November Another Online Edition! Bumper Issue!! Good Bedtime reading inside!
Issue No 250
November 2020
W I R R A L A D VA N C E D M O TO R C Y C L I S T S Group Council 2019-2020 IAM Group 5115 Web Site
http://www.w-a-m.co.uk
Chairman
Ken Smith
chairman@w-a-m.co.uk
Vice Chairman
Rob Tutchings
vicechairman@w-a-m.co.uk
Honorary Treasurer & Gift Aid
John Temple
treasurer@w-a-m.co.uk giftaid@w-a-m.co.uk
Membership
Andy Poustie
membership@w-a-m.co.uk
Associate Coordinator
Pat Goodison
associatecoordinator@w-a-m.co.uk
Trainee Observer Coordinator
Steve Hunter
TOC@w-a-m.co.uk
Chief Observer
Derek Jeffries
chiefobserver@w-a-m.co.uk
Honorary Secretary
Rob Cooper
secretary@w-a-m.co.uk
Minute Secretary
Mike Round
minutes@w-a-m.co.uk
Events Organiser
Chris Livett
events@w-a-m.co.uk
Newsletter Editor
Peter Lovatt
newsletter@w-a-m.co.uk
Data Manager
Chris Livett
DataManager@w-a-m.co.uk
Social Media
Steve Lord
SocialMedia@w-a-m.co.uk
Group Shop
Martin Titley 0151 632 3570
groupshop@w-a-m.co.uk
Rob Tutchings
rideouts@w-a-m.co.uk
Ride Out & Bike Safe Coordinator Other Council members
Dave Spotswood, Steve Molyneux, Nina Jeffries, Pete Montgomery, Mike Hurst, Dave Rees
MAGAZINE Editor:
Peter Lovatt
Duplication: CS Digital Wallasey 2 Distribution: The Post Office!
Welcome to the WAM newsletter for November At the time of typing this newsletter up (start of October), there is still no indication of when normal club nights will resume. Wirral, including Liverpool, and the surrounding area are having to abide by more stringent enforcement of Covid19 regulations, which also came into force in some North Wales counties, as the rate of infections is on the rise. Unfortunately, this has had a knock on effect for our ARC courses which got going again after the first Lockdown. This means that again they have been suspended. I’m note sure when they will resume, but its looking more likely it’ll be next year. But, there is always a silver lining somewhere, and a couple of our Associates have passed their Advanced Test recently. So it’s CONGRATULATIONS to John Roe, and Keith Minshull Well done, chaps! Since the first lockdown eased in England there have been quite a few ride outs by members of the club to other parts of the country such as Ludlow and Ironbridge, which at the time made a change from Wales, which still had travel restrictions. But recently, in the last few months, they too have been relaxed, so there have been ride outs into Wales, but being careful of their social distancing rules. Even the Scotland trip went ahead, there are more pix inside this issue.
Left - a couple of pix from Dereks ride outs At the Tudor Rose Trawsfynydd café meal stop
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IAM RoadSmart Polo Shirts
We can now take orders for polo shirts. These are a charcoal shirt showing the new logo plus two lines of text Wirral Advanced Motorcyclists Your Name Size Guide: S: 36/38" M: 40" L: 42" XL: 44" XXL: 46/48" Female: 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 ÂŁ20 each - Nina Jeffries will take your payment at the group social evenings (second Tuesday of every month).
You may see some WAM members wearing them at club nights
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Scotland trip - August 2020 - Some images Eilean Donan Castle (below) on the way to Skye Ken leads a group of riders on Skye (bottom)
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Oban - and a chance for the group to have a lunch stop Luckily there was a chippy just close by! The whole Scotland trip was up in the air, with the Covid-19 pandemic and it was not even certain if it would be possible this year. Thankfully, Derek sorted it a short notice, and as usual it was a good trip.
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Inverary - an Asian family got in on the group photo on the quayside! Inside one of the Eateries in the town
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Gull at Oban…….. Colourful houses on the Harbour front at Portree, on Skye
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Group of WAM riders at the Hotel in Fort William An even smaller group of riders on the Kinlochleven road—in the rain
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Take it to the Limit, One more Time….. So you think you know speed Limits? But what governs what that is? Read on Motoring is a symbol of progression and freedom for people all over the world. The feeling of the open road, to travel at your own pace and choose your own path, is addictive. Any attempt to control it, and to curb that freedom, is usually met with a spirited and emotional response. One thing reliably gets a bigger reaction than any other: speed. Every road user has an opinion on speed. How fast can I travel? How fast should everyone else go? How fast is too fast? How fast is too dangerous? For all the debate, for all the passion and the anger, for all the campaigns that are mounted and speeding tickets that are issued, what often seems to be missing is an understanding of what speed limits apply, and why. In a subject that's often more emotion and opinion than fact, there's lots to explore. But please, don't go too fast. You can get a fine for that sort of thing, you know.
What's the speed limit here?
