Wiltshire Council Are Commie Bastards Who Want My Money
This is why I'm tempted to vote for Howards Way, bring on the 80mph limit!
Seriously, it's the only policy any of the main parties have put forward that makes me think 'Yay'. Take this latest story for example, how they're putting mobile cameras on the M4. For those of you who don't know, that's the road from Bath to the M25, and I must average about 150-200 miles on it a week. It's almost all straight road from junction 14 to junction 18, and almost every time that stretch is empty - I frequently find myself doing top speed in the left lane with nothing in front and nothing behind, save the odd truck I overtake or a more powerful car that sails past me doing well over 100. But are either of us going to cause an accident with our speed? No. The cause of an accident in a situation like that would be falling asleep or mechanical error, either of which will arguably be just as dangerous at 70.
So I ask you, where is the point in enforcing the 70 mph limit on a road like that? Yes, if it's busy you should reduce your speed, but more often than not traffic volume naturally affects that most of the time. Anyway, if you crash at 70 rather than 80 you're still going to die, and if you can't drive properly on a straight empty road then I'm afraid it just comes down to natural selection.
If they want to cut accidents on motorways, they should invest in patrols and technology to detect dangerous driving; watch lane changes and blatent undertaking, have cameras to check stopping distances - in my albeit limited experience, that's far more dangerous than an extra 10-20 mph. Speed doesn't necessarily equal danger, stupid driving does. But then stupid driving wouldn't bring in as much revenue as catching people edging 80 on a straight empty motorway.
Ahh, armchair politics are great. Maybe I'm way off on all of this - after all, I don't have any facts and figures to base it on. But I'd still put money on the conclusions of a comparison between accidents on UK motorways and on German autobahns...
Comments
Well I think the rationale is that a third of all accidents occur due to speeding, and junctions 14-18 is an accident area. Anyway your car can't even get past 50, so I don't know why this even applies to you!
It's for when I have a nicer car that can!
Undertaking? is that where someone is driving without due care (but mostly) and attention and is blocking a lane, forcing other cars to funnel through the lane to their right, unless of course they are blocking the outside lane, in which case the whole motorway slows down to their speed, or illegally overtakes on the inside? ;-)
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