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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 00:12 
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JT wrote:
I trust this concise post clears up any confusion arising, and that everyone can now return to the previous valuable discussion upon vehicle acceleration (limits thereof).


Thank you JT, you have restored my will to live (which was being seriously sapped by some earlier posts in this thread).

:hehe:

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 01:30 
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JT wrote:
May I add my two pennorth, in order to try and clear up the moraass of confusion that seems to have arisen regarding house widths vis a vis street lengths?

Whilst there may seem prima facie to be a terminological misalignment involving the notion of street length being depicted in integral multiples of house-width, there is nevertheless a persuasive and compelling reason for this apparent misappropriation.

This, quite simply, is the fact that in the general case (assuming we are dealing with the general case, and thus that any specific examples to the contrary can be dismissed as atypical, if not anecdotal, or even hearsay) residential housing displays a strong tendency to be constructed perpendicular to the run of the street upon which it abuts; that is to say that to the observer, (casual or otherwise) viewing the property from the perspective of the said street, the width of the house actually lies along or parallel to a line (imaginary or otherwise) painted along the length of the street.

Thus it is apparent that the representation of street length as a multiple of house-width is perfectly correct, as the two measurements lie along the same vector.

I trust this concise post clears up any confusion arising, and that everyone can now return to the previous valuable discussion upon vehicle acceleration (limits thereof).


You've only just succinctly failed to answer the question.
How long is the average street ? Is it possible, as one poster calims, to define the length of average streets from what little information is to hand for that poster ?

It would appear not to be possible.



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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 01:36 
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smeggy wrote:
Now to get to the part where I hoped a level of sanity would return

<sigh>

fixitsan wrote:
Traction control is safety device to assist someone in getting out of a dangerous situation but an accelration limiter would stop them from getting into the intial situation IMO

How? There’s nothing a simple, passive, acceleration limiter can do to stop drivers from going into a corner too fast. Indeed they can still lose control when flooring it.



There is nothing passive about an acceleration limiter. It is an active device. Where your bend in the road appears after a short straight section, itself at the end of a tighter bend, then you have less ability to build up speed to carry into the second corner when you have a limited ammount of acceleration available to you.

If you drive a porsche 911 with much more accelration available to the driver through this route, and a fully loaded loaded 1100cc Fiat would you not agree that there is a significant difference in the ammount of potential speed which could be carried into the second corner ?


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 01:40 
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I'm honestly not sure you understand half the stuff coming from yourself, let alone from others! :lol:

How exactly is a top-stop acceleration limiter an active device?

Why are you arguing the toss over irrelevancies like the length of the average road, and whether it should be measured in house-widths?

I'm guessing you're not a Mensan!

Classic defence of the indefensible, bog the argument down in irrelevant technicalities and hope noone can see how hollow your argument is.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 02:14 
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I don’t believe it!
You are still bleating on about average lengths when my original point has already been proven beyond all doubt, how sad!
Worse yet, you still can’t understand that one can still lose it on any corner if enough speed it built up, which will be the case if one keeps accelerating regardless of the amount acceleration available, but only traction control will completely kill the acceleration when it’s needed the least (while giving full acceleration when it's needed the most).
What is important about the end of the short straight scenario is what happened at the bend before the straight – even with no more acceleration one can still lose it on the upcoming tight bend.

Oh why do I keep typing?


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 02:19 
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smeggy wrote:
This is getting silly.

Everyone else, please just skip to my next post below.




fixitsan wrote:
In short, I can't see how a thrill seeker can achieve a thrill in an acceleration limited car, short of driving towards a wall and braking far too late. But that isn't really driving is it, so no. If you can think of a way then let us all know
[smeggy gives examples]

Can you explain the relevance of this to public road safety ?

I answered your question, why do you feel the need to divert with another?

More significantly: to answer your question – nothing, which is exactly our point! Acceleration limiters do not prevent reckless behaviour.


As you appear to be of the belief that accerlerating too quickly is not reckless then I suggest you be the frist person to be get a limiter when you learn to drive






fixitsan wrote:
You asked me for examples of evidence I had assumed to be correct which might indicate that a higher than normal number of crashes where speed weas incvolved was as a result of excess accelration.
smeggy actually wrote:
Do you have any basis to believe higher accelerating cars are over-represented in crash stats?