It shouldn't be a difficult question. Unfortunately, anything involving the road network usually turns out to be less neatly organised than you might hope. In fact, if you ask what the speed limit is, the only short and truthful answer is that it depends. Unlike some parts of the world, where the number written on the road sign is the limit and that's that, in the UK the speed limit varies for different vehicles on the same road. Finding the limit for any one vehicle means considering: the National Speed Limit, whether a local limit has been applied to the road, the type of road, and your vehicle's class limit. And you thought it was simple…… Let's look at each in turn. National Speed Limit It's often called "the National Speed Limit", but there's actually
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more than one of them. They apply to roads without a specific signposted limit. 30mph on any road with a system of street lighting, including both single and dual carriageways* but not motorways. 60mph is the limit for single carriageway roads* without lighting. 70mph is the limit for dual carriageway roads* without lighting and motorways. * A single carriageway road is one where opposing directions of traffic share the same paved surface, regardless of the number of traffic lanes in each direction. A dual carriageway has a physical divider between the two opposing flows. The 60 and 70 limits are often referred to as being "derestricted" for historical reasons — once upon a time, where 60 and 70 now apply, there would have been no speed limit at all. 30mph (or "restricted") roads are almost always in cities, towns and villages, but the 30mph limit is actually invoked by the presence of street lighting. That could mean that a road lined with houses but without streetlights could be derestricted, while a rural road with streetlights could have a 30mph limit. Local limits In place of the National Speed Limit, any individual section of road may have its own local limit applied to it. With an appropriate legal order and suitable signage, the National Speed Limit is replaced with a limit of 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60mph. Or if you live in Talysarn, North Wales, its 15mph….. Because the National Speed Limit requires motorists to read their surroundings and understand whether a road is subject to a 30, 60 or 70 limit without road signs being present, any limit that differs from those must make itself known. For that reason, any limit that's applied to a road requires not just signs at the start of the limit, but also regular reminders throughout its length, so that a driver attempting to work out the limit from their surroundings will not be misled. This is the reason for the existence of uniquely British "repeaters" — miniature speed limit signs posted every few hundred metres along mile after mile of road where a specific limit has been imposed. A local limit can cause a road to have a higher or lower limit than it would otherwise have, though it may not exceed 60 on single carriageways or 70 on dual carriageways. In the zone Adding to this complexity is the fact that there are two kinds of 20mph limit, not one. Ordinary 20 limits work just like any other — a 20mph sign at the beginning and repeaters throughout. But there are also 20mph zones, which just have a special rectangular "20 ZONE" sign at the entrance. 20 zones are "self-enforcing", and the characteristics of the road itself are meant to naturally keep 11
traffic speeds to 20mph or below — usually by the physical layout of the road or by traffic calming measures. No repeater signs are considered necessary. Even if a driver assumes they are in a 30 limit from their surroundings, they shouldn't actually be able to exceed 20mph. Some 20 zones do this better than others. In some places, where a 20 zone meets a 20 limit, speed limit signs exist showing "20" on both sides, because the two are technically very different restrictions.
Types of road and vehicle class limits The other consideration is the specific limit that applies to the vehicle in question — and that is no small matter. There are five classes of vehicle for the purpose of speed limits, and each class has four different limits depending on the type of road the vehicle is on. Working out your class limit means knowing which category vehicle you are in and what kind of road you are on. You may wish to pull over and take a break from driving so you can think about it.
Unlike National Speed Limits, which only divide roads into three sets, for class limits there is also the extra category of "motorways". Which limit? So, the speed limit that applies to a vehicle is either the road speed limit or the vehicle class limit for that type of road — whichever is lower. Drivers of goods vehicles may also need to take into account whether they are in England, Scotland or Wales. For example, on a single-carriageway in Scotland with a signposted 50mph limit: a car can travel at 50, because its class limit is 60, but the road limit is 50. an articulated lorry could only travel at 40 — the road limit is the same, but the lorry's class limit is lower in Scotland, so that's the one that applies. 12
Interestingly, it's not possible for some vehicles to reach their maximum legal limit. Goods vehicles are theoretically allowed to travel at 60mph on motorways, but they are also subject to separate European legislation that requires them to have a mechanical limiter fitted, making it impossible for them to exceed 56mph and making 60 an impossible dream. It's the law For the hapless motorist who just wants to know how fast they can drive their car, it's not just the limits themselves that are difficult to work out — the legislation behind them is also hopelessly complex and fragmented. The various class limits and the default National Speed Limits exist because of a host of laws passed at different times and for different purposes. The most important is the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, or "RTRA" to its friends. Amongst many other things, it sets the 30mph limit on restricted roads; it defines a restricted road as being one with a "system of street lighting" that has lamps at most 200 yards apart (or, pedantically, 185m if in Scotland); it sets out how speed limits are made; it exempts emergency vehicles in certain situations; and — crucially — it makes it an offence to break a speed limit that is set by this or any other legislation. The RTRA also gives the appropriate Minister the power to set a speed limit on Special Roads (a category that includes motorways), but what it doesn't do is create a National Speed Limit or any limit for motorways. In fact, other than the standard 30, the RTRA mostly just enables the creation of speed limits. Everything else exists not because of an Act of Parliament, but because of a whole series of Statutory Instruments — legal orders published quietly and without much discussion. The Motorways Traffic (Speed Limit) Regulations 1974 is one of them. Published by Anthony Crosland, a brand new Transport Minister at the beginning of a new Labour government, it actually raised top speeds considerably, replacing a temporary 50 limit imposed during the oil crisis. It invokes a 70mph speed limit on all motorways and imposes limits of 50 or 60 on a long list of specific urban motorways (many of which have since been changed by newer regulations). The part that actually sets the limit is so short it would fit in a text message with room to spare, and it doesn't bother to distinguish between motorways with different physical characteristics. They're all just motorways and they're all good for 70. That means that a single carriageway road operating under motorway restrictions has the same limit as other motorways. There are only a few examples of this, most of them very short, but it is just possible to reach 70 on a couple of them providing you trust your brakes to stop you before you reach the end. One example is the (A)601(M) at J35 M6. see over….
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Temporarily - forever Two other Statutory Instruments form an embarrassing legal bodge — the National Speed Limit. It was famously imposed as a temporary measure, and incredible though it may seem, it remains temporary. No government has ever got round to tidying up the loose ends to recognise the fact that it's now a permanent measure that's never going to be taken away. The current National Speed Limit was imposed by the 70 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour and 50 miles per hour (Temporary Speed Limit) Order 1977. That document makes it an offence to drive a motor vehicle at more than 70mph on a dual carriageway or 60mph on a single carriageway. It specifies throughout that it refers to roads "not being motorways". However, the 1977 order was time-limited, expiring in May 1978, and after a further short extension, Secretary of State Bill Rodgers made the thrillingly titled 70 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour and 50 miles per hour (Temporary Speed Limit) (Continuation) Order 1978, an extremely simple document that simply says the 1977 limits are "continued indefinitely". Those two legal post-it notes are all that stands between the British motorist and unlimited speed on the roads we still refer to as "derestricted" — ones that still have no permanent speed restriction. Local speed limits are created by orders under section 84 of the RTRA — a bit like the Statutory Instruments above. They describe a length of road and the limit that applies to it. Highway authorities decide on limits by a well-practiced process.
