There have been many reports of motorists using the lack of traffic on the roads during the Covid19 lockdown to flout the speed limits and now with more traffic back on the roads there is a danger that some may continue to drive at excessive speeds even after things are back to ‘normal’.
Behavioural Science in transportation (understanding the behaviour and motivations of transport users such as motorists and rail commuters etc) is a fascinating subject which plays a big part in the engineering and design of roads and their ‘furniture’ in an attempt to gently persuade drivers to modify their driving behaviour to something more appropriate.
There are many such psychological tactics in place to combat speeding but could we be doing more? What other engineering solutions could be implemented to stop excessive speeding? How do different countries tackle speeding on their roads? What could we learn from them?
Thanks for these statistics, Andy, which put things into perspective. Your experiences of dealing with the county council are similar to mine. It is all controlled by accident statistics. It is surprising what the county council knows about, it seems, any road or street corner you can refer to them. Accident history, signposts, warning chevrons - they have it all accounted for. I have referred safety concerns to the CC on various occasions, as has an organisation I belong to. "There is no accident history at this junction," is a common response. "We'll be in touch again when we have sent someone to inspect the road," is not something I have ever heard.
We can argue if we like on whether or not it is feasible to allocate proper speed limits to minor rural roads. We cannot deny that at present we have a huge network of roads without such speed limits, hence the possible usage of satellite navigation as a means of control or even warning is limited. Your idea of a vehicle-mounted solution to evaluate the road is more feasible.
Thanks for these statistics, Andy, which put things into perspective. Your experiences of dealing with the county council are similar to mine. It is all controlled by accident statistics. It is surprising what the county council knows about, it seems, any road or street corner you can refer to them. Accident history, signposts, warning chevrons - they have it all accounted for. I have referred safety concerns to the CC on various occasions, as has an organisation I belong to. "There is no accident history at this junction," is a common response. "We'll be in touch again when we have sent someone to inspect the road," is not something I have ever heard.
We can argue if we like on whether or not it is feasible to allocate proper speed limits to minor rural roads. We cannot deny that at present we have a huge network of roads without such speed limits, hence the possible usage of satellite navigation as a means of control or even warning is limited. Your idea of a vehicle-mounted solution to evaluate the road is more feasible.
