Dizzy

Ok I have just about had enough now.. I woke up this morning and came out of "my" cul-de-sac onto the main road through Lower Early to find the 40mph has now been lowered to 30?! theres loads of signs etc saying "new speed limit" etc etc.. now normally I would just go ok.. The area around the school (further down) was already a 30mph limit. I've lived there for a while now and not seen an accident on that road the whole time I've lived in the area.

This is just another in a long line of speed reductions on my way too work.. another village, with long clear roads has also been reduced to 30... Now although I have been known to fracture the odd limit in national speed limit areas I mostly stick to the built up area limits. Normally they are set to a reasonable limit but now with so many blanket speed limits on roads that are safe I am starting to think why should I stick to it.

What message are they trying to put across? The more stupid limits they try to impose the more likely I am going to be inclined to ignore them from now on.

Do they need some sort of "planning permission" to alter the limits and is there anyway I could query their logic behind this?

whats next 20mph limits everywhere (which I have noticed are starting to crop up)?

[Edited by Dizzy - 1/23/2003 9:19:19 AM]

chrisp

Tim chill mate, will that dogdy UK model do 40 . I agree, as you know round here quite a few dual carriage ways have been reduced from NSL to 60. It doesnt help traffic flow and sticking 12 cameras up in 6 miles doenst help either .

Mice_Elf

Eventually every limit will be 5mph, forcing people to use the odd train that still runs or the crowded bus that's allowed to go up to 50mph.

Motorists caught doing 6mph will have their car impounded and a £1000 on the spot fine...

Gov't...don't you just want to blatter the hell out of it?

sooby

It’s for revenue of course!

There was a thread in a driving news group that discussed figures that showed /many/ areas where speed cameras have been placed have had an increase in accidents. It was quite an involved thread with quite a few angry people!

Many roads around me have gone down to 30 from 40mph and there's talk of reducing some to 20. Some are just plain silly!

Dream Weaver

Yep, revenue generation strikes again.

Dual carriageway near me, straight, no houses on it goes down towards the motorway and is about half a mile long.

Never seen one incident on it in 13 years, yet they have just slapped a speed camera right in the middle of it. They have put the limit UP though from 40 to 50

DW

Dizzy

It will, just, downhill with a following wind

true and thats even more bizzar large dual carageways with 40-50 limits... wtf is going on there!?!? [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

IIRC Reading is already the most densly populated speed camera zone but none of them are near schools

Dont really think its revenue generation to be honest as there isn't a camera near these new ones (yet). Although the main police depot is

I dont think these Councilers have anything better to do than waste our tax money on these things

Is it the local council that sets these things then?

[Edited by Dizzy - 1/23/2003 9:50:19 AM]

SWRTWannabe

The road near us in Wokingham went from 40 to 30 overnight, but we didn't even benefit from signs informing us of the new limit.

Cynically to myself I did wonder if it was so they could be a bit sneaky and pull over and fine all the people that didn't notice the new limit [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Just looked on the internet though - you can hire a chainsaw for 50 quid for a weekend - now how many speed cameras could you fell in that space of time

PS I don't advocate the use of violence towards defenceless speed cameras. But it would be funny

[Edited by SWRTWannabe - 1/23/2003 9:50:21 AM]

Dizzy

hmm Mind you that probably carries a 5 year jail sentance where as mugging, burglary and car theft is just a slapped wrist.

cameras

CrisPDuk

The revenue is generated from Central Government, who pay local authorities grants to 're-assess' road status in their areas. This is why more cycle lanes, bus lanes, lower speed limits & anything else that impedes the progress of cars, are appearing daily.

BTW Watch out for mobile speed cameras on any newly 30 stretches of open road. I collected my last SP30 courtesy of GMP after a road that has been 50mph since before cars suddenly had a clear, straight & open section reduced to 30[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

SCOOBY TOWERS

iTrader: (7)

Nice grouping dizzy

NotoriousREV

I used to live in a village that was bisected by a main road (A56 Chester Road)and was national speed limit. The problem was, the local shop/post office was on one side of the road and most of the houses were on the other. Every year a child or an elderly person would be killed, and there were several car accidents from people pulling out onto the main road.

There was a 4 year campaign to reduce the limit through the village to 30mph, each time we were told "no". Eventually, they compromised with a 40mph limit. This was a few years ago.

Last year, the road leading to the village from the Warrington side, which has very few (3 I think) houses and is now mainly industrial units or unpopulated, and another main road leading from there with NO houses and no properties of any type fronting onto the road, has been made into a 30mph zone.