There are a few roads that only have local limits. All-purpose roads have the National Speed Limit and motorways default to 70, but there's a third type of road called a "non-motorway Special Road" that's not in either category — so the default 30, 60 and 70 do not apply to them. All such roads have specific limits, and can sometimes be identified by the fact they have "70" signs where you'd expect to see a black and white National Speed Limit roundel.
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It's not even clear whether vehicle class limits apply on non-motorway Special Roads, so a "70" sign might actually mean a true 70 limit for all vehicles. According to SABRE, no case law appears to exist and this potential loophole has seemingly never been tested in court. Too slow Minimum speed limits (the rare, lesser-spotted variety of the speed limit genus) are created by specific legislation where they are required, and aren't part of the RTRA or any other normal speed limit paraphernalia. They only exist in a few locations around the UK and sometimes the law that makes them possible is difficult to track down. In the Mersey Tunnels, it's enforceable because it's set out in the Mersey Tunnel Regulations, the legal rulebook that also prohibits certain types of cargo from passing through and so on. The Dartford Tunnel's minimum speed limit appears to be in an obscure Traffic Regulation Order. For the Blackwall Tunnel it's... well, it's presumably written down somewhere.
In all cases, even though the legislation behind each example may be bespoke, a minimum limit is the lowest speed that is permissible if traffic is moving freely. If your vehicle is not capable of that speed, it shouldn't use the road. If, on the other hand, traffic is heavy and you can't reach the minimum speed without damaging the bumpers of the car in front, then that's an acceptable reason to travel more slowly. Our speed limits and the laws behind them are — clearly — a mess. Just how on earth did we end up in this situation? Read on!
The UK has had speed limits longer than it has had motor cars. The idea persists that our roads traditionally had no speed limit, and that the imposition of the National Speed Limit meant eroding an historic freedom, but in fact restrictions on the velocity of road traffic have been a feature of British law for centuries. So how did we get the limits we've got? Do the locomotion The first true limit may have been the 1861 Locomotive Act, which regulated the use of steam locomotives and traction engines on the open road. It set a maximum speed of 10mph in open country and 5mph in towns, with fines of £10 for speeding (a term that has to be used loosely when the limit is 5mph). Convictions must have been rare because there was no instrument either on the engine or in the hands of the police that could have indicated how fast it was travelling. The heady days of tearing around at a breakneck 10mph were short-lived. Just four years later, the Locomotive Act 1865 lowered speed limits to just 4 and 2mph. Presumably drivers would be convicted of speeding if a policeman couldn't overtake the engine at a gentle stroll. 15
The 1865 Act also introduced someone who, to this day, is oddly imprinted on the popular imagination: the red flag man. A 2mph limit meant that locomotives would often reach their destination faster by parking up and waiting for continental drift to take its course, but were still considered such an unimaginable danger that a man was obliged to walk 60ft (18m) ahead of them holding a red flag. The law is referred to, even now, as the "red flag act". There are no records to indicate how many people were mown down by engines as they stared at the strange man who was so keen to show the whole street his flag. Evidently he was at risk of becoming a spectacle in his own right, because thirteen years later the rules were changed again so that the red flag was carried just 20ft (6m) in front of the engine. The Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act 1878 was a further blow to the embattled Victorian driver, demanding that engines must stop completely on sight of a horse — something that must have virtually prevented them moving at all in towns. Light relief When the earliest motor cars were taken out on British roads, the limits of 4 and 2mph, and the requirements to bring a red flag and park up whenever a horse peered over a fence, were still in force. Fortunately for would-be motorists, the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 was passed just a year after the first petrol-driven cars were built, and recognised the self-propelled car as a new form of transport. It permitted "light locomotives" to travel at 14mph anywhere they liked without additional crew or red drapery. In 1903 the car was properly recognised by the Motor Car Act, which introduced mandatory registration and a new national speed limit of 20mph. It quickly became an anachronism, as the new technology matured and cars were able to travel safely at speed, but it persisted for 27 years. Symbols of the new motor age, like the Great West Road and the first stages of London's North Circular, were subject to this 20mph limit when they first opened. In fact, the blanket 20 limit was to become one of the least respected laws in British history, universally ignored and widely considered irrelevant. Speed traps set up by the police to catch speeding motorists were the reason the AA was instituted, with its patrols existing to position themselves ahead of the police and warn members to slow down.
