Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:21:32 on Sun,
20 Feb 2005, Brimstone remarked:
The Highway code is the document to which drivers are referred by HM
Government and other bodies.

Bit it cannot, and does not, go into the full details of every
offence.

In this case it fudges it by saying:

"Street lights usually mean that there is a 30 mph speed limit
unless there are signs showing another limit."

Note the "usually".

It's obvious there has to be *some* limit, otherwise a street lamp
in one village, followed by another a mile away in the next village,
could be construed to make the entire stretch between the two
villages a 30mph zone.

Sensible people would realise that a gap such as you suggest is a
break in the limit. Even if they don't they are "failing safe".

I would suggest that if you are driving in open countryside on a 60pmh
road, and jam on the brakes when you get to a 400yds lit section
where a side-road joins, that you'd be anything but "safe".

I quite agree, which is the whole point of drivers being ancouraged to read
the road ahead so that they can slow down as they approach hazards rather
than "jam on the brakes".