50Mph Proposed National Speed Limit - Online Petition

[pin1onu]

*Yet another piece of Government idiocy.................

 

 

 

Please help stop the proposed speed limit reduction to 50mph:

 

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/noNSLreduction/

 

SIGN UP NOW

[Guest Old_andrew2018]

Whats wrong with a reduction in the national speed limit, I must admit 55mph is better.

 

Andy

[crem]

Please tell me we are due for a general election before they think about bringing this in.

[Britainsworstdriver]

I think 50mph NSL would be an excellent bidea and I would back it 100%. That would reduce the average car drivers speed to around 80mph on the motorway then?

 

Speed limits do not generally work very well unless everyone obeys them. far better would be to electronically control the cars maximum speed as and when speed limits chan ge so that it is impossible to speed.

 

Then again, I would be glad to see the back of cars altogether only what is the viable alternative? Sitting in a pile of vomit on a clapped out bus? hearing that the train is now ariving on platform 843 instead of platform 3 you are on?

 

On second thoughts lets just scrap the blooming speed limits and have a free for all. Oh hang on, isn't that pretty much where we are already?

[Al27]

On second thoughts lets just scrap the blooming speed limits and have a free for all. Oh hang on, isn't that pretty much where we are already?

 

Pretty much.

 

A comfortable speed for me on the motorway is 80. 90 if I'm in a hurry and 100 if I'm in a real rush.

 

If I'm doing 100 my eyes on on stalks - I'm not sitting there half asleep, cruising.

 

I don't know what the problem is. 60mph on a single carriageway is spot on.

 

Country roads are pretty unlimited. No way can you do 60mph most of the time, so you're doing 30-40-50 as a rule anyway. If you did come across a stretch you could do 60 on and a new limit was 50, who cares? There are no police on country lanes anyway.

 

What annoys me though are straight, clear roads that have been 60 for years and then suddenly reduced to 40 for no good reason.

 

I just carry on doing 60.

[Britainsworstdriver]

Don't know what the problem is? You are the problem my friend.

 

You obviously think you are in control. Ever had a tyre burst at that speed? The salvage auctions are full of cars whose drivers couldn't see the problem either. That is the problem.

 

Just because you CAN drive at 100mph, because the manufacturers irresponsibly make the cars go that darned fast, doesn't mean you should drive at 100mph!

 

As a professional driving instructor of many years experience, it i because of the ridiculous number of people who have a cavalier attitude like that, that I am leaving the profession in April. I simply don't want to be on the road teaching when I meet yet another driver with that attitude.

 

Sorry, nothing personal. If you could just post here which roads you will be using and I will make sure I am not on them. It is only a matter of time.

[crem]

How patronising Britonsworstdriver! You of all people should understand the difference between problems caused by speed and problems caused by bad driving.

 

The former is a factor in about 7% of accidents, so what about the other 93%? As a driving istructor I am sure you should have been teaching safe driving, which includes driving reasonably up to the speed limit, where it is safe to do so. There are many, probably the majority, of the minor roads where 60mph on sections of them is perfectly safe, along with sharp bends, blind brows of hills and areas with junctions that speeds anywhere near that would be madness. I thought our job was to teach drivers to understand that and drive appropriately at the right times?

 

By continuing to impose restrictions on the majority in order to control the few we are in severe danger of creating worse drivers not better, because we are removing any responability for the driver to understand the contribution they should be making to their's and everyone elses safety.

 

Safe Driving for Life requires some contribution from the driver. Please can we teach them the skills they need to make those decisions.

[pin1onu]

Take a look at the work of Paul Smith (safespeed.org.uk).

 

He has actually taken the time to examine the government's own statistics. It is a fact that the majority of accidents happen within the posted speed limit. What justification is there for reducing speeds on motorways - statistically the safest roads in the country.

 

As Crem has said driver education is the key. Appropriate speed for the conditions is the key.

 

There are times when 70Mph is not an appropriate speed on a motorway(e.g. in heavy rain). However there are other times that it is safe and appropriate to exceed 70Mph.

[WebFerret]

Call me cynical if you like, but to me this simply smacks of government revenue generation:

 

We all know practically everyone ignores the speed limit on most roads and the government would not want to actually reduce drivers speed (as this would reduce fuel consuption and tax revenue!) - so they simply reduce the legal limits so they can fine motorist more often - lol

 

If one wanted to trully reduce speed on roads, then there is only ONE answer, and that is to POLICE (in cars) the roads.

 

I think we will be seeing many more "creative" ideas from this government in terms of tax generation - given the current economic situation - ie: they've spent too much money! - lol

 

But then we can all rest easy in the knowledge that our MPs are continuing to live prosporously.