No no, no no no no, there's no limit It was the absurdity of the nationwide 20 limit that led the Labour Transport Minister Herbert Morrison to create the Road Traffic Act 1930, the legislation upon which modern motoring law is still based. His well-respected argument was that it's better to prosecute people who are driving dangerously than people who are on the wrong side of an arbitrary limit. 16
The Road Traffic Act abolished the speed limit completely, and in its place created the offence of "reckless driving". The motorist was free to travel as fast as they wished, wherever they wished, so long as they were not "reckless". "Supposing we indicate that the speed limit should be increased to 30, 35 or even to 40mph, what are we saying? We are saying that in the ordinary run of driving a motor car it is reasonable to run at 30, 35 or 40mph...that is an exceedingly dangerous thing to say... The truth is that 40mph, 35mph, 30mph and even 20mph are dangerous speeds in many circumstances. 10mph or even 5mph, with some fool going round the corner on the wrong side, is a dangerous speed." Herbert Morrison MP, 18 February 1930 Morrison was a brave man to remove the speed limit, but for two years his gamble paid off and the number of accidents on Britain's roads fell. Unfortunately, the trend then reversed, and deaths and injuries started to climb steeply. By early 1934, the issue of traffic regulation had returned to Parliament. The proposed Road Traffic Act 1934 would change the law to create a 30mph limit in built-up areas, defined as places with a system of street lighting — a regulation still in force today. This was highly controversial, particularly because it came just four years after the first Road Traffic Act had set the motorist free from what were seen as malicious police speed traps. Life begins at 30 In November 1933, the city of Oxford was given permission to create an experimental 30mph limit across the whole city, and Oxfordshire Police set up patrols in the suburbs. The experiment was discussed in Parliament as an example of what could be expected if the new 30 limit was brought into force. Oxford's MP argued that stopping speeding drivers on the way in meant that only slower, safer drivers made their way to the city centre. But not everyone was convinced. Within five months, 164 people had been prosecuted for speeding, but only two of them were also prosecuted for reckless driving. "The obvious deduction...is that in the opinion of the police 162 people broke the law...but that in the opinion of the police they were not driving to the danger of the public. That brings out a point which the Minister should remember — that if a man exceeds the speed limit he is not necessarily driving dangerously." Sir W Brass MP, 10 April 1934 However, most MPs were in favour of the new limit, and the most contentious point was that it would not apply between midnight and 5am. That part of the bill was discarded after being roundly criticised; Lord Merrivale spoke for many when he said "I should like to know why people should be encouraged to drive at a dangerous speed in the dark". Objections to the new limit were largely because the old 20mph limit had been so unsuccessful. Careful arguments were made to set the two limits apart.
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"...the objection to the old speed limit was that not only was it in itself unreasonable, but that it became a dead letter and was impossible to enforce. I think this restricted thirty miles per hour speed limit is reasonable in itself, and we hope the vast majority of motorists, who are reasonable people, will take that view also, and will respect the law." Earl of Plymouth, 17 July 1934 The absence of a general speed limit was one of the reasons that a specific urban was thought acceptable to motorists. 30 was judged to be a speed at which reasonable progress could be made but at which it was still possible to stop quickly when the unexpected happened. Its intention was to help drivers deal with the bad habits of other road users, and transport minister Oliver Stanley even hinted that it might only be needed as a temporary measure, to be removed when pedestrians were better behaved. "When you get to the built-up area, which is all houses and all crossings, then you get to a place where the unexpected usually happens. It is there that you get the child who has been playing on the pavement suddenly running on to the middle of the road. It is there that the errand-boy comes round on his bicycle with both hands crossed in front of him. It is there that the pedestrian with an umbrella over her face suddenly walks on to the middle of the road. If you are going at 20 or 30mph, with your vehicle under control, there is a chance that you will be able to save those people from the consequences of their own mistake. But if you are going at 50 or 60mph they are dead. It is not a question of dangerous driving on the part of the motorist... "The 20mph speed limit failed because it did not commend itself to reasonable people, but I do not believe that reasonable people will think it a great deprivation to be restricted to a speed of 30mph in these built-up areas while in the open country they are allowed to go at the speed which they consider to be safe." Oliver Stanley MP, 10 April 1937 The new law was passed, restricting urban roads to 30, but there was still no limit on the open road, and Britain still had some of the world's most permissive speed limits. Elsewhere, the motorist was often restricted to very low speeds indeed. These are some examples of speed limits in other countries in 1934. Austria In urban areas, between 25 and 35km/h (15-22mph) Belgium In urban areas, between 20 and 35km/h (12-25mph) Denmark Nationwide limit of 60km/h (37mph) Norway Nationwide limit of 45km/h (28mph), except on "straight roads" where 60km/h (37mph) was allowed Illinois, USA 15mph in built-up areas, 25mph anywhere else inside an incorporated city, 45mph in open countryside. A speed limit that applied in some places and not others called for new signs to distinguish restricted roads. On entering a restricted area, a new sign with a clear 18
"30" made things obvious enough. But what could be used in the other direction, to indicate a derestricted road where no limit applied? The answer was a sign that is still with us today, and might be one of the least intuitive and yet best understood road signs on British roads. The derestriction sign was a simple white disc with a black diagonal bar across it. At face value it doesn't immediately suggest any particular meaning. But the key is in the definition of a 30mph road: one with a system of lighting. The derestriction sign was meant to show the end of an area of lighting, so it shows pure white, firmly crossed out. Into the fog Derestriction seemed, in 1934, to be an inalienable right of the motorist, one that Parliament was reluctant to take away. In 1965, that changed, quickly and very loudly, as stories of horrific and deadly pile-ups in the fog on Britain's brand-new motorways came one after another. Tom Fraser, Minister of Transport, was faced with the prospect of another winter of tragic accidents and damaging headlines. His response has been discussed on Roads.org.uk before, in the shape of the "yellow peril" Motorwarn signals, and it included an experimental speed limit of 70mph on all derestricted roads. 21 December 1965 was the last day on which it was legal to drive at any speed you pleased on the open road in Great Britain; from the early hours of Wednesday 22 December all roads without a lower limit were subject to the new experimental limit of 70mph. Opposition — from motoring groups, car manufacturers and others — was considerable, even with the fog panic that prevailed over any discussion of the motorways at that time. The Times carried an editorial warning of the risks of "the drowsy inattention which arises in the mind of the driver who, regulated by general speed limits, may fail to give his full mind to the ever-present hazards of driving at speed". The complaints had little effect. Fraser's four-month experiment was extended further and further while its effect on accident rates was evaluated. An improvement was demonstrated, and that — perhaps combined with a reluctance to be the one who authorised motorists to drive as fast as they liked — meant that successive Ministers saw fit to keep it. In the oil crisis of the 1970s it was lowered to a blanket 50mph nationwide in an effort to reduce fuel consumption, and was never restored to its previous state: instead we arrived at the present mix of 60 and 70mph. 19
