Interesting Speed Limit Theory

rf065

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The Detroit News has reported that the chairman of a Michigan State Police Committee on Driver Behavior, Thad Peterson, believes that having speed limits that are too low for the road is a major contributor to aggressive driving.

He used changes made along a stretch of Michigan Interstate 496 as an example. He claimed that this section, which accounted for 40 percent of reported incidents of aggressive driving in that particular area, had witnessed a reduction to zero following an increase in the speed limit from 55 mph to 70 mph. He also stated that rush hour congestion and the accident rate had declined as a result.

http://www.detnews.com/article/2009...9/Road-rage-s-causes-and-prevalence-debatable

It certainly goes against UK policy on speed limits!

Russ
 

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I know that with some their driving has never improved, but cars have moved on a long way.

We should have some experimental roads in the UK where this could be tried
 

Alex M Grieve

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I think this is almost certainly well founded. Slow vehicles tend to cause impetuous drivers to overtake when it may not be safe to do so - especially when the slow driver is followed too closely by other slow drivers, thus increasing the size of the obstacle to be overtaken and the time that the overtaking vehicle spends on the wrong side of the road.

When collisions happen in these situations (and they do) it is "speed" that is incriminated and the overtaking driver is vilified.

Poor road design (s-bends, corners on a gradient) aggravate the problem by making the impetuous overtaker even more of a hazard to shipping.

If we could decouple speed limits and "when it is safe to do so" I think things might well progress better, as in this case.
 
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Slow vehicles tend to cause impetuous drivers to overtake when it may not be safe to do so - especially when the slow driver is followed too closely by other slow drivers, thus increasing the size of the obstacle to be overtaken and the time that the overtaking vehicle spends on the wrong side of the road.

This is becoming a bigger problem as the roads get more congested. We appear to have a generation of road users who do not want to, or do not know how to overtake. In fact I'm sure some people think it is illegal to overtake unless you are on a dual c/way or m/way. That what 30 years of "Speed Kills" adverts have achieved.

Russ
 

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This is becoming a bigger problem as the roads get more congested. We appear to have a generation of road users who do not want to, or do not know how to overtake. In fact I'm sure some people think it is illegal to overtake unless you are on a dual c/way or m/way. That what 30 years of "Speed Kills" adverts have achieved.

Russ

The other problem is that the roads are so congested that when you do overtake there is often just a further line of traffic and no real gain. So some drivers take the line of least resistance and just go with the flow even if it is a bit below the legal limit.
 

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The other problem is that the roads are so congested that when you do overtake there is often just a further line of traffic and no real gain. So some drivers take the line of least resistance and just go with the flow even if it is a bit below the legal limit.

Yes we see it more and more down here in the West country in the Summer months,,it makes CC impossible to use
 

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As with just about everything in recent modern life, previously existing ways and methods are offered up as a possible solution to repair the screwed up system that replaced the previously existing ways.

Take things back to 20-odd years ago: Abandon silly speed limits, tear down the cameras and 80% of the signs. Rip out 75% of the traffic lights, reopen the hatched-off traffic lanes, away with stupid red and yellow tarmac and road paint. Out with the bumps and ludicrous chicanes (aren't they safe in mist and fog?). Remove the bus lanes that cause such a tailback, they trap the buses back down the road in the resulting traffic.

Put some part-time cameras and 20mph limits only at sites genuinely needing them, like outside schools, operating for a couple of hours a day as needed, not 24 hours. Stop local authorities constantly tinkering with new initiatives that always lead to longer red light times and more hugely expensive traffic lights.

Do this and watch the congestion and the road rage ebb away. It's been done in several places and it works.

We had this "utopia" not so long back. It's been screwed up out of all proportion. Anyone care to tell me a single benefit of all the messing?
 

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We also now have to put up with nearly all wagons towing a trailer and huge farm tractors that seem to drive for miles and not pull over to ease the traffic build up, many of these also pulling trailers with no plates or lights on.They can not be insured half the time but what does plod do,O.All thanks to Tony & Gordon?.
 

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For 9-10 years I travelled down the A583 to work.

