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Dan1980
Bit of a flawed argument there re safety and easily disproved by citing the number of motorcyclists who are prepared to speed with none of the protection you mention.
I don't believe it's a feeling of safety which contributes to drivers taking 'risks', in fact I don't believe many drivers would be properly able to evaluate a risk if it slapped them in the face. I believe it is the fact that modern cars are virtually armchairs on wheels, where exterior sensory input (other than visual) is a driver option and the basic operation of which requires little more than pointing and steering.
Some drivers will actually drive their car properly, taking account of the conditions and hazards and drive accordingly. The others primary concern is if the heating is at the right temp and the right tunes are playing.
If speeding is so awfull, why do the police not prosecute evryone who actually has an accident ?
They will happily prosecute speeders all day long , but heaven forbid if you have a car / car interface , thats OK is it .
It's down to cost effectiveness. Speed camera prosecutions are almost automatic. Very little police or court time involved as most people plead guilty. If every speeder plead NG the system would grind to a halt within 3 months.
As for speed traps. That involves two cops taking perhaps 10-15 minutes per speeder. Doing a careless driver involved in an accident means far, far more time getting statements from the other driver and independent witnesses. Then when it reaches court (which is more likely because carelessness is more subjective) rather than two cops giving evidence using an hour of the court's time it might take a whole morning or a whole day. Too expensive. A simple speeding case is really cheap and easy to prove but most people plead guilty anyway.
I can't comment on everywhere but I worked in one city where there was an unwritten rule that it was usually a waste of time reporting non injury road accidents as a careless driving. The courts were too busy dealing with junkies, shoplifters, assaults etc. So the police report would just get marked "No Proceedings" by the Procurator Fiscal.
Obviously there were exceptions and really bad bits of driving would get taken to court. In general though more speeders (potentially dangerous) were dealt with (whether by Fixed penalty or through the court) than careless drivers where bad driving (actual danger) had caused an accident - or crash as it is called these days.
IMO the best way of dealing with bad driving, whether speeding or not, is more traffic cars. Drivers can't argue with on board video showing their driving. With cutbacks though most traffic depts are getting smaller not larger.
Seems to me the argumnet for speed awareness courses has been well and truly made by some of those posting on this thread....And staying within the speed limit is easy-if you're finding it difficult then perhaps you need more training....?
An average family car travelling at 35mph will need an extra 21 feet to stop than one travelling at 30mph.
It is not safer to drive faster at night. Casualty rates are double that during daylight hours due to higher speeds because of less traffic, higher alcohol consumption, tiredness and darkness.
If you hit a cyclist or pedestrian at 35mph rather than 30mph, the force of the impact increases by more than a third.
Traffic is the biggest single killer of 12-16 year olds. In 2002, 35 teenagers aged 12-15 were killed as pedestrians on the roads and statistics show that they are twice as likely to be knocked down as toddlers.
Motorcyclists represent 1% of traffic but suffer 19% of deaths and serious injuries.
Pedestrians represent 13% of all road casualties and 23% of all road deaths. 40% who are struck at speeds below 20 mph sustain serious injuries, but this rises to 90% at speeds up to 30 mph.
A change in the mean speed of traffic will affect collision risk and each reduction in mean speed of 1mph will reduce collision frequency by about 5%
Seven out of 10 drivers admit to regularly breaking the 30mph speed limit.
Around two thirds of all accidents in which people are killed or seriously injured happen on roads where the speed limit is 40mph or less.
If a driver hits a pedestrian at 20 mph, the pedestrian has a 95% chance of survival. At 30 mph the survival chance is 80% and if a driver hits a pedestrian at 40 mph, the pedestrian's survival chances fall to just 10%
In 2003, 37,215 people were killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions in Great Britain, of which 4,100 were children under 15 years of age.
Source: Department for Transport - Think website - www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk
Excess speed (above the speed limit) is a frequent contributory factor, but inappropriate speed (too fast for the local road conditions) is just as important. Tackling the issue of excess speed is only part of the problem. Fatigue, lack of attention (driving whilst using a mobile ‘phone, poor driving conditions, adverse weather conditions and failure to wear seats belts all play their part in keeping the annual casualty figures at an unacceptably high level and a wide range of agencies are working to address those issues.
If you hit a cyclist or pedestrian at 35mph rather than 30mph, the force of the impact increases by more than a third.
Injury frequency also rises disproportionately with speed. At 30 mph a belted front seat passenger is 3 times more likely to suffer serious injury on impact than at 20 mph. At 40 mph the likelihood is 5 times greater.
Every driver can make a difference just by slowing down a few miles per hour and observing speed limits.
Safety cameras are not of use where the problem is one of inappropriate speed rather than speed in excess of the limit.
I got two speeding fines within a week, both on roads i don't use often and quite late at night with little traffic on them, 34 in a 30 and 46 in a 40, shi! happens. 😀
What sticks in my claw though is the police did sweet f.a when i was run over when out on my bike by a hit and run driver. 👿
P.s. hit and run happened within half a mile of a speed camera.
Dez,
I clearly aren't as smart as you as you've totally lost me; I haven't been playing the 'smarter than thou' game. Merely my view is that speeding is unacceptable, and personally I don't find it a laughing matter.
Get yourself on a course, I'm sure you'll benefit from it 🙂
Ah, glad I've got a chance to reply to you mikertroid.
So, I post a clearly pissed off message about a speeding ticket and you make the assumption that I find [i]speeding[/i] a laughing matter?
Have another read mate, it's not speeding that's funny it's YOU. (ie. Singletrackworld)
In case I still have to ****ing spell it out to you. I posted to get a laugh out of the people on this forum, not out of the fact that I had to pay a £60 fine and get 3 points on my license.
I really can't believe I had to explain that.
That'll be the De(Z)fence. 🙂
🙄
Ha ha ha ha! Maybe the next person caught drink driving could post here so we could all have a right royal laugh too.
Ain't STW brill? 😆
You really have trouble with comprehension don't you? WTF has drink driving got to do with it? Don't bother answering.
DezB - this thread has probably been a worse punishment than the speed awareness course - it's certainly lasted longer 😉
Dez, seriously, if you have the chance to do the Speed Awareness Course, then give it a go.
Go to a car insurance quote website, and get quotes for your current situation, one set with the SP30, one without. If there's no financial difference, then maybe the course isn't for you. Also, bear in mind that there may be problems renting cars abroad with points on your license (this could be an urban myth though) so if you're likely to need to do this over the next three years, then again, the course might be a good idea.
As for getting the points in the first place, as Effin would say, oh whell. Suck it up. Many of us have been there...been caught twice myself over the years and taken the course each time...just felt better with a clean license and the cost was the same anyway. No condemnation from me but at the same time, no sympathy either. 🙂
glitchy bump
I have sucked it up mate. Paid and took license in the same day I started this thread.
All this judgement about my attitude and way I drive just from one speeding ticket in 30 years is pretty pathetic really. (Although some of it has made me laugh.)
(Apart from he bits where people just don't [i]get it[/i])
Speeding is both big and clever. And it is a well documented fact that anyone who disagrees is a paedophile.
I don't think anyone can really come back against an intelligent argument like that!
pretty pathetic really
Well done, you've just described speeding in a built-up area
which all of us have done at some point
Zokes, show me a driver who [i]hasn't[/i] speeded in a built-up area and I'll show you a liar.