Harbury Lane is a "drag strip"

[Bruce Everiss]

When I was young cars had inefficient drum brakes and crossply tyres that didn't give much grip. And you could drive everywhere, outside built up areas, at 70 mph.
Now we have anti lock disk brakes that give immense braking power and radial tyres with lots of grip. So our local authority has imposed pretty much a blanket 50 mph limit in rural Warwickshire.
You can see their position, the faster cars travel then the bigger any accident will be. So why not a blanket 30 mph limit, or perhaps a 20 mph limit?
But cars are a means of transport, from A to B. And every time you lower speed limits you waste immense numbers of human man hours. And if journeys take longer it puts more cars on the road at any given time.
But speeding is not the problem. According to the government's own figures the proportion of injury crashes involving any speeding vehicle nationally is only 5%.
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/

Which brings us to Mark Roberts http://www.kenilworthweeklynews.co.uk/n ... 5572654.jp
He thinks that part of Harbury Lane is being used as a drag strip. But there haven't been any accidents. So presumably it is the noise that is the problem. But he must surely have been aware that living next to a busy road is noisy. It is funny how people want to use the road system to get round the country but object to people using the roads near where they live. Just like the wind farms debate really.

Which brings me to the van driver I saw in Manor Orchard. He was smoking and using a mobile phone at the same time. Which is far more dangerous than speeding. This in a built up housing estate road where children play. And he didn't have his seat belt on so when he does have his accident it will cost us taxpayers more in medical costs. But his chance of getting caught are zero. Whilst the police are out and about with their laser guns harassing people who are doing no harm whatsoever.

[Bruce Everiss]

More useful information.

I have just returned from Rarotonga and was reliably informed that they have the second highest level of road fatalities in the world.
Yet they have a blanket 50 kph speed limit. Yep that's 30 mph. So you can see how effective low speed limits are.

(btw I now have a Cook Island driving license!)

http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/ind ... e-full.tpl

"A recent report has named the Cook Islands as having the second deadliest roads in the world.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a global status report on road safety where 178 countries were surveyed. The statistics were compiled and compared per capita.
The Cook Islands is recorded to have the second highest road fatalities with 45 deaths per 100,000 people. The road toll is only beaten by Eritrea. With a population of five million, the small African nation had 48 deaths per 100,000 people."

[madfiddler]

I think I read that Warwickshire Police actually advised against the 50mph speed limit to the Council, who went ahead with it anyway.

When the Tory Counciller came door knocking in April asking if they had my vote, I simply answered - pointing to the Subaru - "look what's parked on my drive, it's a no from me"

I don't think it's speed that's the issue, it's a lack of concentration - and 'most' people who drive higher powered cars, are enthusiasts and are more aware of what's going on than most on the road.

m