The Big DebateIf you feel the need to get your teeth stuck right into a heavy debate on a subject you feel really passionate about, then this is the place to do so. Post about religion, politics, laws and all things juicy like that here.
What does everyone think of the current speed limits?
I agree with most, but i think its just stupid they reduce the speed limit in an area just because someone has died, if it was obviously a dangerous bit of road it should of been reduced before someone got killed.
I also think they should increase the motorway speed limit.
70 miles an hour is such an old speed now, cars made in the last 2 decades are more than capable of reaching that speed safety and 80 too. Also cars today or made in the last decade even are alot safer compared to years ago and can handle crashes alot better.
Most people do 80 or even more on the motorway anyway and i don't think its them that causes the accidents its the nobs who dont look, fall asleep, or drunk.
I think its fine as a blanket limit. You might say that modern cars are quite happy and safe crusing 140mph+, but you have to remember that theres still a lot of people driving complete deathtrap crapwagons and letting them go over 70 really isnt a great idea. Also, theres lots of people who for money, environmental or whatever reason are driving underpowered cars imo. With the variety of cars around currently you really cant put a knackered car from the 80s in the same category as a brand new merc etc.
I think its fine as a blanket limit. You might say that modern cars are quite happy and safe crusing 140mph+, but you have to remember that theres still a lot of people driving complete deathtrap crapwagons and letting them go over 70 really isnt a great idea. Also, theres lots of people who for money, environmental or whatever reason are driving underpowered cars imo. With the variety of cars around currently you really cant put a knackered car from the 80s in the same category as a brand new merc etc.
Well i think 140 is a bit extreme.
But the older cars etc dont HAVE to 80 do they? theres three lanes on a motorway, with an increased limit maybe finally the outer lane will be kept clear of idiots doing like 55 there.
Well i think 140 is a bit extreme.
But the older cars etc dont HAVE to 80 do they? theres three lanes on a motorway, with an increased limit maybe finally the outer lane will be kept clear of idiots doing like 55 there.
Its not about what they "HAVE" to do, its a speed limit stopping people from exceeding it, at least in theory. Allowing an 80mph limit accross the board would count for both those speed limited 155mph sports saloons and X-reg 1litre Ford Fiestas, and people by nature push the limit of restrictions in whatever they have.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grael
OK lets get this straight, i did NOT say that cars should do 100+ i said 80 miles an hour!!! Which alot of people do safety on the motorway anyway.
Didnt look like he was trying to quote you, but just tagging along to the arguement already made about not all cars being modern and safe, and adding that all drivers arent capable and safe either.
Most cars on my stretch of the M1 are lucky to get over 30MPH on a good day they could only do 80MPH if they closed it to all cars that could not manage to stay above 70MPH.
Most of it is caused by idiots that want to go that extra 100 metres in the lane they are in even tho it has cones 200 metres down the way closing it off.
But that the main point as to why the speed limit is 70, its nothing to do with the cars being faster and better able to cope with speeds in excess of 70 its the fact that if everyone did 80 then peoples axles would start dropping off because of the poor state of repair of the roads.
The road surfaces just cant cope with anything above 70 and if you look at non-motorway surfaces they are nothing more than practice areas for 4x4's and they wonder why more urban junkies are buying 4x4's maybe if they made the roads a bit smother they wouldn't need them
Most cars on my stretch of the M1 are lucky to get over 30MPH on a good day they could only do 80MPH if they closed it to all cars that could not manage to stay above 70MPH.
Most of it is caused by idiots that want to go that extra 100 metres in the lane they are in even tho it has cones 200 metres down the way closing it off.
But that the main point as to why the speed limit is 70, its nothing to do with the cars being faster and better able to cope with speeds in excess of 70 its the fact that if everyone did 80 then peoples axles would start dropping off because of the poor state of repair of the roads.
The road surfaces just cant cope with anything above 70 and if you look at non-motorway surfaces they are nothing more than practice areas for 4x4's and they wonder why more urban junkies are buying 4x4's maybe if they made the roads a bit smother they wouldn't need them
But road surfaces do deal with + 70 MPH anyone who has ever driven on a motorway knows the outer lanes the majority of the time people are doing 70+.
I just think its an outdated limit and people can do 80 safety if they revise the breaking distances etc.
If I asked everyone if they thought they were a good and safe driver, I bet almost every single member with a license on TF would say of course they were.