We have now had a National Speed Limit for much longer than we ever had No Speed Limit, and the era of true "derestriction" lasted just 31 years. The experimental four-month limit is still, technically, a temporary measure, but it's now been with us for more than half a century. Limits continue to be set and changed all the time — a business that requires a closer look. How is a speed limit chosen? The default 30, 60 or 70 might not be right for all sorts of reasons. But if it's not, how do engineers choose a new number to put on the signs? There's a single document that explains almost all there is to know on this subject. Its innocuous name barely hints at its influence over speed and safety policy on our roads. It's called DfT Circular 01/2006 and it tells highway authorities nationwide how to go about setting a speed limit. The document that changed nothing and everything DfT Circular 01/2006 didn't win any literary awards and it's not widely read outside council highways departments. It's an advisory note circulated by the Department for Transport, so it didn't follow any debate in Parliament and its issue wasn't marked in the press. And why should it? It's the latest in a series of similar documents, replacing Circular Roads 01/93, which said many of the same things in roughly the same terms. It offers updated advice on speed limits in light of changes that have happened since 1993. It didn't really change anything. It also changed everything. Many countries set speed limits using the "85th percentile", an idea that means that the top speed of 85% of the vehicles on a road should be considered legal. Using it as a basis for a speed limit has clear benefits: the limit has been set by popular opinion of drivers, so it should be based on the judgement and experience of a broad cross-section of the motoring public, and it ends up requiring little enforcement action as the vast majority of drivers will naturally comply with it. Until 2006, the UK was in the 85th percentile club along with many other developed countries. DfT Circular 01/2006 changed that, instead requiring that "mean speeds should be used as the basis for determining local speed limits". The mean speed is not the same as the 85th percentile — in fact it can be quite different, and is almost certain to be lower. The DfT made this change because of research showing that every reduction of the average speed by 1mph led to a reduction of accidents by 5%. Using mean speeds gently pushes limits down a little, which theoretically will skim a little off 20
the accident rate. They also claim that they are "easier for road users themselves to understand". Certainly one argument against the 85th percentile is that it asks only what speed motorists think is appropriate, and not any other users of the road. The circular also suggests that local authorities should review all their A- and Broads against the guidance in the document and conduct ongoing, rolling reviews of their road networks in order to make sure speed limits are kept up to date. That's innocuous enough, but the guidance for selecting a limit has changed, and some local authorities seem to have interpreted this as a call for broad reviews to apply the new methodology. Most of DfT Circular 01/2006 is a bland continuation of the advice that has always been offered to highway authorities. But those few modifications may be surprisingly important. So how does it work? Pick a number, any number‌. Let's set a speed limit for a road and see what it involves. Our guidance from Whitehall says that we should aim to "provide a consistent message between the road geometry and environment, and for changes in speed limit to be reflective of changes in the road layout and characteristics". This is a multiple-choice question with six possible answers: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70. We start by asking some questions. What's around here? Is this road rural or urban? Are there houses, driveways, shop frontages? Is there a school? Is the surrounding area heavily built-up, or are we near the edge of town? 21
What is this road for? The road's function is next. Who uses it? Is it a main road with high volumes of through traffic, or a local road, or just a street or cul-de-sac? This should suggest possible limits that might be right, and rule out others. How is the road laid out? The geometry of the road will tell us a lot. Is it wide and open or narrow and twisting? Its width, corners, junctions and private accesses are important factors. Sightlines and obstructions to forward visibility will count for a lot. A comparison with standards in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, which instructs engineers how to design roads for travel at different speeds, might help. Who's on the road? It's all very well looking at the cars and lorries, and work out how fast they can safely take the corners. Who else is here? Are there large numbers of pedestrians or is this a well-used cycle route? Is there a retirement home on one side of the road and a golf course on the other, with large volumes of elderly people in distractingly lurid tartan clothing wanting to cross? What happened here? Accident reports from the last few years will build a picture of where the problems are and whether excessive speed is a factor. This data — for "KSI" or "killed and seriously injured" accidents — is routinely gathered, but what matters most is whether it's intelligently analysed and interpreted. It might indicate hazards that aren't immediately obvious, or it might suggest that the usual traffic speed is making accidents — when they happen — far worse than they would otherwise be. How fast are people travelling? The final piece of the jigsaw is a survey that will tell us the speed of existing vehicles and get us that magical mean speed for the road. This is usually done automatically, commonly using pairs of pneumatic pipes bolted to the road surface and connected to a data logger at the roadside. Together, these factors should point us towards just a couple of possibilities. Drivers are not stupid (well, most of them aren't) and the usual traffic speed is hopefully in the same ballpark as the speed that would seem appropriate given the road's layout and surroundings. Where there's a difference, it usually means that there are factors to consider that drivers aren't noticing. Often those issues are visible with an analysis of accident data, such as an unusual frequency of accidents involving pensioners in garish leisurewear. Finally, to help us decide, the DfT suggests the places where different limits are appropriate.
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Urban areas Limit Suggestion 20mph Town centres, residential areas, around schools. 30mph Standard limit in built-up areas with development on both sides of the road. 40mph Higher quality suburban roads or those on the outskirts. Few vulnerable road users. Good width and layout, buildings set back from the road, adequate footways and crossing places. 50mph Dual carriageway ring or radial routes, bypasses which have become partially built up. Little or no roadside development. Rural areas Limit Suggestion 30mph The norm in villages. 40mph Roads with many bends, junctions or accesses, substantial development, a strong environmental or landscape reason, or considerable numbers of vulnerable road users. 50mph Lower quality A and B roads with a relatively high number of bends, junctions or accesses, and lower quality unclassified roads. 60mph High quality strategic A and B roads with few bends, junctions or accesses; only the best unclassified roads. By now the right limit for our road should be abundantly clear. Let's make it real. Laying down the law We'll need to make an order for our new speed limit to have effect. Handily, there's no uncertainty about this process thanks to another document, enticingly called The Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996. There are similar documents for Scotland and Northern Ireland. To make an order we need to go through several steps.