Ironically, there is another village nearby that also has a 40 limit.

So, if you're travelling from Northwich to Frodsham, you travel at 60mph (NSL) then drop to 40mph for the village of Dutton, slow to 30mph for the unpopulated no-mans land around the Whitehouse Industrial estate, speed up to 40mph for the populated Sutton Weaver, then back to NSL for the last stretch into Frodsham.

Add to this the reduction in limit on the dual-carriageway section of the A56 into Warrington (NSL on the single carriageway, 40 on the dual? Utter madness).

I'm livid.

[Edited by NotoriousREV - 1/23/2003 10:43:32 AM]

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Dizzy are you talking about Rushey way or somewhere else???

scooby-new

personally I'm considering buying a french reg car for use in the UK so all the councils that lower these limits can try sending the fines/points to henri paul in Paris 'cos the car sure as hell wont be registered to me! should be good for Kens charge as well- **** them all

These idiots post 40MPH limits on dual carriageways, block views from roundabouts causing you to have to stop and not make progress, turn 2 lanes into one with hatching and put double white lines on single carriageways to stop overtaking. Its part of the conspiracy to p*ss off drivers and make our lives as unpleasant as possible.

DRUNKNORGY

I travel up that way from time to time (my sister lives near Tarporley) The speed limit is up and down like a ****** drawers in her area and I can't understand really see why.

Dizzy

yeh wurzel :/
its rushey way [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] I join from Faygate =]

Dont get me started on the speed WALLS (laughibly named "bumps" around there).

MrDeference

Bonkers. Like a rash the limits are being lowered here. Strangely one local road is being having a lane added, and being turned from a NSL to a 50. Uh?
If they used 30limits sparingly people would actually obey them. Putting them up all over the place will mean that the general contempt for the lower limits will rise.
Does no one in local government actually drive? Do they have a braincell between them? Why is it only obvious to us?

boomer

Dizzy,

have a read of http://www.abd.org.uk/speedobj.htm, although the information may be a little too late

mb

boomer

...although this may still be relevant

mb

BOB.T

It's all just crazy madness!

DW, is that the dual carriageway from Prestons down to the 65?

worley

Don't start me on this one,

I am fed up with county councellors...why do these moronic ****holes exist? All they serve to do, is to leach every last bit of power their normally ordinary mundane selfish useless lives can muster in a completely inert way.

IMHO, They fail in most respects to serve the people in the community and pander to the needs of a few wealthy well-to-do mafia types living in the remote vicinity of an A-road.

There are sooooo many examples of driving in the relative safety of a national speed limit and then dropping down to 30mph 'cos Mr & Mrs Farthquarson happen to have a driveway backing onto the forementioned road. Not only are there signposts and the posibility of an NIP, but there are usually more road markings than you can shake a sh!**y stick at.

Contrary to this, roads that need some form of traffic management are put on the back-burner until the next round of county council elections.

Nik

Corruption my ****!

Jen

Can't be arsed to read all this as we've heard it all before.

People that get the money = Constabulary's

People that design the roads = Local Govt.

How can speed limits be too make money?

Dizzy

er..
well dont bloody reply with some holyer than thou reply then

I wasn't saying it was revinue generation just who I could contact about it.

NotoriousREV

Jen, with all due respect, if you had read it, you'd realise that no one has mentioned Revenue Generation, but have quoted examples where the speed limits being set are totally inconsistent.

EDIT: OK, some people did mention revenue generation, but for the purposes of my argument, we'll ignore them

[Edited by NotoriousREV - 1/24/2003 10:12:09 AM]

Jen

Hehe!

Sorry - just a bit p*ssed off this morning with stupid councillors - should have just ignored it but the first few posts made me mad...I will calm now I promise

Jen

Dizzy - appologies again just about had enough of this week - thank God it's Friday! - your Local Council are usaully the one's who impose the speed limits, (unless on a trunk road/A-Road/Motorway) in which case it's the Highways agency - both can be found on the hint-ter-net

There are acutally *really* strict regs etc. about speed limits which are only usually ignored/over-ruled by Councillors, e.g. each 20mph limit you set has to go to the secretary of state for personal approval and can sometimes end up costing in the £100,000's to implement...if I can be of any help if you're on a mission to complain (e.g. explaining the regs for a certain situation) let me know - otherwise www.5ive-o.com might be of interest