:roll:

fixitsan wrote:
so if you have some proof of it, why are you witholding it ?

Proof of what? I made no claim, I’m merely scrutinising your opinion of acceleration limiters.

Oh I see. It seemed to me that you were scrutinising YOUR opinion of acceleration limiters and not mine. You asked me why I thought higher accelerating cars might be misrepresented in crash statistics. Yet I made no such representation to that effect. You did. Therefore you are scrutinising your own ideas on the subject. I can't stop you from doing that, I can only suggest you might risk losing your own argument with yourself



fixitsan wrote:
Again, you missed on my joke

If that was a joke it was unfunniest ever: length is width, mean isn’t average - don’t worry, we’re laughing anyway!

I admit a mistake in using mean when I meant median. We can't just lunmp into the average any statistic as it was attempted to beign done because the frequency distribution of accidents with respect to speed, in fact with respect to most measures is not symmetrical enough about the mean to do that


fixitsan wrote:
A bog standard car which is ragged ? How quickly does it accelerate on a dry road surface ? is it.....hhmmm.... let me guess, you seem to like vagueness….

How disingenuous of you. I gave you a straight quantative answer to that. You are trolling.


You made up a figure. Admit that.






fixitsan wrote:
I evaluated it to be 173 metres, based on averaging over 97 streets chosen at random from the nearest city edinburgh.

Meet you halfway ? At about 110 metres ? okay ?

Halfway? To what? 173 is fine! You see, I never actually gave a figure for the average length, just a minimum; but then you were looking for the mean length, which is of course a completely different characteristic :lol:


And didn't yoiu just agree that you you have not yet stated what an average street length is ? My goodness, having said you have quantified it already you now say you didn't do as much. I knew it was just a waiting game with you.





Anyway, to repeat yet again:
Urban areas:
Your bog standard car, when ragged, will still go from slow speeds or standstill to exceeding 30mph in a fairly short distance, certainly less than the length of your average street.
I have quantified the ‘fairly short distance’, you have quantified the average length of a street in Edinburgh. This confirms my statement above – yes?
My point being (wow, at last): what good will acceleration limiting a car do, considering one can still get up to dangerous speeds on an average street anyway?

Once again, I don't mean to labour the point but don't you think you have suggested that exceeding the speed limit is dangerous. now, at some point I hear from Safespeed that actually exceeding speed limits is not dangerous, that the evidence to say it is dangerous is in some way faulty. You seem to have a problem with that. You are implying that merely exceeding 30mph is dangerous. You have not said by how much the limit is being exceeded by, so , for your readers, will they not begin to wonder which speed you mean.

Let me elaborate that for you.

Your bog standard car of undefined type, when driven raggedly reaches 30mph + Xmph in your scenario, because the full acceleration of the vehicle is being used

The same car, driven raggedly with a limit on accelration cannot reach the same top speed in the same distance, it's a physical fact that it can't do that.

You defined th first situation as dangerous, therefore the second situation has got to be less dangerous, based on your assumption that speeds over the limit have a relative ammount of accompanying danger, relative to the extent by which they have exceeded the limit.

Clear enough now ?




fixitsan wrote:
I believe there are more than just two options, and you have ommitted to consider them in favour of just those two.



fixitsan wrote:
No ! I can't accept anything you say to that effect. You asked me to agree with your assumption that a car with an acceleration limiter would have it's acceleration limited to a rate LOWER ( your choice of word) than that of ' a typical car'.

No I did not. You are lying (both with the ‘assumption’ and asking you ‘to agree’) – please desist! Failure to do so will result with a complaint.

Another complaint ? hens teeth

Your statement was as follows

So just what do you believe we should limit acceleration to? To that of a standard car, which obviously won't help - or lower still?


You clearly don't consider the possibility of limiting it to a higher rate of acceleration. As I said we don't yet know what we all agree might be reasonable enough. So when you dismiss the idea, bear in mind you are dismissing something which isn't yet defined to the point of being able of being rationally dismissed. It's as if you fear this idea ? !








