Nigel wrote:Lack of knowledge is no defence, but lack of signage seems perfectly ok.
I'm fairly sure that the actual phrase is "ignorance of the
law is no defense" That is you can be exonerated of an offense because you were ignorant that you were doing the thing you knew well to be an offense, and not through negligence / willful ignorance / falling below the standard expected of a careful & competent driver.
E.g. I see a piece of cheese wire on the ground and pick it up, wondering what it's doing in my back garden. It turns out it's tied to an incendiary device and was set as a booby trap by my slightly unhinged neighbour who has some unspecified grudge with his wife. Wife gets incinerated and I precipitated her death by my actions. I am not guilty of murder, despite having killed Mrs Psycho through my actions. It is the ignorance of the consequences of my actions that saves me, not any possible ignorance of the laws regarding homicide.
Also, I'm fairly sure there's no requirement for speed limits to be posted on both sides of the road. If there is such a requirement, I should report half a dozen insufficiently signed speed limits near here...
I have a bit of a dilemma regarding where to put speed limit changes, though. A great example is the A444 through north / east Coventry. It's 50mph most of the way but drops down to a fairly sane 30mph for most of the roundabouts. Some of them have the signs right at the cusp of the junction - easy to miss when you're (reasonably!) watching the road / junction / traffic. Some are set about 30 yards away from the junctions and are almost unanimously ignored both onto and off the roundabouts. I think the latter probably poses more hazards, but I can think of half a dozen junctions I've driven dozens of times before I feel I know the road enough to actually seek out and find the signs posting the new speed limit. Only local knowledge (i.e. knowing that the speed limit goes from 30 to 40 at this junction when going the other way) saves me from breaking the speed limit pretty much every time I cross those junctions. The perfect example of that is "dysfunction junction" on the A45 which is a giratory connecting a supermarket, two residential streets, a dual carriageway and an industrial park, and containing blockbuster, KFC, a pub, McD's etc. a *very* busy junction with lots of traffic, lots of lanes, lots of traffic lights, and two speed limits. Put the 30 zone a little further away and save some hassle, eh?
Cheers & God bless
Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny