A question about signage

[rsvmilly]

There is a road in my area (Toddington Road) which is a straight length of road about 1 mile long that runs parallel with the M1. It is currently having a pavement installed along one side and the limit has been reduced from NSL to 30mph.

The length of the road now has 30mph repeater signs. Isn't this incorrect? And doesn't it invalidate the 30mph speed limit?

[mybrainhurts]

Repeater signs are only required in 40's and 50's.

This will serve to cause more confusion..

[Streetcop]

It doesn't invalidate the 30mph speed limit...I'm led to believe..

Are the repeaters the same size as normal repeaters or have they a yellow background and are in effect a round speed sign on a square background?

For example=


Street

[sadako]

I think I have seen normal looking 30mph repeaters. I just assumed that this was a positive effort to ensure people were aware of the limit. I am not confused by them as I am able to read

Here's one for you. A27 between M275 and A3M. 4 lane A road (each side), central reservation, Streetlights. Since last time i read the highway code it said nothing about distance between streetlamps am I to assume this is a 60mph limit?

[rsvmilly]

They are the same size as normal small 40 and 50 repeaters

[Streetcop]

sadako said:

I think I have seen normal looking 30mph repeaters. I just assumed that this was a positive effort to ensure people were aware of the limit. I am not confused by them as I am able to read Here's one for you. A27 between M275 and A3M. 4 lane A road (each side), central reservation, Streetlights. Since last time i read the highway code it said nothing about distance between streetlamps am I to assume this is a 60mph limit?

Streetlights in a restricted zone (30mph) have to be 200yds or less (188.88m), if I remember rightly....

Street

[sadako]

Since this was not listed in Highway code (it has been over a year since i did my last theory test though) am I to assume this is Road Traffic act?

[joust]

Sorry SC but AFAIK 30mph repeater signs aren't legal.

www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/documents/page/dft_roads_504746.hcsp

There is no legal provision for 30mph repeaters AFAICS and the DFT document explicitly states that.

Related is the ABD "unsafe30" issue if the speed limit has recently been changed.

www.abd.org.uk/30.htm

J

[chief-0369]

If the street lamps dont meet the required spec and are too far apart, the 30mph limit is unenforceable. To counteract this, 30mph repeaters are used.

Also, they are sometimes used to emphasise the new limit, particularly where it used to be NSL.

Also, the regulations, as they stand give maximum distances between signs not minumum ones. To suggest that having repeater signs will confuse things is a bit silly. Unless the road is massivly over signed surely putting repeaters in can only help.

>> Edited by chief-0369 on Saturday 2nd October 14:25

[Streetcop]

They are legal in the fact that if they are erected, it doesn't void any prosecutions.....provided that are the square warning style and not the normal small red circles with 30 in the middle...(regulation 10(2)(a) of the 1994 Traffic signs and regulations states this)

I must admit though...I've only ever seen the repeaters that are square and have either a yellow background or a blue one with a Gatso sign..

I don't think I've ever seen any normal round repeater signs with 30 on them..

Street

>> Edited by Streetcop on Saturday 2nd October 14:27

[Dwight VanDriver]

The answer lies in how the 30 mph limit was brought in.

If the reduction of the NSL to 30 mph was made by Order under section 84(1) Road Traffic Regulation Act, 1984 then it MUST have repeater signs, whether it has street lights or not.

DVD

[Streetcop]

Thanks DVD...good input mate..

[rsvmilly]

Thanks for your replies.

I hope that this section of road is just at 30mph whilst they're working on it. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised if it stayed.

Some unlucky (stupid, too tight to pay for a taxi) drunk was killed along it in the dead of night - it is unlit and had no pavement.

Give it a few years and we'll have a blanket 40mph speed limit across the country. And speed humps on the motorway.

[Pigeon]

Streetcop said:

I don't think I've ever seen any normal round repeater signs with 30 on them..

www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=496500.399976016&Y=242500.795304136&width=700&height=400&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=freegaz&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&zm=0&scale=10000&upright.x=62&upright.y=9

The section of road labelled "Bedford Road" and "Marston Hill", informally known as "Cranfield Hill" (change the scale to 1:25000 to get the context) used to be NSL up to the village limits, but the 30 limit has been extended out past the few scattered houses (which strangely aren't marked on the smaller scale map). The "new" stretch of 30 limit has small round 30 repeaters on it. It's downhill out of the village, fairly steep for Bedfordshire, which made it popular for drivers of underpowered vehicles to thrash it down the hill and see how fast they could get up to.

[medicineman]

The sign Streets posted is in Sheffield on the A61. This is a dual carriageway, seperated by a solid central reservation. It has a 30mph limit (no idea why, could and should be 40). However everyone treats it as a forty and there is a camera approximately 200 metres from this sign. So for once the scameraship is actually been helpful.

[tvrgit]

If the speed limit is 30 mph, and the road is unlit, or the street lights are too far apart (ie more than 200 metres) then you must erect 30mph repeaters - the small version of the normal red-white-black signs - to remind drivers of the limit in force.

[mybrainhurts]

medicineman said:

The sign Streets posted is in Sheffield on the A61. This is a dual carriageway, seperated by a solid central reservation. It has a 30mph limit (no idea why, could and should be 40). However everyone treats it as a forty and there is a camera approximately 200 metres from this sign. So for once the scameraship is actually been helpful.

Helpful? I tend to think it was a mistake.

I know a magistrate who passed that camera at 34. He was not pleased!