Observer wrote:
You did as well as you could in the time you were given, Paul. Problem is that the 'safe speed' message will always struggle to be heard in the sound bite battle for public acceptance. 'Speed kills' (etc) is easy to agree with - it's plausible and (superficially) a truism. On the other hand, the conclusion that it is only "inappropriate speed" (below or above the speed limit) that contributes to crashes and that inappropriate speed is (almost invariably) no more than a symptom of a failure of observation, hazard perception or attitude, can only be drawn by following a reasonably sophisticated and rigorous path of critical reasoning. Unfortunately, a substantial proportion (perhaps a substantial majority) of the population simply can't (or can't be bothered to) do that. So the sound bite wins. A depressing but inescapable fact.
Don't worry so much. We can 'soundbite' too, and very effectively...
- Policy isn't working
- The speed limit doesn't tell us what 'too fast' is
And so on.