Consult the emergency services, bus operators, the Freight Transport Association, the Road Haulage Association, and other bodies (perhaps other local authorities) who may be affected. We don't actually have to ask the police, but it's usually a good idea to see what they think too. Publish at least one detailed notice about the new limit in a newspaper that is sold in the local area and in the London Gazette. We also need to send details to the people we consulted, and deposit the documents somewhere the public can inspect them. Surprisingly, though, we don't have to post notices anywhere nearby, or publicise it on the local authority's website, or deliver publicity to homes and businesses nearby. Consider any objections that have been received. If we agree with any of the objectors, modify the order. It might be necessary to inform people who will be affected by these changes. Make the order, by producing the legal documentation, publishing its details in a local newspaper and informing any objectors. Finally, road signs need to go up to indicate the new limit. Usually this happens in the weeks before the order is published (even if there are objections, it's very unlikely the order will be cancelled). Until they're needed, they are usually hidden from view using the least technical weapon in the highway engineer's arsenal, a black bin bag. 23
Data loggers can be used to count traffic or to measure traffic speeds, with pairs of pneumatic tubes registering the direction and speed of vehicles. Signage isn't always a straightforward job. New terminal signs will be needed at the edges of the new limit, but where it joins an existing limit that's the same, the signs between them will need to be removed. If the effect of the order is to return the road to being restricted or derestricted, it might be necessary to remove signs rather than put them up. Most new speed limits are followed up by further surveys to see what effect they have. If it's not being obeyed, further interventions may be needed — works to alter the road, for example, so that drivers read it correctly, or even traffic calming measures. Vehicle-activated signs are sometimes used to remind motorists of the speed they're travelling and show them smiley faces. And if all else fails, there's always enforcement — by police or by camera. Ideals and ideology Speed limits are changed for all sorts of reasons. One of the most common is to address a pattern of accidents on a particular stretch of road. They can also be changed in ongoing reviews of limits, or because a road becomes built-up, or to bring a road into line with others nearby whose limits have also been changed. Sometimes the demands of local residents force a change of limit.
Today, perhaps more than in the past, there's a certain level of discontent with the setting of speed limits. Certainly, in the last 25 years, the proportion of the road network covered by specific local limits has increased noticeably. Different authorities interpret official advice in different ways, and since the newest guidance was published in 2006, some local authorities have been meticulous in carrying out wide-scale reviews of their road networks as it recommends. Controversy over speed limits is nothing new: Criticism is evident among professional drivers, on web forums for driving enthusiasts and sometimes in local press, and it seems to centre around a perceived shift from speed limits guiding drivers to select a suitable speed to forcing a reduction in traffic speeds. The language is emotive: councils are typically "anti-car", and innocent speed limits are usually "slashed". In part this may be linked to the change from using the 85th percentile to using mean traffic speeds. British drivers are, of course, taught to "read" the road so that they can judge a safe travel speed. Motorists are assumed to be intelligent and responsible, driving to the conditions and not blindly powering along every road as fast as the law will allow, but it's a double-edged sword. When the speed limit doesn't match the driver's perception and judgement, they will naturally select their own speed — which may be higher than the number on the sign. In a nation where drivers are expected to think for themselves, simply changing the rules and expecting blind obedience won't always work. Some limits are not introduced because of the conditions on the road, but rather for other ends. Some are political. In 2000, when Transport for London assumed control of London's major roads, one of their first acts was to declare that there 24
was no need for city traffic to travel at high speed, and capped speed limits on their road network to 50mph. Some of the roads whose limit was cut in that programme were designed for 60 or 70, and the limit change was very unlikely to have taken the specific conditions on any one road into account. Similarly, some local authorities have decided to reduce most or all their urban roads to 20mph — in some cases, such as the London Boroughs that did this, the result has been virtually the council's entire highway portfolio having a lower limit applied. Again, these limits rarely take into account the conditions of any one specific road, and the result can be that some roads are left with speed limits that feel, to a driver, quite different to the speed they judge to be safe. Limits such as these might be at odds with other districts where a different council, adopting a different policy, might choose higher or lower limits on similar roads. That's an unavoidable consequence of allowing local authorities to choose their own limits, and it may also be a consequence of speed limit guidance that is open to a certain amount of interpretation. It's also, potentially, a risk because setting speed limits that don't match drivers' perception can dilute respect for limits in general.
For all these reasons, speed limits are changing in the UK, and the trend is overwhelmingly that they go down and not up. That may be a problem, if you subscribe to the view of many drivers, that reduced limits and increasing variation on roads of a similar standard make travel slower and the rules less consistent. Or it may be welcome: lower limits are widely supported by people like cycling associations (who tend to approve of urban 20 limits) and the CPRE (who support a blanket 50 limit on rural roads). They argue that lower speed limits help to reduce the dominance of motor traffic over other road users and have environmental benefits. Whatever your view, the rules are the rules, and there's no indication that they will change any time soon. So, as speed limits are reviewed and replaced, keep your eyes on the signs — otherwise you may earn yourself a fine. Is there a single qualified motorist anywhere in the UK who has never broken a speed limit? It's easy to pick up a few extra miles per hour on a long downhill run even when trying to carefully observe the limit, and in fact it's just as easy to travel five or ten miles per hour over the limit on an open road without fear of being noticed. Many people happily go much faster. The ease with which a speed limit can be broken and the lack of consequences from most acts of speeding can make it feel like it's not really breaking the law.
