Why do they extend 30mph zones into "No Man's Land"?

[RedAlfa]

Once upon a time 30mph zones started and ended at appropriate locations. Now we have 30mph zones extended into "No Man's Land" ... sometimes half a mile away from the nearest village! Why do they do this? What is the point in extending the 30-limit into the middle of nowhere?

[ShadownINja]

Speed kills, innit.

[ShadownINja]

It's typical behaviour from people who don't know much, doing a job they shouldn't be doing. They'll say it's 30 for a reason.

[Alex]

There is plenty of evidence to show that this practice leads to increased speeds through village centres. Still, nanny knows best.

[mrmr96]

RedAlfa said:

Once upon a time 30mph zones started and ended at appropriate locations. Now we have 30mph zones extended into "No Man's Land" ... sometimes half a mile away from the nearest village! Why do they do this? What is the point in extending the 30-limit into the middle of nowhere?

There was another thread a while ago talking about entering a village 30mph limit from an NSL single (i.e. 60mph). I remember there being criticism for the "29mph club" or "30.000000mph club" as they were dubbed, for BRAKING on approach to the change in limit so that they would be doing 30mph at the 30 sign. This was dimly viewed by many posters who implied that when they saw the 30mph sign they would allow their speed to coast down to 30mph, however long that took. Therefore if there was a corner before the 30 sign, then they would usually end up coasting into the 30 limit at >30mph.

Therefore it could be a reaction to this type of driving, where many people only adopt the new speed limit at some point after the sign, which means councils have moved the signs further away so that people are doing about 30 by the time they enter the village.

I'm in the 'do the speed limit' camp as I have enough points as it is. So I will stick to the letter and brake down so I'm doing 30 at the 30 sign. Then when I emerge from the other side I'll stick to 30mph until I get to the NSL sign (despite being tailgated out of the village, since again, a lot of people start accelerating as soon as they see the NSL sign, not when they pass it - so they tail gate me.) Then I plant it as I pass the sign and usually pull away from whoever was tailgating in the 30 limit.

So I stick to the rules, but it is my opinion that maybe the rules are pandering to people who don't obey them properly - so the signs are placed to achieve the desired result amongst this group of drivers, which is at the detreiment of people like me who end up having to slow early and accelerate late.

[Chocky Chockster]

As you'll learn if you do one of those speeding courses they give you if they catch at 36 in a 30 zone, people tend to speed up into new zones, and slow down only once they're past the signs. So I guess the extension is to make sure that people are going the right speed when they hit the part it should really apply to.

After I learned about this behaviour, the next time I went out I consciously slowed down to be at the right speed as I hit the lower-speed portals, and accelerated only once I'd got into the higher-speed zone. It felt very odd (and self-righteous) to be doing it this way, and I found other drivers frequently stuck on my rear bumper too.

[mrmr96]

Chocky Chockster said:

As you'll learn if you do one of those speeding courses they give you if they catch at 36 in a 30 zone, people tend to speed up into new zones, and slow down only once they're past the signs. So I guess the extension is to make sure that people are going the right speed when they hit the part it should really apply to.

After I learned about this behaviour, the next time I went out I consciously slowed down to be at the right speed as I hit the lower-speed portals, and accelerated only once I'd got into the higher-speed zone. It felt very odd (and self-righteous) to be doing it this way, and I found other drivers frequently stuck on my rear bumper too.

Agreed.

[Scraggles]

tend to do 30 in town areas or less as needed, if had decided to do say 40 mph, then would have lost the licence ages ago

not a massive delay and hitting someone or something is going to more than delay me for the time that would have gained

[ritmo]

i've noticed that on main roads in rural areas over time they seem to continually tighten the limit (50 then 40 then 30 )through villages and extend the limit further and further beyond each end of the village until there is barely any NSL road left between villages.

[lawdevice]

a friend of mine lives near a local councillor who's very proud of the fact that he's lowered the speedlimit on the edge of their village by putting more street lights in. There's absolutely no need for it. Its just a case of little men with too much power.

stuff like this gets me so angry!

[Engineer1]

It's probably because people are ignoring the speed limit, now it could be people from outside the area who are unlikely to know where the houses start or where any cameras could be, or it could be locals who use the road regularly and can remember when the 30 started just before the first house, I suspect that if could be locals.

[slipstream 1985]

mrmr96 said:

Chocky Chockster said:

As you'll learn if you do one of those speeding courses they give you if they catch at 36 in a 30 zone, people tend to speed up into new zones, and slow down only once they're past the signs. So I guess the extension is to make sure that people are going the right speed when they hit the part it should really apply to.

After I learned about this behaviour, the next time I went out I consciously slowed down to be at the right speed as I hit the lower-speed portals, and accelerated only once I'd got into the higher-speed zone. It felt very odd (and self-righteous) to be doing it this way, and I found other drivers frequently stuck on my rear bumper too.

Agreed.

i like making a game of it. how late can a go before a jump on the brakes to get it down to 30 at the sign, and sitting in 2nd gear waiting for the nsl to gun1

[CraigyMc]

RedAlfa said:

...30mph zones extended into "No Man's Land" ... Why do they do this? ...

Personally, if I lived in an otherwise quiet village I'd probably want the NSL sign on the way out of the village to be out of earshot.

I'd want anything passing through to be going slowly so they just trundle by quietly.

Various vehicles will make more noise as they speed up when they get out of the lower speed limit area - I'm not just thinking about TVRs here but other things like trucks and so on.

I'm just playing devils' advocate here but that's another reason for the no-mans-land that springs to mind.

C