Funk
pfm Member
The thing people forget is that a limit isn't a target or a minimum. As you say, it might only be safe to do 20mph past a school at 3pm - that's the speed I would do. The problem with blanket speed limits is that they're in place 24/7 and in the real world, they create frustration as others have mentioned in this thread already.No they arent. 20 outside a primary school at 8am or 3pm is plenty. The same place at 10pm? Well, that's not the same tbing, is it?
Another good example is some NSL roads that you clearly wouldn't do 60mph down; a driver should be capable of and trusted to choose an appropriate speed for the time, the place and the conditions.
Fixating on the lazy 'speed kills' mantra rather than fixing terrible driving is a huge part of the problem. I'd say that we should start with more draconian punishment for things like phone usage, poor lane discipline, tail-gating and aggressive driving but that would require actual Police on the roads. You can't use a camera to fine someone for hogging the middle lane, whereas speeding of course is easily monetised, which is what all this is about.
The whole 'saving lives' stuff is bollocks; fewer than 1600 people died on the roads up to June 2019-20, yet 78,000 people died from smoking. But wait....smoking makes the Government a fortune in taxes too. If these things were really about saving lives, cigarettes would be banned tomorrow.
As I mentioned earlier, how close do we get to speed limits being so low we have a man with a warning flag again? What progress we've made, eh?