Limit reductions & pointless safety (Berks & Surrey)

[cheapslide]

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the sudden increase in recent months of limit reductions in Berks & Surrey....locally I now have many examples of National limits being reduced to 40 and 40 being reduced to 30 for no apparent reason as far as I can see. Maybe it is because I was doing 60 last year in on one of these roads and came across a mobile warning sign with a posted limit of 40 being setup....needless to say that I stopped and pointed out to the nice gentleman the small national black & whites on the opposite streetlamp....he was not impressed!

Then there is the Egham bypass.....once the haunt of Maranello demostrators. It had a wide open central reservation and was 70....then a year or so ago it was reduced to 50...ok I suppose (even if the boys in blue used to do high speed training on it)....but over the last 2 months....god knows how many £100K's have been spent putting up armco. Yet, in the 10 years I've driven up and down here I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of someone crossing the central reservation.....what a complete waste of money!

Thoughts?

[TripleS]

cheapslide said:

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the sudden increase in recent months of limit reductions in Berks & Surrey....locally I now have many examples of National limits being reduced to 40 and 40 being reduced to 30 for no apparent reason as far as I can see. Maybe it is because I was doing 60 last year in on one of these roads and came across a mobile warning sign with a posted limit of 40 being setup....needless to say that I stopped and pointed out to the nice gentleman the small national black & whites on the opposite streetlamp....he was not impressed!

Then there is the Egham bypass.....once the haunt of Maranello demostrators. It had a wide open central reservation and was 70....then a year or so ago it was reduced to 50...ok I suppose (even if the boys in blue used to do high speed training on it)....but over the last 2 months....god knows how many £100K's have been spent putting up armco. Yet, in the 10 years I've driven up and down here I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of someone crossing the central reservation.....what a complete waste of money!

Thoughts?

Aye, a depressing scene and no mistake. I'm becoming increasingly conscious of how fortunate I am to live in North Yorkshire, where lunacy on that scale has not yet appeared, rather than the areas you mention. I do sympathise with you.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[Bing o]

It's just part of the relentless effort to dumb down everything we do.

Our cars are now faster and safer than ever, yet the limits are more rigourously enforced, and lower, than ever before.

[TripleS]

Bing o said:

It's just part of the relentless effort to dumb down everything we do.

Our cars are now faster and safer than ever, yet the limits are more rigourously enforced, and lower, than ever before.

I don't know about limits being more rigorously enforced - except by the use of speed cameras - but the problem is that drivers are generally deemed not to be improving to match the progress in vehicle safety......and nothing is being done to help drivers to improve. In fact they are being being deterred from improving, and that is a wholly wrong thing to be doing in my view.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[herewego]

TripleS said:

Bing o said:

It's just part of the relentless effort to dumb down everything we do.

Our cars are now faster and safer than ever, yet the limits are more rigourously enforced, and lower, than ever before.

I don't know about limits being more rigorously enforced - except by the use of speed cameras - but the problem is that drivers are generally deemed not to be improving to match the progress in vehicle safety......and nothing is being done to help drivers to improve. In fact they are being being deterred from improving, and that is a wholly wrong thing to be doing in my view.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

In some areas drivers are offered to courses after being caught making a mistake. I'm guessing that these courses which seem to be pretty good are becoming more widespread.

[TripleS]

herewego said:

TripleS said:

Bing o said:

It's just part of the relentless effort to dumb down everything we do.

Our cars are now faster and safer than ever, yet the limits are more rigourously enforced, and lower, than ever before.

I don't know about limits being more rigorously enforced - except by the use of speed cameras - but the problem is that drivers are generally deemed not to be improving to match the progress in vehicle safety......and nothing is being done to help drivers to improve. In fact they are being being deterred from improving, and that is a wholly wrong thing to be doing in my view.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

In some areas drivers are offered to courses after being caught making a mistake. I'm guessing that these courses which seem to be pretty good are becoming more widespread.

