Speed Sensing Signs
Discussion
On the A404 between High Wycobme and Amersham they have located one of these signs to tell you that there is a bend comming up and your going a bit fast. The interesting thing is that the limit is 60 and the sign is set to 40. If I was being followed by the BiB would they pull me over for going around the corner at 60?
My 2nd point is that i've seen a number of people panic brake when the sign comes on at night even though they were within the speed limit. Resulting in people behind them taking avoiding action etc.
Would it not have been better to put a sign up saying you really should take this corner at 40, and then a speed sensative sign later.
p.s. If you have balls the size of coconuts this corner can be taken in excess of 80mph. I'm never using that taxi again!
My 2nd point is that i've seen a number of people panic brake when the sign comes on at night even though they were within the speed limit. Resulting in people behind them taking avoiding action etc.
Would it not have been better to put a sign up saying you really should take this corner at 40, and then a speed sensative sign later.
p.s. If you have balls the size of coconuts this corner can be taken in excess of 80mph. I'm never using that taxi again!
puggit said:
I may or may not have taken the corner above the speed limit (60 that is) last week 
But then again I grew up around there and I know the corner well!
I drove it for a year every day. And now every other day. But i've never been around it as quick as the Taxi i got back from Wycombe....and i'm known as a bit of a cornering deamon!
>> Edited by Munter on Wednesday 21st April 12:33
Munter said:
If I was being followed by the BiB would they pull me over for going around the corner at 60
I wouldn't have thought so.
These signs are simply a tool attempting to get you to observe what it says in the highway code...
Highway Code 104 said:
The speed limit is the absolute maximum and does not mean it is safe to drive at that speed irrespective of conditions. Driving at speeds too fast for the road and traffic conditions can be dangerous. You should always reduce your speed when
the road layout or condition presents hazards, such as bends
sharing the road with pedestrians and cyclists, particularly children, and motorcyclists
weather conditions make it safer to do so
driving at night as it is harder to see other road users.
Sadly it's the whole "someone else doing the thinking for you" mentality which is probably contributing to the general decline of standards in driving...
DtM.
The 40 in this case is an advisory limit. They would need a Speed Order to make it enforceable.
However if anything untoward happened it could be used as evidence against you to support due care etc.
If BiB was behind you at 60 then no doubt he would give you a pull and words of advice. They do not just plonk these things up, there must be a history to make it necessary.
DVD
However if anything untoward happened it could be used as evidence against you to support due care etc.
If BiB was behind you at 60 then no doubt he would give you a pull and words of advice. They do not just plonk these things up, there must be a history to make it necessary.
DVD
Dwight VanDriver said:
there must be a history to make it necessary.
DVD
From memory (so a bit inaccurate), some 17yo bought a car for around £50. Picked up his girl and mates from the night club at the other end of the streight. Tried to take the corner at 80mph and then realised the shocks had been replaced with bits of 2x2, and the steering was duff. defective car + Tree + 80mph = dead friends. Nasty, but caused by a defective car rather than speed. Mind you, less speed more likey to survive.
motco said:
Was that one of the many upside down Astras in the hedge on that corner?
Thats the only accident on that corner that I know of. But there may well have been more. The question would be are they all cars full of drunken teenagers because locals dont want clubs in towns around here so everybody has to drive to them in the back of beyond?....and if they are whats the chance of them taking any notice of a sign?
Dwight VanDriver said:
The 40 in this case is an advisory limit. They would need a Speed Order to make it enforceable.
However if anything untoward happened it could be used as evidence against you to support due care etc.
If BiB was behind you at 60 then no doubt he would give you a pull and words of advice. They do not just plonk these things up, there must be a history to make it necessary.
DVD
I have very little confidence that these advisory speed limits at bends are based on any rational processes.