I actually asked if you propose that a car (for inexperienced drivers), with such a limiter, should be limited to what a standard car can do:
smeggy previously wrote:
So just what do you believe we should limit acceleration to? To that of a standard car, which obviously won't help - or lower still?
…
I merely asked you the question: that or lower.
…
if your answer is lower, then what will become of joining fast roads?

Those are the only times in this thread where I used the word lower.

Indeed. You did not assume it could be limited to a higher level. We have not yet defined the standard car's performance, which is my point but already we can asume that we don't want to introduce danger into a situation which we are trying to make safe so it is a matter of simple logic
to assume that we don't mean lower.





fixitsan wrote:
I could not agree because I didn't say it should be below the rate of accelration of a typical car.

Well, you did say "The answer is not lower" and I did comment that it is pointless being higher.
Lo and behold, I eventually get my answer anyway:


You have just assumed you have a definitive measure for the terms 'higher' and 'typical car' and so on, when in fact you have no such numbers to rely on. I don't have them either, so I prefer to stay with logic - no numbers - no answer. You have no numbers but you have an answer. Amazing that. Impossible though. lol





fixitsan wrote:
I would say the next best option is to say it should be the same as that of your typical car, but again you might consider a Porsche 911 as your typical car, so should I be in a rush to agree without knowing your interpretations ?

Or: you could agree that it should be the same as a typical car, whilst leaving the option open to disagree on what you believe is a typical car. Would that not be more appropriate?


That has been the option all along, but adidtionally I woudl consider a limit to a higher level than a typical car. But here is where we differ....I take into account how that typical car is being driven. SHould I have assumed that what you have been doing all along is not considering typical drivers in typical cars but that the typical car is being driven, as you put it, ragged ? If that is the case then I would say that the limit should be lower where the ragged driving results in instability issues for typical cars. That is what the use of the term 'ragged' is about is it not, describing a car driven to it's limits, into an unsafe zone of operation ?





fixitsan wrote:
The COMPLETE DISCUSSION centres about how cars are being driven.

You input is regarding limiting how cars can be driven.

Yes. A car which can be acelerated to 60mph in 4 seconds, when driven to full performance in a narrow street where there are pedestrians is going to exceed the 30mph limit and as you say, will result in greater danger





The red herring still stands.

It is your intense defensiveness which makese you see a coincidental statement as being a deliberate attempt to confuse. I knew you wouldn't be confused, so why would I try to confuse you ?







fixitsan wrote:
My method is to measure the acceleration of a randomly selected group of people. Let's take court jurors. if they have a driving licence they can be asked to do a little bit more in terms of civil duties and give their opinion of how quickly we should accelerate by spending five extra minutes, one time, in a car demonstrating what they consider to be reasonable. Or have manufacturers fit acceleration monitors to 10,000 cars chosen at randomw ( the hardware is already in place and little extra cost need be added) then after a year download the data, take an average, set that as the limit, Bish Bash Bosh, you might say.
fixitsan previously wrote:
We would have to define the typical car's performance to know what sort of benchmark to use, would we not ? You can use your own method, I will use my own.

In case you don’t know what you were talking about: we were referring to the capability of a typical car as a reference, not the typical rate which people choose to accelerate at. Anyway, let’s go on with your method.

There is a problem with it. You see, people will not accelerate at the same rate each time: they will be slower in sensitive areas. They’ll also be faster, perhaps taking the vehicle to the limit, on entry points to fast roads (remember me saying that earlier - now do you see how I was many steps ahead). Now, to deprive drivers of that part above the average of the distribution (do I need to explain that word too?) could be very undesirable in such circumstances – yes?



With regards to the situation of entry to , shall we say, a motorway, I disagree with you for the reason that you don't attempt to define at all what is the performance of the car in question. A BMW with a 3.5Litre engine will accerelate easily in the required distance if driven to it's limits and so it would not need to be drivien to it's limits in this case. I drive sometimes a small slow car and I do have to accelrate it hard to merge with the traffic. I have to say I have never had to stop at the end of the slip road and have always merged in with the traffic safely even if it is inclined upwards. I think the accelration of this car is low enough to be safe for most new drivers because I'm sure that if it was driven hard in a street situation it would not be quite as dangerous as the BMW being driven to it's limits


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:06 
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My your misrepresentation of my posts knows no bounds, not just of me but of what the campaign argues.
You imply that SS states it is always safe to exceed a speed limit.
I won’t even comment on your logical connect, let alone your inability to make basic mathematical judgements of acceleration; however, your ability to get bogged down in pointless minutia is second to none.

fixitsan wrote:
My goodness, having said you have quantified it already you now say you didn't do as much. I knew it was just a waiting game with you.