Ah sorry - I was talking about drivers generally, not just those who may find themselves on speed awareness courses etc. To be fair some of those courses might be quite good, but they sound to be somewhat variable, depending on which part of the country you are caught in.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[nobleguy]

Thame - Aylesbury has a nice stretch of road that has gone from NSL to 50.
No reason.
Except there's 1 camera halfway along it - maybe they thought it would be a laugh to see how many got caught over the new limit. Arsewipes.

[borris-bear]

cheapslide said:

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the sudden increase in recent months of limit reductions in Berks & Surrey....locally I now have many examples of National limits being reduced to 40 and 40 being reduced to 30 for no apparent reason as far as I can see. Maybe it is because I was doing 60 last year in on one of these roads and came across a mobile warning sign with a posted limit of 40 being setup....needless to say that I stopped and pointed out to the nice gentleman the small national black & whites on the opposite streetlamp....he was not impressed!

Then there is the Egham bypass.....once the haunt of Maranello demostrators. It had a wide open central reservation and was 70....then a year or so ago it was reduced to 50...ok I suppose (even if the boys in blue used to do high speed training on it)....but over the last 2 months....god knows how many £100K's have been spent putting up armco. Yet, in the 10 years I've driven up and down here I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of someone crossing the central reservation.....what a complete waste of money!

Thoughts?

Once saw a Ferrari on a test drive jump up the central reservation there (coming off roundabout at Staines end heading onto the bypass) only reason he didnt end up on the other side was a road sight which he hit head on.

[pmanson]

nobleguy said:

Thame - Aylesbury has a nice stretch of road that has gone from NSL to 50.
No reason.
Except there's 1 camera halfway along it - maybe they thought it would be a laugh to see how many got caught over the new limit. Arsewipes.

Lovely road that one!

Lot's of roads in and around Aylesbury have been reduced.

[alphadog]

Still waiting the decision on the A515 in Derbyshire - fortunately we got wind of it (thanks to the ABD) and a fair number of objections have been sent. They want to put a 50 limit along all the NSL bits - to be fair it isn't so bad for the twistier bits - hard to go much over 50 anyway, but totally innappropiate on the straight Buxton - Newhaven stretch - especially considering the adjoining B and C roads that will remain NSL!

I fear that they will ignore our objections, but at least they have a load of them to work through!

[streaky]

borris-bear said:

Once saw a Ferrari on a test drive jump up the central reservation there (coming off roundabout at Staines end heading onto the bypass) only reason he didnt end up on the other side was a road sight which he hit head on.

Gotta watch out for those pesky road sights - Streaky

[mph999]

Ahhh, don't get me started on this ...

Guildford - Leatherhead road (A286???) - nice bit of dc, now 50 - why ???

In fact that whole road (8 - 9miles before you hit Effingham and 30 limit) was national, now all 40-50mph.

The A339 (Newbury to Basingstoke is was mostly 60, now 40-50 with a bit of 60 'cause of the accidents - mainly caused by poor overtaking.

Guess what, 3 accidents since limit drop - b**tards

see thread I started ...

www.newbury.net/forum/?b-say/m-1170374356/

Edited by mph999 on Friday 18th May 23:52

[Richard C]

herewego said:

In some areas drivers are offered to courses after being caught making a mistake. I'm guessing that these courses which seem to be pretty good are becoming more widespread.

From experience ?

[davidra]

I vaguely recall the Surrey county council wishing to institute a blanket 40 mph ban, and upon being told they couldn't, decided to drop each limit to achieve the same thing?

[herewego]

Richard C said:

herewego said:

In some areas drivers are offered to courses after being caught making a mistake. I'm guessing that these courses which seem to be pretty good are becoming more widespread.

From experience ?

I've read a couple of reports on the forum and they've been very positive.

[lostusernamedamn]

Dumbing down and revenue creation are the main reasons I expect.

The lower the limit - the more the chance of revenue, particularly when the limits are unrealistically low as most are.