Road Safety - or not.

[nigelnibbles]

get car manufacterers to put speed limiters in all new cars, and make it compulsory to fit them in old cars, if the max speed limit in the country is 70mph, then no one(apart from police) needs cars that go faster

[chesters1]

quote:

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The problem with speed humps is that they make life much more dangerous for motorcyclists.....at any speed

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not to mention drain covers on corners :mad: :mad:

[Bonzo]

here's a new one.

How about designing roads so they are safer.

why do we need sharp bends? uneven roads? man hole covers that don't lay in the road correctley, blind spots.

DESIGN THE RISKS OUT "SIMPLE"

In Bedfordshire where new estates are popping up all over the it seems the road system is an after-thought, ooooppppsss we better put some roads in.

[bitsbobs]

why do we need sharp bends?

 

Because the farmers etc don't have to sell their land.

 

uneven roads? man hole covers that don't lay in the road correctley, blind spots.

 

Maybe the workers are under qualified. Must admit, they're getting good at putting the cones out in a straight line.

[*Ant*]

Maybe a true case for "safety" cameras, but then, there wouldn't be any profit in a camera placed for safety concerns.

[Adz]

Salar:

quote:

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That way the rule of, "Survival of the Better Drivers", would apply.

I agree, except on this road a number of casualties have been folk turning onto the main road thinking there car in the distance was doing 40 em pee aitch instead of a ton! Cue hearse. [/QB]

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Of course you could look at that as, someone half concentrating on the job in hand - i.e. driving their car - see's the approaching vehicle as doing 40mph instead of a ton (in a 60mph limit of course) and pulls out cue hearse... I for one, fail to see the difference between one idiot causing an accident or another one, regardless of the speeds involved.

 

It was a wise person who said:

 

"Speed doesn't kill, but inappropriate speed does."

 

[ 23. March 2004, 12:06 AM: Message edited by: Adz ]

[Nugg]

Impose a 30/40mph limit, then they will be more likely to only be doing 10/15mph over the top.

[Leon Roskilly]

Bonzo:

here's a new one.

How about designing roads so they are safer.

why do we need sharp bends? uneven roads? man hole covers that don't lay in the road correctley, blind spots.

DESIGN THE RISKS OUT "SIMPLE"

In Bedfordshire where new estates are popping up all over the it seems the road system is an after-thought, ooooppppsss we better put some roads in.

For a while that's what the road designers did, widening carriageways, eliminating bends etc

 

Then they discovered 'risk compensation'.

 

If a road 'feels' safe to drive at a certain speed, or in a certain way, then drivers drive that way.

 

As a result speeds went up, so did accidents, particularly damaging high speed accidents.

 

Drivers underestimated their reaction/braking times and hazard perception.

 

So now roads are being re-designed to seem more hazardous.

 

Cross hatching, reducing previously widened lanes back to width where there is a temptation to dangourously overtake. Pinch points. Extra roudabouts. Traffic islands. Traffic Lights. All measures designed to slow the traffic down because MPH signs don't.

 

Yes, it's 'inappropriate speed' that is one of the dangers.

 

Trouble is that only a tiny fraction of dangers can truly judge an 'appropriate' speed, and most drivers considerably overestimate their own driving skills. (In surveys all but a small minority of drivers consider themselves to be 'better than average' )

 

Tight Lines - leon

[bikenut]

I'm a member of Thames Vale Advances Motorcyclists and this road is local to us. Most of the fatalities on this road that I hear about are bikers. There are some really tricky bits here and there in between the fast stretches and its easy to see how people lose it on that road. About a year ago a biker swerved to avoid a broken down minibus and killed himself, so they closed the road and set up a diversion down the lanes, only to have another biker lose it on the diversion and kill himself, all very sad. I don't know the answer to it all, there is now very strong objection to motorcycling because of the number of fatalities, maybe a man with a red flag in front would do the trick. For what its worth, my club coach bikers to take the IAM advanced test, and hopefully do our bit to reduce these deaths.

Of course silly season is starting now, and I guess we will be seeing more flowers beside the A339. The speed cameras north a Basingstoke on the A339 have hats covering the box, anybody know why?

Bikenut

[driller]

I'm working in Saudi Arabia at the moment and the whole country is one big accident blackspot,if there are any regulations no one takes any notice including the police,with a population less than the uk, last year there were over 500,000 casualties 12% ending in fatalities,red lights are completely ignored and you often get cars overtaking on the hard shoulder(which is mainly sand and gravel) at over 200kph(max speed limit 120kph)even the safest of drivers would be unable to go very long without having some kind of collision