Is the establishment being over-cautious? Most of the ?slow? signs might have been relevant when there were no speed limits on rural roads, no MOT tests, no high-friction road surfaces and when vehicles were much cruder than they are now. But it?s hard to get into difficulties now in a modern vehicle when you are keeping to current speed limits. (Assuming that you are not non compos mentis, physically handicapped, or under the influence etc etc).
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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The slow signs can very useful especially on rural roads which may not be signposted for every single hazard e.g. side enterence, adverse camber etc etc, since they show that there is some hazard further up that you need to be cautious about.
You may be able to see it and decide that you don't need to slow down in the vehicle that you are in at the time considering all the road conditions etc etc, but you are at least forewarned.
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Over-cautious and hi-tech near me.
Vehicle sensing lightup jobs that will even light up for a snail pace cyclist to warn of a double bend ahead - a double bend in a 30 limit that can comfortably be taken at 30mph.
Waste of taxpayers money.
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Use it up : Wear it out : Make do : Do without
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There are several of these light up signs in Wiltshire, in addition to the normal, usually dirty signs. It won't be long before you have to stop and a specially trained council employee will drive the car past the hazard and then allow you to carry on where it is safe.
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I was told by my driving instructor that the 'slow' markings are for those who might be driving too fast when they are approaching a bend or other hazard.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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I was told by my driving instructor that the 'slow' markings are for those who might be driving too fast when they are approaching a bend.......
I was thinking primarily of "slow" markings before bends that can be easily (and safely) negotiated at 60mph or 70 mph, whichever is the limit for that road. A lot of the slow markings would only be appropriate for a modern vehicle if there was no speed limit.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Certainly in the cases around here, the SLOW markings are around from the days in which the roads had 60mph limits and now have 30mph limits.
Odd how ALL have these reductions have taken place in the last few years; since 1997 in fact.
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Adam
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Odd too I suppose that despite the Painted Slow and the big Black and White Arrows we still see the holes in the fence/hedge where idiots leave the bend via an unusual exit;-)
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I think they are extremely useful, and not a waste at all. They are a warning that there MAY be a reason to slow - perhaps something you are not aware of. You can then make your own judgement, based on visibility, traffic, time of the day, knowledge of your own car's specification, etc.
Since I read Paul Ripley's advice to get into the habit of noticing signs like this, I can only agree with him that they can be valuable.
For every driver who slows down unecessarily for a double bend, there is another idiot who goes off the road.
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I think they are extremely useful, and not a waste at all. They are a warning that there MAY be a reason to slow - perhaps something you are not aware of. You can then make your own judgement, based on visibility, traffic, time of the day, knowledge of your own car's specification, etc. Since I read Paul Ripley's advice to get into the habit of noticing signs like this, I can only agree with him that they can be valuable. For every driver who slows down unecessarily for a double bend, there is another idiot who goes off the road.
Absolutely agree. When you see one of these, it's generally a good idea to look for the hazard, rather than assume it's unnecessary.
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There is an electronic sign at a bend on the A404 between Wycombe & Amersham where if a vehicle approaches the bend at about 50mph or over it flashes "caution slow". Due to the spate of accidents resulting in deaths!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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There is an electronic sign at a bend on the A404 between Wycombe & Amersham where if a vehicle approaches the bend at about 50mph or over it flashes "caution slow". Due to the spate of accidents resulting in deaths!
Yes, I know it well. I've also been experimenting with it (when safe to do so!). It flashes to say SLOW DOWN whatever your speed is.
The bend is in fact perfectly safe to negotiate* at the 60 limit that applies and I have done so many times in a variety of cars. The view is adequate to clear the stopping distance in front of you and the bend is gentle enough to drive round without difficulty.
There is no clearer demonstration of HMG's attitude to road safety - their only aim is to make people slow down further still, regardless of how fast or how safely they were driving.
I now find that road to be more dangerous since it received the attention of the TV safer roads partnership. I often find myself trapped behind someone at 35 driving in blind fear because the signs say that 14 people died at that bend, and in front of Gary who thinks he can do it at 95, won't read the signs, and want to overtake me and the one in front.
It will be interesting to see next year's signs.
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*when in good conditions, not wet, not dark, not covered with a 6 inch layer of snow etc etc
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Recently what used to be a 70mph dual carriageway has had a blanket 60mph imposed on it. Why look into the cause of accidents when we can just lower the limit eh?
