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| Originally Posted by ariel Fordie, the deaths on country roads are not really about little old ladies doing U turns but more about inexperienced youngsters in cars and middle aged bikers going faster than their own capabilities should allow. |
Imposing a speed limit that is 10 mph less than it currently stands is just going to bolster up the road minister's credibility with the harumphing classes that frequent the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. It is pure headline grabbing propaganda from a ministry that has bugger all else to do except try to make headlines with peurile gesture politics.
Imagine the discussion around the Ministers desk (you can almost see Jim Hacker sitting there fro 'Yes, Minister')
Hacker: Can we do anything about persistent drunk drivers...they're causing a lot of accidents even though they're a tiny minority
Sir Humphrey: No, I'm afraid we can't minister, the Chief Constables don't have the resources and the Home Office won't budge because they can't get the funding now that the Treasury has bailed out the imbeciles that run the banks.
Hacker: Well surely we can catch the people who've just smoked a bung of skunk? They're a minority but they do cause a lot of accidents.
Sir Humphrey: Well, I'm afraid not minister there are no reliable tests available for all the drugs that people are doing before they drive and on top of that we have the same resource shortages as catching the drunks.
Hacker: But what about the people who are phoning and texting each other whilst driving?
Sir Humphrey: Well I'm afraid we delegated the responsibility for catching nearly every traffic offence to 'safety cameras' a long while ago minister and we can't turn the clock back now
Hacker: So what are we going to do to show the Daily Mail that we're actually doing something for the tax payer's money?
Sir Humphrey: Might I suggest that we impose blanket restrictions on the law abiding majority sir? After all they'll be the last to complain now won't they?
Frankly, lowering speed limits further is not going to save any lives because by definition the boy racers and the middle aged born again biker are ignoring the existing speed limit anyway, it just gives 'outraged of Tunbridge Wells' another excuse to Harumph over their G & T when the Daily Mail reports that the deceased was doing 40 mph over the speed limit instead of the 30 mph that they could claim now.
In fact I would argue that some of the speed restrictions will actually be counterproductive (just like the ludicrous 40mph speed limits in open countryside that exist purely because they link villages that are 2-3 miles apart) because they will take the actual speed limit down below the 85th percentile (
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/speedlimits.html) and cause crashes through boredom, inattention and a false sense of security