Speeding

Mr_Lahey

I got caught speeding and chose to attend a speed awareness course (was doing 36 in a 30)
It cost £60. Now don't get me wrong, i was surprised at just how much i thought i knew about driving but didn't - I was asked to draw a 'give way' sign and completely forgot it was in an upside down triangle.
A lot of the course included some quite interesting stuff and it certainly has made me think about my driving speed.

However, and this is my whinge, some of the statistics and 'facts' were ridiculous. For example, one of the statistics went something like this "X% of accidents are caused by excess speed or inappropriate speed" Come on, there is a world of difference between driving in excess of the speed limit and at an inappropriate speed. And this was pretty much how many of the statistics went.
Every time someone questioned speed policy the answer was "we're not here to discuss politics of speeding"

Like i said, the course has made me think so in effect has done its job, but it was about as bias and skewed and you could imagine and that was what bugged me.

dacouch

A friend of mine went on a drink driving awareness course, he is a wise alec and had got fed up with them going on about the figures so looked into it himself.

Apparantly when they quoted that there are 4000 odd drink related deaths / injuries on the road a year. He replied "I have looked into this and the figure includes drunk pedestrians who are hit by sober drivers, so I conclude it is safer for me to drive home from the pub drunk than to walk home from the pub drunk"

I'm not condoning it but your post reminded me of him retelling his story

jb66

If you crash at 35mph in a 30 it shouldn't be assumed that speed is the cause, there could be other factors that attributed to the accident I.e tiredness

jdturk

I can see why you would be annoyed, especially if they keep giving of that tripe answer they do!

I hope you pointed out to them the differance between excessive and innappropiate

jdturk

Also what benefit does it have to you to know what a give way sign looks like as long as when you see one is that you recognise it when driving.

Its like when you get asked a question and u know you know the answer but without multiple choice you cannot get the answer out,as soon as you see the choices you know the answer!

wealdroam

jdturk wrote: »

I hope you pointed out to them the differance between excessive and innappropiate

I can understand the difference between exceeding the speed limit and inappropriate speed, but what is the difference between excessive speed and inappropriate speed?

Paul_Varjak

I think the government likes to incorporate statistics into tests these days! It sounds a bit like the UK Nationality Test in order to get UK Citizenship! I bet you that even the most statistical-loving MPs would would fail the UK Nationality Test. Believe me, I have tried these tests online (I am British) and fail about 50% of the time!

BTW, my local Police Station/Libray has a GIVE WAY sign on its premises and it is not upside-down - by that I mean the Council have fitted the GIVE WAY sign the wrong way up!

Storck

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

I think the government likes to incorporate statistics into tests these days! It sounds a bit like the UK Nationality Test in order to get UK Citizenship! I bet you that even the most statistical-loving MPs would would fail the UK Nationality Test. Believe me, I have tried these tests online (I am British) and fail about 50% of the time!

BTW, my local Police Station/Libray has a GIVE WAY sign on its premises and it is not upside-down - by that I mean the Council have fitted the GIVE WAY sign the wrong way up!

Does that mean the writing is upside down? Or has it been made wrong?

focae

wealdroam wrote: »

but what is the difference between excessive speed and inappropriate speed?

Driving above the speed limit is excessive speed.

Driving above the speed limit while passing a speed camera is inappropriate speed.

Paul_Varjak

Storck wrote: »

Does that mean the writing is upside down? Or has it been made wrong?

It means there is no writing - if I recall correctly - just like in many other countries!

If I remember I will take a photo of it, next time I am there!

Mr_Lahey

wealdroam wrote: »

I can understand the difference between exceeding the speed limit and inappropriate speed, but what is the difference between excessive speed and inappropriate speed?

Excessive speed - Driving over the speed limit (could be 32 in a 30 in dry conditions at 3am without another car on the road)

Inappropriate Speed = Driving at say 40 in a 40 but with thick fog and 3 foot of snow.

There is a world of difference between the two, but they were nicely grouped together.

Another i remember when they were talking about the percent of road accidents per year and how the council was told they must reduce these by 40% They showed how they tricked road users to slow down by making roads thinner and introducing speed cameras etc... They reckon they did actually reduce road deaths by over 40% but that includes any one killed say by fatigue, anyone getting run over by their own fault, drunk drivers....... It was ridiculous the way the statistics were grouped. That said, i was shocked to hear that apparently 7 people per day die on Britain's roads.