New Code for Countryside Roads

[Salted_Peanut]

"A Code for Countryside Roads is in the pipeline after rural road deaths surge to a four-year high, with over 1,000 people losing their lives last year."

https://www.farminguk.com/news/rural-road-deaths-s...

Is IAM Roadsmart involved, too?

[Smint]

My pet hate driving on narrow roads with blind corners, not because of normal people but the dense thousands who assume the road is clear and take blind sections at speeds far in excess of any chance of avoiding a crash even if the object around the corner is stationary or animal or human.

My superb Golf Mk1 Diesel was written off by such a clown straightening a blind double bend out in his Mazda (i think) pick up at stupid speed and head on into the front of the Golf, thankfully the Golf was a sturdy little beast and we were both shook up but not hurt, as expected he lied about the circs and this was years before dash cams but the after accident position pics were good enough for our insurer.

A code would be good but as the old saying mentions how do you educate pork.

[Bryanwww]

Many people drive looking not much further ahead than directly in front of them, absolutely flying around blind corners. Car might be capable of doing it and you might know the roads so it's all fine most of the time but if someone has unexpectedly broken down just over a blind verge..

Slow the fk down and drive to the visibility you have even if it's a road you know well.

[Salted_Peanut]

Bryanwww said:

drive to the visibility you have

Why isn't the Limit Point in the Highway Code? And shouldn't it be in this new Countryside Road Code?

Driving Test Tips said:

Novice drivers will benefit from a basic understanding of the limit point as a guide to stopping distances and to gauge the appropriate speed at which to enter a bend in the road.

[budgie smuggler]

Salted_Peanut said:

"A Code for Countryside Roads is in the pipeline after rural road deaths surge to a four-year high, with over 1,000 people losing their lives last year."

https://www.farminguk.com/news/rural-road-deaths-s...

Is IAM Roadsmart involved, too?

Prediction: recommendation that national limit for single carriageway roads dropped to 40

[brisel]

budgie smuggler said:

Prediction: recommendation that national limit for single carriageway roads dropped to 40

"among respondents’ top concerns about rural road safety were blind corners (63%), narrow roads (53%), impatient drivers (50%) and people breaking the speed limit (47%)."

Dropping the speed limit will do nothing for the quote in the article. Sadly, you are probably right - Oxfordshire is becoming worse than Wales for speed limits. Most of the villages are 20 mph now & many of the NSLs are 50 or 40.

[Bryanwww]

Salted_Peanut said:

Bryanwww said:

drive to the visibility you have

Why isn't the Limit Point in the Highway Code? And shouldn't it be in this new Countryside Road Code?

Driving Test Tips said:

Novice drivers will benefit from a basic understanding of the limit point as a guide to stopping distances and to gauge the appropriate speed at which to enter a bend in the road.

Seems pretty common sense - if I'm going faster than I can stop in the distance I can see ahead of me I'm going to crash if there's something I can't see just out of sight, applies to fog, rain, blind corners, verges etc etc.
Doesn't the highway code have anything covering this?

[stogbandard]

The irony is that the roads we’re talking about will still be NSL leading from/to better quality A roads with reduced speed limits.

[dvenman]

Smint said:

he lied about the circs and this was years before dash cams but the after accident position pics were good enough for our insurer

A friend of mine was hit by a young driver in a car with telematics. At the scene it was all "sorry, all my fault, I was going too fast". Two days later, presumably after discussion with dad it was "we were both going too fast". Her insurance company was going to go knock-for-knock.

She and I went back to the scene and the marks of both vehicles were easily identifiable. Hers - 8-12 inches long. His - 40 or so yards up the shallow verge with the tread pattern clearly visible. We took photos and sent off a document to her insurers - 6 months later, she got her excess back and "no-fault accident".

But taking photos at the time would have made life much easier

[Haltamer]

Stopping in half the space I can see to be clear? - No thanks!

Anything without a significant sightline and I'm going for stopping in about a third the space I can see to be clear to allow margin for the oncoming overloaded transit taking the corner on 2 wheels

[Pica-Pica]

Haltamer said:

Stopping in half the space I can see to be clear? - No thanks!

Wait till you come across a snowplough (in fine weather) around a bend, and taking all the road width.

[PhilAsia]

Nothing new to me. Plan for:

Vehicles overtaking on approach to the brow of a hill

Vehicles overtaking on approach to a bend

To be forced off the road by overtaking vehicles on a straight (as your vehicle is smaller, or not a VIP)

Often these vehicles will be regional buses that are overloaded, incredibly poorly maintained and driven by untrained imbeciles.

Welcome to the Philippines.