Police Speed Guns

Ergates

buglawton wrote: »

Some countries (I think including Australia) have 'countdown' signs for exactly the situations where people are coming out of a high speed limit into a low one where the low limit sign can't easily be seen way in advance. Britain doesn't have these

It does. Scotland is full of them.

Ergates

Joe_Horner wrote: »

And the thing is, it's not just me. There are 10s, if not 100s, of thousands of motorists out there who have successfully avoided every idiotic action by others. Because that should be your absolute, no exceptions, and consciously remembered primary aim every single time you take the wheel - to NOT HIT ANYTHING on this trip, no matter what because GENUINELY unavoidable collisions are so incredibly rare that they're not worth considering.

Taking to the road with any other attitude is nothing but preparing to excuse your mistakes before they happen, and that's bad driving.

I think you're missing the point somewhat here.

I'm not suggesting that you *shouldn't* do all of the above, and I'm not suggesting drivers should take the road with a fatalistic "if it happens it happens" attitude.

I'm saying that given you can never be 100% certain to avoid an accident, you should also take steps to lessen the impact [literally] if one were to occur.

So, for instance, if an area is sign-posted as 30, then maybe assume the local authority aren't just incompetent idiots and they had good reason to set the limit to that, and stick to it.

We apply the same logic to our own safety by wearing seatbelts and buying cars with airbags and crumple zones. Why not extend that consideration to pedestrians?

Joe_Horner

Ergates wrote: »

I think you're missing the point somewhat here.

I'm not suggesting that you *shouldn't* do all of the above, and I'm not suggesting drivers should take the road with a fatalistic "if it happens it happens" attitude.

I'm saying that given you can never be 100% certain to avoid an accident, you should also take steps to lessen the impact [literally] if one were to occur.

Absolutely agree, and that's part of good driving which you shouldn't need to be told by a lollipop with a number on it.

So, for instance, if an area is sign-posted as 30, then maybe assume the local authority aren't just incompetent idiots and they had good reason to set the limit to that, and stick to it.

Unfortunately, local authorities do impose a lot of wildly inappropriate speed limits because they know that most drivers are idiots. Even where a limit might not be inappropriate, it's only needed because, without that sign, a simple "school ahead" warning (as an example) won't get most drivers slowing down, even at obviously schools-out times.

Personally I'd take the speed signs AND the drivers who need them in that sort of situation off the roads.

There's a village I pass through on my way to work daily. At those times there are usually cars parked down one, or both, sides of the road and kids waiting for the school bus (morning) or coming out after their tea to play (evening). The 30mph limit is wildly inappropriate - it should be 20 or even less at that time.

On the other hand, it's about 3/4 of a mile clear visibility down a dead straight road, with all houses set well back and with (low) walled gardens so you can see anyone coming out well before they get anywhere near the road.

On a quiet Sunday afternoon like it was today, with no cars parked up (probably at the beach) 40mph creates no risk whatsoever, while allowing you to change up an extra gear, save fuel, pump less crap into the local's air, and make less noise thanks to lower revs. Win-win-win, and all with less risk than doing the "legal" 30 when the kids & cars are around.

A good driver should be able to instantly and clearly recognise the different circumstances and set their speed accordingly.

Long term, the answer to a whole lot of problems - from accidents to local pollution to greenhouse gasses - could be found in getting the ones unable to make that judgement without a lollipop off the road.

Please don't misunderstand me - I generally respect speed limits (often by a very big margin - see above on my commutes). But I also see that, if driving standards were raised to a proper level instead of "barely adequate", they really wouldn't be needed and that's the solution I'd rather see.