"I think more people came to my birthday party": Cyclists react to 'road tax' and licence petition getting... 262 signatures; Lotto-Soudal take on DiCaprio; Cav on puncture duty; Liz Truss talks speed limits; Vuelta summit finish + more on the live blog

MattieKempy wrote:

Why no British National Champion's jersey for Cav? Did I miss something?

Good question. Best guess is that team's got them at the service course in Belgium? Only races he's done since winning in June are Poland and then the Commonwealth Games where of course he was in IoM kit.

Is it time for that Brass Eye special again?  You know it makes nonce-sense.

I think the numbers for active travel will jump this winter.  It is cheap and warms you up. 

Its sad, it has had to come to this.  Increase in active travel by "need" not "want" and certainly not improved infrastructure.

It will be the only way people can afford to go to work.

Thanks for highlighting that, definitely one for us to take a look at.

Completely.  Just pandering to the audience immediately in front of her at the time.  

"All the evidence I have agrees with the point you're making on smart motorways."

That "evidence" being what the bloke asking the question just said.

All she'll probably do is try to privatise the motorway network 

Clem Fandango wrote:

Completely.  Just pandering to the audience immediately in front of her at the time.  

"All the evidence I have agrees with the point you're making on smart motorways."

That "evidence" being what the bloke asking the question just said.

All she'll probably do is try to privatise the motorway network 

If that's all she does, then it wouldn't be so bad, but I suspect the Pound-Land Thatcher will try to privatise everything for a quick buck and loosen regulations so that companies can profit from further destroying our environment.

From experience, any speed limit that is not believed to be enforced by cameras on a motorway is ignored. As the whole point of variable speed limits is to manage flow based on knowledge that is not available to the driver, making speed limits advisory would simply result in the return to the good old days of the M25 where you were able to hone driving skills through the application of ABS brakes from 85mph to zero once a mile.

So basically, the people requesting that variable limits to be made advisory are demanding their right to speed, and are little different from those who suggest that speed camaras that catch people speeding are somehow sneaky and underhand (even when signed, it seems) when the answer is simply to abide by the speed limit.

Based on my trip back monday night where the speed limit was 60 then 50 then 40 good luck with anyone trying to get anywhere near those numbers.

The carriageway was 6 lanes wide at the 40 point where speeds were < 10 mph. Induced demand anyone ?

And the reason it was dropped from 60-50-40 was to try to enable flow by slowing drivers before they reached the slight queue and speeds dropped further and tailbacks grew longer, and to get drivers to reduce the speed in advance as it is alot easier to slow from 40 to <10 then 70 to <10. 

So when people ignore the 40 as only advisable and stay at 70, what happens then when they meet the <10mph queue?
 

Bloody cyclists...

Humans are human so if a certain fraction of others are over the limit many more will follow - "all the others were doing it".

Cars are designed to go faster when you put the pedal down and the dial clearly shows it goes faster than 20 / 30 / 60 / 70 or whatever.  As a driver it costs you no more effort *.  Artificial bureaucratic restrictions!

I'm not sure what fraction of people have to be penalised before these beliefs to change.  Doesn't have to be everyone but clearly a large fraction more than currently.  However if someone shouts through a large enough megaphone "I heard they're relaxing policing of speed limits" the opposite may come true, because of the very small chance of you getting corrective feedback via a penalty!

* Yet another fundamental difference between driving and cycling - cyclists are humans on bikes so want to move at a decent speed also.  However the faster you go the more effort is required (exponentially, due to air resistance becoming dominant at higher speeds).

Truss (or Sunak) will not have responsibility for active travel in the devolved nations of the UK.

Very true and even in London TfL has significant control of active travel planning.

Luckily under Johnson we got  Highway Code changes,  LTN 1/20 and Active Travel England established so hopefully these will still be in place.

I think the main outcome of Truss will be a significant cut in funding for cycling/walking within the DfT.

She's a liar, by definition of her job. 

OldRidgeback wrote:

Truss is either a liar or a fool for saying what she's said on the topic of transport.

She is both!

Thick Lizzie!

I'd say the relevant comparison for smart motorways is traditional motorways, and by that comparison casualties have increased afaics. Which does put a question mark over them.

By the same token increased motorway speed limits significantly increase casualties, and therefore I do not see that getting through.

So I'd say this is a little bit of hint of red meat for particular lobbies, hedged about with enough caveats that it will never happen.

My measure would be average speed cameras between all junctions on UK motorways.

I've seen loads of stats on smart motorways and I'm not convinced they're that dangerous. I drive on them regularly, the M3 in particular. They could have more refuge areas but that's about it IMHO. Some drivers are pretty stupid. I've seen people pull to a halt just a few metres from a refuge area when their vehicles have plainly been capable of limping that short distance. You can't fix stupid. 

I agree about average speed cameras. They are great. Not only do they stop people speeding as much, they also cut help crashes and even increase vehicle flow rates, while cutting pollution, fuel use and road noise. Loads of research ont his if you want to google it.

I think cutting the motorway limit to 100km/h or 60mph in old money makes sense. I'd enforce that with average speed cameras. Research shows journey times would actually be reduced overall curiously enough, along with pollution, fuel use, noise and crashes.

OldRidgeback wrote:

I think cutting the motorway limit to 100km/h or 60mph in old money makes sense. I'd enforce that with average speed cameras. Research shows journey times would actually be reduced overall curiously enough, along with pollution, fuel use, noise and crashes.

But if the limit was raised to 1000 mph, the number of collisions caused by speeding motorists would fall to zero. Problem solved.

Gizza job Liz Truss, I'm better than Shapps!