Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
Given some of the sentiments expressed in this thread, I thought I'd share my experience this morning of driving over the Rhygos mountain in the dark with no road lights to guide me apart from the, not very good, cats eyes in the middle of the road. I make the journey once a week and stick to the 40 mph speed limit in force for about eighty per cent of the journey between Treherbert and Hirwaun, so I'd be breaking the speed limit if I drove two or three mph faster.
This morning, the journey was made worse by steady rain and the fact that my windscreen demisters always take ages to start having an effect. Although I've made the journey plenty of times now and so know the route well, it was harder than normal to see clearly this morning and so I was sometimes slowing to about 30mph, but there was never any one behind me at the time.
By the time someone quickly appeared behind me, the visibility problem had gone and so I was driving steadily at 40 mph (i.e. the speed limit for the road). This didn't stop the driver behind me flashing their lights at me and roaring past me as soon as the road was clear.
By now, I was close to the part of the road which is being repaired after what might be called a mini avalanche last year where it narrows to one lane which is controlled by traffic lights. I saw the car that had overtaken me drive through a red light and, having stopped myself at the lights, the three vehicles behind me went past me to drive through the same red light. Besides this, as is always the case when I drove along this road at 40 mph, I was overtaken by three or four vehicles as a matter of course - it makes you feel like someone driving 40 mph on a motorway.
On the return journey, I was approaching a roundabout where I was turning right, so I indicated to pull into the outside line and did so when I was about one fifty yards from the roundabout. Again, I was doing about 40 mph at the time, but this didn't stop a car behind me overtaking me on the inside and then cutting in front of me about seventy yards from the roundabout.
Can I ask those getting in such a state about the 20 mph speed limit what they think about all of the law breakers I saw out on the road this morning? Strictly speaking, I'd say about 50 per cent of the drivers I encountered this morning were clearly breaking driving laws and this doesn't include those, myself included, who were driving at about 25 mph in the one 20 mph zone I encountered on that journey from Treherbert to Hirwaun.
It seems to me that petitioning and demonstrating for something to be done about the approach of the law breakers I experienced this morning would be something for those making such an issue about the reduction of a speed limit to get involved with, but, of course, there's no party political element involved there is there.
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