http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 67,00.html
Rural 60mph limit may be reduced in bid to save lives
By Ben Webster
A review is ordered as figures show the most deadly routes
SPEED limits on all rural roads are to be reviewed in the light of figures that show motorists are 3½ times more likely to die driving in the countryside than in towns.
The Government will order local authorities to reconsider the limits on all roads this month, particularly rural ones, where 63 per cent of road deaths happen.
Ministers believe that the default 60mph on rural roads is too high in many cases, but they also want the limit raised on some 30mph and 40mph roads, where the risk to pedestrians and cyclists is low.
Figures from the Department for Transport show that of the 1,663 car drivers and passengers killed in 2004, some 1,133 died on rural roads. The death rate on such roads was 0.7 per 100 million km driven and on urban roads, 0.2. Motorways were the safest roads, with a death rate of only 0.1.
Brake, the road safety charity, is pressing for the speed limit on twisting, narrow rural roads to drop from 60mph to 30mph or 40mph.
A survey published today by the insurer Direct Line found that three in four motorists thought the 60mph speed limit on rural roads was too high. More than a quarter admitted breaking the limit, mostly because they thought there was less traffic and fewer pedstrians on rural roads The survey of 2,600 drivers by YouGov also found that: two in three drivers did not know the speed limit for rural roads; more than half thought there should be more speed signs in the country; and more than 60 per cent said that learner drivers should have compulsory lessons in country driving.
Direct Line also called for the standard rural road speed limit to be cut to 40mph. A spokeswoman said: “In towns you are much more likely to be involved in a rear-end shunt or little bump or scrape, whereas head-on collisions or accidents involving animals straying on to the road are much more likely on country roads.”
A study by the department in 2004 found that 40 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women believed mistakenly that because rural roads were quieter there was less chance of crashing on them.
Twenty-one per cent of men thought driving fast on rural roads late at night was safe because they could see oncoming cars’ headlights. Andrew Howard, head of AA road safety, said: “People who regularly use rural roads can slip into passive mode and be caught out by the unexpected.”
The 12 roads with the highest crash rates last year were all single-carriageway “A” roads in rural areas, an AA study found. The worst was the A682 in Lancashire, between the M65 and the A65, where 23 crashes in three years left people dead or seriously injured. The AA study described the road as undulating and lined with hedges and mature trees, with narrow verges and several blind brows.
A spokesman for the department said that setting more appropriate speed limits would encourage drivers to have more respect for them.
“Local authorities will be required to review limits on all roads by 2011 but we are not going to prescribe what they should do. They need to look at the engineering and safety record and if circumstances have changed,” he said.
COUNTRY CODE
On hills, the vehicle going downhill should give way — unless it is a lorry
Drivers on narrow lanes must be able to stop in half the distance that can be seen along the road
When approaching a blind corner a driver should imagine that a cyclist has fallen round the bend
On meeting a vehicle on a narrow road the driver who is the shorter distance from a passing place should reverse. But remember that van drivers have limited rear visibility
Source: Institute of Advanced Motorists
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The critical flaw, of course, is to assume a non-existent link between rural speed limits and accident rates.
That, and to paint A road crash rates onto 'country lanes'.
Rural road deaths (2004) are as follows:
A roads 1,220
B roads 265
other roads 271
'Country lanes' will be included in 'other roads', so obviously we have considerably fewer deaths than 271 in a year.
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): On meeting a van in a country lane, stay perfectly still (car and body) even if your back wheel overlaps a passing place. The van driver will eventually (possibly after some profane gesturing...) reverse to the previous passing place, even if he/she has no rear view mirror and has to go backwards round a corner.
(no motorways)
Sure, on the NSL country road you do get the odd plonker, but by and large drivers adapt their speed to the conditions, often being well under the limit.
Logic anyone??
