Safe Speed Forums

I just hold COAST ideals at the very tippy top of my conscience whilst driving (IAM / RoadCraft principles also), and considered associating C with Carnage an insult to the COAST principle. If I had a "whoosh" moment with regard to the banter you have with weepej, then I apologise.

Mine's a large Jamesons BTW, with a single ice cube

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Wenlock Edge was umbered. And bright was Abdon Burf. And warm, beneath them, slumbered the smooth, green miles of turf

Another take on the idea .

Recently I've become taxi driver to my 30+ daughter, with gestational diabetes .We drive over an area which includes a lot of speed humps ,which could be detrimental to my car and to her health and causes her discomfort .So should I drive a bit faster to let you get there sooner , or slower to allow her some comfort ,and stop my car getting wrecked . Now the baby has been born,and with little suport to his neck ,do I drive ar normal speed and risk damage to his spine ,or do I drive slower so that I CAN allow for progeressive braking to protect him .
I drive slower -simple choice - and allow greater braking distance in front .

THINK - THE CAR IN FRONT MIGHT HAVE A NEW BORN BABY IN IT .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
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

Hmmm ...

'Slow pedestrians' tend to
a) be more mindful of their surroundings
b) be more willing to move aside (even if uncertain that the person behind wishes to pass)
c) be less likely to wish to hold up the person behind them intentionally

while 'slow drivers' may be more likely to
1) be less mindful of their surroundings
2) be less willing to move aside (especially when it is known that the person behind wishes to pass)
3) be more likely to wish to hold up the person behind them intentionally

While I tend to believe that people usually don't change spots or colors, I'll also admit that pedestrians find it easier to both get around other people, and to allow other people to get around them, than drivers.

At least one reason why, is that pedestrian paths allow for more pedestrian maneuverability, than automotive paths allow for automotive maneuverability.
What I'm getting at here, is that people might not change their patterns per se, but when the background changes, should we really expect people to behave in exactly the same way?

I.E., Someone might move aside when we're walking and I'm behind them. Yet, that same per might actually try to keep me behind them if we're both driving, even if the lane is wide enough for them to move over enough for me to get past. They may wait until the road expands to two distinct lanes, for example.

However, I doubt they'd slow down if I was behind them when we're walking. If we're driving, however, this same person might slow down.

Though I suppose I can only be sure of discourtesy when that road opens to two distinct lanes, and they then try to block my pass.

I'm afraid my thought has to go unfinished, except that I'm not only saying the environment may make some behaviors seem more inconsiderate than they actually are, I'm also saying that the environment make actually make some people more inconsiderate than they would be in a different environment.

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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

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

I was trying to suggest that a higher stress environment could be one possible reason for a real decrease in courtesy/cooperation and some drivers lesser observational skills could lead to a perception of lack of courtesy. I was hoping this might just spin off some ideas as to why the behaviours of people on foot and driving can be so apparently different. Rush mentions the different manoeuvrability or degrees of freedom available to people on foot for instance, though having worked in a college I disagree that slow walkers will generally let you past. Oddly I find that older people are more likely to notice you behind and let you through than teenagers, which just goes to show there are exceptions. As Botach points out we have to be careful about making judgements as to why someone is driving slowly.

If we can understand why people on foot and driving appear to display different types and degrees of behaviour we might get a better idea about how to improve this behaviour. The other important topic is how we perceive others actions, the general principal often used when a person inconveniences us is to assume they are either incompetent or deliberately trying to irritate us.

If we can grasp why a person driving appears to block passing while quite possibly encourage it while walking we might just come up with a way to make drivers question why they do it.

My blunt following comment was about the way it appeared that there was an argument brewing based on the accuracy of an analogy used to illustrate a point, analogies tend not to stand up to close scrutiny so the argument was pointless imho. So many exchanges on here end up in binary viewpoints through exposition of the minority exceptions to disprove a statement, few systems are completely polarised, most being a continuum of possibilities so again such arguments are of little benefit. I agree that there are topics where fine detail is appropriate, one just has to be careful that the detail being compared lies close on the spectrum and not on a completely different spectrum. No doubt the whole keyboard/forum issue will make my scribblings read rather differently than I intended, a Maths tutor's "it is obvious that" does not always work for the student

And no, before that is misinterpreted I do not ascribe myself a superior position.

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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

Oh. I do wish I hadn't disqualified myself from this thread

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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

Have I missed an important announcement?

Has the NSL been dropped to 50MPH in the last couple of weeks or is it just because of the school holidays?

NO-ONE AT ALL, seems to want to/be cabaple of travelling above 50MPH any more around Shropshire (that's ignoring the usually 40 crawlers).

People will happily accelerate to 50MPH and that's it.

Has all this talk of a 50MPH NSL convinced people that it's already law or do people believe the propoganda and suddenly believe that they are going to live ten years longer now if they drive everywhere at 50MPH?

It's certainly putting years on me (and many minutes on my journey times).

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.