Safe Speed Forums

I was listening to the Beeb yesterday and they had a story on restrictions that insurers would like placed on new drivers. I recognised several of these - re-testing, mandatory hours behind the wheel, banned from driving at night for the first couple of years as coming from everybody's grieving family exploiters, Brake. So I just wondered, how much influence do they have? And why don't we, the common sense, non-reactionary/hysterical lot, get a say too? Or do we?

The issue is not that of BRAKE being intrinsically influential. The issue is more one of their views being perceived by politicians as being appealing to the public and thus "onside" as a far as votes are concerned. The "think of the children" appeal to emotion comes to mind. They thus get a more sympathetic hearing from the people who believe they are socially aware and who run the media.

Someone coming along and saying that the motorway speed limit should be 80mph (for very good reasons) will be protrayed as a maniac while the BRAKE spokesman will seem reasonable and caring. This is why speed limits always go down and never up even though modern cars are much safer than before.

It's all about supporting "received opinion" and not challenging the status quo.

Basically, people who want to stop others doing things are always given more prominence than those wanting to reduce controls.

_________________
Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.