 

IMHO - it is no use protesting about individual issues with this government (or any for that matter), but one should riseup and demonstrate/protest/demand a general election for the people to vote in a competent government who can do the right thing for the people.

[ju5t]

If they didnt want people to speed there would be a £10,000 fine for going over the limit. or a 10year prison sentence.

 

Its a joke. sign up to this petition.....

 

Petition to: Change the speed limit to 90. | Number10.gov.uk

[JonCris]

I'm fed up listening to all the carp - Speed does NOT kill bad driving does & because there are NOT enough traffic police trying to catch aggresive drivers the no speed lobby latch onto the increase in accidents. - Any increase can be directly linked to a reduction in patrols but government won't admit that as it shows a failure in their much vaunted yet misguided policies

[mojo8]

another piece of goverment idiocy. Is this all we pay ouir MP`s for, to sit around and come up with stupid suggestions. This is only my opinion and i respect that everyone has there own take on this for different reasons. They should bring in harsher penalties and the police should adopt a no nonsense approach to speeders like instant bans and serious fines.

[patrickq1]

this goverment is now startin to act more like the stazzi in the eastern block they are getting worse ,only thing that has sickened them is the F O I ACT lol they came unstuck with that one huh....now they know that data is so important to us all they might at last change his policy of letting experium and others freewheel our data and profit from us ...time they were shut down oops this is about speedin lol ok ive signed RANT OVER...

PATRICKQ1

[Rooster-UK]

I watched the televised commons questions where this subject was brought up.

What was said was that there were NO plans for a blanket speed reduction. Rather the suggestion was made that some roads, which were notorious accident black-spots could have the limits lowered.

This would be passed to local government to identify the roads as they would be in a better position to know.

Once these roads were identified, then details would be passed back to parliament to ratify.

This was discussed last week.

 

Regards, Rooster.

[Tom87]

I disagree that there should be a blanket reduction from 60 to 50, as 60 on most open roads is perfectly fine, and common sense can be used when the conditions are not suitable for going at the maximum limit (e.g. heavy rain, fog, or sharp corners etc.).

 

I agree with mojo, they should introduce far harsher penalties if they really want to reduce speeding. Those who say "speed doesn't kill", well I think that's plain daft, if you are driving at 70mph and you hit a pedestrian, the speed most certainly will kill them. Everyone who says that is just trying to come up with a (poor) excuse for their lawless and overconfident driving.

 

I am happy trundling along at 70 on the motorway and 60 on the large main road, perfectly fast enough for me.

[JonCris]

Tom if you hit a pedestrian at any speed that's bad driving which has nothing to do with speed

[Tom87]

Why are so many people so desperate to avoid or deny the fact that speeding can be dangerous and can kill? Speeding IS bad driving, so yes you're right, bad driving is always the cause but there are numerous types of bad driving, one of which is speeding.

 

It's not only the outright denial of any danger related to speed that bugs and puzzles me, it's also the downright contempt that these people have for a sensible law. There may be many silly laws and rules out there but speed limits most certainly are not silly. Too many drivers are overconfident of their abilities and think they can safely drive at very high speeds when they have not been trained to. What's more, they are probably completely oblivious to the regular near-misses they have, as they are going so fast they won't even notice some things on the road.

 

I just hope one day that speeding is given the same social stigma as drink driving, it fully deserves it. It might not be THE main cause in most accidents, but it is always a contributing factor, because the faster you are going at the time of impact, the worse the damage and injuries will be. And yes you can just as easily be using appropriately high speed even when you are not actually breaking the speed limit.

 

The reason there are speed limits is because too many people don't know how to drive at an appropriate speed for the road. The people I am referring to are usually the ones who think they can drive at 100 on a motorway, mistakenly and naively thinking they are no risk to themselves and others.

[Surfer01]

Speed does not kill! Fact! It is the idiot behind the wheel that kills. Whoever drew up the petition obviously never read the article in full as the proposal was to lower the speed limit on country roads which have limits of 70 mph or 60mph to 50mph!

I do not have an issue with that but the reason why so many country roads are dangerous is because of poor upkeep due to lack of government funding out of the billions that the motorist raises in taxes for the government.

[postggj]

I Believe There Is More Behind This Than An Open And Shut Case

 

The Goverment Is Failing On Its C02 Emmission Set By Europe

 

50 Mph Reduces Emmission

 

Why They Just Cant Tell The Truth Is Beyond Me

[JonCris]

Speed does not kill - Bad aggressive driving does - If a pedestrian is hit by a vehicle doing 70mph either the pedestrian is walking on a motorway:-o or the driver is speeding in a built up area:-x & no amount of speed limits are going to stop them - they need nicking & banning from the public highway in other words we need more traffic patrols rather than spurious national speed limits that will have little effect

[Tom87]

no amount of speed limits are going to stop them - they need nicking & banning from the public highway in other words we need more traffic patrols rather than spurious national speed limits that will have little effect

 

I am completely with you on this, those who speed are obviously not put off by speed limits as they think they are above the law, we need more visible police presence on the roads to stop people speeding - and not just speeding in the legal sense i.e. going over the maximum posted speed limit, but also going at a blatantly inappropriately fast speed within the speed limit.