If I asked everyone who'd had an accident in a car who's fault it was, I bet, again, almost everyone would say it was the other drivers fault.
If I asked if asked if anyone had ever driven without insurance or road tax or without a licence or while banned, I bet almost everyone would deny it.
But the fact is, is that there are a lot of bad and dangerous drivers out there, in every accident, there is always someone at fault and while there are laws in place to supposedly stop people from driving without a licence or tax or insurance or while banned, we all know that people do drive illegally...
Basically, to a lot of people, it really doesn't matter what the limits are, some will always see them as too high, some will always see them as too low and some will always choose to ignore them no matter what they are set at.
Surely though, those people who work in the roads and highways departments, working out what the best and safest speeds for road users are, surely it is they that are best placed to know what the best speed limits are. They've studied the safest speeds for maximum safety and minimum loss of life, they've studied what speeds are best to minimise the amount of damage done to roads by vehicles, they've studied the best places to put roundabouts, junctions, new roads and all the rest of it, surely it would be best for us to let them do their jobs to the best of their ability and everyone else as road users does their bit by making sure they drive within those set limits, drive safely and carefully and not under the influence and basically make sure accidents are kept to a minimum on our parts.
After all, if there were no accidents and offenses on the roads, then those that set the limits would be much more likely to slacken them and allow them to be raised a little.
I have driven rental and courtesy cars without insurance
It would be cool if there were more tests after your driving tests that let you earn different coloured number plates, and the higher you got, the faster you were allowed to go in certain areas. There could be age restrictions and you would have to go through simulated crashes and perform tricky manouvres to progress. Any time you got caught driving drunk or speeding you could get bumped back down depending on severity.
It would make it easier to distinguish potentially erratic motorists at junctions from good guys to follow in the fog.
The better a driver you were the cheaper your insurance would be too.
Women would hate it Tef, cos theyd no longer be able to hang onto the arguement that theyre the safest drivers, when they insist on pulling out in front of people at 5mph.
that's actually a really good idea there tef, about the only problem being people that would abuse it and with the number of illegal number plates already out their it wouldn't take much to make a mockery of it. If you made it so that it was issued with your tax disc so you got a different coloured emblem which you had to display in a certain location like taxi driver plates it would be possible to work it but even then it would still get abused
If I asked everyone if they thought they were a good and safe driver, I bet almost every single member with a license on TF would say of course they were.
If I asked everyone who'd had an accident in a car who's fault it was, I bet, again, almost everyone would say it was the other drivers fault.
If I asked if asked if anyone had ever driven without insurance or road tax or without a licence or while banned, I bet almost everyone would deny it.
But the fact is, is that there are a lot of bad and dangerous drivers out there, in every accident, there is always someone at fault and while there are laws in place to supposedly stop people from driving without a licence or tax or insurance or while banned, we all know that people do drive illegally...
Basically, to a lot of people, it really doesn't matter what the limits are, some will always see them as too high, some will always see them as too low and some will always choose to ignore them no matter what they are set at.
Surely though, those people who work in the roads and highways departments, working out what the best and safest speeds for road users are, surely it is they that are best placed to know what the best speed limits are. They've studied the safest speeds for maximum safety and minimum loss of life, they've studied what speeds are best to minimise the amount of damage done to roads by vehicles, they've studied the best places to put roundabouts, junctions, new roads and all the rest of it, surely it would be best for us to let them do their jobs to the best of their ability and everyone else as road users does their bit by making sure they drive within those set limits, drive safely and carefully and not under the influence and basically make sure accidents are kept to a minimum on our parts.
After all, if there were no accidents and offenses on the roads, then those that set the limits would be much more likely to slacken them and allow them to be raised a little.
Well i sometimes think they havnt got a CLUE tbh. Ok most of the time they get it right, but if anyone has been through the m4 at Port Talbot they can see what a mockery of a stretch of motorway it is the slip roads leading onto the motorways are about 50 meters and have concrete walls either side, so its only on the last like 5 meters can the people on the motorway see someone is trying to get onto the motorway and then BANG 10 meters from that junction is a speed camera!!!
and i like Tefs idea lol would complicate things yes but its a good idea, and with the new electronic registrations numbers it could work!
i drive a 'deathtrap crapwagon' that really struggles to go over 60 so raising the speed limit on motorways to 80 would kinda put pressure on me to make my crapwagon go faster :-(
Women would hate it Tef, cos theyd no longer be able to hang onto the arguement that theyre the safest drivers, when they insist on pulling out in front of people at 5mph.
