Safe Speed Forums

http://www.itv-motoring.com/news/2006/april/06/9282.asp




Not sure how the came by the data though.

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Speed camera policy Kills

VSGB 2005: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... 11475.hcsp

It was out yesterday, apparently, although I didn't know about it before reading the post above.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

How can anyone accurately measure average vehicle speeds for the entire United Kingdom with any degree of meaningful accuracy?

I wonder why...?

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Hmmmmm

Either crank it up a few clicks or trundle along at 40mph with miles of frustrated followers tempted into a dangerous overtake.



To be honest if more than half of all vehicles are travelling faster than the limits then could that possibly suggest that more than half the country's road users don't think that DANGER switches on the instant the needle passes the number? Makes a bit of a sham of the whole "limit" concept really when the majority of people dont rate them as priorities whilst driving.

Are they trying to suggest that more than half the population are in serious danger of crashing? And how likely is a HGV to be involved in a crash whilst "speeding"?

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And its not just the massive artics that are restricted to 40 is it? I've seen relatively small lorrys that have a 40 mph limit sticker on them; correct me if i'm wrong but its any thing over 7.5t.

The whole HGV 40 thing is quite stupid in my opinion. I thnk they have it worse on the continent though; isn't the speed limt 60kph/ 37mph there? Which would mean a lorry can go 31mph in a built up area but only 6mph faster on a high quality, rural A-road.

Safe Speed issued the following PR at 11:07 this morning:

PR301: We're still speeding

news: for immediate release

Department for Transport (DfT) figures published yesterday [1] reveal that more
than half of us are still speeding in free flowing conditions on most road
types. With the proportion of vehicles speeding increasing on some road types
the dream that cameras would change our speeding behaviour is lying in tatters.

[Safe Speed will publish a fuller analysis of the figures later]

Consider the following:

Proportion of drivers drunk: ~2%
Proportion of crashes involving drink: ~25%

Proportion of drivers speeding: ~50%
Proportion of crashes involving speeding: under 5% [2]

Drink, as you would expect, is massively over represented in the crash stats,
by very marked contrast, speeding is massively underrepresented in the crash
stats.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "More than half of us are still speeding on most
road types, yet various DfT figures released over the last 3 years have shown
that 'excessive speed' is recorded as a contributory factor in only 11% or 12%
of all injury accidents. I would like to hear the DfT explain why speeding is
far more commonplace than speed related crashes. This is in very marked
contrast to drunk driving, where around 2% of drivers are thought to be drunk,
yet around 25% of crashes involve drink."

"If road safety policy was correct the incidence of excessive speed crashes
should be reducing, but it is not." [3]

"The vast majority of responsible motorists speed because they are correctly -
and precisely - adjusting their speed to suit the road conditions. They do so
in complete safety. In fact this behaviour - setting a safe and appropriate
speed according to the conditions - is a cornerstone of road safety. Attempting
to replace this vital behaviour with mere legal compliance is a deadly
mistake."

<ends>



Notes for editors
=================


[1] VSGB 2005, released 6th April by Department for Transport:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... 11475.hcsp


[2] Explanation of official 'excessive speed' stats:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/pr110.html
and
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/pr112.html


[3] Figures released in a parliamentary question see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/107


[Difficulties with an upstream mail server delayed delivery for some recipients. The last copy was delivered at 14:28]

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

And how many accidents are these HGVs having? I don't see piles of them lieing on their sides or in trees...

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Andrew.

When the almost whole population are breaking the "law" are they all criminals or is the law wrong - discuss. The Americans had to learn this the hard way with Prohibition.

The interesting thing I note is that just like the previous year, the 40 mph limit is the one most closely adhered to, even though exceeded. What does this mean ?? Well, in my experience, 40 mph limits are mostly (but NOT all) sensibly applied; it is the blanket 30 mph merely because of street lighting that exposes the stupidity of virtually all councils in Britain, who could raise the limit after installing the lights, but choose not to, either because they are incorrigably lazy, or have the PC disease that 30 mph should be the national limit on all roads. Yes there are peoiple like this in National & Local Government, and especially in the self-appointed safety "police".

Staffordshire are the most stupid council on the 40 mph limit, certainly if what I see in and around Stoke-on-Trent is anything to go by. They also have the most stupid and pedantic SCP as well, with aroun 500 cameras sites to garner the revenues. They are also mendacious and shameless dissemblers as well, but that's another subject, I think.

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

So, does this mean that the 85th percentile, in, say 30mph limits, is now a 50th percentile - with regards to setting the appropriate speed limit?

...or has someone changed the rules?

mb