Anyway - they have these signs that flash not your speed but the speed limit of the road should you exceed the limit. In theory. I travel this road every day and because I'm sad, can report the following findings.
At 60mph and above, the sign flashes.
At 56-60 - the sign flashes. Now I know it's only a minor thing, and of course I'd rather have them than cameras but it's hard to "slow down" on a perfectly clear dual carriageway where you can see miles ahead (you really can on a clear day) when you're doing 57mph.
Oh well - at least the road's safer. Ha!
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Adam
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only relevant when there were no speed limits on rural roads, no MOT tests, no high-friction road surfaces and when vehicles were much cruder than they are now. But it?s hard to get into difficulties now in a modern vehicle when you are keeping to current speed limits.
Was there a law passed recently then which prohibited old cars from being on the road?
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But it?s hard to get into difficulties now in a modern vehicle when you are keeping to current speed limits. (Assuming that you are not non compos mentis, physically handicapped, or under the influence etc etc).
Que?
NSL between this village and the next. Every car that tries it through the bends ends up in the hedge!!
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Here in New Zealand, with almost no motorways outside the main cities (all four of them), the AA have placed corner speed advisory signs on every slower corner of virtually every road. The actual speed shown is very conservative, but it is easy to add a certain amount to it, according to the conditions. The other feature which greatly improves night driving is the placement of marker posts every 100 metres. On a straight road there is a line of white reflective squares reaching into the distance. On left hand bends, the back of the posts on the right side of the road feature two yellow reflective squares. On right hand bends the spacing of the white squares shows the severity of the corner. In years past the posts were wooden, but are now a plastic extruded strip. With the marker posts and corner speed signs, it is possible to travel at night almost as quickly as by day. We also seem to manage to have signs without giving them overhanging fluorescent lights, by making them out of reflective material.
Most of our driving customs have been inherited from the UK, but these two features seemed to be absent when I lived there.
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There is a stretch of road on the A6006, between Rempstone (Notts) and Hathern, where there are Slow markings on the road at regular intervals. The road is little undulating but, otherwise, dead straight and these markings continue for over a mile on a road where the speed limit is 60 mph. There are a few houses for a short stretch, just after coming out of Rempstone, but after that no buildings at all and the only hazards one can see are junctions with side roads. My first question is, if that stretch of road is considered hazardous, why not lower the speed limit? My second question is, how slow is slow meant to be on a dead straight road, with perfect visibility and a dry road surface?
I am often left puzzled by speed limit contradictions, as many roads in our locality have 30 mph limits in built up areas, that are not that built up, whereas in others, where the road conditions seem similar but there are more buildings, the speed limit is 40 mph. There is a stretch of what was the A6 in Sharlow in Derbyshire, where there are no buildings at all on either side of the road, where the speed limit is still 30 mph, even though there is much less traffic on this road than there used to be. The road is dead straight and wide for quite a distance and it is regularly used by the police (as it was yesterday) for its mobile safety camera (speed trap to you and me), as drivers do have a tendency to exceed 30 mph there. Mind you, anyone who doesn't see the van parked up in the lay-by in the distance, can only have themselves to blame.
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Several of the light-up signs have been installed in the Chesterfield area. One does not work at all - A 619 Eastmoor .
One is so close to the hazard- A632 Spitewinter- that it is of little use. The third one, A619 on a straight 40 limit road, causes drivers to stand on their brakes even if they are within the limit.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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I think I can explain the 30mph bit at Sharlow, they have used the same workmen as the ones near me. They put those red bits on the road to indicate the start of the 30 limit at least 400 yards outside the marked 30 limit, where they should have gone. Rather than correct the mistake, the council decided to move the 30 limit to the red markers. And, no, they hadn't decided to extend the limit by choice.
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Sorry I spelt the name of the place incorrectly, it is Shardlow.
In this case, the 30 mph limit has been there for years. Shardlow is a village which is strung out over quite a distance and there used to be a lot of traffic on what was the A6. However, the opening of the A50 Derby West bypass took all of the through traffic away and what passes throught Shardlow is a trickle compared to what used to flow through there. My point is that there are much busier roads in the locality, with higher density dwellings, which have 40 mph limits.
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The ones I mentioned earlier are even sillier than I thought!
As I approached one today it lit up - for the postman pedestrian approaching it at regular walking pace!
It was certainly triggered by him because it extinguished and then lit again for my approach.
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That's quite some postman! None of the ones I've seen walking around could be accused of going too fast!
Not that I blame them ... I'd be even slower, probably....
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