Lets protect our UK roads
Discussion
There have been a few threads recently that made me realise that while there are of course many wonderful driving roads throughout Europe, they are slowly being restricted by the introduction of tougher EU laws and the widespread adoption of average speed cameras. Here in the UK we still have have brilliant areas available - great roads, wonderful scenery, etc. Not everywhere of course but even outside of the traditional Wales and Scotland routes there continue to be many places to be enjoyed.
Electric cars and autonomous driving, while clearly the way forward, will slowly erode the enthusiast's ability to get out there and make use of our "noisy, polluting, petrol fuelled cars". What can we do to protect what we have, who do we lobby, should we be more organised, do we even have a say? I'm sure there are initiatives out there but I'm not aware of them so can someone share what they know about this. Who do we support to ensure that we have a voice?
Electric cars and autonomous driving, while clearly the way forward, will slowly erode the enthusiast's ability to get out there and make use of our "noisy, polluting, petrol fuelled cars". What can we do to protect what we have, who do we lobby, should we be more organised, do we even have a say? I'm sure there are initiatives out there but I'm not aware of them so can someone share what they know about this. Who do we support to ensure that we have a voice?
thecook101 said:
No this is not a brexit post. I just meant that the EU is steadily applying its own laws. Easy tiger.Its driven by revenue. All governments are in need of money. Personal taxation is largely exploited so now it is down to fines to bridge the ever widening gap in the public finances. The whole crap about safety is exactly that - crap. Cars have become much safer but speed limits are continuously going down.
There's a danger that before too long only driverless cars will be allowed on the roads. So I think the real answer is to build dedicated loops of road for humans, essentially road racing circuits, say 60 to 120 km long. The IOM TT circuit is the nearest I can think of as a prototype.
I agree that something needs to be done, the petrolhead community needs to unite.
Otherwise worst case, all cars will be driverless and driving on the road will become illegal. We may still be allowed track days if we are lucky, but we may not be able to drive to them.
Or we will have to retrofit autonomous technology, but that will be very difficult to do. It's easier to ban us all.
This isn't sci fi stuff anymore, it's reality.
Otherwise worst case, all cars will be driverless and driving on the road will become illegal. We may still be allowed track days if we are lucky, but we may not be able to drive to them.
Or we will have to retrofit autonomous technology, but that will be very difficult to do. It's easier to ban us all.
This isn't sci fi stuff anymore, it's reality.
davek_964 said:
Local to me, it's not really speed cameras that are the issue - it's the gradual erosion of speed limits. 50 (in some cases even 40) seems to be the new 60 and many local roads have had the speed limit reduced.
Yes I've noticed this over the past few years as roads marked as NSL drop to 50 and now 40mph, along with some 30mph side-roads now 20mph. How long before we have a man, woman (or other) walking in front with a red flag?This is what happens when you hand over speed limits from experienced road planners to clueless numpties in the council departments, many of whom don't drive!
I think that things really aren't too bad here in the UK.
Yes, 50mph limits on rural roads are becoming more common, but they're limited to busier routes and not heavily policed. 20mph limits in city centres are also incredibly annoying and don't appear to offer any safety benefit, but in London at least I've only ever seen them policed by clearly marked cameras.*
Once you get onto more rural NSL roads the UK is still a fun place to drive. I think it will be a very long time before these kind of roads are tightly controlled.
(* To the FF driver I saw get zapped by a 20 mph camera just now by the Old Street roundabout - I'm sorry I tried to warn you! My thought process went from 'the FF looks magnificent in person' to 'they're setting off quickly, do they know there is a camera up ahead?' and then '[frantically flashes lights] s
t slow down!'.)
Yes, 50mph limits on rural roads are becoming more common, but they're limited to busier routes and not heavily policed. 20mph limits in city centres are also incredibly annoying and don't appear to offer any safety benefit, but in London at least I've only ever seen them policed by clearly marked cameras.*
Once you get onto more rural NSL roads the UK is still a fun place to drive. I think it will be a very long time before these kind of roads are tightly controlled.
(* To the FF driver I saw get zapped by a 20 mph camera just now by the Old Street roundabout - I'm sorry I tried to warn you! My thought process went from 'the FF looks magnificent in person' to 'they're setting off quickly, do they know there is a camera up ahead?' and then '[frantically flashes lights] s
t slow down!'.)Edited by mario64 on Sunday 18th September 22:43
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