Where did I say that I quantified average street length? You are lying - again.
Do you remember me saying I would do if you continued?

fixitsan wrote:
You made up a figure. Admit that.

I find that offensive.

fixitsan wrote:
As you appear to be of the belief that accerlerating too quickly is not reckless then I suggest you be the frist person to be get a limiter when you learn to drive

That’s even more offensive.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:51 
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smeggy wrote:
My your misrepresentation of my posts knows no bounds, not just of me but of what the campaign argues.
You imply that SS states it is always safe to exceed a speed limit.
I won’t even comment on your logical connect, let alone your inability to make basic mathematical judgements of acceleration; however, your ability to get bogged down in pointless minutia is second to none.


My maths is sound enough but you don't have a desire to see that when a person joins a dismissive bunch of people they will have no option but to become dismissive, out of good humour if nothing else.

I have not seen any maths by anyone yet. The reason is becoaus no substantially accurate maths have been produced by anyone on this thread yet. if you feel that it has happened, please point me to the message you are talking about.

We've had house widths used as unit of measurement. 'Ragged' as term for....well...what is it for, i have had to guess that one for myself.....and 'typical car' as if that actually exists.

I am only hazarding a guess, but the reason you wouldn't understand maths when you saw it is because you don't operate with traditional maths




fixitsan wrote:
My goodness, having said you have quantified it already you now say you didn't do as much. I knew it was just a waiting game with you.

Where did I say that I quantified average street length? You are lying - again.
Do you remember me saying I would do if you continued?


The word 'what' appears to be missing from your sentence. Hey you know, criticise spelling, get your grammar criticised in return, no hard feelings - no ?

I remember you saying you would complain, because you have a problem continuing a discussion after you have made several character assasination attempts, in order to make a vain attempt to recover something you call dignity. if your intention was to rubbish an idea all along you did well .

You were doing fine until you felt duty bound to agree with Mr Smith, who after no discussion on the idea of fitting an acceleration limiter, absolutely no discussion whatsoever, said he thought it was stupid and that was that.

But lo and behold, you expect me to discuss it ? The worse thing is that you prbably think you are open minded.



fixitsan wrote:
You made up a figure. Admit that.

I find that offensive.


That's not much of a defence, but we'll enter it as plea if it's all you have




fixitsan wrote:
As you appear to be of the belief that accerlerating too quickly is not reckless then I suggest you be the frist person to be get a limiter when you learn to drive

That’s even more offensive.


How so ? Do you drive ? you have never told me. I would hate to make the sort of assumptions which some people seem to make.

Is it not right of me to assume that if you have not yet passed your test and you cannot perceive that accelerating too quickly can be reckless that you are in fact a reckless driver ? Therefore am I not right to suggest that should have your accelration limited for that reason.
Or do you see the underlying point here - that your picture of these situations can only be seen by you, and if you are to assume that I can see them too you ar expecting too much, and that a moment spent explaining with a bit more detail might just help things.

I wonder if your thoughts on an acceleration limiter would be the way you say they are now had it not been for the site owners instant dismissal without discussion. There was no logic for his dismissal, one single and unfounded instance was given and from that a decision was made.

Well, if it is true that our government works in the same way as you as group, and frankly I think the truth is worse than that, then you might consider why it is that if you can make mistakes and dismissals without discussion is it you shoudl expect anybetter from the people making the transport policies you disagree with.

I hope your offended state has passed now. You will grow out of it, don't worry, you will have to in the next few years anyway


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 13:17 
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I'm confused.

fixitsan - How would an acceleration limiter prevent drivers from driving recklessly? As far as I can determine a car which is limited for acceleration is the same as limiting the power output relative to the amount of travel on the accelerator; in other words making a powerful car behave like a much less powerful car.