On the A171 between Guisborough and Whitby is a short section of dual carriageway at a fairly hilly section of the road. Some time back the bends on this section were marked with a recommended maximum speed of 25 mph. Based on rather more than 40 years experience of that road I find 50-55 mph perfectly satisfactory in the dry, and perhaps 45 mph if it is wet on the uphill right hand bend. Even if you were to consider those speeds to be slightly excessive, there is no way that 25 mph is remotely appropriate for any reasonably capable driver.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
A few years ago, on a driving holiday in California I saw lots of these speed advisory signs.
Usually you could easily add 10mph to the figure quoted without being anything like accused of driving quickly or aggressively.
I actually don't mind these "advisory" signs! As I have said I think somewhere before, it's better to be informed than persecuted, and if you are a stranger in the area it may just save your life, maybe in the dark and wet. Something that the speed camera will NEVER do!
Edited just to say that, Yes, I do agree that they should be realistic, otherwise local drivers behind you may be surprised by you sudden drop in speed.
>> Edited by 8Pack on Thursday 22 April 01:03
Usually you could easily add 10mph to the figure quoted without being anything like accused of driving quickly or aggressively.
I actually don't mind these "advisory" signs! As I have said I think somewhere before, it's better to be informed than persecuted, and if you are a stranger in the area it may just save your life, maybe in the dark and wet. Something that the speed camera will NEVER do!
Edited just to say that, Yes, I do agree that they should be realistic, otherwise local drivers behind you may be surprised by you sudden drop in speed.
>> Edited by 8Pack on Thursday 22 April 01:03
In the dry I can safely exceed most of the "advisory limits" on bends that I know by (at least) 20 mph in the Jeep and much more (I'm sure 
) in the Tiv. Like the "braking distances" the algorithm for calculating these limits appears to have been set when cars had cross-ply tyres with foot-prints measurable in fractions of a square inch - Streaky
) in the Tiv. Like the "braking distances" the algorithm for calculating these limits appears to have been set when cars had cross-ply tyres with foot-prints measurable in fractions of a square inch - StreakyOn an NSL B road near to my parents there was one corner with an advisory 40 mph limit. Could safely take it at 60.
Last year somerset council decided to make my journey home that little bit more stressfull and made the entire road 30mph. (Complete with about 50 camera signs)
However, for two months afterwards there was still the advisory limit advising pepole to take a corner at 40 in a 30
.
>> Edited by chris1roll on Thursday 22 April 11:24
Last year somerset council decided to make my journey home that little bit more stressfull and made the entire road 30mph. (Complete with about 50 camera signs)
However, for two months afterwards there was still the advisory limit advising pepole to take a corner at 40 in a 30
. >> Edited by chris1roll on Thursday 22 April 11:24
Moving on from this business about advisory speed limit signs at bends, has anyone else noticed an upsurge in Local Authority enthusiasm for installing 'blind summit' signs? Have they bought in a job lot of these signs at a good price I wonder? Incidentally, where might one find a summit that isn't blind?
Best wishes all,
Dave.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
I suppose if you were a local council employee responsible for road warning signs, in these days of the compensation culture and Health & Safety law, you would be very careful to be covering your own back.
I could just imagine a claim going in against the council by some motorist, who having left the road, gone through a hedge,under a cow and over a ditch before comming to rest against a tree,saying "your sign said it was safe to take that bend at 40mph."
These days it seems, you have to treat adults like children, except children of course, who you have to treat like adults. Mmmm! Am I making sense?
What a crazy mixed up country!
I could just imagine a claim going in against the council by some motorist, who having left the road, gone through a hedge,under a cow and over a ditch before comming to rest against a tree,saying "your sign said it was safe to take that bend at 40mph."
These days it seems, you have to treat adults like children, except children of course, who you have to treat like adults. Mmmm! Am I making sense?
What a crazy mixed up country!
Anyone who knows this bit of the A404 - here's the official propaganda:
www.saferroads.org/Media/downloads/90_20200428030415_34.pdf (around 750Kb if you're on dialup!)
www.saferroads.org/Media/downloads/90_20200428030415_34.pdf (around 750Kb if you're on dialup!)
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