Well… I see what you mean, but keeping things as they are is still going to land good drivers with unfair speeding fines, whilst the risk of bad drivers who are looking out for cameras and are speeding will be present whatever the speed limit is. I don’t really see what responsibility this takes away from drivers - if a driver’s going to spot and react to a hazard whilst doing 50 in a 40, he’s not going to suddenly go blind when he’s going 50 in a 50. My idea would just stop unneccessary fines.
Camera sites will always be a problem. Accidents that are caused by mobile camera sites are due to people breaking the speed limit in the first place and therefore having to be concerned about a camera, so therefore, if the speed limit was reasonable, people (well, good drivers) wouldn’t be speeding, and could therefore avoid having to look out for cameras. Bad drivers who break the speed limit will also be looking out for speed traps and therefore driving in an even more dangerous manner, which’ll be the case whatever the limit.
You don’t have to follow speed limits with a 1MPH tolerance, as you’ve got a 10% +1mph tolerance, generally speaking. Nobody gets a ticket for being a couple of mph higher than the limit. Cruise control helps - and it wouldn’t be a danger as it will be used on the roads where it is suitable.
Repeater signs could be used, if you’re unsure of the limit, and good road planning IE. not putting the new speed limits signs just after a roundabout which you’re not going to see as you’re busy checking your mirrors for eejits coming up your side. If a good driver is unsure of the speed limit, they’re not going to driver at 56 everywhere whilst keeping an eye out for a camera van ready to hammer on the brakes in order to drive past it at 40, when it’ll be too late anyway. What they’re likely to do is play it safe and drive at 40-45mph.
I guess the best thing would be to at least come to a compromise, where there are general national speed limits for HGV’s, unless otherwise specifically signed. As you say, plenty of good, safe drivers break the speed limits all the time as the limits are unreasonably low, and not cause any problems. As I said before, the current system makes them liable to prosecution when safety hasn’t actually been compromised, but an unreasonable law has. Roads which have been declared safe for higher HGV speeds should be well signed as that.
got done for doing over 30mph,at 4am,on an empty road on way to work at gregorys in bristol.It was 2 coppers,and no speed measuring device in the normal police car,only the cars speedometer,where they right to do me,as it was their word against mine with the speeding.One of the bulbs was blown on the squad car.Not sure,can you get off a speed charge,if you ask a traffic cop,if he/she as calibrated the measuring device,if they answer no,can you get off the charge.
Forget about getting the limit rasied, it’s not going to happen by any goverment, however good you arguement is and the well researched your evidence is to say it would be safer and greener.
Because the British people don’t respond to logic, but headlines like “Monster trucks allowed to speed on rural roads”. and then of course we’ll get all the so called road safety and green lobby out in force, on Jeremy Vine and other shows telling us far from increasing speed limits for trucks we should be banning them and use rail instead. Again no logic to back up thier arguemnt, they know how to kick up a fuss and use the media.
got a lot of anti truck brigade activists in the UK.Media love headlines like "Trucks thunddering through villages"and ban hgvs from taking shortcuts etc.
toby1234abc:
got done for doing over 30mph,at 4am,on an empty road on way to work at gregorys in bristol.It was 2 coppers,and no speed measuring device in the normal police car,only the cars speedometer,where they right to do me,as it was their word against mine with the speeding.One of the bulbs was blown on the squad car.Not sure,can you get off a speed charge,if you ask a traffic cop,if he/she as calibrated the measuring device,if they answer no,can you get off the charge.
Shouldnt have accepted the fixed penality since they had no proof of what speed you were doing, a speedo isnt regularly calibrated so would have been thrown outta court.
I heard that as well about the measuring devices not being calibrated but i asked someone i know in the police who isnt a traffic cop but somtimes has to go out do speed traps. He said they check the calibration before they take them out and then have to sign for them to state they have done it, basically they do it because if they didnt and turns out it wasnt calibrated would be in trouble. So chances are 99% it has been calibrated.
all the anti truck activists in the world cant hide the fact that
no trucks = no economy = no britain
until some brainy person invents a replica machine like the starship enterprise ,we will be around for many years to come, sleep easy
As much as i hate the snp, if they ever got the powers over speed limits in scotland, i reckon it would happen. Im sure i read they where at the forefront of trying to get the A9 a 50 limit for hgvs.
altough you can never say never - i dont ever see it happening but if it was to happen to only one road in the UK it would have to be the A9
I strongly disagree with national speed limits being raise to 50 mph on single carriageway roads.
single carriageway roads have sharper bends and steeper hills than dual-carriageway roads.
