basingwerk wrote:
... I have put together a little list of the [types of speeder] I know about:
The 'thumb in bum, mind in neutral' type, the addict, the plain old anti-social git, masochistic type who wants to get pinged for the attention, the ‘I know better than the planners’ types, ‘the locals don’t know what they are on about’ types, the ‘I’m a great driver, so it doesn’t count’ types, and the ‘chump’ category, who can’t see a huge yellow box perched on a 10 foot pole, surrounded by whites lines and signs. I contest that the last category is the largest.
Missing a huge yellow box on a ten foot pole (assuming it's not hidden behind other street furniture or a bridge or something) suggests a bit of 'thumb in bum, mind in neutral'... here, you're not double-counting are you basingwerk?
The masochistic attention seeking type who gets pinged on purpose - are there really any drivers like this? I doubt it. I've never heard of anyone doing this, and can't imagine any sane person wanting to. If this group actually exists they should be in rubber rooms.
I'm not sure where the boy-racers and car thieves are in your list. Are they in the anti-social git/speed addict bit? That might be fair for the boy racers, but seems to be letting the theives off lightly. You need a category about driving fast in the course of criminal activity (yes, we're talking excessive speed here, but they will invariably be over the limit as well). Also you haven't got a category for people who are speeding because of drink or drugs (including prescription medicines).
And where would you put that bloke who was nicked for doing over a ton on the motorway a few years ago, and turned out to have been trying to get to the loos at the next services before his Dehli belly let go and

? Or someone speeding to a hospital with wife in the back going through premature labour? Or the guy who got pinged in Leicestershire with organs for transplant on board? More where those came from, but they don't seem to fit neatly into any of your categories.
About the ‘I know better than the planners’ types. I suspect you've come up with this one in response to the rest of us bitching about certain roads where the limit has been reduced for no apparent reason. Now, if the planners or engineers or whoever have been overruled by local government who are setting a limit based on political reasons, where does that leave the 'I know better' type? Would the planners have set the limit at about the same level as these drivers choose to set their speed in the absence of politcally motivated control freaks? Maybe, maybe not. However, I'd say that the number of drivers who claim to know better than the experts is fairly small. The number who would agree that in places the experts are no longer in charge is something else of course.
Let me throw a hypothetical at you basingwerk. Let's say some real headcases ended up in charge and reduced all speed limits to 20mph and 40 on the motorway. What speed would you choose to set on a rural dual carriageway on a clear, dry afternoon? What about a motorway late at night with hardly anyone on it? What about old single carriageways that used to be 60mph and are now 20? You do not have the option of leaving the country and going back to Canada as they also put airport tax up by forty thousand percent and you can't afford it

So how about it? Would you obey the law (might be the only one obeying it

)? Or would you be a speeder like the rest of us, and if so which category would you be in? <Sharp intake of breath> Not...

'I know better than the planners'?