So so so true.
Too many drivers have no understanding of speed and distance.
that's actually a really good idea there tef, about the only problem being people that would abuse it and with the number of illegal number plates already out their it wouldn't take much to make a mockery of it. If you made it so that it was issued with your tax disc so you got a different coloured emblem which you had to display in a certain location like taxi driver plates it would be possible to work it but even then it would still get abused
In Switzerland, they have a rather good system to combat licence plate fraud.
Each car driver has a licence plate and when you buy or sell a car, the licence plate insn't part of the sale or purchase.
What happens is that you actually have your own individual licence plate, which is only issued from the special vehicles office, which each Canton of Switzerland has it's own for and you will only get the licence on production of your national identity card, passport, driving licence, road tax and car insurance. Once in posession of your licence plate, you can pretty much stick it on any car you own, so long as you produce ownership documents of the vehicle to the vehicle office where you live, of course you also have to inform them if you sell a car too. So basically your licence plate carries with you from car to car and throughout your life, it's like an extension of your identity card.
Their licence plates are also very different from licence plates in this country in that they all carry the badge for the Canton the owner lives in, together with your identity number and some other little special bits.
I'm not sure how it all works for car theft, as I never heard of a single car theft in my time there and although i've only explained a tiny bit of their system, it works over there and well and while it may seem very intrusive and big brotherish, it doesn't feel like it.
At the same time, their insurance and car tax and all that are tied in together too, in that if you own a car, you have to have emissions tests and road worthy tests and the likes if it is x amount of years old and if it doesn't pass the test, you have to pay surcharges.
Of course, i'm sure people in this country would go mental if they had to put up with on the spot fines, just for crossing at pedestrian crossings before the lights turned green. But it works fine over there and I for one felt a lot safer knowing such a system was in place.
Another part of the whole transport system in Switzerland that makes the roads safer, is that trains, buses and trams all work like clockwork, never late, never dirty or damanged, never cancelled and because of that, most people in Switzerland use public transport to get to and from work and their cars are more for recreational use, day trips, shopping, going to see relatives and the likes and especially when Sundays are "no truck" days on the motorways, i.e. only recreational vehicles are on the roads on Sundays.
But besides all of what i've said, in many countries in Europe, people drive a lot safer than they do in this country. Obviously Italy aint included in that one, cause they make our driving skills look superb.
I guess what i'm saying, is that this country should stop with the "we are the best at everything" type attitude and should start looking to other countries for solutions, cause they often have far better systems than this country.
I personally believe there should be no speed restrictions anywhere. We need to put the thrill back into driving and make roads a place so hazardous that only the brave and the stupid dare go. Every road should be like a race track where people push the limits to the maximum. That way everyone wins, the thrill seekers win and the environment wins because most people will be to scared to drive which will dramatically reduce CO2 emmisions. The police could also then forget about the roads and concentrate on more important matters and we wouldn't have to bother about insurance because it would be so high that no-one could afford it.
I personally believe there should be no speed restrictions anywhere. We need to put the thrill back into driving and make roads a place so hazardous that only the brave and the stupid dare go. Every road should be like a race track where people push the limits to the maximum. That way everyone wins, the thrill seekers win and the environment wins because most people will be to scared to drive which will dramatically reduce CO2 emmisions. The police could also then forget about the roads and concentrate on more important matters and we wouldn't have to bother about insurance because it would be so high that no-one could afford it.
A clear sign someone has not taken anything about a topic seriously, is when they post something so rediculously unorthodox to what everyone else has written.
I'd give it a thumbs up for it's comedic value, but your intention wasn't that of a humorous nature, so...
Ok you might not think I'm making any serious points and I'm not sure how you know what my 'intention' is unless you are a mind reader. Anyhow, I put it to you that Switzerland may be a model of efficiency and have the 'best' transport system known to man, but it is possibly the most boring and souless country you could possibly imagine. Your views are just as extreme as mine, they are just more acceptable in this PC world.
Speed limits.
they could only do 80MPH if they closed it to all cars that could not manage to stay above 70MPH.
maybe if they made the roads a bit smother they wouldn't need them 
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