Car drivers have lost the art of overtaking safely due to the fact that most lorries speed on S/C roads. There needs to be a minimum 20mph speed differents to carry out a safe overtake without breaking the 60mph limit safely.
How much does a professional LGV driver earn now adays £15 to £20 per hour ? why race about to get less wages , the stress will kill you.
Yes I did drive LGv’s tramping for 17 years but I now know better.
If I look back at the 10 years I was with Frank Tucker Haulage Exeter at the old photos of drivers , very few drivers made retirement age including my father, many of the old faces are dead and gone, I swear it was the pressure of the job. Ask their widows was it worth it?
miketdt:
I strongly disagree with national speed limits being raise to 50 mph on single carriageway roads.
single carriageway roads have sharper bends and steeper hills than dual-carriageway roads.
Car drivers have lost the art of overtaking safely due to the fact that most lorries speed on S/C roads. There needs to be a minimum 20mph speed differents to carry out a safe overtake without breaking the 60mph limit safely.
How much does a professional LGV driver earn now adays £15 to £20 per hour ? why race about to get less wages , the stress will kill you.
Yes I did drive LGv’s tramping for 17 years but I now know better.
If I look back at the 10 years I was with Frank Tucker Haulage Exeter at the old photos of drivers , very few drivers made retirement age including my father, many of the old faces are dead and gone, I swear it was the pressure of the job. Ask their widows was it worth it?
Wow, £15 to £20 per hour? That’d be nice. There’s nobody around where I am offering more than £10 per hour on normal shifts. A firm I’m subbing for wants me on full time, I told them to stuff it when they said £8/hour!
I think it’s more to do with making fair progress so that bad drivers who don’t know how to overtake will not need to overtake because you’re doing a speed which is applicable to the condition of the road, rather than rushing to get home. It’s the bad overtake that’s the killer, so eradicating the need, I believe, is better than putting crap drivers under more pressure to overtake by doing 40mph.
Single carriageways do tend to have sharp bends, which is why a blanket 50mph wouldn’t be ideal, but should be applied to those single carriageway roads which are safe enough to travel at 50 on, IE the ones without sharp bends.
I earned myself 3 points and a £60 fine on the A9 ,I was in a 7.5.tonner doing 60 whenI went past the camera Southbound near Blair Atholl as it was 4.10 am I was thoroughly ■■■■■■ off about it.The 40 limit belongs to the era of Heartbeat on t.v. and not to the present day.
I don’t really agree with the talk of sharp bends and needs for lower speed limits.
I think thats whats wrong with this country, surely people should be able to see whats up ahead and take that corner at an appropriate speed. Everything is dumbed down these days, there is B roads where even in a car they are so twisty and type you don’t really want to be doing above 30mph.
Seen some roads like dual carriageways 70mph, then 50mph as you approach the roundabout, then 30mph at the roadabout, then 50mph back onto the carriageway, then 70mph a few hundred yards later. In the space of less than a mile five speed limit changes.
Its like buying a cup of coffee and being warned it could be hot !
Everything has to be micro managed because everyone is a halfwitt, who if they aren’t clearly instructed are going to crash.
Kenny1975:
Everything has to be micro managed because everyone is a halfwitt, who if they aren’t clearly instructed are going to crash.
OOOH - euphoria - no speed limits and everyone a responsible driver !!
I would put up a pic of the flying pig but with all this swine flu about…
I never meant no speed limits, i meant the way speed limits are constantly decreased across the country for little or no reason. The fact the government wanted to reduce the NSL because of some single carraigeway roads.
I am against the way things are going, a corner up ahead so change the speed limit, its insanity. What ever happend to people being taught to drive, and see a corner up ahead and slow down for it, rather than waiting for a reduced speed limit.
