Rural speed limits blitz
Tuesday 28th August 2007, 11:52AM BST.
Up to 100 new speed limits could be brought into force in rural villages across Shropshire, it was revealed today.
Automatic counters and radar equipment will be used to calculate the average speed motorists travel through every village in the county. The information will be used, along with other data, to decide which villages will see new or reduced speed limits brought in.
Community Speedwatch groups and hi-tech vehicle-activated signs will also be used in a bid to improve safety.
The proposals are unveiled in the Village Speed Limits Policy, a Shropshire County Council report which said slower traffic in towns and villages was a high priority in the county.
It says Shropshire County Council is committed to the introduction of speed limits in villages, but they must achieve a reasonable degree of compliance and it will not be a blanket approach.
Signs
The authority will also use vehicle-activated signs, which flash a reminder to drivers of the speed limit in an attempt to slow them down.
“These signs will not be permanent but will be rotated around a number of villages. It is anticipated that the speed limit combined with the signs could reduce speeds by up to nine miles per hour,” the report says.
Additional measures, such as traffic calming features and Community Speedwatch will be considered if speeds are not brought down within 12 months.
County council bosses are now looking at villages across Shropshire and giving each of them a “priority score”.
Accident history and whether schools and other community facilities are on the main road through the village will be taken into account when deciding which villages are the highest priority for speed limits.
When a village has been identified as a possible priority the authority will consult with parish councils and other interested bodies.
Weston Rhyn Parish Council, near Oswestry, will be one of the first councils to debate the report when it meets next month.
Hugh Dannat, county council group manager for traffic strategy, said: “People are welcome to write in and put forward their village as part of this review.”
By Sue Austin
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Who fancies a competition? A race across Shropshire – whoever garners the most speeding tickets wins!
I’m aiming to beat 3,500,000!
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Obviously if you’re a ‘Trained’ Police Driver you don’t need to worry about these limits. ;-)
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well what do the traffic police do?cars travell through halfway house at speeds that exceed 70mph this weekend has been awfull and it ocurs every day of the week ive lived in the area by the road for 5 years and only once seen a cop with a speed camera and the amount of accidents on this road is riseing i hope we get 40mph speed limits but last time there was a debate they put up signs which state 60mph so the driver actually go faster in middletown up the road it goes to 50 to 40 same situation but they get there speed limits imposed ie becouse its in wales .
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Idiot
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This is long overdue. We are sick and tired of people using rural roads as race tracks, in particular the small but significant proportion of motorcyclists who are antisocial idiots riding at highly dangerous speeds and causing considerable noise nuisance into the bargain.
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Where’s the point in bringing them in when the police dont monitor them, they ask for volunteers from the villages to man the cameras. People just ignore them and travel through North Shropshire villages at the old speed
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Councillors can’t have it both ways. If they vote against new roads that bypass village centres, then the traffic has to travel on the old roads through old villages. Shropshire is a rural area whose residents rely on commuting to work to pay family bills. Either we have to accept the building of new bypasses, or an increase in village traffic. Basic logic, really. Of course, most councillors are retired gentlefolk who either haven’t needed to commute to work since the horse and cart, or were born with a silver spoon in their mouth and have never commuted to a day’s work in their life. Preventing working fathers and mothers from getting to work on time isn’t child-friendly if it results in the family breadwinner losing their job.
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I have a far better idea for reducing dangerous drivers on the roads – Every time a driver hits someone or something, fine them and give them at least 3 points on their licence, regardless of blame. Four accidents and they’re banned.
There are plenty of drivers who exceed the speed limit but never have an accident, likewise there are plenty who crawl round our roads, causing a nuisance to others, and frequently hitting things. It is the latter type of driver who is likely to have an accident, not the former.
No doubt there will be some who will applaud the speed limits, happy that highly capable drivers will have to waste even more time driving along deserted roads at a snails pace, because a road sign decrees it. No doubt they will argue that a few minutes added to our journeys will be worth it because the roads will be safer. No doubt they will say all this, secure in the knowledge that they are very safe drivers who never speed. No doubt also, many of them will have had the odd ‘bump’ which of course wont have been their fault.
My car is 3 years old and has 91,000 miles on the clock. It does not have a single dent, scratch or scuff on it, other than inficted on it by others in car parks. I believe speed alone is not the biggest menace on our roads. If you drive as much as I do, and your car is equally damage free, please feel free to comment on my post.
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I see, Andrew, that your punctuation checker isn’t operating at the moment *rolls eyes*.
I’m getting sick to the back teeth of this fatuous and misleading belief that reducing speed limits is the all-encompassing panacea for road safety. It’s not. If a particular road has a good safety record at NSL speeds, why would it be any safer by dropping the limit to 40? If drivers are safely negotiating a section of road with a 60 limit, what possible benefit is there in lowering the speed limit?
It would appear that, yet again, the anti-car lobbyists in the councils are lending too eager an ear to narrow-minded people who cannot think for themselves whilst driving, and view compliance with roadside speed lollipops as the only factor that dictating road safety.
*winja dons flak jacket*
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this is all very well and I hope it works. my complaint is that traffic has been going at excessive speeds past my house in Bank farm Rd shrewsbury for the past 22years and despite my campaigning, nothing much has been done only to mark out the ‘racing line’ through the estate. traffic goes through at over 40mph every hour of every day, and very heavy vehicles go through (I suspect as a short cut to the JDM depot in Longden Rd). who pays compensation for the vibration damage? the police and conty council have no interest. I was fined £60 and docked 3 points in Much Wenlock for doing 35mph on the way to doing an essential job, so where is the fairness?
