DRIVERS NEED TO KNOW THEIR LIMITS
Many drivers need to go back to the Highway Code and brush up on their knowledge of speed limits – that’s the message from the Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership. The Partnership, a joint police and council initiative which operates speed and red-light cameras on West of Scotland roads, has just conducted a straw poll of drivers which indicates that there is confusion over limits on “open” roads.
Neil Macgillivray of Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership, explained: “We have fairly frequent enquiries from motorists asking what the speed limit is on particular roads. As all roads are signposted to common regulations and standards, this suggests that there may be a lack of awareness among drivers. To try and quantify this we had a survey of 127 drivers conducted at the end of March to test their knowledge and the results were quite worrying.
“Drivers were shown photographs of different classes of road in non-built up areas along with the ‘national speed limit applies’ roadsign and asked to specify the speed limit for a car. Only 62 per cent got the figure of 60mph correct for a single carriageway and this dropped to just 17 per cent who correctly said 70mph for a dual carriageway. As a standard car driving licence also permits drivers to drive a transit-type van, the questions were asked again in relation to a transit-type van and in this case just 24 per cent correctly specified 50mph on a single carriageway and only 37 per cent got the right answer of 60mph on a dual carriageway.”
As part of an ongoing effort to improve awareness of the speed limits, the Partnership is running a beer mat and poster advertising campaign in 128 pubs from Oban to Girvan and by means of car park ticket advertising in some of the busiest car parks around the area. Neil Macgillivray added: “Our role is to deter people from speeding, not to catch speeders. We produce a range of materials particularly to help company drivers drive safely and stay on the right side of the law. There is also a great deal of information to be found on our website www.strathclydecameras.com .“
Chief Inspector Andy Orr of Strathclyde Police commented: Speed limits are there for the purpose of road safety and it is important that drivers comply with them. It is very disturbing to think that many motorists just don’t know what these limits are. Everyone needs to know how to read the road signs in order to pass their driving test and there is a continuing responsibility to keep up this knowledge.
“The Highway Code sets out the rules to keep us all safe on the road and I would advise all drivers to read it occasionally – and follow its instructions.