80kph limit

[idun]

I was just wondering how the new speed limit was doing.

Are people sticking to it? Are there less accidents???

Thought about it after driving home today. I had been on a motorway, sadly ONLY 70mph, (although folks do speed) and then to get home ended up on a dual carriageway with a 50mph limit and it is so pedestrian..... boring.......

[mint]

No speed signs in our département and no one is paying any attention.

[EuroTrash]

The signs have been changed in my department, I would say between 80% and 90% of drivers obey it and the rest steam past.

But then, they did just the same when the speed limit was 90 so that's not really a change in behaviour.

[pomme]

The accident statistics for August have been published. The decrease in road deaths recorded in

August is mainly for motorists, motorcyclists and moped riders.

There is not enough data to indicate the speed limit change has had any (significant) effect (and I've not seen any commentary on the effects of increased crash protection/safety equipment in modern cars and the gradual reduction in older, less safe, cars on the road and the annual reduction in deaths/injuries). Deaths of pedestrians and cyclists increased in August.

There has been a rise in the number of speed cameras being damaged.

[NormanH]

https://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Societe/Routes-a-80-km-h-deux-fois-plus-de-vehicules-flashes-en-juillet-1566567

[Alan Zoff]

I read somewhere that lorry drivers are annoyed. When the limit was 90, cautious car drivers would settle for 85, which was probably nearer to 80 when taking into account that many car speedometers read a little on the high side. Those cautious drivers are now sticking to 75 (in real terms maybe just over 70) so instead of cars being held up by lorries limited to 80, it is the lorries that are being delayed. HGVs have much more accurate speed measuring equipment and it is important for them to keep up to 80 to meet their schedules.

[Judith]

I'm finding that there is more of a queue following someone doing less than 75 ... as the post above, ... or those ignoring it and still overtaking etc.  Must admit I try to stay within the limit, but regularly find the car over the limit just because they design them like that (and I cannot reach the limiter in my new car - hidden by the steering wheel - such good design!!)

I would also say that in our neck of the woods any statistics would be confounded by the number of tourists around, plus the vendange.

As for changing signs, some roads have, some have not.  We cross departmental boundaries all the time here and on nearly every road so impossible to remember where I saw signs.

80 does feel very slow though, and I always thought some roads round here were perfectly safe even at (say) 100, so straight some of them are .. and at night, almost empty.

I am still totally of the opinion that it is not the speed you drive at (as long as is it a sensible speed for the road, for example, some roads round here I would not want to drive even at 80 on, whilst others are quite safe at more than 90), but driving behaviour and often inexperience which is the major cause of accidents and deaths.

[Alan Zoff]

Now if they could stop tailgating and overtaking on blind bends....

[richard51]

Totally agree about tailgating and overtaking inappropriately.

Could I also add the use of phones (still prevalent, in our neck of France anyway, and its the young doing it).

When will people réalise it is a maximum speed limit and not a speed that people should aim to drive at no matter what!! Should not everybody show a decent level of caution.

[Alan Zoff]

Whilst we were living at one of our previous (English homes), our neighbour's son came careering into the small close, almost on two wheels, causing the young children to run for their lives. When I pointed out to him that this was dangerous driving, his answer was that he was not exceeding the legal speed limit!

One of the children was his own younger brother - a disabled child with very limited mobility.

It's difficult to legislate for crass stupidity.

[nougueirets]

I’ve just fitted a rear view camera (just for entertainment purposes) and I stick pretty much to the speed limit.

I’m impressed by the number of tailgaters, who after presumably spotting the camera, suddenly become well-behaved and leave a gap.

It doesn’t usually last long though and they eventually return to their exhaust-sniffing ways. It does however make for some amusing sequences of grimacing and gurning drivers.

I toyed with the idea of fitting a little sign with « Youtube Live! », but figured that might be viewed as being too contentious.

[BritinBretagne]

Most drivers have access to a very accurate speed measuring piece of equipment, their SAT NAV.

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="richard51"]

When will people réalise it is a maximum speed limit and not a speed that people should aim to drive at no matter what!! Should not everybody show a decent level of caution.[/quote]

Richard, when I did my advanced motorist test it was judged on the road conditions along with the limit. If the road was clear and it was safe to drive at 40 mph in a 40 limit and you didn't then it would be a fail. If in the same limit there were reasons for not driving at the limit and you drove at 40 you failed.

So what I am trying to say is that it isn't the limit that counts, it's the conditions within that limit.

As for tailgating!! I have no way that I can say, in polite company such as on here (?), just how I hate it