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-   -   Reducing speed to 20mph ‘created more deaths than injuries’ but council can’t afford to scrap them (http://www.cyclebanter.com/showthread.php?t=255237)

Mr Pounder Esquire January 19th 18 01:21 AM

Reducing speed to 20mph ?created more deaths
 
James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Sun, 24 Dec 2017 16:42:46 -0000, wrote:

On Fri, 22 Dec 2017 20:40:33 +0000
Ian Jackson wrote:
bump, or partially straddling it - with both sides of the car
getting only a partial lift as the wheels pass simultaneously over
both of the sloping shoulders.


The problem with doing that is it badly wears the inside of the tyre
tread though admittedly its better to wear out a tyre than knacker a
shock absorber or spring.


I used to think my shocks wore out quick (about 1 per year) from
driving fast over bumps, but my neighbour drives very slowly (about
5mph) over them and they still **** his shocks. It's criminal and
needs to be stopped.


Prat



Mr Pounder Esquire January 19th 18 01:23 AM

Reducing speed to 20mph ?created more deaths
 
James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Fri, 22 Dec 2017 20:40:33 -0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:
In message , writes
On Thu, 21 Dec 2017 19:42:28 +0000
Ian Jackson wrote:
In message ,
Nightjar writes
On 21-Dec-17 11:09 AM,
wrote:
...
I doubt anyone expects cars to stick to 20 anyway. I imagine the
thinking behind it is that at 30 cars do anything up to 40 so
put 20 signs up and they'll do 25-30 which is acceptable.

The aim really is to reduce speeds to 20mph, or not much above
it. This is based upon the 1979 findings that pedestrians struck
by a car doing 30mph have a 20% risk of dying, as compared to
2.5% at 20mph. More recently, this has been revised down to 8%
and 1.5%, which may be due to improvements in vehicle design
since the first report. However, it is the most ignored limit of
all, with 84% of cars exceeding 20mph, as compared to 46%
exceeding 70mph on motorways.

One problem is that if there is an accident because of 'speeding',
there is often an immediate call to lower the speed limit - with
little reference to how fast the offending vehicle was actually
going. I recall near here there was fatal accident on a 50mph
limit main road. Some people wanted a 40 limit - despite the
vehicle's estimated speed being at least 80mph. The obvious answer
might be simply be to enforce the existing limits.

Unfortunately a lot of councils do that with speed humps which
limit your speed to far lower than the posted limit (which is
probably deliberate) unless you want to pay for expensive
suspension repairs. If you even did 20 over some speedhumps you'd
**** one or more struts, never mind 30. I find I have to crawl over
some at not much more than 10 or my car risks bumping its stops.

In my local town, there are 13 speed bumps in a 30 limit, all in a
distance of about 600 yards. They are the individual, rectangular
type, in pairs - one on each half of the road.

Motor bikes can pass between the bumps, or on either side. Chelsea
Tractors (which comprise at least half the vehicles in this affluent
part of the world) can usually completely straddle one the bumps.
It's really only those with 'ordinary' cars with a 'normal' wheel
width that really suffer. You have the choice of having either the
left side or the right side of the car experiencing the full lift of
centre of the a bump, or partially straddling it - with both sides
of the car getting only a partial lift as the wheels pass
simultaneously over both of the sloping shoulders.

Despite it being a 30 limit, I wouldn't dream of passing over any of
the 13 bumps at more than about 20mph. As I resist the temptation to
accelerate between the bumps, I end up travelling the whole 600
yards at 20. [I don't mind this at all - and would indeed be happy to do
the
same if there was a bump-less 20 limit.] However, I then often end
up with a procession of vehicles following me at 20mph. There are
occasions when one vehicle will suddenly break rank, and tear off
furiously to the front of the procession at a hell of a lot more
than the 30 limit. As the road with the bumps ends at a 'Give Way'
sign at a T-junction with another road, I usually reach the end
immediately behind the vehicle that couldn't wait behind me, waiting
at the Give Way sign. The whole thing is crazy.


A decent car (like my Renault Scenic) will straddle them pretty well
if you line it up just right. I can go 50mph over 20mph bumps.
However the positioning of them is ludicrous. If there's a cycle
lane, they move them towards the centre of the road, so if vehicles
coming both ways straddle, they will remove each other's wing
mirrors. Even worse, if a Porsche etc wants to not destroy his
exhaust, he goes to the middle of the road to avoid both bumps, hence
causing a possible head on collision.


Wing mirrors.

Prat




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