50mph

50mph limit. What a farce it is. There has been much discussion of late about the 50mph limit even going as far as to suggest it becomes the National Speed Limit. But where did the 50mph zone come from?

It’s come from local police forces and local councils. The motorway-50 zone is not worth discussing as its used for congestion – a word that is alien to bikers. It exsists (in the eye of councils) to reduce accidents, or their severity by reducing average traffic speed. The theory being that it is now at a speed where your average Joe public tin top can get himself out of trouble should he get into it.

If he can’t then his reduced speed is unlikely to do as much damage as it would at 60mph thereby saving the council and local hospital a load of money. It exsists (in the eye of the Police) to enable them to manage fast roads to greater effect with less policemen. If you see a national speed limit sign you tend to drive freely. If you see a 50mph sign you tend to be weary of police cars hiding out of sight or round corners and so back off…oddly enough to about 60mph!!!

Get caught doing over 70mph and its a court appearence and 6 points and that’s just too high a price to pay. If both of the above are true then why not just reduce the speed limit to 30mph and have done with it? The answer to that is public outcry. 50mph is just high enough to keep readers of The Daily Mail happy. But all these people who make decisions about the use of the 50mph zone must be thick skinned or plain thick.

How many times have you been on a 50mph road and gone past a tiny junctions with an 8 foot wide road on joining it? And sat at the end of that is £240 worth of sign telling you its perfectly OK to travel at the national speed limit of 60mph a long a road that 2 cars cannot pass each other?!! Come on bureaucrats…you just made yourself look stupid and you want me to vote for you?

All this time motorcyclists are being forced to undertake more and more training making us the most educated road users bar lollipop ladies. I pitty the new biker with the new levels of attainment expected of them to lose their L-plates.

Underneath that I wonder how long it will be before existing riders will be forced to re-train if they wish to keep their higher powered bikes. I, like most, passed on a ratty SR125 and then went out and bought a YZF600. Three weeks later me and it were in a ditch so can’t disagree with the part that training plays in keeping us safe.

But if we’re trained to be safe then why can’t we ride faster then cars who simply rely on a 20 inch road sign for common sense? Seriously. Lorries, vans and caravans have lower limits. Why can’t bikes have higher limits?

And finally there’s one last victim of the 50mph zone. Those of us who use Sat-Nav’s. I use one. I’m doing the BritButt rally in 2 weeks and I’ll need it then. But unfortunately its going to send me down a few of those dangerous tractor laden country lanes because it thinks it is quicker going that way at 60mph then following the main road at 50mph.

Anyway. If you don’t like how 50mph zones are being used here’s where you sign up. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/noNSLreduction/