Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 22:30:07 +0100, "PeterE"
wrote:

[speeding past a Gatso does/does not increase risk]

on balance it /generally/ does
In my experience it could be said that on balance it *generally*
doesn't.

I think this may be a case of angry dolphins. Or at least cross
porpoises. I read your comment as meaning "speeding past the speed at
which the Gatso would flash" but reading again I don't think that's
necessarily what you meant. Speeding above Gatso speeds is,
statistically, dangerous, as I think you've acknowledged up there ^^^
in dialogue with WK.

By saying speeding above Gatso speeds is "dangerous" you're implying that
obeying the posted limit at those locations is "not dangerous". Of course,
one is only more dangerous than the other by a matter of degree.

If the Gatso is on a busy high street, or on a narrowish residential road,
then driving at a speed high enough to trigger the Gatso may be
significantly more dangerous than driving past it at 30 mph.

If the Gatso is on a rural 70-limit dual carriageway or a motorway-standard
expressway with no property frontages where the limit has been cut from 70
to 50, then driving past it above the trigger speed may be only marginally
more dangerous than driving past it at the posted limit.

And if you're driving along the road with looking for Gatsos as your prime
concern, then it may increase danger overall.

You could also argue the opposite way that if *some* limits were
increased (in particular motorways, 30s on major outer-suburban
roads, and sub-NSLs on rural main roads) then the limits we had
*would* be more widely obeyed.

Not only could you do so, I have argued this. But it is easy to see
why politicians are reluctant to increase limits because (a) why give
them new limits when they don't use the ones they've got and (b)
politicians are weasels. Also (c), (d) and (e) which are the same as
(b).

So politicians impose limits which they know will be routinely ignored and
enforced scarcely ever at all, to gain brownie points amongst local voters
and show that "something has been done".

Mrs Miggins complains that cars are frightening her pussy by driving far too
fast past her cottage door, which is on a small NSL road with seven other
houses in half a mile. So the councillors put a 30 limit there. The
"village" has now been protected by a new speed limit, and Councillor Jones
¶ gets Mrs Miggins' vote and is re-elected. The actual average and 85th
percentile speeds of vehicles along the road are completely unchanged. Once
every couple of years, Thames Valley Constabulary have a little jaunt into
the country and do Farmer Brown for driving at 43 mph along there in his
Range Rover. What a victory for road safety.

¶ I thought "Councillor Smith" might be inappropriate ;-)

--
http://www.speedlimit.org.uk
"If laws are to be respected, they must be worthy of respect."