http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7738919.stm
excessive speeders will be given 6 points, so two convictions and you’re out…excessive is apparently 90mph+ on the motorway… lucky I can’t ride my bike anymore then:)
They also want specified limits for drugs in your system, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work, unless they get nicked at the roadside, as they do now, for unfit through drink/drugs and a doctor back at the station takes blood…
bad bad news!! It’s about time they updated our archaic spped limits.
Why can’t they just bring in the European speed limits, that means that the motorway limits would be increased.
Damn. I would lose my license in one ride then… Not because I speed (much), but because I use the speed/power of the bike for safe overtakes. So on motorways you will often hit 100+ in a clean overtake and then go back to a sub 80mph speed all in seconds.
mmmmm, when I rode on a national speed limit stretch of motorway/dual carriageway it would be more unusual for me to be under 100, than over…and I never got caught. When I came off it was in a 50 limit, and the maximum speed that I could have been doing, according to the accident investigator, was 60mph…
What I love, is when people say speed is a factor in X percentage of accidents. What they don’t specifiy is, too fast? or too slow?
hmmmm
Speed doesn’t kill. Stopping kills. Idiots :w00t:
Ban brakes 
It’d be nice if they clamped down on careless and discourteous driving, I reckon.
Specifically, the silly sod who pulled bullied his way out of a side road in front of me today. At least I know my brakes can slow me from 20-0 pretty quickly.
Like Johnse1 says, it doesn’t have to be fast to be disastrous - if he’d clipped my wheel, I’d’ve been off.
The mentality behind all of this never ceases to amaze me.
Started writing a long rant and have suceeded in just winding myself up, so its been deleted.
Sure most every one on here will agree that speed its-self is not the root cause of all accidents… nuf said.
Accidents happen its a fact of life. Thats why theyre called accidents.
At the end of the day, you’ve got to stick to speed limits, or pay the consequences if you get caught.
Having said that, even on my little 250, if I use anything more than a little acceleration to get away from the lights (i.e. to put myself nice and clear of other traffic and in a safe space), then I’m likely to go over 30mph for a small stretch, (before, of course, reining in the throttle to come back below the limit, officer).
In a car (big, heavy, slow off the mark), it’s a different story: you build up to 30 and then stick there.
I realise that I could do the same on my bike, but then I’d be in much less clear (and therefore safe) space on the road.
Sounds like something that would only be an issue if you got snapped. I’d definitely be worried if traffic cops stopped using their discretion in light of it, however. As has been said already, at times it’s quite safe to exceed the speed limit - it’s the time and place that matters, which is something only a traffic cop can determine and not a gatso or speed van.
Bit off topic but I read somewhere that Boris is anti-speed hump. Since the bus lanes thing is going through I would like to think that we’ll start to see humps disappearing soon too.
Personally I think humps are okay in the right location. But there are some on my commuting routes that I reckon make the road more dangerous than it was before. I find the red plastic(?) humps are particularly suspect. A lovely new bit of tarmac went down on Tulse Hill and then they went and ruined it by putting in traffic islands and humps everywhere. Similar scenario at Bedford Road. The humps tend to make motorists swerve towards the middle of the road to avoid driving over the middle of the hump. This seriously curtails filtering. What’s more the humps are properly slippery when wet and if you hit them at the wrong angle you’ll know about it. The traffic islands seem to be randomly placed and often are unsighted. Drivers do tend to slow down but not consistently- every morning I see cars slamming the anchors on and taking the hump at crawling pace, only to floor it til they get to the next one. Who seriously thinks this is safe? Traffic calming measures are obviously aimed at car drivers- IMO they don’t think about bikers when they put them in.
Lots and lots of crazy stuff going on.
It’d never go through but I think there should be different limits for bikes, a quick blip on the throttle to get into safety is a good thing but does mean that can ypu go over the limit for a little while.
If it was the police on the scene rather than cameras they could make judgements too, providing they are reasonable of course.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
More traffic officers and less cameras.
Sherrie, just out of curiosity why do you think the speed limits are archaic?
Cameras are ok if you know where they are, but I hate the average speed ones that rear face. I think each case should be judged on its individual circumstance.
120mph Brent X flyover at 6pm = big trouble
120mph Brent X flyover at 4am = b*llocking & left at officers discretion
the limits were introduced many moons ago when cars didnt go hugely fast and the brakes were not very good, its been proved time and again that modern cars and bikes will stop in less distance than the highway code says from far higher speed its called progress, im all for the lower speed limits in towns near schools etc, but why not up the motorway limits like germany and also have minimum limits on it to keep the doddery old goats off it and dayglo derek 
oooh my heads hurting now 
Here we go again,
1/3 of accidents are caused by speeding…this is what the report says.
Government stats say that 3% are speed caused and less than 7% where speed is more than 10% contributory…
But what have they done to solve the real problem…absolutely nothing…people need more training to improve their driving skills…
Travelling from a to b at speed is not a crime…it is a man given right. Speeds could easily be increased to 100mph on some roads and unlimited on others just like it is in germany…and with more training we could reduce accidents…speeding is not the cause of accidents and this will just increase revenue and annoy yet more people who drive for a living…they are just trying to pretend that they are a good government and are doing their best to reduce deaths…who cares about the less than 3000 people killed except those immediately involved, the rest of the country dont give a monkeys…well not really but you know what I mean…3000 in relation to 62 million, its a tiny figure…
What this law is planning to do is put more normal people in prison and allow the police to bolster crime figures and fiddle the books yet again therfore, they hope making us believe that they are an effective force…
Laws in this country are antiquated, and so too is the current labour government…and who has introduced over ten new laws a day since being voted in…labour they are totally nuts…
OOh I am on me soap box again…must not rise to the bait, just makes me so mad…bloody labour…
And there lies one of the fundamental problems of cameras: people know where they are and slow down, even the camera vans I also see, are always at the same points and make sure that I have slowed down.
Cameras simply don’t police the roads. Hence the Police.
QUOTE
the limits were introduced many moons ago when cars didnt go hugely fast and the brakes were not very good, its been proved time and again that modern cars and bikes will stop in less distance than the highway code says from far higher speed its called progress, im all for the lower speed limits in towns near schools etc, but why not up the motorway limits like germany and also have minimum limits on it to keep the doddery old goats off it and dayglo KEVSTA [BigGrin]
oooh my heads hurting now [Smile]
Ha ha :w00t::hehe::w00t::hehe:
I can’t believe how nanny-statish the U.K. became from 1992-2007 (the years I lived abroad). This is just another way a minority of idiot and dangerous drivers can allow the road safety lobby to get more cameras/regulation/surveillance over all of us. I’m so tired of my country telling me what to do and how to behave in myriad ways.
