Safe Speed Forums

If it were a personal habit I'd have no issue with it (other than the horrible cost to society both socially and financially it affects).

It's not a personal habit though and it's at its worst when you're say in a bus stop when it's raining with a bunch of smokers,or when you're walking along and a smoker blows out in front of you and the smoke curls round their head and goes straight up your nostrils.

And the litter! Seriously, fine em, £60 for the top wrapper, £60 for the foil insert, £60 for each fag butt and £120 for the packet. Follow your bog standard smoker around and you'd clean em out after a week!

likewise to the effects on the NHS budget of irresponsible cycling . Today ,I had a fully clad Lycra warrior come off the pavement in front of me .However ,something in his manner (and my 45 years experience) allerted me to a potential problem . This os a potential personal habit that the NHS (AND CAR INSURERS ) have to pick up .Smoking ,I can live with -it's a nasty habit ,that from personal experience is hard to defeat .(and if you've never smoked -Don't ever try and critise those trying to give up)

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

If only someone could develop a "smugness camera"! Then we could have a "Self-rightous" tax and solve all the country's financial problems!

And the effects on the NHS budget of irresponsible driving. Today I had a boy racer nearly knock me down at a pedestrian crossing However ,something in his manner (and my 60 years experience) allerted me to a potential problem. This is a potential personal habit that the NHS (AND CAR INSURERS ) have to pick up .

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Of course it'll be another quick "win" for the BIB. More offences detected, more convictions, more fines collected, like shooting fish in a barrel, while public respect for them falls to even lower depths ... if that is possible ... while real road safety issues get shoved even further into the background.

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

Hmmmm. "CAR INSURERS" picking up the tab seems to be a common factor here - regardless of who was at fault....

I can quite easily avoid breathing in the smoke inside a smoker's car by just not getting in it, the choice is mine to make, very simple. Unless I hide myself away in the middle of nowhere I cannot reasonably avoid the fumes produced by powered vehicles being driven along roads or indeed on tracks .....

What I cannot reasonably avoid and is toxic, is NOT getting banned .... what I can easily avoid, IS getting banned ...

Quite frankly, accidentally sniffing a little bit of burning leaf now and again is of no concern to me, IMO it poses an incalculably low threat to health, it is of no consequence at all.

The smell offends you? ... get real diddums, its not that bad, admit it, you just wanna big it up doncha? ... You obviously have not been in the same room as our cat when it's squeezed out a silent one ... now THAT is offensive

As for cost to NHS ... Does anyone seriously think that the cost to the NHS of smoking related illness exceeds the amount brought in by tax on tobacco?? ..... Google is your friend .... I might be a lot more worried about the state of the NHS if everybody gave up smoking tomorrow !!! Also take into account that as smokers tend to die younger, they won't require the care in later life that many non smokers need, and won't be drawing their state pension for as long either.

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

I don't think that car insurers pay for the damage caused by cyclists.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

No -it's the motorist that pays -try and get some cash out of a cyclist that
scrapes the side of your car .
But back to the topic -let's leave the car vs cyclist out of this .

After all the success on pubs/enclosed spaces ,the anti smoking police want more to give up -if not voluntarly then by force and stealth .Perhaps we need some laws against the old dears that wander round shops stinking of perfume .Not so much a dab ,more like marinated .The stench offends me more than someone lighting up .
It's not so much an attack on smokers ,but on the rights of society .Most responsible smokers ,respect the feelings of others .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Leaf? You think that's tobacco in cigarettes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette#Additives

I smell the sound of a dedicated EX SMOKER, deternined to persuade us all that smoking is a nasty habit .
Me - I'm an ex smoker who finds it better to persuade from example than by ridicule .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Are you suggesting the amount you accidentally inhale will do you harm? An average smoker still lives a usefully long life, try wrapping yer lungs round the average bus exhaust pipe 30 times a day and see how long you last!

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

With regard to both, I would suggest it is a matter of personal choice and freedom, and that the less we have officers of the law beating down our doors for exercising out right to determine what we put into our own bodies, when we are endangering no one but ourselves, the better.

I don't smoke either weed or tabacco. However, banning people from smoking in their own cars? There needs to be less banning, imo.

