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What is your attitude to road use?
Poll ended at Sat Jan 17, 2009 17:10
I always do my best to ensure that neither through action or inaction will I cause injury to other road users. 8%  8%  [ 4 ]
I always do my best to ensure that neither through action or inaction will I cause injury to other road users. 8%  8%  [ 4 ]
As above, but I am not perfect and occasionally make a mistake. 38%  38%  [ 20 ]
As above, but I am not perfect and occasionally make a mistake. 38%  38%  [ 20 ]
As either above, but cyclists are fair game. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
As either above, but cyclists are fair game. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
As either of first two, but pedestrians should not step into the road. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
As either of first two, but pedestrians should not step into the road. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
If it is not legally my fault what is the problem? 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
If it is not legally my fault what is the problem? 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Everyone else is in the way. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Everyone else is in the way. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Do other people use the roads? 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Do other people use the roads? 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
All drivers of motor vehicles want to kill me. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
All drivers of motor vehicles want to kill me. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I am perfect and everyone else is crap. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I am perfect and everyone else is crap. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I just want to speed. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I just want to speed. 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
This poll is pointless. 4%  4%  [ 2 ]
This poll is pointless. 4%  4%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 52
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 Post subject: Safespeed attitude poll
PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 17:10 
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Given recent threads I thought I would post a poll to check out the attitudes of SS posters.

I do not see that it is any less valid than asking people on the high street as far as truth is concerned.

Please just try to answer as closely as possible to your state of mind when driving, lets go for worst case.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 15:01 
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Just FYI.

The fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth answers are ones I might have ticked at some point in my life, if I was being really honest that is.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 15:55 
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Should have been a multi option poll.


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PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 00:03 
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Homer wrote:
Should have been a multi option poll.


just a quick experiment really. It might be interesting to come up with a quiz for the site.

Thanks to those who voted.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 00:27 
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Location: Treacletown ( just north of M6 J3),A MILE OR TWO PAST BEDROCK
One - I try my best to pre-empt accidents , but like two - I am only human , and make mistakes . Anyone ,short of a Grade one Police driver who (IMHO) ANSWERS only to one is failing to acknowledge that without a higher level of training ,we are all prone to make errors ,but should strive to drive such as to minimize the results of these .
It's like walking down the street - there's a ladder - I for one won't walk under it -am i superstitious - NO -I've dropped stuff too many times from up there to consider that it's safe to walk under one.

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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


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 23:15 
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I
"I always do my best to ensure that neither through action or inaction will I cause injury to other road users. However, I am not perfect, and occasionally make a mistake."

That would be closest to my answer. However, though I'm not perfect, I've never broken the first rule.
As for the second rule? In my youth, there were a few times when I was the victim of the breaking of the second rule. I immediately labeled myself 'proximately responsible'.

II
Pedestrians should not step into the road ... as if the rules do not apply to them.
Whichever 'rules' you like - especially physics. (I think mine are pretty simple; they've worked for me in Mexico, Canada, France, Germany, and even in Amerika). Putting yourself in danger is no less a violation of the rules than putting others in danger; it's almost the same thing.

My 'rules', however, do not automatically excuse those who are not legally at fault, from some proximate responsibility ...

III
The times when I was a passive participant in the breaking of the second rule still cause me consternation. My urge not to allow them to be repeated demanded that I study them and other 'accidents', so that I could learn how to mitigate, counter, and/or occasionally even discourage or prevent, others' mistakes.