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a village is that a village, speed limits should not exceed 30mph in such places as halfwayhouse its lethal to have a sign saying 60mph.it is pure madness where there are pedestrians the speed limit should be low 7 accidents in 2 years is proof enough .
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David says “There are plenty of drivers who exceed the speed limit but never have an accident, likewise there are plenty who crawl round our roads, causing a nuisance to others, and frequently hitting things. It is the latter type of driver who is likely to have an accident, not the former.”
So David, as you have provided no source for these statistics you’ve quoted; if you were to tell your insurers that you often drive at speeds excessive of the limits, do you think your premium will go up or down? (please bear in mind that insurance companies base your premium on available ‘real’ statistical data, they don’t fabricate it to please themselves).
You should bear in mind that whilst you may consider yourself a good driver, you are not in control of events going on around you. It’s people like you who should be taken off the road. Let’s hope you never meet ‘yourself’ coming the other way!
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Scott
If I had quoted any statistics, then I would provide a source. You appear unable to differentiate between an opinion and a statistic.
You also appear not to be a driver, as if you were, then surely you would know that insurance companies do not generally base their premiums on how fast you drive, indeed they dont even ask – they have a far more effective system for penalising drivers who are more likely to crash, they have what is called a ‘no claims bonus’.
If you read up on what a ‘no claims bonus’ is, and if you re-read my original post, you might be able to see a similarity in my thoughts and that of insurers who are in business to know who the ‘real’ dangers are on the road.
I drive 30,000 miles a year, and since I started driving (over 20 years ago) have never had to make a claim. Consequently I have a full no claims bonus and my premiums are low and completely unaffected by the 3 points on my licence courtesy of a hidden camera which caught me driving at 82mph on a deserted motorway in Scotland 2 years ago.
As for your last paragraph, does over half a million accident free miles make me a ‘good driver’ ? I merely consider myself an adequate driver.
To say people like me, who have never been involved in an accident should be the ones taken off the road is beyond stupidity, an opinion (not a statistic) which, I think, effectively sums up your entire posting.
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David
My question was not one based on fact, I asked for your opinion. Yes, out of the two of us, I seem to be the one who knows what an opinion is.
If it is fact that someone who has not had an accident is a safer driver, then why do most drivers have their first accident in their first year of driving? (A fact – ONS)
Congratulations on your 20 years of claim free driving. But, before you get too complacent, as my original post stated, when you drive you are not in control of events around you. The focus of this news item is about the introduction of new speed limits in areas such as those where children (among others) are likely to run out in front cars, hence the need to lower speed limits.
Your attack on drivers who obey speed limits (ie. show respect for other members of society, a quality which seems to be lacking of late in this country) is as arrogant as it is certainly ignorant.
Contrary to your belief, insurers don’t KNOW what or who is dangerous, they base financial ‘bets’ on statistical information to make a profit. They DO base their premiums on how fast you drive, but they only KNOW this if you are caught. How would this full ‘no claim bonus’ of yours change if you added ‘causing death by dangerous driving’ to your short list of convictons?
To put your ramblings into perspective, rather than being the non-driver you surmise, I have been driving 22 years. In my job I cover the UK, clocking over 50,000 miles per year. I have no driving convictions, not ever. I keep to the posted limits and respect other road users.
On the subject of respect, I will question your values (as you did ask for comments) but I will not resort to insulting you.
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I’ll provide some statistics (it’s a service I provide, you know):
Department for Transport stats recently published for 2006 state that 5% of all road deaths are caused by exceeding the speed limit.
On the A442 through Telford, up until recently, signs stated “174 casualties in 5 years. THINK!”. T & W Council stats (provided to me by T & W Council) show that of the 174 casualties, 156 were “slight” and 22% of which were caused by “speeding”
Despite nationally more draconian speed limits and speed camera infestation, road deaths are pretty much the same as they were 10 years ago; ca. 3,200 per annum (DfT stats).
So how, exactly, will the proliferation of more poorly applied speed restrictions improve road safety?
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Scott
You asked me for a source to back up the statistics in my first post. Now you claim you know better than I the difference between an opinion and a statistic.
If you know better, then please humour me and tell us all what statistics were in my first post so that I can back them up.
You ask why most drivers have their first accident in their first year of driving. Surely it is because they are inexperienced? I dont see what relevance this has to my arguement that a driver who frequently crashes is more likely to have an accident than someone who has never crashed.
I also stated that I consider myself an ‘adequate driver’. Is this complacent? Do you seriously think I have driven half a million accident free miles by not taking account of events happening around me??? I drive to the road conditions, I anticipate worst case scenarios and drive so that I can stop safely should that scenario occur, which it has on more than one occassion. If, as you state, you drive even more miles than I do, I find it hard to believe you cannot appreciate this, although I notice you do not say how many accidents you have had.
You claim that insurers dont know who is a dangerous driver. I think they would not still be in business if this was the case. As I have already said, they work to a ‘no claims bonus’ system. This means new drivers pay more (they are inexperienced, and have no history of whether they are likely to be ‘safe’ drivers or not), and drivers who crash pay more. Drivers who drive for years and dont crash are believed to be ‘safe’ drivers and pay less. You claim they base their premiums on how fast you drive, if you are caught. There are many millions of drivers with speeding points on their licence who will tell you that you are wrong. They do NOT.
You also claim in paragraph 4 that I am arrogant and ignorant in attacking drivers who obey speed limits. As I have not made such an attack in my postings, I find these insults as bemusing as your final comment that you will not resort to insulting me, and once again beyond stupidity.
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