The result is that speeding is one illegal act that's widely considered normal and more or less acceptable, and which the majority of the population have almost certainly committed wilfully and repeatedly. Many don't feel like they're doing anything wrong at all. They're civilised, law-abiding people; their vehicles are taxed and insured. They don't mix with the criminal classes. But the truth is that, like many aspects of motoring law, speed limits are absolute 25
and unforgiving. Any infringement, even by 1mph, is illegal. 71mph on an empty motorway with excellent driving conditions is still — technically at least — a criminal act, and puts you in the same club as people in eye masks and striped jumpers carrying sacks labelled "swag". Not all crimes are equal Luckily for those of us who might have once or twice accidentally hit 42 in a 40 zone*, speed limits are not actually enforced with that much precision. Speedometers aren't so accurate that a driver can be absolutely certain of their true speed, which would make a conviction for, say, 42 in a 40 limit very shaky. Law in the UK is also, in all sorts of respects, simply not interested in marginal infringements, and the principle of de minimis is legalese for the idea that the legal system has better things to do than prosecute people who make such a small infringement that it made no difference to anyone. As far as your speedometer is concerned, the law says that it absolutely must not under-read (so it can't show a lower speed than the one you're doing) but it may over-read by 10% + 4km/h. Most manufacturers will calibrate speedos to sit partway between the true speed and that margin of error, so if you appear to be doing 30mph you could actually be travelling at anything between 25 and 30, and a readout of 70 could mean anything between 61 and 70. This means that enforcement tends to start at a point some way above the number on the signs. Many police forces in the UK share an "enforcement threshold" of 10% + 2mph on top of the limit, below which they will take no action (though some police forces will enforce limits at a lower threshold). There is a second threshold beyond which the offence is considered sufficiently serious that the case
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will be sent straight to court. However, speeding is still speeding, and even if they decide not to pull you over for doing 55 in a 50 zone, police patrols are still very unlikely to give you a thumbs up as you go past. It's the cops Traditionally, speed enforcement was exclusively done by police on patrol, and a pair of blue flashing lights in the rear view mirror was the first indication that a sly attempt to pick up the pace had been noticed. Back in the 1920s, when the national 20mph limit was in force, police speed traps meant a police car or (more often) motorbike taking cover by the roadside, ready to burst out and pursue anyone tearing along at more than the very pedestrian limit. This type of enforcement still happens today — there are even special raised platforms by the side of motorways for exactly this reason — but speed limits vary and hard evidence is needed before the police can pull someone over. The police still carry out speed patrols. Since the 1970s, police cars have been equipped with VASCAR (Visual Average Speed Computer And Recorder), a dashboard-mounted box of tricks that works in conjunction with pairs of markings painted on the road surface (usually circles, dots or squares). The police operate a control each time the potential speeder passes one of the markings, which are a fixed distance apart, and the VASCAR unit calculates the vehicle's speed between those points. VASCAR is a simple and reliable system whose only flaw is that it can't catch anyone whose route avoids the specially measured road markings. ProVida is slightly more advanced. Originally developed in Denmark in the 1980s, it's a computerised system that calculates the speed of both the police car and the vehicle it's following, records video and data from cameras to the front and rear, and plays back the video to let the speeding driver relive the moment they earned themselves a fine. The video ProVida captures, with read-outs of vehicle speeds and other data across the image, is accepted as evidence in court and has spawned a whole genre of real-life car chase TV shows. Modern police patrol cars are also fitted with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) units, which aren't for catching speeders at all — instead they check vehicle registrations against the DVLA database to find uninsured, untaxed and otherwise dodgy vehicles. The police are increasingly stretched for resources, and need to make sure they make the best use of their time, which leads to a debate over whether they should be looking for speeding drivers as much, or even at all, when they could instead be catching the uninsured, the untaxed and the dodgy. On the one hand, the value of a conversation with a police officer and the ability to apply some discretion to individual cases is key to build respect for the law. On the other hand, these days 27
we have machines that can catch speeders automatically. Smile! In spring 1992, a Metropolitan Police traffic officer called Roger Reynolds switched on a strange battleship-grey contraption in south-west London. It stood on the pavement beside the A316 at Twickenham Bridge, pointing a radar detector, a camera lens and a flashbulb at the tail lights of westbound traffic. It was a prototype "Gatso" — Britain's very first speed camera. The limit was 40, but drivers were given a real sporting chance with the camera only set to trigger at 60mph or above. In its first three weeks, it caught nearly 23,000 drivers travelling wildly over the limit. Speed enforcement would never be the same again. The Gatso was a modified version of a system developed by Maurice Gatsonides, a Dutch rally driver. To make convictions watertight, Reynolds worked with the designer to build in a double-check. Originally it simply measured the vehicle's speed with radar, and took a picture if it was above a certain threshold; Reynolds painted a ladder of markings on the road and had the camera take two photos at a fixed interval, providing photographic evidence of how far the vehicle had travelled in a known amount of time and therefore proving its speed. Many of the first motorists to be snapped demanded their day in court, but none had their conviction overturned. Once the ruthlessness of the speed camera became common knowledge, it was no longer necessary for them to do much. In 2012, the AA estimated that of the thousands of cameras in the UK, fewer than 600 actually worked. Many were dummies, with just a flash unit wired up to a radar detector and no camera equipment at all. Others were working cameras with no film in them. Today the number of working cameras is probably higher as newer models are digital, sending photos back to base over mobile phone networks, so running out of film is no longer an option. The original Gatso model is slowly being phased out for newer versions, and it's also now sharing the roads with Truvelos, Monitrons and others. It's also joined by the camera that seems to guarantee almost total compliance over long lengths of road: SPECS (after its manufacturer, SPEed Check Services), the average speed camera. Vehicles pass through ANPR checkpoints and their average speed is calculated between each pair. The only way a driver can guarantee they avoid a ticket is to stay at or below the limit the whole way.