IV
I freely admit that I believe that most other road users are in the way. Of that group, most are only passively so; luckily they outnumber those who actively try slow down other road users.
The only ones that are not 'in the way', are the ones who consciously and conscientiously avoid being in other people's way, such as:

a) pedestrians who know that cars can pass through a crosswalk 'perpendicularly' much faster than a pedestrian can cross it
a1) drivers who either slow down way in advance to avoid such pedestrians, or - when perfectly safe [which is rarer], speed up for the same reason (ideally along with a lane change away from them, to keep the pedestrian safer)
b) drivers who permit and encourage overtakes when safely possible
c) drivers who make [left] turns across oncoming traffic lanes while wasting as little spacetime as possible, so as to increase the likelihood of those behind them doing the same as soon as reasonably possible

V
No one - except the truly reckless - wants to drive at a speed greater than road and traffic conditions allow.
Some tend to to travel at speeds that allow little to no margin for error on their or anyone else's part. Though they are not reckless, they are probably inadequately experienced/educated/trained/tested. Since driver's education/training/testing are all inadequate, it follows I may be playing the devil's advocate here; it may sound like I'm saying everyone should slow down a bit. (In fact I have.)
The vast majority of posted speed 'limits' are significantly slower than that, however. When coupled with the fact that most roads are designed to support speeds well above the posted speed 'limits', and that automotive handling and braking have improved significantly over the past two decades, it surprises me how many people refuse to see what's being done to them.

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The Rules for ALL ROAD USERS:
1) No one gets hurt
2) Nothing gets hit, except to protect others; see Rule#1
3) The Laws of Physics are invincible and immutable - so-called 'laws' of men are not
4) You are always immediately and ultimately responsible for your safety first, then proximately responsible for everyone's
Do not let other road users' mistakes become yours, nor yours become others
5) The rest, including laws of the land, is thoughtful observation, prescience, etiquette, decorum, and cooperation


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 19:20 
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Quote:
When coupled with the fact that most roads are designed to support speeds well above the posted speed 'limits',


That might be so in your part of the world but in rural Britain there are thousands of miles of roads with a 60mph limit upon which it would be suicidal or homicidal to exceed half that speed. Especially in a car of the size that you drive

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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


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 19:30 
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And yet amazingly us rural road users don't die every time we venture forth.

Must be something to do with, oh I don't know, low speed limits not being 100% of road safety.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 23:22 
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dcbwhaley wrote:
The Rush wrote:
When coupled with the fact that most roads are designed to support speeds well above the posted speed 'limits',
That might be so in your part of the world but in rural Britain there are thousands of miles of roads with a 60mph limit upon which it would be suicidal or homicidal to exceed half that speed. Especially in a car of the size that you drive.
My impression is that, on these rural British roads of which you speak, my car might not even physically fit.
(How many of you have actually seen an early-to-mid-nineties Caprice 'in the flesh', be it a sedan or a wagon?)

True that in my part of the world, there are almost no rural roads. The few times I have experienced rural roads, I remember being unwilling and unable to exceed 30MpH, not just because of the roads' characteristics, but because I was quite out of sorts being in an area so alien to me. My memories of such places leads me to guess that I would not attempt to exceed 30 MpH on such 'roads' (many unpaved) even if they became familiar to me. Putting a tire wrong would be too likely and too difficult to recover from.

_________________
The Rules for ALL ROAD USERS:
1) No one gets hurt
2) Nothing gets hit, except to protect others; see Rule#1
3) The Laws of Physics are invincible and immutable - so-called 'laws' of men are not
4) You are always immediately and ultimately responsible for your safety first, then proximately responsible for everyone's
Do not let other road users' mistakes become yours, nor yours become others
5) The rest, including laws of the land, is thoughtful observation, prescience, etiquette, decorum, and cooperation


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 07:06 
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Quote:
True that in my part of the world, there are almost no rural roads


My experience of driving in back country New Mexico is that the rural roads are 'worse' than those in Derbyshire. Some of them don't even have a tarmac surface, just gravel. But they don't seem to have a reduced speed limit.

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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


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:25 
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toltec wrote:
Please just try to answer as closely as possible to your state of mind when driving, lets go for worst case.


I try, cos I'm human do my best to ensure that neither through action or inaction will I cause injury to other road users.

do my best but cyclists who try to make the point that they can occupy ANY stretch of road make me think that they're fair game.

If it is not legally my fault what is the problem? Let my conscience be my guide

Everyone else is in the way. NO WAY


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