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PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 14:16 
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I have just read the following statement on the Hampshire Constabulary Safer Road site under the heading Speed.

"The legal speed limit is carefully set as the maximum safe speed for the road."

It may have been set as that, but I would question the "carefully" or the "maximum safe speed", for Hampshire's view of what is a safe limit for a road seems to have some very wide variations. You can have a narrow road with narrow pavements with no verges, high density housing and the road is set to a 40mph limit and yet a dead straight road with low density, large houses, set well back from the road with wide verges, is limited to 30mph. I would also be interested to know what conditions they use to determine the maximum safe limit for a road, seeing that conditions are changing constantly?

If they really believe what they have said in that statement, then it is no wonder there are concerns about the safety on our roads. I still maintain that a safe speed is relative to conditions and whatever limit you have it is going to be too high to be safe at certain times, and therefore drivers need to recognise this, but equally if it is too low for the conditions then concentration can be lost and any perceived advantage will be lost. What we do need is all road users to be responsible for their own and others safety and speed limits to be set at limits that really reflect the capabilities of the road. If limits are set properly then the majority of traffic will stay within that, which is back to the 85 percentile speed limit, which seems lost in present day thinking.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 15:20 
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Location: Treacletown ( just north of M6 J3),A MILE OR TWO PAST BEDROCK
whynot wrote:
. I would also be interested to know what conditions they use to determine the maximum safe limit for a road, seeing that conditions are changing constantly?

.


Don't you know it's local councillors influenced by busybody groups like the WRI .It also depends on whether there's local bigbigs living near. :shock: Although the Police would like to give the impression of influencing the limits, what happened locally was that Police advice was ignored by Officers on th county council. It was only when a revolt by county councillors over drastic reductions to a main DC were proposed that sanity prevailed .Possibly SCP take on that road was too low. :D

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 19:27 
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Quote:
I have just read the following statement on the Hampshire Constabulary Safer Road site under the heading Speed.

"The legal speed limit is carefully set as the maximum safe speed for the road."


Was it written on April 1st by any chance?

Maybe the writer fancies a job as a comedy scriptwriter.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 23:56 
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Got pulled in at a roadside check when I triggered a 'smilie' in a 30. Offered road safety bumf by a wpc and refused it, asking why the limit had gone from nsl to 40 then 30 inside a couple of years? Her reply was "How would you like cars speeding past your garden, sir?"
The people who live on this road bought their houses knowing the speed limit was 60!
There are houses on one side only, open fields the other side, no junctions and in 40-odd years I've honestly never seen a pedestrian......

A councillor lives on the road!


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 12:24 
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You should have replied ..." I do have speeding cars going past my garden , having bought a house on an NSL road, I am quite aware of the situation and happy with it, if I wasn't I would move to an area where the speed limit is lower." and then see the smug look on her face disappear.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 13:15 
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"The legal speed limit is carefully set as the maximum safe speed for the road."

No it isn't: that statement by Hampshire plod is complete hogwash. It's not even true when 20/30/40 limits are being applied in and around built-up areas, and it is even less true when we consider the 60/70 mph national speed limits on the open road.

I know of sections of the A169 Pickering to Whitby road, which is all single carriageway, where a speed of 110 mph is quite safe in decent conditions, and yet half a mile away there is a sharp bend on a steep hill where a safe and sensible speed is no more than about 25 mph. How then can a limit of 60 mph be appropriate for the whole of that road?

I honestly don't know how these people, people who are in positions of authority and influence, can come out with their nonsensical pronouncements and expect to be taken seriously. In my view UK road users are doing extremely well to maintain the safety record we have, and all credit to them for that, but they are not being helped by supposed 'experts' like our twerp from Hampshire.

Best wishes all,
Dave.


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 18:05 
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Location: Treacletown ( just north of M6 J3),A MILE OR TWO PAST BEDROCK
Oscar wrote:
Got pulled in at a roadside check when I triggered a 'smilie' in a 30. Offered road safety bumf by a wpc and refused it, asking why the limit had gone from nsl to 40 then 30 inside a couple of years? Her reply was "How would you like cars speeding past your garden, sir?"
The people who live on this road bought their houses knowing the speed limit was 60!
There are houses on one side only, open fields the other side, no junctions and in 40-odd years I've honestly never seen a pedestrian......

A councillor lives on the road!

Just be thankful the chair person of the local WRI didn't also live on that road.You'd be doing hard labour :D

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on


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