Safe Speed Forums

After a tragic fatal accident (where inappropriate or excessive speed played no part) on a local motorway in a knee jerk response the limit was reduced to 50mph on a short section. And as no one took much notice - a modern car will take the bend at 70mph effortlessly (it was engineered for that limit after all). So we got average speed cameras - because you will do as you are told.


With thresholds set by people with a variety of agendas, not all of then in everyones interest and effectively unchallengable.


There have been various claims for public support for speed cameras, some as high as 85% as I recall - this was stated by some politician regarding the switching off of cameras recently. I distrust these figures. Such stats depend on who you ask, what the question was and how big the sample was.

Chris

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

I have placed a number of posts from this thread into the Speed Camera Protest thread (Brake) - I think the OP thread has become lost, so I have taken all other approximate discussions over to the other thread. I appreciate this has now divided this thread.here

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Royshaw
- I have moved your points to here

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Well of course the change in setting speed limits from the 85th%-ile to the 'average mean' saw many limits suddenly drop. (http://safespeed.org.uk/speed.html & http://safespeed.org.uk/speeding.html)

The perception by most drivers when they obtain a ticket is that they were 'not dangerous', which was of course the previous case - you were mostly only ever done for 'dangerous speeding' than 'just speeding' alone.
Now it has become a numeric farce of cat and mouse with digits yet not everyone is one the same playing field.

Which continues the attitude by the authorities that 'we must obey' and totally fails to even recognise that encouraging the individuals self-interest belief to do the right thing is far superior in psychology and results in better motorists overall. No one like big bully tactics and it brings out the worst in people not the best. It changes attitudes of care towards a subject too and can make better drivers worse too.


That is a very 'loaded' answer, but in brief or it will take us off-topic, traffic police can deal with serious offenders to all laws immediately.
People do have different reasons for 'speeding' but you first have to appreciate how that occurs and then if it truly is or is not on a 'dangerous' scale.
Considering that 85% of people mostly drive safely and yet 93% of people admit to speeding, it is good to try and address and understand, the 'level of degrees of 'speeding'.

off topic.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Yes, the accident resulted from a broken-down car being stopped in the outside lane of the motorway. Limited forward visibility was a problem, speed wasn't. And the same could still happen with the SPECS cameras, especially if drivers are fixated on their speedos rather than the road ahead.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Eh? Surely you assist your ability to detect situations in front by slowing down?

So if I drive round a corner and smack into a stationary car that I didn't have time to react to it was limited forward visibility that was my problem, not my speed?

Similar if I smack into the back of a car on a motorway in dense fog, limited forward visibility was my problem, not my speed?

Nope! That only allows you additional time to react; it does little for detection ability (unless what is seen is a result of motion blur).


Those aren't quite the same as what was being discussed; you've moved the goalposts. Your examples are failures of not 'being able to stop in the distance one can expect to be clear'.
The event referred to may be an error of 'following too closely' (hence reducing forward visibility), not speed (hence your examples aren't relevent). Such an event would certainly have been avoided if the driver left an appropriate gap but travelled at the same speed - the problem follows the visibility, not the speed.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Cor, that's a long way of saying the driver was driving too fast for the conditions without actually saying it.

Cor, that's a long way of saying that you completely misunderstood/misconstrued/misrepresented what Steve posted without actually saying it.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

Oh no, didn't you know that tailgating is speeding !?!
</sarcasm>

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

No Steve is right and you are mis-understanding his well phrased perceptions. This tells me that you either read it too fast, and have not absorbed the full impact of it.
This thread is about speed drift too, and so only discussions on that are allowed here - or those closely related to it. This is allowed as it does discuss why speed drift might happen. Concentration on driving (or riding) is essential to road safety - yours and all those about you. By concentrating on the conditions you do react sometimes by lifting off the 'gas' but not always, sometimes you might 'put your foot down' to remove yourself away from danger. Sometimes you might steer away at the same pace.
driving is not about maintaining a constant speed, this is unlikely to be safe within all real world conditions.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.