Drivers and their problems

David9694 wrote:

Will someone please think of the drivers?  Welcome to my world, guys. 

'John Reynolds recently travelled up to Gainsborough to go walking and he thinks the recent reports are "shocking". The 69-year-old from Peterborough said: "It's shocking really when you think about how dangerous that could be, it's life-threatening.'

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/residents-scared-worr...

That sounds very scary. I wonder if it was these two?

To be honest, there is a tiny little bit of me quite impressed that vandals are capable of throwing microwaves and goalposts from a moped onto cars, a) to carry them; b) to ride with them and c) to hurl them; without going tits up.

It is a small example of if criminals are so good at being criminal, surely there is a legitimate occupation they could apply their talent to.

Poor John.  But since he's going walking he'll have taken the train from Peterborough to Doncaster, then one out to Gainsborough (1 hour 35 min - quicker than Google's predicted fastest 1hr 40 min), so surely he'll be fine?

People do seem to have this misplaced belief that the piece of road outside their house/garden somehow belongs to them...

But this story was a little different in that I see that the car was parked on her driveway.  For fifteen minutes.  By the estate agent working for her landlord.

I live in Yeovil and those roundabouts with traffic lights are dreadful. I've lost count of the times that I am stopped at a roundabout with no traffic around just because the lights are red. One of the roundabouts will not let you turn right without stopping you at least once so if there are more than two cars wanting to turn right you immediately snarl the roundabout up for other traffic. If I am on my bike I have to try and weave through traffic (not always possible) or sit in the middle of a roundabout hoping that cars going straight across see, and avoid, me.

Looking is an active task.

This bloke is pretty much admitting he cannot drive.

One of the things that really used to piss me off was my old local Facebook group being full of drivers warning each other about speed cameras. It's a village with something like seven schools in it, it's had young families flocking to it for about ten years now. When I used to suggest that instead of suggesting alternative routes to help drivers continue to speed through residential streets packed with playing children, they should shut the fuck up and let the cameras do thier job as a deterrent, they couldn't work out where I was coming from.

Isn't the default speed limit in urban areas 30mph, even if unsigned. Think there's something about streetlight spacing too.

What an authoritarian notion - a default speed limit?  Here a Scottish Parliament committee rejected a "make it 20mph" proposal on the grounds that "one-size-fits-all" default limits would be unhelpful! (Yes, I still can't let it go).

Oldfatgit wrote:

Isn't the default speed limit in urban areas 30mph, even if unsigned. Think there's something about streetlight spacing too.

It's the street lamps that decide - if there are street lamps spaced 183m (200yd) or less, and no speed limit repeater signs, then the limit is 30mph*. If there are no street lamps and no repeater signs, it's NSL. Anything else, then repeater signs must be in place showing the speed limit regardless of street lamps.

* generally in 30mph areas with street lamps, repeater signs are not permitted, however an exception is made in some areas at the discretion of the local authority, early 2000s when the camera partnerships started and a high volume drivers were being nicked, then a sign on a blue background showing a camera symbol and a "30" in a red circle to remind people that a camera is ahead and the limit is 30.

I went to visit my mother down in Bexhill over the week, and whilst sitting in a fine Italian restaurant by the Delaware I spotted an illuminated 20 sign. I forgot to investigate after. Very full and having enjoyed a Long Man ale. And I mean backlit with LEDs, not lamp above or neon on Perspex.

The driver of the HUGE Audi.

We could believe he was driving at under what he thought was the speed limit of 40mph.

Or, slightly over what many motorists wrongly believe is the acceptable 35mph level at which they are allowed to drive in a 30mph zone.

I will let you decide?

is that still officially  the case though ? I mean it was dont get me wrong the default street lamps = 30mph was definitely a thing I was taught, but I thought because of things like where I live the county council implemented a blanket 30mph limit through all villages in the mid 90s, regardless of street lights or not.

plus with new housing developments popping up everywhere and some quite confusing I think changes in limit where youll be in the 30 in the village, leave the village it becomes NSL, but half a mile later drops to 40 sometimes for safety reasons, sometimes as part of a traffic mitigation plan for the new housing, but the visual cues of the whole stretch of the road is identical.  The actual default had become something more akin to its 30mph unless you see signs telling you otherwise.

I'm fairly sure although I'll accept being wrong if otherwise. 

I think the reason for the repeater signs is so that a "top lawyer" couldn't exploit a loophole whereby a road could be interpreted as NSL if no lighting or repeater signs. So therefore under the letter of the law, anything outside of TSRGD could technically be unenforceable  

Just had a dig around, and 8.3.2 of the Traffic Signs Manual chapter 3 says:

8.3.2. Where a 30 mph speed limit is imposed on an unlit road, it is necessary to make an order. In this case it is recommended that 30 mph repeater signs are provided (see 8.3.1).
(see 8.3.4). Where a road subject to a 30 mph limit is lit for only part of its length, it is recommended that a repeater sign for the unlit section when leaving the lit section should be placed at a distance of not more than 100 m from the last street lamp. Where two consecutive street lamps on a lit road are more than 183 m apart (185 m in Scotland and Northern Ireland)
a speed limit order is required as it is not a “restricted road” with repeater signs provided where considered to be appropriate. Where the two lamps are less than 200 m apart it is unlikely that a repeater sign will be necessary.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

I've always thought this was one of the madder laws in the HC. I mean, what driver hooning into some poor hamlet at 67mph (60+10%+1 cos I'm allowed I'm in a car innit) is actually able to measure the distance between street lights? "Oh hang on, that pair is 186m apart, game on, 60 it is".

Law should either be "Streetlights = 30 unless otherwise signed", or always enforced with limit signs. Distances between objects, while passing (even at 30) are impossible to accurately judge.