Speeding drivers

[diy_fun_uk]

Mum lives in a high rise and has a great view overlooking a main road. It's a 30 limit. When I visit I often watch the world go by and I'm always amazed to see the amount of people that speed. Not doing 35 or 40 but evidently a fair bit more. Mum advises it's commonplace.

Weekend just past I was looking out and saw two cars in tandem go flying along, although you can't generalise they were both smaller souped up cars so I reckon they'd be boy/girl racers, likely friends. Without a word of exaggeration, I reckon they must have been doing around 55-60.

There again, why worry when pathetic sentences like this get dished out?

Hit-and-run driver, 28, who killed boy, 13, in Birmingham only stopped when other drivers chased her | Daily Mail Online

 

[motorbiking]

I’m not condoning hit and runs. But to play devils advocate it may be completely safe to drive at 50-60 on that road in certain conditions.

also the amygdala can take over in such a situation and a normal decent person can suddenly either fight or run. You’d be shocked at how this part of your brain can override common sense.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

I’m not condoning hit and runs. But to play devils advocate it may be completely safe to drive at 50-60 on that road in certain conditions.

also the amygdala can take over in such a situation and a normal decent person can suddenly either fight or run. You’d be shocked at how this part of your brain can override common sense.

Nope, sorry, don't agree. If we go down that route its completely open to driver/rider interpretation as to when it's safe/not safe to speed. The road I refer to is in a built up area, has pavements either side popular with walkers, joggers, etc and a fair few families out for a walk or cycle. It's one thing to creep a few mph over the limit, but 20+mph? Nah, too much in my book.

I also laugh when I watch drivers daring to slow down to turn into a side street and the car behind them swerves out to the other lane so they don't have to slow down. I mean quite right, who wants to be inconvenienced having to break cause a car in front is slowing down.

 

[motorbiking]

It’s not about numbers. It’s about what you can see. The more we focus on numbers, the less we will look and plan based on what we see. Blindly sticking to 30mph in switched off mode, following the car in front is much more dangerous than going faster because the view points are clear and the hazards low.

When I used to teach advanced. I used to pull the candidate over on a rural NSL and ask, what speed? A very high number had no clue how to choose a safe speed, without a speed limit sign. In theory these were the better road users as they’d had the thought to book an advanced course.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I’m not condoning hit and runs. But to play devils advocate it may be completely safe to drive at 50-60 on that road in certain conditions.

We too suffer it here and it's a 20 limit - it is never, ever safe to do that sort of speed in a built up area. I live in an estate, which is a convenient rat run. The pavements are narrow, lots of people having to walk on the road to pass each other, lots of mothers with prams and kids, add to that drivers trying to reverse in and out of their drives and a few vehicles parked on the road. A very unsafe place to do more than 20mph and I have seen several accidents over the years.

 

[Munroast]

It’s not about numbers. It’s about what you can see. The more we focus on numbers, the less we will look and plan based on what we see. Blindly sticking to 30mph in switched off mode, following the car in front is much more dangerous than going faster because the view points are clear and the hazards low.

that may be true for the very best of drivers, but whilst we have poor drivers we need speed limits to guide them and limit the damage they do when they crash. So until all poor and incompetent drivers are removed from the road then we need speed limits, and those speed limits should reflect the ability of the worst of the poor drivers.

And the most dangerous of the worst of the poorest drivers and quite easily identified - they normally think they are very good, go on and on about being 'advanced drivers' and would like to be allowed to driver faster.

I only need to slow down to put my car in its garage. And having a garage to keep your car in is probably another indication of someone not suited to car ownership, or driving.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

that may be true for the very best of drivers, but whilst we have poor drivers we need speed limits to guide them and limit the damage they do when they crash. So until all poor and incompetent drivers are removed from the road then we need speed limits, and those speed limits should reflect the ability of the worst of the poor drivers.

And the most dangerous of the worst of the poorest drivers and quite easily identified - they normally think they are very good, go on and on about being 'advanced drivers' and would like to be allowed to driver faster.

I only need to slow down to put my car in its garage. And having a garage to keep your car in is probably another indication of someone not suited to car ownership, or driving.

Poor drivers simply lack the ability to assess an appropriate speed for the conditions.
So motorbiking's arguments are fallacious because all drivers have different reaction times, and awareness of the environment, and will therefore arrive at a different assessment of what is an appropriate speed.
Therefore, without mandatory speed limits, all drivers would be travelling at different speeds, which would create its own inherent dangers.

 

[^woody^]

Most people think they are better drivers than they are. Like BMW drivers and their implied licence to tailgate and not indicate, or SUV drivers and their right to park where they like, young boys think a sticker on their cars gives them magical ability to become ace rally drivers on the bends and F1 drivers on the straights.

There was a story on the nationals this week of three arrsoles racing the streets near me. The poor bloke they hit is still dealing with his injuries after two years, and the sentence the kids got is derisory. There is no mention of whether the kids were insured and if there was a payout

WATCH: Boy racers who ploughed into innocent man's car locked up | Express & Star (expressandstar.com)

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

that may be true for the very best of drivers, but whilst we have poor drivers we need speed limits to guide them and limit the damage they do when they crash. So until all poor and incompetent drivers are removed from the road then we need speed limits, and those speed limits should reflect the ability of the worst of the poor drivers.

