Safe Speed Forums

BBC Radio Ulster... Today they are discussing the driving test not being comprehensive enough (totally agree with this) but it's spread out to speed also... This guy said he reports ALL speeding drivers... How can he be qualified to make these decisions... Sure one man's speeding is safe for another man...

I didn't know that in England that there is no limit for L plate drivers... Over here we are restricted to 45 mph... I didn't know that it wasn't a nationwide thing...

There's a guy from BRAKE saying the age limit for driving should be raised to 23... Thing is... In the states is the age limit not something like 15, and same for Australia...

Again they are blanketing everyone with one thing... I personally consider myself a really inexperienced driver, but I think I have more experience than many of my friends...

A comment from another guy in my year the day I passed my test was, "but you've been driving for ages." I had been learning for 5 months or something like that... I think this follows quite well with the test as there was a guy in school that tried his test 3 months after starting and he failed with 2 majors... Second time he passed with 8 minors...

Another proposal is having curfews for young drivers... Okay, I see the reasoning, but what if you have to make this journey... I live in an area where it would be dangerous to walk, we have a high rate of muggings/rapes and stuff like that... It's just not safe to walk around at night, so what if I wish to go to a youth club or something like that... Or I need milk from the shops... Do I walk and get mugged? Or do I go in the car and reduce this risk slightly... If curfews are introduced, this would be impossible... I don't want to have to rely on my parents, it's a bigger waste of petrol, them having to drive me there, drive home again, drive back to collect me and drive me home, instead of me making 2 journeys...

Another thing was 'intelligent speed limiters' in cars... What a load of crap... The speed limiters won't know when there's snow on the road... They won't know when visibility is down to a few hundred metres... They won't know when the road is slippery... Yet this has been proposed... Yes, if these limiters could understand different road conditions, by all means, but they can't! It would just reenforce the whole thing about 'oh if I always stick to the limit I'll be PERFECTLY safe,' which we of course all know isn't true!

Oh and then someone else made a comment about all young males having loud stereos, loud exhausts and that like... Excuse me... I don't... Cheeky older person... I don't appreciate having stereotypes applied to me and my driving...

Another guy also said that the NSL on Class B single carriageways should be reduced to 30mph... What about the straight roads with good surfaces? Why not apply different limits to different roads... Actually carry out a proper assesment of different roads, set a limit which would be 'safe' in the dry... Set another limit for wet and snow... Or is this too much to do... But it would maybe help with the problem of using excess speed...

Anyway... Hopefully I haven't gone on too long... Sorry if I have, but I just couldn't believe some of what these people were saying!

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Mike