 

Still, the only reason speed limits are there is because so many people don't understand how to drive at an appropriate speed on their own, so they need to be told how fast is safe.

 

Also a major reason for inappropriate speed I believe is the driving test system. On the test, you are actively encouraged that if the road is 60, you must go at 60 - and even going at 55 can be classed as 'failing to make progress' and can result in being marked down or even failed. This is unacceptable and needs to be changed, this aspect is forcing young and new drivers to be impatient and to drive at the absolute maximum speed limit when there is no obligation to and it is not always safe to drive at the maximum legal limit. Yes they should certainly not pootle along at 40 on a perfectly safe, fast 60 road, but at the same time they should NOT be chastised if they are going at 1mph less than the max limit, which is what happened to me on my 1st test which I failed (my ADI said it was a stupid stance and encourages impatient driving, and I agree with this, but it was the only way to get through the test).

 

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I think this initial mentally of impatience and being in a rush that learners are forced to have in order to pass the test, is the first step into making millions of people bad drivers who go at inappropriate speeds because they believe they have to go at the maximum posted speed, and pull out ASAP at junctions, even when it is not safe to do so.

 

Obviously in an ideal world there would be no speed limits as everyone would drive at a sensible speed for the road and conditions, but that is unrealistic and will never happen. Also bear in mind our 60mph speed limit on open roads is faster than most countries...for example in France & Germany and most European countries it's 90kph (56mph) and in Switzerland & Canada it's 80kph (50mph). In my opinion 60 is perfectly fine on most non-urban A-roads, we should be grateful it is still like this here and we have not followed the trend of other countries.

[Surfer01]

Also a major reason for inappropriate speed I believe is the driving test system. On the test, you are actively encouraged that if the road is 60, you must go at 60 - and even going at 55 can be classed as 'failing to make progress' and can result in being marked down or even failed. This is unacceptable and needs to be changed, this aspect is forcing young and new drivers to be impatient and to drive at the absolute maximum speed limit when there is no obligation to and it is not always safe to drive at the maximum legal limit. Yes they should certainly not pootle along at 40 on a perfectly safe, fast 60 road, but at the same time they should NOT be chastised if they are going at 1mph less than the max limit, which is what happened to me on my 1st test which I failed (my ADI said it was a stupid stance and encourages impatient driving, and I agree with this, but it was the only way to get through the test).

Have to agree on this one as I had to a re-test to get a British driving licence as the one I held was a foreign driving licence. I drive as fast as the road conditions allow and within the speed limit generally. I could not believe it when the tester asked me why I wasn't driving at 60 mph on a stretch of road when in my opinion the road was only suitable for a maximum speed of a about 50mph. In the sixties I was a trained police response car driver and in the seventies on a part time basis I taught people to drive. As a response drvier, you automaticlaly qualified for an Advanced Driving licence. When I did my re-test in 1995, I had over 25 years driving experience!

[JonCris]

I couldn't disagree more. As a former supervising ADI I say that if all motorist drove like they did on the day they passed their test there would be many, many fewer accidents. As for driving at the designated speed of course you should do so when conditions permit as to drive slower encourages accidents as the other drivers try to get passed & become impatient when they can't. - apart from that it's good manners to consider other road users & going slow don't do it

[Tom87]

As for driving at the designated speed of course you should do so when conditions permit as to drive slower encourages accidents as the other drivers try to get passed & become impatient when they can't.

 

And if there was an accident under those circumstances, it would be 100% the fault of the impatient person doing a stupid manoeuvre. It is them that causes the accident, not the slow person. Yes the person in front should not be going unnecessarily slowly, but if people had more common sense they would just leave home earlier, then if they did meet a slow person or congestion they wouldn't need to speed or do any risky manoeuvres to get to their destination on time.

 

I live in a very rural area in Devon with only one main road where you regularly come up behind tractors, slow tourists, grandads etc and cannot overtake for many miles. As such I have learnt the simple lesson of allowing extra time for a journey, then there is no stress. It's not rocket science.

 

I do agree that people should not go hugely unnecessarily slowly and there should be some system of warning persistent offenders, but at the same time people should not feel under pressure to go at the absolute maximum possible legal speed.

[JonCris]

So it's OK to 'encourage' others to drive badly by your bad driving. Great - If in good weather you are impeding traffic by driving well below the speed limit you ARE not a good driver you are in fact a lousy driver otherwise known as a road hog