And the most dangerous of the worst of the poorest drivers and quite easily identified - they normally think they are very good, go on and on about being 'advanced drivers' and would like to be allowed to driver faster.

I only need to slow down to put my car in its garage. And having a garage to keep your car in is probably another indication of someone not suited to car ownership, or driving.

I agree with all of that, except the final paragraph - which makes no sense. I have a garage and make good use of it between my need for the car. I had company cars for many decades, racking up millions of miles in them - but for my personal needs I always had my own car and sometimes a motorbike as well. Company car was kept out on my drive, bike and car in the garage when not actually being used. I now only have the car which it is pointless to use, apart from for trips and holidays, because the buses for me are now free and usually more convenient than taking the car, hence the car lives in the extensive garage between uses, protecting it from the elements.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

There was a story on the nationals this week of three arrsoles racing the streets near me. The poor bloke they hit is still dealing with his injuries after two years, and the sentence the kids got is derisory. There is no mention of whether the kids were insured and if there was a payout

WATCH: Boy racers who ploughed into innocent man's car locked up | Express & Star (expressandstar.com)

Which is one reason I like to be driving a big heavy car

 

[diy_fun_uk]

It’s not about numbers. It’s about what you can see. The more we focus on numbers, the less we will look and plan based on what we see. Blindly sticking to 30mph in switched off mode, following the car in front is much more dangerous than going faster because the view points are clear and the hazards low.

When I used to teach advanced. I used to pull the candidate over on a rural NSL and ask, what speed? A very high number had no clue how to choose a safe speed, without a speed limit sign. In theory these were the better road users as they’d had the thought to book an advanced course.

Sorry disagree, and I didn't refer to blindly sticking to limits. I would have thought most drivers are capable of sticking to within a few mph of a limit +/- whilst still remaining alert. Take the two drivers that whizzed past mum's place doing 55-60 in a 30. Maybe they thought 'clear ahead, no other vehicles or pedestrians, let's GO!' so they've judged the road ahead to be safe for faster driving.

Then a little girl appears from nowhere and runs across the road ...

 

[conny]

Nope, sorry, don't agree. If we go down that route its completely open to driver/rider interpretation as to when it's safe/not safe to speed. The road I refer to is in a built up area, has pavements either side popular with walkers, joggers, etc and a fair few families out for a walk or cycle. It's one thing to creep a few mph over the limit, but 20+mph? Nah, too much in my book.

I also laugh when I watch drivers daring to slow down to turn into a side street and the car behind them swerves out to the other lane so they don't have to slow down. I mean quite right, who wants to be inconvenienced having to break cause a car in front is slowing down.

Which, if you apply the law of the road, is illegal to do because it clearly states "You must not overtake at a junction, bend, brow of a hill etc, etc....."
When I turn left off the main A road into the road leading to our village there is a slight, tapered moving over section about twice the length of a standard car. The central line on the main road is actually 2 parallel unbroken lines with the central area having diagonal stripes. Clearly a 'No Overtaking' area, yet the number of vehicles, (cars, vans, lorries and motorbikes), that cross those lines then have to swerve back quickly is astounding. There is usually a vehicle in the hedgerow opposite at least every couple of weeks because they have had to take avoiding action or have been shunted there when there was a crash. I'm actually surprised there hasn't been a fatality during the almost 6 years we have lived here. The road is long and straight with a 60mph limit so no excuse for not hanging back and having a clear view of whats coming from the opposite direction or waiting to come out from the left.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Which, if you apply the law of the road, is illegal to do because it clearly states "You must not overtake at a junction, bend, brow of a hill etc, etc....."
When I turn left off the main A road into the road leading to our village there is a slight, tapered moving over section about twice the length of a standard car. The central line on the main road is actually 2 parallel unbroken lines with the central area having diagonal stripes. Clearly a 'No Overtaking' area, yet the number of vehicles, (cars, vans, lorries and motorbikes), that cross those lines then have to swerve back quickly is astounding. There is usually a vehicle in the hedgerow opposite at least every couple of weeks because they have had to take avoiding action or have been shunted there when there was a crash. I'm actually surprised there hasn't been a fatality during the almost 6 years we have lived here. The road is long and straight with a 60mph limit so no excuse for not hanging back and having a clear view of whats coming from the opposite direction or waiting to come out from the left.

We've all experienced it, you slow down to make e.g. a left turn and the driver behind you scowls. Do they expect the car in front to take the turn without slowing down at all? Idiots.

I get a great view of all this from mum's flat as it's a few floors up. The amount of speeders is disappointing as is the amount of people that do the swerve thing to pass a car slowing down for the junction.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It’s not about numbers. It’s about what you can see. The more we focus on numbers, the less we will look and plan based on what we see. Blindly sticking to 30mph in switched off mode, following the car in front is much more dangerous than going faster because the view points are clear and the hazards low.

When I used to teach advanced. I used to pull the candidate over on a rural NSL and ask, what speed? A very high number had no clue how to choose a safe speed, without a speed limit sign. In theory these were the better road users as they’d had the thought to book an advanced course.

I have never been one for following anything, unless I have no choice, but I agree - it does pose it's own risks of not thinking for yourself, rather relying on the driver ahead of you.

Any speed at all is dangerous, no matter how slow. It's a matter of being good at assessing the risks or odds correctly, so as to adequately minimise the risks. Some people are successful at doing it, some are not and never learn.