Kenny1975:
What ever happend to people being taught to drive
They are - at a basic level - then nothing
After I passed my basic test I went to see a mate of mine who was a very experienced driver and asked him to ‘teach me how to drive’ - I’ll bet not many do that…
PS - he was a HGV class 1 driver and had been driving and fixing trucks since the age of 13 - in Rhodesia where his old man had a haulage business
thats exactly my point Kenny. the average standard of driving will naturally be far higher on this website than out on the road with the general public. we know how to read the road and we recognise what is a safe speed to drive at according to what the conditions dictate. driving at 2am is of a much lower risk than driving at 2pm due to the traffic density yet rather than trust people to make that judgement for themselves, there are set speed limits that just dont make sense. the posted speed limit is not necessarily a safe speed to drive at for all sorts of reasons which is where the term ‘driving to the conditions’ comes in which is basically irrelevant of the posted limit. in many cases it is not safe to drive at the speed limit but at the same time, there are cases where it would be safe to drive above the speed limit but this all comes down to the conditions at the specific time you are there. rather than setting lower speed limits to cater for worst case scenarios, they should be educating drivers to read and recognise the conditions so that they can make their own minds up just as we do every day. observation is the key element in this as the clues are there but you wont recognise them unless they are explained and understood. a perfect example is repeater signs. we see lots of signs every day and we will take note or dismiss them if they are not relevant to us but how many times have we seen people slam the anchors on when they get to a camera because they dont know the speed limit despite the fact that it has been posted on a normal sign plus repeaters? we need to encourage observation and teach people how to interpret the available information rather than imposing lower speed limits which will not combat the level of ignorance that we witness every single day
manowar:
Speed limits for HGVs, and cars, should be carefully considered for each individual road, regardless as to whether it’s single, dual carriageway or motorway.
There are some single carriageway roads which are wide, straight, and safe enough (ie. no junctions) which are perfectly safe for 56mph. It’s these roads where frustrated car drivers make poor overtakes and die/kill others. There are others, or certain sections of others that are currently national speed limit (40 for heavies) which probably should be reduced to 30 because of the severity of bends/condition of carriageway, but these are the kind of stretches where HGV drivers would already drive at 30mph unless they judge it incorrectly and possibly end up on their side.
There are some dual carriageways where the lanes are so narrow or have dangerous turnings/crossovers which should have and sometimes do have reduced speed limits.
There should never be any one blanket restriction for the whole road network, the many thousands of miles on it, it doesn’t work as most of us can already tell. One-size-fits-all policies never have. The alternative requires some legwork and thought going into it. This is where the problem lies, and why it’s probably never going to happen:
They’re not going to do it as if they get it wrong, someone might be held responsible, and nobody’s got the balls to answer criticism.
Speeding fines are a nice little earner for the government, free-flowing roads are not.
your suggestion would cause more accidents as a direct result of confusion. if people are constantly on the look out for changes to the speed limit, they are not concentrating on the job of driving, regardless of category. taking responsibility from people is not the way forward. you need to educate them well enough to understand the principles of driving and how to read the road and any given situation. to back up my claim, there are many members here who do not stick to the 40 limits, thats a fact. it is also a fact that they are not having endless accidents because they know what they are doing. if you then throw constantly changing speed limits at them then they will be looking for road signs which is a distraction from watching the road ahead, very similiar to the way that people have accidents caused by mobile scameras. they are looking for them, when they see them they then watch the speedo from fear of crossing the limit by 1MPH. neither of these things are watching what is going on around them hence, detrimental effect on road safety!
sorry mate but you are wrong on this one
So the only thing that can cause a crash is immediately in front of you on the road is it? If people cannot look at road signs while they are driving & adjust their speed accordingly then we’re in a lot more trouble than I thought.
Yes the speed limits should be raised to 50mph on A roads, but not along the whole road network, there are plenty of roads that do not warrant any speed greater than 40mph.
Also you’re wrong about being more efficient at 50mph, it takes more power to push a lorry through the air at 50mph than it does at 40mph, in much the same way as it takes more power to run than it does to walk, you just have to select the correct gear, lorries have multi speed gearboxes so that there is a gear to keep the engine in its sweet spot whatever the road speed.
It’ll never change, not all the while you have a hole in your arse, get used to it.
the 40mph speed limit is not strictly enforceable.
there is a point of law that explains that a speed limit may not be enforced if the majority of traffic drive safely above the signed limit.
as i seem to have spent a lot of time in court rooms, i’ve found better to plead not guilty, then find a loophole in double quick time.
limeyphil:
there is a point of law that explains that a speed limit may not be enforced if the majority of traffic drive safely above the signed limit.
limeyphil:
there is a point of law that explains that a speed limit may not be enforced if the majority of traffic drive safely above the signed limit.
Got a link to that
sorry no.
it’s in a very old book from the days of wooden wheels.
,we will be around for many years to come, sleep easy 