Originally it was a dual carriageway (2 lanes each way) with the majority being a 70mph limit.

One day, despite the National speed limit black and white diagnol line signs still being there, they painted 60mph limit signs over the entire road. (and guess who got 3 points for travelling at 67mph on there :mad:)

Next they decided to make more and more of the road 50mph until it was ALL 50mph.

Not happy with slowing everyone down to 50mph they spent almost a year (huge roadwork traffic jams for months every day at rush hour :mad:) making the entire road into 1 single lane each side, with a middle crosshatch (read suicide overtaking lane) lane. Now traffic crawls along at 30-40mph (providing there are no tractors holding up the traffic)

From what I understand, accidents are almost a daily occurance and it is a really frustrating road to use now. Congestion is also up resulting in higher fuel useage and pollution.

Surely someone should see that they have ruined a perfectly good road on purpose :mad:
 

jberks

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Someone has an ailment so the doc given them a pill.
That pill has a side effect so the provide a pill to counter that too...but there are side effects to the second treatment.
Before long, the patient is taking 20 pills a day, is adicted to several and can't function.
Take all the pills away and the patient find the original ailment isn't a problem any more and feels much better.
Happens all the time.
I can't help thinking that the highways agency is so speed and restriction obsessed its become heresy to suggest that raising the speed limit or removing road furniture will make things better. Instead they install more bollards and lower speed limits.

The problem is exasperated by people trundling along these roads at 34 when the limit is 60. A driver is forced to either sit there for perhaps 10 miles or else overtake when ideally they wouldn't choose to. Add in a couple of micras behind the obstructing bus/truck and you've got a long, dangerous overtake to reach a clear bit of road.

Most such roads run through the countryside and to get enough room to add an alternating overtaking lane wouldn't be that hard. Then with the prospect of a safe overtaking area in a mile or so, most will be happy to sit and wait their turn.
 

crockers

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A Question - would you rather crash a 1970's car at 40 mph or a 2000's car at 60 mph? I would argue the latter is the safer therefore showing it is car design that is saving lives and not speed control....

Mind you would rather do neither of the above....:D
 

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The problem is you can't increase speeds until you re-design the roads and no government is ever going push for a wholesale redesign of our road system because of cost, negative pr from traffic delays and those bleeding heart liberals who are all running around in their planet destroying Prius'

Lets face it, we live on a small island where they are not making any more land and the land we have is incredibly expensive so the odds of us getting the road system we need is very unlikely. (especially while our MP's have 3 houses each to pay for)

In the meantime while I may have owned and driven some very quick, big engined cars I still hesitate to overtake as more likely than not there are other quick big engined cars coming the over way... I could probably work out the safe overtaking distance when you've got two vehicles with a closing speed of 140mph but if i do that I'd never overtake again on the few short straights we have on our A roads.
 
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rf065

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This country is paying the consequence of the policy for the last 30 years or so, of spending a little on the roads as possible. I fear the costs to put things right now would bankrupt this country, except I think it already is! :roll:

Russ
 

*Thumper

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Remove all speed limits, and add Semtex to the front and rear of every car ......................... you'll only cock up once ...leaving the roads a much safer place.
 

deanb

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The Detroit News has reported that the chairman of a Michigan State Police Committee on Driver Behavior, Thad Peterson, believes that having speed limits that are too low for the road is a major contributor to aggressive driving.

He used changes made along a stretch of Michigan Interstate 496 as an example. He claimed that this section, which accounted for 40 percent of reported incidents of aggressive driving in that particular area, had witnessed a reduction to zero following an increase in the speed limit from 55 mph to 70 mph. He also stated that rush hour congestion and the accident rate had declined as a result.

http://www.detnews.com/article/2009...9/Road-rage-s-causes-and-prevalence-debatable

It certainly goes against UK policy on speed limits!

Russ


Would this work as well on our roads considering the significantly smaller road width and twistier nature or our roads? Don't get me wrong, i'm all for the intelligent use of speed on roads that have good visibility but where i live in hampshire most A roads are narrow, covered with 'furniture' and have sharp corners every few miles hiding 20mph tractors..