Can you describe to me, using examples, the types of situation whereby an acceleration limiter would prevent someone from driving at a dangerous speed (please note that I said dangerous and not excessive) or driving recklessly?

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 13:24 
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If young drivers acceleration was limited though, it effectively goes against the whole agenda of the Safe Speed campaign with regards to acceleration rather than speed. This would take away the drivers right to drive using common sense and analysis of the situation, with rapid acceleration safer in some situations than in others (as with speed.) For the powers that be to TELL young drivers the level of acceleration in all circumstances that is acceptable contradicts your view (I assume as a member of this forum) that the driver is the one who can judge what is 'safe' and what isn't.

Of course you do get chav-esque boy racers in their souped up saxo's (apologises in advance to the inevitable forum member with souped up saxo), upon whom accelration limits would be a good idea. Yet the danger level they pose is surely related in some degree (though not totally) to their higher insurance premiums, making the problem self-righting to an extent. (Although on the other hand I know someone who's written off 3 cars in a year (one very dramatically) and had 6 points before passing his test that somehow is still driving.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 13:41 
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I'm loving this thread, I have never seen one of our trolls conduct such a thorough public self-humiliation! Please fixitsan, tell us more of your gems...

:popcorn:


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 13:46 
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RobinXe wrote:
Please fixitsan, tell us more of your gems...

:popcorn:

I especially like the green text.

Makes it much quicker to scan read the thread and ignore. :roll:


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 13:51 
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Quite a few years ago I rode a 175 eastern block trials bike. It had a rugid slow reving engine with a smoth predicatable power curve.
I then borrowed a tweeked, tuned yam trials bike. It had no power till half revs and then gave every thing it had got. all on the same throttle setting.

So I pulled out on to a duel carriage way missed a gear up to third. It struggled up to the power band and threw everything it had got :shock:
result... Wheley across three lanes till the front caught up with the back.

Power should be deep, smooth and predictable for young drivers.
Not high reving, narrow power bands, and no instant power ceilings either.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 13:55 
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anton wrote:
Power should be deep, smooth and predictable for young drivers.
Not high reving, narrow power bands, and no instant power ceilings either.

If you have never driven/ridden anything else surely 'power' would always need to be 'smooth and predictable'? Being caught out won't be to do with age but all to do with a drivers experiences?


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When I rode those bikes I had driven for around 10 years. I had motorcycle car and track laying licences, I had driven 850cc minis to 12 cylinder 4.2 jags. Bedford Ha vans to 3.0 V6 transits. I had plenty of experiance. That bike was small engined and harder to control than a 500cc bmw

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“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code


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anton wrote:
When I rode those bikes I had driven for around 10 years. I had motorcycle car and track laying licences, I had driven 850cc minis to 12 cylinder 4.2 jags. Bedford Ha vans to 3.0 V6 transits. I had plenty of experiance. That bike was small engined and harder to control than a 500cc bmw

I think you are agreeing with me. Being 'caught out' won't be anything to do with age but all to do with a riders (lack of) experience, in this case of peaky two-strokes.


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R1Nut wrote:
I'm confused.

fixitsan - How would an acceleration limiter prevent drivers from driving recklessly? As far as I can determine a car which is limited for acceleration is the same as limiting the power output relative to the amount of travel on the accelerator; in other words making a powerful car behave like a much less powerful car.

Can you describe to me, using examples, the types of situation whereby an acceleration limiter would prevent someone from driving at a dangerous speed (please note that I said dangerous and not excessive) or driving recklessly?


There is a very large difference between a power restrictioin and an accelration resriction. You probably don't appreciate there could be a difference if you have never had to think about it before.

Consider wind resistance for a moment, it increases to the third power with respect to the speed of the vehicle.
Power is what pushes you through the air. Torque is what accelrates you up to speed.

If you have a 80HP car which loses the battle against wind resistance at, lets say for argument's sake 100mph. Now if you limit the power to 10HP you are only going to get to about 50mph. But if you limit the acceleration you can still reach 100mph because you still have the power available , it's just that it's delivery is in a controlled manner.

Power is a function of the third power of velcoity, or velocity cubed if you like. In other words if you double the sped you need about eight times as much power to push you through the air.