Maybe O/T ,but Mrs Bs last hospital stay certainly makes me wonder about that .In her ward next morning there were several beds empty -they were all at the rear door .Nurse commented that it was always the smokers who were first up and about ,and recovered first .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Quite! My gripe has never been about smokers and what they choose to do with their health, hygiene and looks but about my right not to smoke. Up until recently I always hated going to pubs but now it's a pleasant environment. We just need to ban screaming little brats from them next

My ex wife was diagnosed with M.S. about 24 years ago and she was as anti-smoke as me, but she has for a long time now been puffing the magic dragon. Whether it’s illegal or not is irrelevant to me so long as they are only affecting themselves and, in her case, it helps.

There is too much nanny state intervention on matters which only affect the user, but it’s hard for any government to get the balance right and I don’t know of a country that has. Having to wear a helmet on my motorbike infringes on my right to do what the hec I choose to do with my life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way TBH. When I have seen footage from the recent riots and protests in the news abroad it’s quite funny to see three guys perched on a motorbike with no helmets.

I guess smoking on a motorbike would be okay because it’s not enclosed. That surely begs the question of driving and smoking in an open top car I guess. Nothing’s ever black or white eh?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

The impact speed for those who are elderly might be much less but they may still receive greater injuries due to their frailty. Another incidence was when a car rolled over a child and killed it. So impact speed and KSI do not relate.

That case (Southampton) where a lady hit a cyclist that deliberately ran a red light (witnessed claimed) she was sent to prison, now I assume that she will have claimed against her insurance for the damage to her car ? Perhaps all road users need 'insurance' ?

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

I know that Paul would have been absolutely up in arms against his human right to do what he deemed his business in his life.
His ability to choose how to travel safely at all times was never once impaired from his smoking habit because he took his responsibilities extremely seriously.
I think the reason that this has been promoted as a concept through the health issues is due to the fact that it would more likely gain a more favourable voice of approval by more people. Making new rules like this must be based on fact to show that it is in the interest of Road Safety.
Whilst there is a distraction element it is responsible motorists who decide how and when to do so safely and we must be able to trust our motorists. When they fail there are already Laws in place to deal with those failings.
Like Mole I see no figures or statistics to support their point and 'requirement to remove the right to smoke within your own environment.
I do not like the smoke from cigarettes but when I was in the car with Paul we had the windows open enough to remove the vast majority of the smell for my preference and for practical reasons too. Removing smoke was safer for vision, but it did increase the noise of traffic however and for some that might be less preferable.

Another issue emotive as it plainly is, is the children of those parents. I agree that I have no right to tell them what to do but what if the child hates it? Is not then the problem with where can they go to get help ? Should not their comfort be of some importance ?
Smoking killed Paul, plain and simple although he never thought that it would, and originally he thought that he was 'in control' until one day I showed him just how addicted he was. It is a terrible thing to quit and he was having some successes.
I compliment everyone who has managed it it is tough. Happily I have never smoked and I am so pleased that I never got into it. I know 2 people recently who have recently taken it back up, and one even suffers from Asthma, which just baffles me.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Agreed that this was clearly someone, who was not properly in control of their vehicle.
We cannot legislate though for every incident of bad behaviour, we need rules that help road safety that help the majority of issues. This would have clearly been dealt with by a nearby police patrol with current and existing laws - had one been about of course. We call for more police patrols to deal with these sorts of problems.
Assuming for a minute that this person did not have an accident, that, when they chose to carry out their reckless 'search', they did so on a straight stretch and where no immediate danger threatened ? In other words where it was (at least) 'otherwise safe to do so' albeit a stupid thing to do ?
This is really about the management of risk and having good judgement, or lack thereof.
Would 'banning smoking' not just leave them searching for the sweet instead or some other item ? If the person is not aware enough as to how dangerous this action maybe it won't matter whether it is smoking or some other 'need' it is the fact that they chose to do so, that matters, and it is that, that needs to change. Trying to prevent an action that might be carried out for 100 reasons won't stop it, unless the person chooses to do so.
In your incident above it was not the smoking that really caused that problem, but a lack of care and good driving practice, that led them to chose to be reckless in that way.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.