The Great Speed Awareness Course Scam

motorguy

Stoke wrote: »

I've not taken that from his comments whatsoever He seems to be suggesting that the motto "speed kills" isn't really honest or truthful.

I think it should be - inappropriate speed kills.

Stoke

motorguy wrote: »

I think it should be - inappropriate speed kills.

Yep Very much so..... and inappropriate speed in vehicles that simply aren't safe anymore, like old bangers.

Cornucopia

Deastons wrote: »

Too long, didn't read. I'm trying to understand your position, but your flippant comments are making it tricky.

Flippant? Not the intention.

In short, I believe people should stick to the speed limits. What are you saying? People should be able to drive at any speed they wish?

No. As Stoke says, above, it's not that. And I did say before that it wasn't that.

It's that "speed kills" and similar road safety memes are understandably short, but that can (and does) render them such that many drivers will know that they aren't accurate and ignore them.

Where I live, the Highways Agency have a bad habit of putting speed restrictions on the motorways that are many miles from the incidents concerned (which in many cases have long since disappeared). They also almost always place the same restrictions across all 4 lanes, when the issue only affects (say) an upcoming slip road. Drivers know that they are safe to continue at speeds well in excess of the restricted limit, and they do. That can mean that the speed disparity between speedy drivers and those keeping to the restriction creates danger rather than prevents it.

When dealing with a complex environment like the roads, virtually everything has consequences, and psychology is as important, if not more so than physics.

NBLondon

Cornucopia wrote: »

Where is this wondrous land of enthusiastic speed enforcement? Certainly not anywhere near here. The main A2-M2 motorway route has no speed cameras from Dartford all the way to past Faversham (a distance of 40 miles of prime speed freak apprehension opportunity)

But there are plenty along the A2 in the London stretches where there's a 50 limit - and traffic tends to run at 55 then drop to 43 as people see the cameras. Then as you pass the last camera before Dartford - many locals push up towards 70 in anticipation of crossing the Kentish border. Now that would be a money-spinner of a place for a mobile camera!

Deastons

motorguy wrote: »

I think it should be - inappropriate speed kills.

Is breaking the speed limit not deemed inappropriate?

System

Deastons wrote: »

But I hope you concede that your comment ""Speed Kills" is just wrong in every conceivable way" is inaccurate. Speed certainly does kill.

In only 5% of fatal accidents and 6% of all accidents speeding is a contributory factor yet the amount of time and money spent to its policing is way disproportionate to that.

reeac

I seem to recall seeing a figure of 31 percent I think in a .Rospa document.

Deastons

"On 20mph roads, 81% of car drivers exceed the speed limit and 44% exceed 25mph. "

Well that's no surprise.

Cornucopia

reeac wrote: »

I seem to recall seeing a figure of 31 percent I think in a .Rospa document.

Need to be a little careful with these stats - there are a lot of figures for accidents due to speeding, and they vary hugely.

The 31% I can only see for the US, BTW.

The BBC has a pie-chart that looks to be c. 23%.

Direct_Line wrote:

West Midlands and the South West are Britain's speeding casualty hot spots where one in six (18 per cent) of all road casualties were a result of speeding

ROSPA wrote:

Inappropriate speed contributes to around 11% of all injury collisions reported to the police, 15% of crashes resulting in a serious injury and 24% of collisions that result in a death.

This includes both "excessive speed", when the speed limit is exceeded but also driving or riding within the speed limit when this is too fast for the conditions at the time (for example, in poor weather, poor visibility or high pedestrian activity).

Johno100

Deastons wrote: »

"On 20mph roads, 81% of car drivers exceed the speed limit and 44% exceed 25mph. "

Well that's no surprise.

Perhaps the speed limit is inappropriate?