No speed limit signs?

[Lonelyandweird]

I'm quite confused about the speed on a dual carriageway that I regularly drive. There are no speed limit signs on that side of the dual carriageway, but on the opposite side, there are the national speed limit signs, so I've always thought that the other side would also be 70mph. However, recently, I've been questioning what the actual speed limit is because I've never actually seen any speed limit signs on that side of the dual. I've been on Google, and it's telling me that most dual carriageways are 70mph. However, there's conflicting information. I've read it's 30 mph if no signs are visible. Does anyone know what the speed limit would be if the opposite side of the dual carriageway has national speed limit signs?

70 for dual carriageway
60 for 1
30 where streetlights are present unless signage...
For clarification use Google maps... The speed limits are detailed in the journey.

Would you be comfortable sharing which section of road it is so we can see it on street view?
Is it definitely a dual carriageway (dividing barrier/land between the two sides)? It may be there is a sign further along from where you join and there's a missing one for you?

Its possible for different sides of a road to have different speed limits.

It is possible for different sides of the road to had different limits, if there are streetlights and no signs then the default is 30mph. I did a speed awareness course last week

The M271 is like that for a stretch, the usual 70 one way and 50 the other. I think.
It didn't used to be like that.

Would be quite hard to mistake a 30mph stretch for 70mph, if other cars on the road.

Are you joining it from part way along, or are you driving on a road out of town that becomes a dual carriageway? What is the last speed sign that you pass?

It should be national speed limit where there aren’t road signs.

I’d assume national speed limit so 70 if it’s a dual carriageway, 60 if it’s single lane. The 30 thing is for residential areas with street lamps isn’t it? A 30mph dual carriageway would be quite unlikely unless you’re in the middle of a city centre.

Joining from a roundabout, it leads onto the motorway

Unfortunately thia is incorrect.

If there is no indication of a speed limit then the default is actually 30moh.

As per the poster above, I did a speed awareness course earlier in the year for the exact same assumption as you!

Hi. What speed were you caught doing?

So is there a speed limit sign before you enter the roundabout? What's the speed of the road you are on when you reach the roundabout?

The other side might have national speed limit signs because at some point it drops to 50 or 40. Then it's telling you it's back to the national speed limit. The A610 where I live does this.

Only if there are streetlights, i.e. a built up area.

Thirty fucking 4 in a 30

Wow, a speed awareness course for 4 mph over the limit?

It is more than 10% above the limit.

Over is over. I've done two in twenty years ...both due to changing speed limits on stretches of road, so 40 to 50 to 40 etc. in the end, a very few mph difference can be tje difference between life and death if you hit someone, and your stopping distance inccreases hugely too. It does matter.

This is the answer. If there's no speed limit sign after the roundabout then the speed limit is the same as before the roundabout.

The speed limit signs after a roundabout can be easy to miss. I don't think it would hurt for them to use a few extra signs as reminders.

I think the streetlights also have to be a particular distance apart - otherwise you'd have sudden 30 limits on out of town A roads and Motorways that have streetlights on them for e.g. a junction.

60 if it’s single lane

This isn't true. You can have a single lane dual carriageway. The 'dual carriageway' part refers to whether there is a central reservation, thus making two separate carriageways. Each side could potentially have a single lane, and if the road is derestricted, then the limit would be 70mph.

On my (aham) speed awareness course they said National Speed Limit = N S L ... No Signs or Lights. So if there are no signs or lights its the nsl (sp 60 or 70 depending on if on a dual carriageway), if there are lights but no signs its 30. Obviously if there are signs then you go by those. Hoping I've remembered it correctly 😄

By lights I mean streetlights ....

Have you read the Highway Code? Tried google?
Have you passed your test?