Cameras needn't even be fixed to the ground any more. Mobile camera units tour many parts of the country, parked up at the roadside or lurking on motorway bridges, often recording speeds and taking pictures at such distances that, by the time a motorist has seen the van, it's too late to brake. The effectiveness of cameras in moderating traffic speed (even if only on the bit of road immediately in front of the camera) means they've multiplied rapidly. In 2000 there were 1,700 in use nationwide; by 2007 there were nearly 5,000. But 28
while they had initially been operated by the police, they were later transferred to local authorities who were allowed to keep some of the revenue. Cameras have a large and vocal opposition, thanks to a general hostility towards automated enforcement limiting the freedom of motoring and a specific distaste for speed cameras becoming a revenue stream for public bodies. They're referred to by derisive nicknames — "yellow vultures" for SPECS cameras and "talivans" for mobile camera vans. Some groups, such as MAD (Motorists Against Detection), go as far as to vandalise camera installations, spraying lenses with paint or even setting fire to them. In 2007, things got out of hand when a mail bomb was targeted at the manufacturers of SPECS. But removal of speed cameras has never gained much traction as a political cause, and the cameras continue to proliferate. A hearty endorsement Anyone caught speeding — by whatever means — will find themselves facing harsher treatment than the £10 fine instituted back in 1861. There's still a fine, of course, though it's much higher now — up to £100 for a single incident. Speeding also comes with an "endorsement" where three penalty points are added to the offending driver's licence. Unfortunately, where driving is concerned, points do not win prizes, and a score of 12 points within a three year period is rewarded with disqualification from driving. Most speeding offences today are handled with Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN), which usually offer a discount if the driver pays up quickly and without dispute. They're routinely posted out after a speed camera has flashed its disapproval, but can also be issued by the police. A more recent development is the Speed Awareness Course, offered as an alternative to drivers who have broken the speed limit but not by an outrageous amount. They are an attempt at driver re-education and try to encourage people to think twice before putting their foot down quite so firmly in future. In some ways this is a positive development: for anyone who considers speed cameras to be a way of punishing the motorist, instead of encouraging good driving, the idea that those who break the law will be offered some positive advice and education ought to sound like a step forward. Counting against them is the perception that they parrot road safety slogans at a room of disinterested people who are only attending in order to avoid a fine and points on their licence.
Nonetheless, whatever message Speed Awareness Courses might be broadcasting, it's certainly reaching a wide audience. 1.2 million people attended one in 2015, according to TTC Group, who run many of them. That's a lot of fines not collected and a lot of drivers now officially Aware of Speed. Put a lid on it Not all vehicles are capable of speeding. Increasingly, mechanical limiters (or 29
governors) are used to prevent the heaviest vehicles from getting carried away. They work by restricting the fuel supply to the engine, and tampering with them is illegal. Heavy goods vehicles (with a maximum laden weight of more than 3.5 tonnes) have a limiter fitted as standard, preventing them travelling at more than 56mph. This slightly odd number makes more sense as a neat, round 90km/h, which betrays the law's European origin. That obviously doesn't stop articulated lorries from doing a sneaky 35 in an urban area, but it does put a cap on the highest speed they can achieve. There are some obvious advantages to this. Huge lorries are difficult to manoeuvre and slow to come to a stop, and in an accident the massive force that they apply, thanks to their weight and their enormous momentum, can do a lot of harm. Limiting the speed that they are capable of reaching means limiting the damage they can do in a collision. However, nothing is without its disadvantages. Driving "on the limiter" means the driver can put their foot as hard to the floor as they like and the vehicle won't go any faster. It's easy to lose concentration when regulating the vehicle's speed is no longer an option, and 56mph can be a tedious pace on an open motorway. It also makes it difficult for large vehicles to pass each other — the tiny differential in speed between them means overtaking can use up several miles of road and vast reserves of patience in vehicles stuck behind them. More recently, coaches (and anything else that carries more than eight people) and mopeds have had limiters fitted too. Buses now have an automatically governed top speed of 62mph, while mopeds can't top 30mph, no matter how much their engines whine. The future So what happens next? If we're already installing limiters in vehicles, how long before we all get them? Possibly never. Something else is on the horizon that will have a far bigger impact, and the future is far from certain. The driverless car is most definitely on the way. Controlled very precisely by computer, driverless cars will fastidiously obey every rule. It's hard to imagine any manufacturer programming their vehicles to break speed limits — to do so would leave them wide open to litigation and accusations of gross irresponsibility. But every restrictive technology is eventually undermined. Smartphones that forbid 30
certain software get "jailbroken" with unofficial, third-party code. As soon as driverless cars are widely available, someone, somewhere will be writing software to speed them up. One advantage of driverless cars may actually be their precision. Already, automatic trains travel at higher speeds than human drivers are permitted to do on the same tracks. No longer does a track safe at 43mph need a limit of 40 — the limit can now be 43, or even 43.5. In the future, it's entirely possible driverless cars will be subject to different speed limits to humans, and they could well be higher in some places. There's also scope for computers to play a greater role while there's still a noncomputerised, muscle-and-skeleton driver at the wheel. Reduced insurance premiums are already on offer for motorists who are prepared to have their driving style monitored with experimental software — either on dedicated devices or on smartphones — that tracks a vehicle's location and speed. In the coming years it may be increasingly common to carefully observe speed limits as a way of keeping the cost of driving down. It may start to look like the future is a world where the freedom of using your own judgement to drive has been lost. To some that will be a devastating and unacceptable blow. To others, greater control over vehicle speeds might also mean an end to widespread reckless and dangerous driving, and serious progress in reducing casualties and deaths on the roads. On the other hand, most adults in the UK are drivers, and what's unpopular with drivers is usually unpopular in Westminster. Talk of "snooping" and surveillance in all walks of life is met with suspicion and opposition. Perhaps widespread monitoring and limiting will be kept at bay by its sheer unpopularity.
We won't know for a while yet. But in the meantime, as we travel forward into the future, please do try to observe the speed limit.
Article from Roads.org.uk
This image by the Editor ;-)
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The articles published herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute of Advanced Motorists Ltd, or the Wirral Group of Advanced Motorcyclists. They are the opinions of individual contributors and are published with the view that free expression promotes discussion and interests. So you have been warned. Interested in doing the Advanced Car Test? Wirral Advanced Motorists are the people to see. Go to www.wirraliam.co.uk