Author Topic: Speed Limit repeater signs  (Read 3308 times)

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Andym535

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Speed Limit repeater signs
« on: March 15, 2019, 11:13:28 am »
I drove past a camera van the other day at 59MPH, on a road I use frequently (A436) so there's no excuse for not knowing it has a 50 limit. Seems there's no longer a statutary requirement for repeater signs since the changes made in the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions, 2016. I don't think they'll be removed but it does mean the highways authority don't need to worry about them becoming overgrown or turning green anymore.

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2019, 11:30:12 am »
What? How did this little gem slip past everyone unnoticed?

With irrelevant and useless 50 limits popping in and out of the NSL areas around here like named storms popping up off the west coast, it is only a matter of time before I fall foul because a) everyone else drives at 40'ish forcing overtakes and b) I ignore all 50’s on principle because they are aren't 'real' speed limits, just the figment of some local authority's power mad mail boy.

How come there wasn’t' an outcry?

Mind you, not knowing the speed limit is just about defensible  ::)

Not seeing a camera van is a hangin' offence round these parts  8)

Andym535

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2019, 11:53:34 am »
The details of the changes are here... https://tsrgd.co.uk/pdf/tsrgd/tsrgd2016-circular-01-2016.pdf on and around page 48.

I saw the van (hence doing 59). Must have been daydreaming as I really didn't think it was a 50 limit.


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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2019, 02:54:39 pm »
Hmm!

13.3 Similarly, the requirement to place at least one repeater sign along a speed limit has been removed. The onus is on the traffic authority to determine the appropriate provision of speed limit repeaters having regard to existing guidance. In deciding this, it is strongly recommended that consideration is given to the potential for challenge to the enforcement of the speed limit.

13.9 Traffic authorities have a duty to place traffic signs to indicate the effect of a traffic order, including speed limit orders. Road users should not be placed in the situation where they do not know what restrictions are in place. For speed limits this means erecting signs, prescribed in TSRGD 2016, at the start of a restriction (terminal signs) and for reminding road users of the restriction in place along the length of road to which it applies (repeater signs).

N.B. The bolding is mine...

So, apart from the rules and signs changing by country in the UK (assuming we still are the UK) they will now change by county.

Brian (who says happy motoring chappies and chappess who already has different rules and signs to contend with  ::) )

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2019, 03:25:14 pm »
A cynic might think the purpose of such changes is to catch out unsuspecting motorists who could see no obvious reason for it not being a national speed limit and had not managed to keep track of exactly which limit they were in at the moment. Just as well none of use are cynics!!!  ;)
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Offline richtea

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2019, 03:46:35 pm »
If you really want to save lives by lowering the speed limit, it's fairly important to remind people of the 'safe' speed limit.

Not making them mandatory seems pretty dumb. But there are a lot of dumb things happening right now.  ::)

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2019, 04:22:20 pm »
A cynic might think the purpose of such changes is to catch out unsuspecting motorists who could see no obvious reason for it not being a national speed limit and had not managed to keep track of exactly which limit they were in at the moment. Just as well none of use are cynics!!!  ;)


A Lane near me used to be NSL with a few 30 and 40 limits. Now all of it is a 30mph limit with lots of repeaters. Repeaters are not required for 30's.

Being a cynic I agree with David. Anything to keep speed down to ridiculous levels and to swell the authorities piggy banks.
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Offline sudolea

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2019, 05:18:59 pm »
What should I understand by "repeaters" ???
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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2019, 05:23:57 pm »
Repeaters are a smaller version of the initial speed limit sign that are place every several hundred yards to remind you of the speed limit.
Or at least that's how it used to be. Maybe "Reminders" might be a more appropriate name.

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2019, 05:24:24 pm »
What should I understand by "repeaters" ???

Little speed limit signs - maybe 20-30cm across, every 1/2 mile.

Andym535

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2019, 06:32:37 pm »
What should I understand by "repeaters" ???

Little speed limit signs - maybe 20-30cm across, every 1/2 mile.

For 50MPH they shouldn't be that small or that far apart... the old rules where 450mm signs, 450m apart with a 50m min clear visibility distance. I've never measured one but most 50 repeaters look smaller than that to me.

I really can't see why that part of the A436 has a 50 limit. Before it was resurfaced it had loads of potholes but it's fine now.

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #11 on: March 15, 2019, 06:43:54 pm »
Try the A417 north from Gloucester...

This afternoon I followed (too much opposing traffic for an overtake) a woman into a 50 limit from the 60 we were in as I came up behind her. She was, as is the habit in my neck of the woods, driving at 40mph.

As we entered the 50 she accelerated up to 50 and stayed there till the end of the 50 at which point she slowed down to 40 again, now in a 60 limit area once more ???

Obviously, speed limit signs must denote a safe speed to drive at whereas a NSL sign means 'DANGER!'.

You could make it up, but no one would believe you  8)

Offline TomL

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #12 on: March 15, 2019, 11:19:08 pm »
Part of the criteria for maintaining our roads is based on their status and a big factor in determining the road status is the speed limit. For instance a motorway will have to be examined every week and a lane every year.

Higher status roads require more frequent examination and maintenance therefore if the status of a road can be reduced just by reducing the speed limit then the cost of maintaining that road will be reduced. The council responsible will therefore save lots of money. In this way a county such as Oxfordshire saves loads of money by reducing all the NSL roads to 50mph.

So long as a council can prove that it has carried out it's road inspection, they have fulfilled their requirement to look after a road even if a pothole appears the day after the road was inspected. The responsibility then falls on us to report the pothole and only then will they bother to do anything about it because we have put the ball back in their court. Trouble is how many of us can be bothered to report potholes to the responsible council? Hence the state of our roads.
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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #13 on: March 16, 2019, 10:39:40 am »
Reporting potholes is easy and usually quite effective and you don't even need to know which county you are in. And, as motorcyclists (and some-time cyclists) it is in our interests to report every one because once it is reported a council cannot say they didn't know about it and reject a claim from the next bikeist to break something.

Go here...

https://www.fixmystreet.com

...do what it says and they send it to the correct local authority for you. You get an acknowledgement from the local authority and can see what they are going about it on the map.

Simples!

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Re: Speed Limit repeater signs
« Reply #14 on: March 16, 2019, 02:28:18 pm »
I got my car tyre replaced free when a pothole bust it in Kings Lynn. It took 3 months to reimburse me, but the system worked.
That was Highways England rather than the local council, but the principle of complaining still applies.