Safe Speed Forums

As far as I know, on the 30th May, Hampshire County Council is due to consider speed limit reductions from 40mph to 30mph in villages across the county.

I don't know the basis of decision, but, a while ago, there was a request for villagers to nominate their location for the speed limit reduction. To give you a flavour of what we are talking about, the campaign for a reduction in Bramshaw is called "Dead Serious" and is lead by two 17 year old students (clearly highly experienced motorists).

Is this the setting of limits by special pleading rather than based on evidence of safety?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Just another silly "seen to be doing something" scheme which, at best, will do bugger all for safety. And at worst it'll create more disrespect for the speed limits in those villages which have always been 30.

No doubt it will end up like Suffolk or Oxfordshire - any cluster of a few houses will merit a 30 mph limit, even on a wide, high-standard main road, frequently extended some way beyond the last house, and often flanked by lengthy 40 mph buffer zones on totally non built up roads

And of course it will further erode any remaining respect for speed limits even when they are appropriate.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

The road along the coast between Redcar and Marske in Cleveland is a DEAD straight mile of NSL single carriageway. There are fields on one side with no entry/exit points, and the other side is 'The Stray', a wide expanse of grass alongside the beach with entrances to two car parks equidistant along it's length, which are now protected by the ubiquitous red centre 'island'. There was an accident last year in which a boy racer was killed whilst overtaking, otherwise a pretty average road.

Yesterday's local rag contained a notice stating that they are reducing the limit to 40 along the whole stretch. (30 at either end!)

Stinks of a pecuniary scheme to me.

Am I being too optimistic in believing that such dastardly goings-on are in the past now, thanks to the new funding arrangements?

Not that I think that will halt the onslaught of absurd speed limit reductions, because there are plenty of other non-reasons to put them in. I'm not confident that the end of the camera era will stop the reductions. I really wonder when (or rather at what speed) it will actually end. 10mph here, 10mph there and eventually 40mph will be the effective new NSL. People need to start getting angry about these small reductions before they turn into one huge one.

It would be good to get the mechanism changed so that only skilled traffic engineers can set any speed limit (or at least someone who knows something about the job in hand and doesn't pander to political whims). Then of course we'd need to undo the "damage" of the last couple of decades. In the meantime, each pointless reduction from 60 to 40 makes the 40-in-a-60s think they were right all along, when nothing could be further from the truth.

In Suffolk the limits were reduced in 1995 when the number of people killed had dropped to 35. Last year 47 people were killed on Suffolk's roads. Ever lower speed limits do not save lives.

We already have 40mph limits on wide straight Roman roads with perhaps one or two houses over a two mile stretch.

When I saw a new one yesterday I didn't respect it, nor did anybody else. When will they learn?

This is exactly what happened in Somerset 2 or 3 years ago. The County Council imposed just the same sort of limits and "buffer zones". The BiB were not consulted - it was a purely political act. On the main road I use most often, the A358 Taunton-Minehead road, there were umpteen changes of speed limit, often extremely close together.
Everyone (except the County Council) saw the stupidity of these new restictions; everyone (except tourists and others not familiar with the road) ignored them; the BiB did not enforce them; the new speed limit signs were constantly defaced with yellow paint (naughty, naughty); our MP ridiculed them in the House of Commons and the local press was full of scathing letters denouncing the Council's latest follly.
In the end the Council relented and common sense prevailed.

Moral - stand up to the b*****s!

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Save a cow - eat a vegetarian

Government guidance, (aka orders), on speed limits on the DfT web-site is for every village to be 30 mph. I cannot remember the reference, but I DO remember reading it. Basically, any higher limit has to be justified, so who in the council Highways Department is going to argue otherwise ?

We have recently had 30 mph imposed over the whole length of two villages, even the bit in between the two villages. Now I have to say I agree with the limit in my 'sister'village, but the middle bit is perfectly OK for 40 mph as it used to be. Councillor's reason is that it makes the road unattractive as an alternative to the bypass to our two villages !!

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

And the guidelines define a village as 20 properties over a 600 metre stretch of road, which is hardly what you or I would call a village

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed