Proposed speed limits
#1
Posted 09 August 2006 - 12:32 am
Kirsty Walker reports in yesterdays Daily Mail that there is a proposal on the table to cut the speed limit on country roads in the UK to 30 or 40 mph.
Apparently two thirds of accidents happen on country roads.
We might as well all go out and buy cruisers and sit back and enjoy the ride!!
Now : Nowt
Then : Yamaha TDM850 4TX , Suzuki GSF1200N Bandit , Yamaha TDM850 3VD , Yamaha 600 Fazer , Suzuki GSXR750G , Honda CB1100F , BMW R75/5 , Yamaha RD250E , Yamaha XS250 , Kawasaki Z250C , Lambretta GP150 , Vespa 150 Super
#2
Posted 09 August 2006 - 08:24 am
Kirsty Walker reports in yesterdays Daily Mail that there is a proposal on the table to cut the speed limit on country roads in the UK to 30 or 40 mph.
Apparently two thirds of accidents happen on country roads.
We might as well all go out and buy cruisers and sit back and enjoy the ride!!
Ah, the Mail..... must be true so. Wait 'til they decide bikers are socialists and pro-Europe
Stu
#3
Posted 09 August 2006 - 12:16 pm
What about getting the farmers to have working lights on their vehicles, visible signals to other road users and a bit more road sense etc....
I tell you what, why don't we all drive/ride around at 20 mph? That way no one dies if you hit them,
Diff.
#4
Posted 09 August 2006 - 06:07 pm
#5 Guest_Emmett_*
Posted 09 August 2006 - 09:00 pm
#6
Posted 09 August 2006 - 09:58 pm
woooow hoooooooooooo i heard the same report on Radio 4 as you Ready and i too assumed it was a reduction of the 60's & 70's, so we gorra wait and see i suppose.
spyball alarm/immob, bluespot brake calipers and Stainless hoses, Fournales air adjustable shock with Remote Resevoir, forks raised 10mm thru yokes, racetech linear fork springs in 15 wt oil, Kappa wingrack/luggage, heated grips, Kedo handguards, dual heat controller to power heated jacket liner and or pants!!, Stebel 136DB horn, K&N air filter, colour matched Baglux tank cover (magnetic tank bag modified to fit cover), osram +50% headloight bulbs, headlight protector,"NitramSpecial" parking loight, tail light indicators all running on LED's & incorporate "Lite Buddies", MK7 Scottoiler fitted, taller screen, 2-2 stainless steel CCC's, Devil stainless down pipes. MKI Renntec engine crash bars & sump guard.
engine changed july 2007 on a dyno run it made 79.1BHP / Torque 59.9Had a brief flirtation with a 1999 MKIIa but it blew an exaust valve on the M5 so was sold on to be repaired.
I loike tay and hang sangwiches !
www.kenhogantreeservices.co.uk
http://s33.photobuck...77/wickla/?sc=6
http://reg.imageshack.us/v_images.php
#7
Posted 09 August 2006 - 10:24 pm
...all the more reason to install one in every vehicle then! While they're at it, best bubblewrap anything within 50yds of any paved road surface, including pheasants, hedgehogs, rabbits and chavs!
LERK
No Trees were harmed by sending this message - Though a few electrons were mildly inconvenienced...
#8
Posted 10 August 2006 - 12:21 am
...all the more reason to install one in every vehicle then! While they're at it, best bubblewrap anything within 50yds of any paved road surface, including pheasants, hedgehogs, rabbits and chavs!
LERK
the new sports game show brought to you on channel five "bubblewrap the chav"
now that i would pay to play....
"Never argue with an idiot. They just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience"
My TDM :
Black 1991 850 MK1, 160k+ miles(ish, best guess really, gave up trying to keep count after 3rd set of clocks and 3rd engine), PilotRoad2 tyres, custom stubby exhaust system, bluespot calipers & goodridge braided hoses with dunlopads, maxton forks, Ohlins shock, kedo handguards, stainless TDM grill, Scottoiler with lubetube & dual nozzle thingy, Givi Wingrack2 with E45 & 2xE36s, renntec crash bars, Autocom with blueteeth & PMR radio, TomTom Rider2, Optimate IIIsp, Bagster tank cover, anti-dazzle coating
to fit : led spotlights, heated grips, new braided lines and rear caliper that actually has bleed nipples
Silver-ish 2003 900, 70k miles, PilotRoad3 front tyre (new@65k) & PR2 rear(new at 69k), Renthal 755 bars with KTM handguards, oxford unheated grips, power commander 3usb, scorpion titanium exhausts, standard screen with vario winglet thingy, stainless grill, oem centre stand, bagster tank cover, givi monokey topplate mounted on grabrail with V46 topbox, Givi PL pannier rails with E21s, crash bungs, mirror extender thingys, Halfords Advanced Laser Blue brillance bulbs, 21w led spotlights, touring scottoiler with leehenty dual nozzle, Autocom with blueteeth & PMR radio, TomTom Rider3 Urban, winter style anti-dazzle coating
to fit : led brake light strip, replacement heated grips
current rides : TDM850 3vd/mk1=tourer&scratcher, TRX850=weekend twisty toy, 2003 TDM900=commuter, 2005 TDM900=unmolested. Gone but not forgotton : XTZ750=overland touring toy, GS500e, GS125
If a strange looking truck driver honks at you & gives you the thumbs up, its could be me
#9
Posted 10 August 2006 - 03:17 am
Here the speed limit on the majority of country roads is 100km/h (60mph). These roads usually have no police presence (nearest town can be over 50km away), so you can pretty much do what you want speed wise. However, the speed limit through a country town (and for a km or 2 either side) is often only 50km/h (30mph). This lower limit is usually policed and policed with aggression.
