why are speed limits the same on both sides of the road?

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Why are speed limits always the same on both sides of the road? The bike specificity and thus direct relevance to GBC might seem dubious - given that such limits apply equally to all vehicles. In mitigation though, we do like to use our superior acceleration - an advantage over the vast majority of other vehicles.

So for instance, a classic example - exiting a street lit village on a long straight, you will probably go through a 40 mph zone. This makes some sort of sense when entering it - but on the way out it's stupid.

It seems there's a resolute reluctance to permit traffic going in one direction to move at a different speed than the other. I really can't fathom why this should be, though. I dare say the actual reasoning is obvious, even if questionable - but I honestly can't suss it out.
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[Rogerborg]

Mmm, and road signs are directional.

However, road surface generally isn't. The faster the speed limit, the higher the standard of maintenance required (by regulations).

What particularly grinds my gears are those idiotic bumpy-strips designed for haptic feedback to slow you down as you enter Sandford, which stretch across both lanes so that you rumble over them as you exit too.
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[stinkwheel]

Also regs for traffic street light spacing.
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[bamt]

[Rogerborg]

[Groove]

It's not always the same. There's a stretch of a12 near me that goes from single to dual carriageway for half a mile. One direction it is 50mph with a speed camera and the other is nsl.

Before the 50 limit it is nsl single carriageway (both directions).
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[davethekwak]

When did bike riders start taking such interest in speed limits?
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[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[G]

Also the M4 as it goes into London, though that's a bit of a bigger 'difference' between the two sides too.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Dem 40 buffer zones though mirite
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Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Polarbear]

I can understand how separate carriage ways can be different but on a 2 lane road buffer zone entering a village like you said, if you are on the NSL bit do you have to slow down to 40 if you overtake and enter the 40mph carriage way?

Also, cars in the 40 are not going to expect cars going at 60 plus heading for them, again, especially if overtaking.
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[Teflon-Mike]

I suspect that there is legal reason in the difference between a 'road' a 'carriageway' and a 'lane'.

Law imposes a speed limit on a 'road' between two points; whilst a vehicle should 'keep left' (unless passing), doesn't matter which
'lane' they are n, that's the speed limit for the road.

Where have spotted sped limits that are different on different side of the 'road', it has tended to be on divided duel-carriageways; where the speed restrictions may be slightly staggered. So for a few hundred yards, you may have a 50 or NSL on the side exiting the built up area, whilst the other side had lower calming limits on the approach. (And ISTR a duel carriageway around a big hill, 'some-where' that had a lower limit on the carriageway higher up the hill, on a tighter bend, than the lower...)

Now we get to the exception, that may prove or even explain the rule, in 'tidal-flow' systems, where speed limits are applied to an individual 'lane'...

I believe that the principle of Tidal flow traffic control was piloted on the A38 Aston Expressway in Brum.. and they pulled up the central divider, that had made it a duel carriageway to make it a single carriageway, seven lane road, with gangtree signage to not just change speed limit but even the direction of traffic in the middle lane.... but it took a specific Act of Parliament to actually allow the scheme, which held up it's adoption in other parts of the country for almost 20 years, before they could apply it to a Motorway, where swapping lanes between carriageways, from in-bound to out-bound is hampered by the legal necessity of a median divider, to 'be' a motorway, which has lead to sections of the M42, opening the hard-shoulder as a driving lane to effect tidal-flow control.

So I suspect that there is 'reason'.. lurking in the lop-holes of red-tape, and is down to the legal differences between a lane and a carriageway of a 'road'.
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[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[Teflon-Mike]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Hah - true!
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[Wonko The Sane]

there's a road near me that's NSL one way and 50mph the other direction,

This is purely because it spans council areas and one end has put it to 50mph, the other end has not!
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[doggone]

A greater annoyance is that 30/40 limits - fair enough when people are about - being enforced by cameras at dead of night or other times when its almost deserted.
You could make a good case for more or less making all speed limits advisory with stricter enforcement of due care and attention.
So often you seem to spend way too much time repeatedly checking your speed which distracts you from actually looking for hazards.

[MCN]

I hate it if my teaspoon does not fit the profile of the inside of a yogurt pot. (No matter which angle of dangle I use.)

Who likes leaving a tiny scraping of their favourite flavour coz the spoon is shite?
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Teflon-Mike]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[iooi]

[suburban myth]

I'd expect a single carriageway to be the same speed throughout. The only notable exception I can think of is the Aston Expressway - essentially a smart motorway with no dividing barrier but the example of the dual given earlier, tells me that on the 50 side there must be a junction within the section, perhaps making the requirement for the reservation in the first place (ie no right turns)

[Rogerborg]

[Suntan Sid]

Symmetry, to keep the spergs happy!
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