Drivers have little knowledge of the Highway Code (From Congleton Guardian)

Drivers have little knowledge of the Highway Code

4:24pm Friday 25th January 2008

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I COMMUTE to work in my car using the A34 between Congleton and Alderley Edge every morning.

More often than not I witness drivers who clearly have no idea of the speed limits along this road.

Most drivers appear to think the diagonal black line on a white round circle indicates a maximum speed of 50 mph or less, when in fact it indicates on a single carriageway that the speed limit is 60 mph - have a look in a copy of the Highway Code.

I am not condoning speeding, and I'm sure drivers will cry out that they are keeping to a safe speed for the kind of rural road that the A34 is.

However these same drivers regularly continue travelling between 40 and 50mph through the village of Marton, where a 30mph speed limit is in force.

It is clear to me the majority of drivers in the area, who I presume see themselves as good drivers, have little knowledge of the Highway Code, and what is more frightening is they are not aware of their surroundings.

A case in point is the stretch of road between the Little Chef and Nether Alderley, parallel to Astra Zeneca, a 60mph road and not 40mph, as for some unexplained reason the majority of drivers believe.

Every morning I witness drivers slamming on their brakes to slow to 40mph for the speed camera set to capture images at over 60mph.

Also that particular camera only takes pictures from the rear as you pass it, so it doesn't work for oncoming vehicles, and again there is no need to brake to 40mph.

Please, try driving past it at 60mph, you'll be amazed when you don't get a speeding ticket.

Driving such as this causes traffic not to flow as was intended, and more importantly can force other road users to commit to dangerous manoeuvres to overtake the slower vehicles.

If all this is news to you, I suggest you should catch the bus tomorrow and make the roads safer for the rest of us.

Andrew Dunwoody - Congleton.

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