At least we Aussies have the benefit of only encountering towns every half hour or so, sometimes towns are over an hour apart (and that's travelling at a fair cracking pace too). For you lot, with all your towns so close together, you'd never make it out of a 30mph town zone before entering the 30 zone of another town.
#10
Posted 10 August 2006 - 06:23 am
this is similar to my thoughts apart from one good point that had never occurred to me, the bit about people walking into each other on the pavements you can't go much slower than that.
the new sports game show brought to you on channel five "bubblewrap the chav"
now that i would pay to play....
this would be a good game and you could add a bit to this once they are completely wrapped in the way of helping them breathe a little bit, not too much though, throw darts at them to slowly pop the bubbles and make way for some air
the last thing I want is for my family to cry
#11
Posted 10 August 2006 - 07:54 am
Radio 4 ?????? you'll all be buying bmws next
#12
Posted 10 August 2006 - 09:59 am
Okay, so it's driver error, but if you always ride faster than the majority of other road users, how can you also ride according to conditions, visability, situations, etc. There's an immediate contradiction. How do you compensate for their errors, even presuming you don't make any? The risk is your speed variation from other traffic, not your actual speed (which is why travelling too slow is also a risk )
If the over 3200 road deaths in the UK in 2005 had died in air crashes there would be an outcry and Something Would be Done. On the road, cameras aren't working, road safety campaigns aren't working, drivers aren't wising up and taking responsibility for themselves. So why not let them keep crashing, but just not kill each other - Whatever the cause of the crash, an impact at higher speed has more energy and does more damage. The simplistic solution is to reduce speed and make crashes survivable. What have all the recent 'advances' in car safety been about? Airbags, side impact bars, laminated windscreens, even the new Jaguar 'pedestrian friendly' pop-up bonnet? They are about surviving a crash not avoiding one. Drivers/riders won't be educated, so in effect they are already being bubble-wrapped.
The newer driver education initiatives focus not on skills but on attitude and behaviour. You don't have to be an experienced rider to be a safe one, but you can be a skilled one and still crash if you go out with the wrong attitude. So to paraphrase, although the problem may be interpreted differently; the point is, to change it.
Stu
#13
Posted 10 August 2006 - 12:35 pm
Brilliant road sign stu! sponsored by Frankie & Vinnie no doubt. You know those two stereotypical gansters with the New York accents ba da bing.
As I said - let's all drive around at 20 mph then no one dies m'kay?
Regarding riding to the conditions - I'm scared of leaning over too much in the wet for obvious reasons. So, there I am, not trying, in the wet, riding home down the usual B road in the countryside... YET I'm still catching cars because they seem to be even more scared than me of the rain...
What's the similarity between a Slinky spring and a chav? Both bloody useless, but great fun to watch when you push them downstairs..
Diff.
#14
Posted 10 August 2006 - 01:08 pm
Interesting point about 3500 dead, though. The US is currently rampaging around the world with us clinging to its backside for the death of 3500 in 2001. US citizens murder 25 - 30,000 of each other with firearms each year yet no war against gun murderers, unless they have guns and are "tourists" (say it with a Bush Texas accent) from Tie-rack.
What's John Smiths and sex in a canoe got in common then? They're both f*cking close to water....
#15
Posted 10 August 2006 - 04:08 pm
That's nice, but in 1950 there wasn't a speed limit.
The 70 mph limit was not introduced until 1965, before that it was unlimited outside towns.
Anyway, the improvements you quote are counterbalanced by increases in vehicle numbers and traffic density.
I'd be the first to agree with you that unrealistic limits are counterproductive; in Ireland the rural speed limit was changed from 60 mph to 80 kph, overnight making most prudent road users outlaws. What benefit was achieved?
