Why is speeding socially acceptable?

motorguy

MEM62 wrote: »

Well that ain't working is it?

If you want effective you need more officers out there dealing with the sort of idiotic driving that cameras can't but I doubt that there is the political will to do it.

+1

Any time i have to drive through our local town i see at least 3 near misses - people slamming on the brakes THEN indicating, people driving out of parking spaces without looking and people cutting lanes to get to a parking space or people just STOPPING because they have to let their (usually fat) girlfriend out right outside the shop she needs to waddle in to. Pedestrians just wandering out on to the road when it suits them is another one. Kids running about unsupervised near roads.

People speeding? Not so much...

Ganga

motorguy wrote: »

Erm, because a cyclist going through a red light means hes driving in to traffic that has a green light and has a right of way? Some idiot cyclist bumbling through a red light to save himself a few seconds in to the path of a lorry doesnt sound like the brightest idea in the world?

I've no complaint about speed cameras when they are placed for road safety. I do however object to them being placed purely to earn revenue.

But surely if you stick to the speed limit it will not mater where their place them :rotfl:

motorguy

Ganga wrote: »

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But surely if you stick to the speed limit it will not mater where their place them :rotfl:

I am not so selfish as to only object to things that I may fall foul of myself.

For example, i object to capital punishment but that doesnt mean i do so because i've murdered someone.

And likewise, i dont think someone being done for doing 31 or 32MPH on an open stretch of road that happens to be a 30 is necessarily achieving anything but i dont think any of us could say we havent done so inadvertently at some point?

Car_54

motorguy wrote: »

i dont think someone being done for doing 31 or 32MPH on an open stretch of road that happens to be a 30 is necessarily achieving anything

That's why it doesn't happen.

fred246

You could have a big lorry with cages on it with a speed camera. Anyone found speeding could be instantly caged for 24 hours. That would stop the criminals moaning that it was about money generation. Would be more effective than a fine I imagine.

motorguy

fred246 wrote: »

You could have a big lorry with cages on it with a speed camera. Anyone found speeding could be instantly caged for 24 hours. That would stop the criminals moaning that it was about money generation. Would be more effective than a fine I imagine.

I suspect on the basis that it predominantly is about money generation, they wont be taking you up on that idea.

motorguy

I'm all for enforcement of speed limits by the way, particularly in 20MPH, 30MPH and 40MPH zones where there are likely to be children and pedestrians.

We live beside a primary school in a village and its shocking to see how many people zoom past our door. Most often though its middle aged and older people who think those lower speed limits dont apply to them, yet will no doubt be po faced and indignant about some "speedster" passing them at 80MPH on the motorway.

However I'd rather see more innovative ways of helping to ensure people dont speed rather than some punitive punishment on the rare few they catch.

Cornucopia

fred246 wrote: »

You could have a big lorry with cages on it with a speed camera. Anyone found speeding could be instantly caged for 24 hours. That would stop the criminals moaning that it was about money generation. Would be more effective than a fine I imagine.

Sounds a bit draconian.

My idea would be to use the existing speed camera approach, but with a couple of refinements:-

- Speed prosecutions would only be for people who were speeding at [Speed Limit] + 30% (say).

- The variable speed limit would drop automatically for a period of time when other speeders were detected (suitable algorithm to be devised).

The idea would be that the bad behaviour of one driver could impact everyone (at least for a time). I've seen something similar in Spanish towns, where a red traffic light is linked to a speed camera. If you approach at above the speed limit, the light goes red. (We could usefully use this, too).

fred246

John_G_Jones wrote: »

It is not obvious at all

Wow. I just spotted that someone has said that it's not obvious to him that the chance of dying is related to the speed you are travelling at. If you come off the road and hit an immovable object like a bridge (or tree is the famous one that people don't realise) then the chance of you dying is obviously going to be related to your speed. Surely you don't need research to realise that? There is plenty of research out there if you really don't understand and it's useful to quantify exactly the risk at each speed. Hitting a pedestrian is the same. The faster you are travelling the more damage you do to the pedestrian.

motorguy

fred246 wrote: »

Wow. I just spotted that someone has said that it's not obvious to him that the chance of dying is related to the speed you are travelling at. If you come off the road and hit an immovable object like a bridge (or tree is the famous one that people don't realise) then the chance of you dying is obviously going to be related to your speed. Surely you don't need research to realise that? There is plenty of research out there if you really don't understand and it's useful to quantify exactly the risk at each speed. Hitting a pedestrian is the same. The faster you are travelling the more damage you do to the pedestrian.

And AGAIN that comes back to carelessness and inappropriate speed being the problem NOT the speed itself.

Heres statistics from the Department of Transports data on road traffic accidents

1. Driver/rider error or reaction (64,189 incidents reported in 2017)
2. Behaviour or inexperience (20,282 incidents reported in 2017)
3. Injudicious action (18,280 incidents reported in 2017)
4. Impairment or distraction (12,973 incidents reported in 2018)
5. Pedestrian only (11,326 incidents reported in 2017)
6. Road environment contributed (11,314 reported in 2017)
7. Vision affected by external factors (8,983 incidents reported in 2017)
8. Special code (4,209 incidents reported in 2017)
9. Vehicle defects (1,539 incidents reported in 2017)

https://www.acvm.com/news/the-most-common-causes-of-raod-accidents.html

For speeding to be such an "issue", i'm not seeing it emblazoned up there on that list.

So if you want to improve road safety, you're barking up entirely the wrong tree thinking speeding is the main cause.