Clearly the effects of a power limiter are going to make a large difference to the maximum achievable speed. But limit accelration and you have no such maximum speed limit.

Again if you limit the power of a car you will not find you are able to tow as much weight on a triler up a hill. but limit the accelration and you have no such towing problem.

By limiting accelration you still allow all of the power to be used to pull large weights and carry ;large loads, to drive you up hills into a headwind and to reach maximum theoretical speed . The only restriction is that the rate at which you can get up to the maximum theoretical speed is under the control of the limiter and not the driver.

In tests cars fitted with accelration limiters also make measurably large savings in fuel consumption, so there's another bonus too.

Chris


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STOPWASTEDLIVES wrote:
If young drivers acceleration was limited though, it effectively goes against the whole agenda of the Safe Speed campaign with regards to acceleration rather than speed. This would take away the drivers right to drive using common sense and analysis of the situation, with rapid acceleration safer in some situations than in others (as with speed.) For the powers that be to TELL young drivers the level of acceleration in all circumstances that is acceptable contradicts your view (I assume as a member of this forum) that the driver is the one who can judge what is 'safe' and what isn't.

Of course you do get chav-esque boy racers in their souped up saxo's (apologises in advance to the inevitable forum member with souped up saxo), upon whom accelration limits would be a good idea. Yet the danger level they pose is surely related in some degree (though not totally) to their higher insurance premiums, making the problem self-righting to an extent. (Although on the other hand I know someone who's written off 3 cars in a year (one very dramatically) and had 6 points before passing his test that somehow is still driving.


That's an interesting point but there is something still being missed.

A new driver passes their test and for the first time they are free to explore the ability of the vehicle. Some won't hesitate in driving as quickly as possible and that is what they will continue to do until a few accidents later, they realise it might not be the best way to make progress.

The issue in that case is that that driver in particular knows only two styles of driving. Slow and careful for the test, and fast and furious. There is no experience being gained in the mid speed, or what most people might refer to just simply as making your way with the rest of the traffic, not racing away from the lights only to slam the anchors on at the next one, and so on.

If they could get some experience in doing that then I think they would learn sooner rather than later, that perhaps trying to be first away from the lights is counterproductive, because they would have to get away from the lights in a controlled fashion and would see for themsleves the futility of racing away just by watching the more mature but less skilled idiots who do that in their company cars. There is the chance the penny might drop for them long before their restricted period expires.

There are lots of ways to view this sort of restriction, but it would not be permanent, and so to that end it is taking nothing away from the new driver. Any'freedom' which you don't get whilst under the restriction you get after the restriction is lifted anyway, there is merely a delay, settling in period.

New drivers, by and large, absolutely do not know any other way of driving than careful and controlled as they go through their modern and intensive education, and therefore they can't miss what they haven't yet had

Chris


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 17:23 
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I might agree that young drivers should be limited to the acceleration available to them. I very much doubt that I agree with you as to what that limit should be. I would not use a limiter as these are horrendus. It is far better to put them in a well designed, good condition car with normal to gutsy power curve. My bigest curse as a young driver was not power but old unreliable cars.

Broadly young drivers are limited already by thier bank ballances and insurance companies. Parents can lend high powered cars but usually don't if the driver dosent warrant that trust.

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“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2007 18:00 
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The main problem with all this crap is that there's not one shread of evidence anywhere that acceleration is a significant cause of crashes.

While, of course, it's blindingly obvious that acceleration can quite frequently be used to clear a danger zone more quickly. For example:

- conventional overtaking
- avoiding alongside driving on dual carriageways and motorways
- avoiding arriving at 'pinch points' at the same time as others (useful where roads merge and where roads narrow)
- I even once managed to avoid a 'T bone' in the driver's side by accelerating clear of a car going the wrong way round a roundabout

Acceleration is also an excellent facilitator of safe and smooth merging onto higher speed roads.

The bottom line is that statistics prove that speeding doesn't kill, so now we're starting on the first derivative of speed. None of the derivitives of speed or acceleration kill either. People kill when there's something wrong with their skills or attitudes. End of.

And, btw, road safety isn't physics; it's psychology.

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