Of course on the motorways it would be a ****** good idea!, especially if along with increasing the speed limits they could use those traffic information signs to remind volvo drivers what the 3 lane system is for!!!

(Apologies to all those volvo drivers on here who know what 'roadcraft' is)
 

deanb

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Remove all speed limits, and add Semtex to the front and rear of every car ......................... you'll only cock up once ...leaving the roads a much safer place.


Superb... just like the nuclear arms/cold war... Mutually Assured Distruction... admittedly it'd make going to work a more nervous affair until everyone driving a hatchback on 20inch wheels and bits of plastic stuck to the boot and those who can remember the great war have blown each other up.....
;)
 

Xtractorfan

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Without the congestion and hold ups on the roads the towns would be grid locked..and no one has a cunning plan....
 
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rf065

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Without the congestion and hold ups on the roads the towns would be grid locked..and no one has a cunning plan....

There was a survey in one of the main city centres a few years ago that discovered two thirds of the cars driving around were looking for a place to park. Building more free car parks would solve that problem.

Russ
 

LSD

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The problem is you can't increase speeds until you re-design the roads and no government is ever going push for a wholesale redesign of our road system...

"Re-designing" them back to pre-meddling days would be a start, they worked fine before with the speed limits (and enforcement policies) as they were, and just spending what's been spent compromising them (narrowing, traffic lights etc.) on measures to improve traffic flow would've helped greatly over the period.

Problem is, the agenda was and is to reduce travel potential. It's a sign of the intentions at play when such investment as has been made, has seen things like newly-constructed clear, open bypass roads adorned with 40mph speed limits and speed cameras from the off.
 

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What an interesting post..
I have a couple of comments to make which show the real intentions of the powers that be..
Many years ago when "safety" cameras had started to appear, I remember reading an interview with some minister or other.. The interview went something like this:
Hello minister, can I ask you why you are planning so many cameras in our towns"?
"People are driving too fast and we want to make the roads a safer place".
"Are you aware that these cameras are deeply unpopular and people feel very much against there use"?
"New rules and regs are always unpopular till they are accepted"
"So minister can I ask you what happens when everyone is behaving and no one ever speeds any more"?
"Yes...We shall just lower all the speed limits"
Does this sound a little like a prediction that has actually happened???

My second tit-bit..
About 6 years ago I was traveling along the A583 to Blackpool at around 11.45pm with a friend who does not drive. The road is a main dual carriageway that has had its speed reduced from 60 mph to 30 mph (entrapment or what)..
Anyway I got flashed by the "safety" camera for doing 33 mph on a road that was designed for 60 !!
My friend who as I said is a non driver could not believe I had got done for "speeding"..
I had the chance to attend the "speed awareness course" and did so purely to save the points on my license and NOT to be class roomed and dumbed down into the "speed is deadly" mantra.
The copper who was teaching us was told by many different people attending that the speed limits were way too low and it seemed all he could do was to utter the same old phrase to everyone (including me)..
He said "A child might run out" about a dozen times..
I asked what a child would be doing on a main carriageway at not for off midnight, and how could it possibly "run out".
He replied "But it might"..
I have to admit I had to resist the urge to say Pigs might fly!!!
Near the end of the course he admitted in an unguarded moment that a particular A road on his patch had been adorned with cameras and that the last years accident figures were up 6 fold !!
Yes you read it correctly. The accident figures were 6 (six) times worse!!
His answer to that was "But no one was killed".

In my opinion when everyone is sufficiently dumbed down with driving in queues of traffic at 29mph and cannot cope with having to think and make decisions then increasing the speed limits wont be an option.. Because you will all be brain dead and wont be able to do anything without being told to.
The powers that be in this country are obsessed with control..
So dont dare go around thinking its a free country.
I wonder what those poor s*ds who gave their lives in various wars fighting for our freedoms would make if they could see the state of the country now!

Thats set me up nicely to go to work now.. I work 10 miles away and it will take me 1 hour and 5 minutes to do the 10 miles..
Live long and prosper..
Well live long anyway..
Well...
 
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