Safe Speed Forums

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/ ... 306091.stm

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Mr Jarvis, who is clearly disinterested in this matter, spouts a lot of incomprehensible "newspeak".

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

Environmental reasons are mentioned 3 times in that. Talk about milking the lie.

The idea of car share lanes baffles me. Unless this new lane has been added, it is just reducing road capacity. She points out it'll save time for commuters... but also says a large number of cars have one occupant. Perhaps this is because they are a majority commuters - who don't take friends to work with them

Yes! My last job before I retired involved a 60 mile drive from home to Croydon. I'd have been more than happy to share the ride with one of my neighbours, but they all had jobs elsewhere.

This lane is actually a new piece of road, not a reallocation of existing road space.

However, given that the general trend is for the average number of employees at a workplace to reduce, and the average commuting distance to increase, the odds against having a colleague with whom you can share a car are increasing all the time. Add to this the increase in flexible working and unpredictable hours – how many workers nowadays really do work fixed, predictable hours?

Take a four-lane road where one lane is converted to HOV. If the proportion of multi-occupant vehicles is under 25%, then the HOV lane will be under-utilised and the overall efficiency of the road will be reduced. If it is over 25%, then they will derive no benefit from it.

The scheme is only really going to be effective if it actually leads to a large increase in car sharing, which given the points raised above is unlikely. Otherwise it is simply an exercise in politically correct gesture politics that leads to a less efficient utilisation of roadspace.

In the US, finding that many HOV lanes were under-utilised, they have converted a lot to HOT (high occupany/toll) lanes which can be used by single-occupant vehicles on payment of a toll.

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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

Under utilised indeed. You only need look at the "Blair Lane" of the M4 between Heathrow Airport and Central London to see an example.

The car share lanes in America are often best avoided. They tend to be on the left side, adjacent to faster traffic, but often occupied by moms doing the school run, and driving slower than the rest of the traffic. At least in America it's legal/acceptable to pass either side on highways.

Fortunately it rarely will effect me as I do work from home, and when I move into an office I'll make sure to pick one within walking distance

Peter - I find it much more acceptable as it's new road space, at the same time it's a shame they don't get the bright idea of just building new roadspace for everyone, rather than a minority.

One of the oddest things is driving from A to work in B, and passing all manner of people driving from B to work in A. If I worked at A and they worked at B, none of us would have to drive anywhere. We live in mad times, don’t we?

It's not all that simple though - I commute about 25 miles each way to work. The job is pretty unique and as far as I know the next company that does the work we do is 250 miles away. I can't afford to move closer so I live* with the commute.

*Actually I enjoy the 'me' time and a chance to switch off from the day - being forced to concentrate on something else for 45 minutes works wonders for the work-day stress levels.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Take Mr. Tintern, who, like you, does a unique job - he maintains visualization software for computer aided drug-designers. He commutes about 20 miles each way to work, as it is too dear to move closer. But the roads are clogged up, and Mr. Tintern gets angry about that. He wants the general taxpayer (me and you) to just improve the road he drives on so that he can get to work more easily. But he doesn't want his taxes to go up. There are many people in the town where he works (Cambridge) with the smarts to do his work, but he'll work for less than they want.



Yes. But I told Mr Tintern off, because he says gets the same sense of satisfaction from driving in the middle lane and making people pass him on the inside! He says that being able to inconvenience people for 45 minutes works wonders for the work-day stress levels! He's rotten to the core, he is.

So tell me, who is this Mr Tintern? You really seem to dislike him!

Actually the roads I commute on don't see that much traffic. I think it helps that I am leaving town as most people are coming in and vice versa. There are no motorways and only about 3 miles of D/C on my commute.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

It's just another Welsh Abbey joke.

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

I am sure I read in a paper that these where dangerous?

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

Car share lanes or welsh abbey jokes?

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

If any of my neighbours would have wanted to travel from South Wales to various locations in London via Yorkshire this week they'd have been more than welcome.

On the section of the M4 with the bus lane (between J3 and J2), there are two normal lanes and the bus lane on the offside. If you're driving into London, it's noticeable that lane-hogging gets worse once you've passed J3. Because the offside (bus) lane is not for the fastest/overtaking traffic, more people than usual seem to think it's acceptable to cruise in L2 below the 60mph limit and refuse to move over.

I'm guessing that offside HOV lanes will have a similar effect (and the problem will be magnified in 70mph limits...unless they're reduced of course). Which is fine for the government, of course, because it will add to the congestion caused by the lanes.

Can't wait for the first HOV lane to appear near me.

Also, for me, one of the worst things about HOV and bus lanes is that existing all-purpose roadspace is often "reallocated" (stolen) for them. This is despite the fact that motorists (mainly) have already paid for the roadspace goodness knows how many times. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could unearth some kind of law which prevented such "lane theft"? If it's not against the law, it certainly should be.

Surely, once the public have paid for something, it can't just be taken back or altered by the government as it pleases. And what of roadspace which is "reallocated" exclusively to cyclists? It's being taken from those who have paid for it and given exclusively to those who haven't. I've got nothing against cyclists (those who aren't trolls or idiots) but that doesn't seem fair. (The fact that many cyclists also pay road tax isn't particularly relevant in my eyes.)

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Paul Smith: a legend.

"The freedom provided by the motor vehicle is not universally applauded, however: there are those who resent the loss of state control over individual choice that the car represents. Such people rarely admit their prejudices openly; instead, they make false or exaggerated claims about the adverse effects of road transport in order to justify calls for higher taxation or restrictions on mobility." (Conservative Way Forward: Stop The War Against Drivers)

How is car sharing going to work when we have a Government that is trying to tax larger cars off the roads?

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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

The car share lane looked rather dangerous to me with traffic in that lane passing slower vehicles in the adjacent normal nearside lane.

What do non car-share users do if they need the hard shoulder? It doesn't seem there is one!

It doesn't look like the scheme has been thought through fully and I understand the only surveillance is police patrols, the electronic checking hasn't been completed yet (perhaps that's for the better).

Bombus, your council tax funds the roads, not your vehicle excise duty.

You've seriously got to get out of this, "I pay for the roads therefore they are mine", mentality, it's making you crazy.

I'm pretty sure if you added up all the road tax ever payed by motorists it wouldn't come to 5% of what has been spent on roads, motorways and bridges over the years (and it certainly didn't pay for the road outside my house which was put down before cars were owned by more than 0.000005% of the population).

Well, since the taxes we all pay these days bears absolutely no resemblance anymore to what any of us are using, why not just pile all the taxes together, (using the KISS principle), and levy them according to your income and just call it taxation.

We seem to have a million taxes, and taxes on our taxes, and a tax on taxes of the tax etc. etc...

But it all ends up with the chancellor anyway so

I'm sure it could be made simpler.

Suggestions on a postcard please to A. Darling, 11 DownKerching Street..

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.