This is interesting: The theory is that traffic laws that reflect the behavior of the majority of motorists may have better compliance than laws that arbitrarily criminalize the majority of motorists and encourage violations. The latter kinds of laws lack public support and often fail to bring about desirable changes in driving behavior. An example is the federally mandated 55 mph (90 km/h) speed limit that was scrapped in part because of notoriously low compliance.
Traffic engineers observe that the majority of drivers drive in a safe and reasonable manner, as demonstrated by consistently favorable driving records. Studies have shown crash rates are lowest at around the 85th percentile. Vehicles traveling over the 85th percentile speed (or faster than the flow of traffic) have a significantly higher crash risk than vehicles traveling around or modestly below this speed.
I wish I had your confidence that no-one could catch me out
Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form
Stu
#16
Posted 10 August 2006 - 04:56 pm
It was 65 was it? I'll remember that for the next pub quiz
Sounds reasonable that the laws used to be those that The Island still has. It's pretty much how I ride..... Maybe I should grow my hair and get some Loon Pants?
And, I can understand that enacting laws to restrict on the basis of increased density contains some logic, though the existence of reason here I would contest is unreasonable. Enacting laws on the basis of custom is the first step to a democracy though I can't imagine ours ever deigning to allow us to enact an opinion on the way we are governed. Your synopsis of the 85th percentile is interesting. Though I must admit to being baffled if the conclusion exclusively dictates that all faster vehicles are accident prone as it would negate any concept of safe overtaking or possibility of being trained to ROSPA Gold or Diplomatic Protection Squad standards since both are redundant when faced with slower road users. Maybe I'm being pendantic/semantic about this point? I believe that my crash record, points on my licence, age, experience and 10 years protected no claims point to someone reasonably safe. If we agree that accidents are caused by driver error and not speed per se, then if a rider has a higher level of ability than average is he not therefore able to enjoy travel at a higher speed once he has negotiated slower road users (at speeds slightly higher than them) and fill his heart with joy?
Just for the record I'm not claiming that ET with his ROSPA Bronze is affiliated in any way with any armed or dangerous security force.
#17
Posted 10 August 2006 - 09:13 pm
Always tell the truth, it will gratify some of the people and astonish the rest. (Mark Twain)
£
Stebel Nautilus air-horn, Corbin seat, MRA Touring screen, single Delkevic silencer.
"I see by your outfit that you are a spaceman"(MkI (3VD) TDM Review)
Hints for using Carpe-TDM. (photo's, links, etc).
#18
Posted 11 August 2006 - 06:24 am
Too much going slow would probably have a knock on effect where next day deliveries could take a week, a Politicians extremely urgent top secret document that has to be hand delivered in half an hour which is only possible by motorcycle courier, - ''sorry sir but with yesterdays speed limit it would've been possible to get it there in ten minutes, but todays speed limits and 'enforcement' cameras meant a bigger build up in traffic and I didn't want to risk my licence so it took 45 minutes'', ''they said you're fired''.
the last thing I want is for my family to cry
#19
Posted 11 August 2006 - 01:58 pm
Link works for me - try http://en.wikipedia....percentile_rule
(it's not my synopsis )
I can't say I never exceed the speed limit - my philosophy would be similar to laffin and Karl's, by the sound of it. My post was as devil's advocate on what the authorities may have considered when they took a particular tack with road safety.
Overtaking is a high(er) risk activity. That's why advanced training suggests considering whether it is necessary, as well as legal, safe etc.
Police standards are different - (Isn't that SEG, not DPS?) but Advanced riding is about being in the right place at the right time, in the correct gear for the speed, and progressing unobtrusively. S'not all about overtaking and high speed.
Interesting that you mention RoSPA of all people - they support speed cameras, which are a blunt instrument which do nothing to correct bad driving at less than the posted speed limit. (and it's possible to be at an inappropriate speed at less than the limit.... as well as at a 'safe' speed in excess of the limit).
And yes, if we agree that crashes (not 'accidents') are caused by driver error, it's not always obvious which driver is gonna cause the error that gets you. Anticipation is based on predictions based on previously observed behaviour - with drunk and/or drugged drivers, for example, the behaviour is less predictable.
Good thread
Stu
#20
Posted 12 August 2006 - 10:11 am
there are collisions in traffic jams ffs ... what are they traveling at ? 10kmh?
in belgium the reason stated government for lowered speed limits was:
to reduce polution ...
loada bollox
lower speed, lower gear, same revs : just takes you longer = more polution
and you have to slow down and speed up again every few hundred meters coz of the traffic lights/speedbumps/speedtraps/potholes
yamaha : xv535/92-92 | red TDM850/92-05 | silver TDM900A/05-
get them here
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users