On 13/11/2013 12:06, Gefreiter Krueger wrote:
On Tue, 12 Nov 2013 22:58:03 -0000, SteveW
wrote:

On 03/11/2013 10:41, Gefreiter Krueger wrote:
On Sun, 03 Nov 2013 10:34:26 -0000, charles
wrote:

In article , Gefreiter Krueger
wrote:
On Sun, 03 Nov 2013 10:19:04 -0000, Bob Eager
wrote:

On Sun, 03 Nov 2013 10:15:52 +0000, Gefreiter Krueger wrote:

On Sun, 03 Nov 2013 10:09:14 -0000, Bob Eager
wrote:

On Sun, 03 Nov 2013 09:33:07 +0000, Gefreiter Krueger wrote:

Another announced that the speed limit on a dual carriage is
60MPH!

It usually is.

You really love making sweeping, WRONG statements, don't you?

https://www.gov.uk/speed-limits

Jesus Christ. Let me draw you a picture.
http://www.petersphotos.com/temp/speed.jpg

And that picture proves that you made a WRONG statement. Again.

The website clearly states a single carriageway is 60mph.

Ok, so I misread dual in the post above.

I hate to think how many mistakes you make on the road.

On a road you see the road, not a label telling you what it is. You
can't misread it.

Sometimes you have to read the label, too. there's a mile stretch of
dual
carriageway near here which has 50mph signs posted.

That's a number, and less likely to be misread.

Until a few years ago there was a section of road near here that was
single carriageway, one lane each direction, no central reservation, no
hard shoulder - however it was classed as a motorway and hence 70 mph
limit for cars, but no speed limit signs. It was incredible how many
people, even locals thought that it was 60 mph or even 40 mph!

It has since been downgraded to an A road and a 50 mph limit - it
apparently makes the regulations for road closures, partial closures,
etc. for maintenance simpler.

How could it be classed as a motorway if it's a single carriageway? The
reason you get the 70 limit is the two directions are seperated.

Nope. There is actually no requirement for a motorway to have a central
reservation. This section was built as a spur from the M60 and was
intended to be extended and to form one carriageway of a normal motorway
at a future date, however the extension and the other carriageway were
never built. The spur was classed as motorway from the start. It was the
A6144(M) and is now the A6144 - looking that up can cause it's own
problems however, as there are now two separate motorway exits, both
going to the A6144 - the original A6144 and the former A6144(M) which
join, so the A6144 is actually Y shaped with three ends!

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A6144(M)_motorway for more oddities
about this road, such as it being the only fully single carriageway
motorway in the UK and being under control of the local council instead
of the Highways Agency. One of the links at the bottom goes to a page
with some video of travelling Westbound along that road just before its
donwgrading and once past the roadworks, you can see the motorway
signage. If you do take a look, you will notice that the two lanes are
divided by a hatched area (dashed, so you can cross it to overtake), but
when originally built, there was a single, dashed dividing line - it was
only repainted as a hatched area and additional two way traffic signs
installed as there were two head-on crashes within a week of opening.

The HC is (was?) a bit unclear here, using a phrase something like "a
motorway or dual carriageway with a central reservation" and could be
read two ways. Enquiries revealed that it should be read as two separate
items and would be better phrased as "a dual carriageway with a central
reservation or a motorway" which is not open to mis-interpretation.
Therefore as a motorway, 70 mph, despite no reservation.

SteveW