Safe Speed Forums

Sorry, having thrown my toys out of the pram I should keep out of this, but can I also ask you to substantiate this bizarre allegation?

abercrombe, you keep referring to "slow lane" "fast lane". Speed is relative and the words Fast and Slow are not absolutes, so how fast is "fast", and how slow is "slow"?

You also say that slowing down reduces stress, well I beg to differ. I would rather be 2 hours early than 5 minutes late and am less stressed when cracking on a bit, and that doesn't always mean driving. If you ask my colleagues, when I am most relaxed they will tell you it is when I am flat out. Look at traffic jams, they must be a sea of calm right?

Now this lane changing.

While you are driving on a multilane road you should be scanning your mirrors (sometime we don't use them as much as we should, I know).

Now, when you want to change lane, look in you mirrors to find a suitable gap in the traffic.

When a suitable gap appears, put your right indicator light on, check your mirrors again, do a quick "life saver" look over your shoulder and if the coast is clear, change lane. Once the lane change has been executed successfully, cancel the signal. Easy, right?

With keeping left, here is my tip.

If no body is behind you, then you can stay in the lane you are in, you not holding anyone up. But if during your (ahem) regular mirror checks a vehicle comes up behind you and wants you pass, simply find a suitable gap to the left, pop the ole indicator on and move left.

Hey, here's a an idea: maybe we're all different. Maybe we should try and have a society that lets us live our lives (and in the context of this forum: drive) in as unrestricted a way as possible, while trying to act in a way that places the minimum of restriction on others' behaviour as possible.

In the context of this thread that means if (like Adam L) your stress level is lowest when you are able to go quickly and arrive early, then you should do so, and others should not act in a way that impedes you, but you should also not act in a way that forces others to drive fast.

Equally, if like abercrombie you (for some reason) believe the key to a happy life is arriving at your destination as late as possible, you should do so, if you can do that without holding others up.

Alternatively we could live in a society where others tell us what we can and can't do, even when we know we can ignore their directions quite safely, and by our actions we can force others to behave in a way not to their liking, even though it benefits neither us nor them....

Please go into politics, you'll get my vote.

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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.
- James May

Bald people never win elections, so that's me out!

No but, according to the Bible they have the power to summon she-bears to do there bidding. Have you ever read "Baldness be my Friend" by the late Richard Boston. Hilarious!!

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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

Now I find out! I can think of so many times in the past that would've been handy!

The ton is fun Been there, done more times than I've had hot dinners. Any accident I've ever had, when I was young, was at junctions doing less than 30mph. So what's this thing I hear about speed kills

(Did someone say "handy"? A cold chill just went up my spine )

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Seventy is plenty. Eighty is hasty.

Just because they rhyme, doesn't mean I agree personally, but the only reason I'd drive over 80MpH in Amerika, is if I had a police escort. It wastes too much fuel, my emergency braking distance exceeds ten car lengths (190 feet), and at that speed or greater, you don't get a summons, you get arrested and impounded on most of the east coast. (Larger states with smaller population densities require greater limits.)
Then again, if I lived in Germany or Finland, or some such, I and everyone else would be trained to a much higher standard, which would only leave operation and maintenance costs as my only concerns.


Anyone who believes this to be true requires either significant amounts of remedial training, or eye or neck therapy/surgery. I don't know how someone could stand to live in a constant state of low-level anxiety by maintaining such a belief. Start by looking in any one of your mirrors every three seconds or less without changing lanes until you are always aware of what lane changes are possible - not just yours, by the way.

And talking down to us like Amerikan parents, IMO, is in bad taste.

If it's still 'very complex and quite dangerous', then at least you are more aware of what's going on, but you still need more education/training. Did you click on the next link at driversedguru to learn how to adjust your mirrors properly? It's got the right idea, but it still requires fine tuning. Hint: If you aren't in the middle of the car, should your view out the back be so perfectly centered? Oh, and that's an Amerikan website. Amerikan passenger side mirrors are slightly convex, but our driver side mirrors are not. Are yours?

When I became a taxi driver, I made no less than one lane change a minute, safely. If necessary (usually due to bad directions from the client), I could go from the first/leftmost lane, to the sixth/rightmost lane, in just under five seconds, from the beginning of the physical maneuver, to the end of it. It would be necessary to violate the two-seconds-prior signaling protocol, which is why I don't ever like to do this, but I know when this can be done with an acceptable safety margin because my head and eyes constantly operate as if I might make a lane change at anytime while driving.

If you don't want to make that many lane changes, at least the ones you make will be safer with an excess of observational vigilance.

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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