland

The really annoying thing is that you'll find that most traffic already travels at 20mph anyway. I noted my speeds on my estate and they were 22mph indicated. The cars that already speed will continue to ignore the new limit.
So all that is achieved is spending a load of money and a round of self congratulation.

tomstickland

Inactive wrote: »

Thanks for that helpful and constructive remark.:rolleyes:

Do you think that your original comment regarding my levels of driver ability based on two of my comments was accurate, helpful or constructive?

scbk

In Scotland all schools have a 20mph limit (flashing LED's on a sign) when they may be kids about, ie 8am-9am, lunchtime, and around 3.30. This means in some rural areas you could come round a corner at a certain time of the day and the speed limit instantly changes from 60 to 20

tomstickland

As long as the sign is visible from far enough away, or the signs are located within a slowing distance of the hazard area then that seems like a good solution to me.

You could come round any corner and find a broken down car, tractor etc and there's no flashing lights there.

Inactive

tomstickland wrote: »

Do you think that your original comment regarding my levels of driver ability based on two of my comments was accurate, helpful or constructive?

Possibly yes, possibly no, however I did not stoop to the level of personnal insult, which you clearly did.:rolleyes:

darich

tomstickland wrote: »

So all that is achieved is spending a load of money and a round of self congratulation.

Before the measures come into place the limit is 30mph so a car travelling at 33mph is unlikely to be pulled over by the police.
However, with the 20mph in place then the 33mph driver is comfortably exceeding the limit and much more likely to be penalised.

i agree that a certain number of drivers will ignore whatever limit is in place and ignore the school they're driving past but most drivers who are even remotely sensible and responsible, will reduce their speed

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Conor wrote: »

Yeah...LEARN TO USE PROPER LANE DISCIPLINE.

A very simplistic argument and unfortunately not the solution (although it annoys me to see such driving).