Erase my life like a car crash, baby
Nov. 7th, 2008 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaYesterday I was driving along the A4074 at exactly 50mph (which is dead on the speed limit). One of those speed-sensing signs lit up as I approached, warning me of oncoming bends and the need to slow down.
The section of road I was driving along is far from Roman, and is affectionately known as "The Thirteen Bends of Death". It's a dangerous road, by which I mean it's a perfectly safe bit of rural English road along which people drive with such monumental twattery that it has an extremely high casualty rate. Sadly, they themselves are not always the ones injured or killed.
However, I know from driving along that bit for years that you don't need to drop below 50 to go round most of the bends safely. There's one - some distance after the sign - where your car will stay on the road perfectly happily at 50, but you probably want to drop speed a bit to make sure you can see what's coming and check you aren't about to collide with a hay wagon struggling up the hill at 15mph.
To me, the flashing sign suggests I'm going dangerously fast and need the warning when actually, I don't think I am. Similarly, around the motorway interchanges of the M4 and M40 with the M25 there are plenty of signs saying "max speed 40" round bends which can safely be taken at considerably more. Even by HGVs.
All this leads to one thing: you see a max speed warning, and don't take it seriously. Sure, you may drop speed a little but not to the "ridiculously" low speed they recommend. Then you drive across the moors to Whitby, pass the Legendary Saltersgate Inn (currently covered in scaffolding) see the sign warning you to take the next bend at 20mph... and don't realise that it means you should take the next bend at 20mph.
Pretty much everyone I've observed driving along that road has - the first time they encountered it - misjudged that bend. The crash barrier which stops you plummeting off the edge of the hill is regularly dented, scraped, or ripped completely away. All because people are conditioned to be blasé about warning signs.
Unless N Yorkshire follows the same approach everyone else does, and changes the recommended speed to 5mph (or adds a second sign saying "We really mean it!"), people are going to go on ignoring the sign. See also the layers of tyre left behind on the slip-road into London Gateway services, where people thought the 15mph warning was exaggerating.
I understand that a car's ability to corner varies wildly, and that an artic must go slower than a sportscar. But a little consistency in the speed recommendations would help enormously.
Does anyone know what my subject line is ? I can't place it. Deathboy ? Katscan ?
The section of road I was driving along is far from Roman, and is affectionately known as "The Thirteen Bends of Death". It's a dangerous road, by which I mean it's a perfectly safe bit of rural English road along which people drive with such monumental twattery that it has an extremely high casualty rate. Sadly, they themselves are not always the ones injured or killed.
However, I know from driving along that bit for years that you don't need to drop below 50 to go round most of the bends safely. There's one - some distance after the sign - where your car will stay on the road perfectly happily at 50, but you probably want to drop speed a bit to make sure you can see what's coming and check you aren't about to collide with a hay wagon struggling up the hill at 15mph.
To me, the flashing sign suggests I'm going dangerously fast and need the warning when actually, I don't think I am. Similarly, around the motorway interchanges of the M4 and M40 with the M25 there are plenty of signs saying "max speed 40" round bends which can safely be taken at considerably more. Even by HGVs.
All this leads to one thing: you see a max speed warning, and don't take it seriously. Sure, you may drop speed a little but not to the "ridiculously" low speed they recommend. Then you drive across the moors to Whitby, pass the Legendary Saltersgate Inn (currently covered in scaffolding) see the sign warning you to take the next bend at 20mph... and don't realise that it means you should take the next bend at 20mph.
Pretty much everyone I've observed driving along that road has - the first time they encountered it - misjudged that bend. The crash barrier which stops you plummeting off the edge of the hill is regularly dented, scraped, or ripped completely away. All because people are conditioned to be blasé about warning signs.
Unless N Yorkshire follows the same approach everyone else does, and changes the recommended speed to 5mph (or adds a second sign saying "We really mean it!"), people are going to go on ignoring the sign. See also the layers of tyre left behind on the slip-road into London Gateway services, where people thought the 15mph warning was exaggerating.
I understand that a car's ability to corner varies wildly, and that an artic must go slower than a sportscar. But a little consistency in the speed recommendations would help enormously.
Does anyone know what my subject line is ? I can't place it. Deathboy ? Katscan ?
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-07 10:46 am (UTC)Everyone does!
In fairness to the A4074, it's not just a case of getting round the bends without falling off the road. You need to be aware of the possibilities of slow-moving agricultural traffic, cyclists struggling up hills, even pedestrians (who are braver than I am) - all of which are more possible than the road would lead you to expect. However, driving with care is a slightly different thing from slowing down.