Safe Speed Forums

There I was just watching Traffic Cops (don't hate me, I'm ill) and the voice over said 'we're all told speed kills, but bad driving is far more likely to cause a serious accident'. Common sense on such a programme? I was astounded. The BBC know the score, even if the powers that be do not. Surprised Brake haven't formed a picket line around BBC HQ.

Well spotted that man!...........

It made me smile. I imagine if Brake were watching there would have been a few spat dummies flying towards the TV screen

Don’t hold your breath Dok, just wait for the BBC complaints program this weekend. I can’t remember the guys name now but he’s quite old with a good lock of fair hair. It’ll probably go something like...

“And this one in from Mrs Cutout in Portsmouth reads”

“How utterly irresponsible of the BBC to allow a commentator make such a stupid and incorrect remark. It has taken many years of brainwashing to get everyone to recognise how speed kills and we all know that any speed over the posted limit is dangerous. So how dare he say that it’s bad driving which causes accidents and not speed. It’s foolish comments like that which has taken us so long to introduce 20 mph limits in our area”

"But Mr Toe Knee from Birmingham has emailed in to say”

“What an absolute breath of fresh air it is to hear someone on the BBC at long last put some perspective on this issue. If Mrs Cutout from Portsmouth writes-in please tell her she’s a nob head from me will you”.

_________________
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.

Ah, the right to reply culture. That's where a lot of this comes from, I feel. Limits being set or influenced by the hysterical squawkings of a minority with too much time on their hands instead of independent scientific consultation being applied. Of course, it plays into the hands of politicians. How lucrative a ruse 'safety' scameras are when so many people have such faith in what is really no more than a token gesture towards road safety and one that fails to appreciate accident reducation in anything other than speed-related terms.

I was as pleased as I was astounded when I heard Jamie Theakston narrating what amounts to common sense instead of the usual PC-driven hysterical drivel, that most people know, I would hope, to be utterly false, that you'd expect from these programmes. I remember when watching another similar police programme being incensed at a traffic cop drawing a comparision between speeders exceeding a newly implemented 20mph zone by no more than 10 mph and a biker who was sadly decapitated getting his knee down on a dual carriageway at over 120. Surely anyone with a sane, balanced perspective could never use the latter example as justification for prosecturing the former? I was appalled. (Look at me. I am beginning to sound like someone off Points of View!) He also went on to mention how the limit was dropped due to pedestrians, particularly young and old people, in the area. I didn't see one soul about while he was conducting his speed checks. Yet he pulled every driver over limit. A waste of police resources surely and really I would hope that copper's attitude was not representational of the majority of police in this country.

I think what these bleeding hearts don’t realise is that if a proper speed limit was used based on the 85th%ile and if they caught people speeding where it is actually dangerous I’m sure no-one would have a problem with whoever gets done and the Police and Government or local councils would command more respect from the public.

I know if I was done for speeding where it was dangerous I would see it as a fair cop, but the truth is I never speed where it is dangerous. The completely random nature of ‘what limit’ and ‘where’ especially gets up my nose when I can see perfect like-for-like roads, surrounds, housing, volume of traffic and peds etc. yet they are attributed different limits.

The only way these same bleeding hearts can argue with this very simple fact is by incessant repetition of the speed kills mantra and wild accusations that because I speed I am going to kill someone when in fact I haven’t in 36 years of driving and riding in this country, America and on the Continent. This suggests to me that I must be doing something right and the truth is I am. (Here I go again). I use an appropriate speed for the conditions which can be, and often is, very much below the posted limit if I know it to be too fast.

Many’s the time I have been flashed or gesticulated to from a driver behind me, or he’s stuck right up my arris, because I am going too slow for his taste. (When passing a school for instance and there are children present). What also gets up my nose is the dangerous way parents park in stupid places for their own selfish convenience as though they have got to walk bare foot across shards of glass to collect their kids. These idiotic mothers are probably the same ones complaining about speed when what they are doing is arguably much worse.

_________________
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.

No their whole rationale is that speed kills and if they cut the speed people drive by 10mph or whatever that more lives will be saved or casualties lessened. However, driving is a risky business. One requiring a ratiocinative process of complete awareness and concentration that I do not believe is present in most of us pootling along needlessly at 20mph. Of course, there are times I slow to less than 20mph and am still alert. I am always particularly weary if there are cars parked either side of the road or other obstructions. However when reduced to it needlessly due to a sign that is presumably only there to make some fragile, over-zealous counsellor feel good I yawn and trundle. Which is dangerous. Merely cutting a speed limit is like banning laces so people don't trip over them. It takes away a driver's ability to reason and determine what speed is safe based on the conditions, signs etc. That is what good driving is.

As for the cosseted little cherubs, where are the green cross code adverts on TV etc. that we had back even in my day? Make them walk home. I have seen Mums literally drive round the corner to pick their kids up.