Safe Speed Forums

Express & Star hereThey are failing to recognise that if so many people are still speeding then just maybe there is something going on as there is not carnage on the roads that they imply happens if people are to 'speed'. The fact too that they are are only allowing a few to have some 'education' and have to pay for it is disgraceful.
Education needs to be free and readily accessible to all not just a few.
To only have those that go on the courses be the one's who are only a few mph over the limit, that also are the majority of drivers showed that they are failing too to appreciate what the 85th percentile is all about.
It also fails to show that they understand that people choose a speed on a road and you can raise or lower that posted speed, and yet people will retain that chosen speed, unless prevailing conditions change.
Are they 'following the money' or do they think that they are genuinely trying to 'do good'!?
When we see how all the course money is returned to the Partnerships and to the course providers it is quite disturbing that this rapidly growing Speed Industry is profiting while the wrong road safety message is being prioritised above all others, and so the right messages are being ignored and never promoted at all, and those might do good !

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Speed awareness will be the next big scam that feeds the speeding industry and keeps the non-jobs in work. Its hypothecation by stealth, with a circular funding system re-instated. Be afraid because the 'fines' will be far higher now. Just as court is for the rich so accepting fines and points was the only option for most, now the protection of the essential drivers licence will ensure a steady trade of ordinary people credit cards at the ready.... We are the squeezed middle!!

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Enjoying the twilight years of personal freedom in the UK (and my M3) :)

The only mindset around here which needs to change is that of the authorities who believe that enforcing speed limits can prevent collisions, or reduce their severity.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

Yep indeed, motorists recognising a potential hazard early will aid them to adjust their speed and position immediately and so no longer will they be travelling at a 'free travelling speed'.
The recent interview had the RAC chap believing that simply making motorists slow means that they will crash at a slower speed - that it will help. But it is a wrong concept. Making a driver / rider slower can make them less engaged, less attentive and less capable as they travel slower than is reasonable for the conditions.
This concept seems to fall on deaf ears, it is I guess not convenient for them to believe it.
It is a longer harder method to make motorists better than to send out millions of pounds of fines, than implement sound engineering (etc) or teach proper and intelligent road safety.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

What concerns me about these courses is the lack of consistency between different partnerships and Police Forces regarding the criteria for being offered a course - some across all speed bands, some only for 30 mph infringements, some for 30 mph and 50 mph through average speed cameras on motorways. Its a postcode lottery and frankly discriminatory that some should be allowed the course and others not - we are supposed to be all equal in the eyes of the law!

Another point about them is that ACPO issued guidelines on the parameters that were to be applied - 10% over the limit + 6mph in order to be offered a course. In a 30 limit for example that means 39. Some areas are now offering you the course if you are caught at up to 42 in a 30 limit. How anyone with a modicum of intelligence can allow people to get away (because that's what it really adds up to) with driving at up to 40% over the posted limit in a 30 mph zone is beyond me. These limits are surely set because these are the places where you are much more likely to come into contact with pedestrians etc that you can kill. By adopting this policy the Police are saying to people - 'it's OK to drive way over the speed limit until we catch you'.

The Government is plainly wasting millions on ads telling us 'its 30 for a reason' and how 'people die when you hit them at 35 but might get away with it if you're only doing 30', when the so called law enforcers continue to offer these 'get out' options.

As you might have gathered I'm miffed at not being offered the course for being caught at 83 in a 70 limit because the force area I was caught in only offers it to those exceeding the 30 limit!!

If these numbers of people are exceeding the speed limit, one has to question the suitability of the limits for those particular stretches of road. This idea the authorities seem to have that the limit they set must be right and everybody is wrong is both harmful and arrogant and does not serve to improve road safety one iota.

It is interesting to note the difference between the 1977 edition of Roadcraft, which was published before all the "speed kills" nonsense and when most of the contents came from Hendon experiences.

1977 Ch 9 "--- Speed is often looked on as something dangerous in itself, but it is only dangerous if used in the wrong place at the wrong time. Speed then is a relative thing.

What to a novice driver may be a dangerous speed is not necessarily so to the more experienced driver."

2002 Ch 11 ----"Speed has a major impact on safety. International evidence clearly shows that lower speed limits result in fewer accidents". (That's funny, using this theory the rate of KSI reduction actually slowed to what we were getting previously.)

"In chapter one we saw that drivers who drive fast regardless of the circumstances have an accident risk three to five times greater than drivers who do not."

To me the 1977 statement is logical and informative, the 2002 statement is muddled thinking and does nothing to give any useful information. Of course driving too fast for the circumstances increases the accident risk, but that does not mean that driving slower all the time makes for safer driving. But of course, silly me, I am forgetting, this fits the Government "Speed kills" policy.

This at least, is surely true, even in the latest edition: -



Nowadays I see so many drivers driving fast roundblind left-handbends with no hope of stopping short of an obstruction; maybe they are clairvoyant. This and tailgating on the motorway and other fast roads makes one doubt they have any brain cells at all!

When I was a motorcyclist we were encouraged to read "Road Craft" to give us expert guidance - the 1977 edition of course ! I am not sure if there was a motorcycle version, or not, it's too long ago. What I DO know is that I rode a motorcycle for nearly 25 years with nary an accident, but at times at quite high speed, so the advice in the manual was clearly beneficial, to me at least.

This current concentration on speed to the exclusion of all else is not just mistaken, it is wickedly mistaken. But of course there is too much at stake for the players, isn't there ? - high salaries, bonuses, (probably), generous gold-plated pensions, and a job for life living high-on-the-hog on others mistakes; is everyone perfect and error-free during every second of their driving ? No, I thought not, but these people are well aware of this, but are still out to get you with their malicious and vindictive mindset

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Good manners maketh a good motorist

[quote="safedriver"]

[quote]"Nowadays I see so many drivers driving fast roundblind left-handbends with no hope of stopping short of an obstruction; maybe they are clairvoyant. This and tailgating on the motorway and other fast roads makes one doubt they have any brain cells at all!"

But isn't this the result of the "speed kills" campaign? Providing you keep to the speed limit all is well, not asking what if there is something around the corner? What if that car in front stops suddenly? What if that pedestrian walking by the edge of the pavement steps or stumbles into the road?
These are the sort of questions that should be going through a drivers mind, because having observed and recognised a potential hazard, one can adjust speed and/ or position accordingly, but further having considered the possibility, if it does occur your reaction time will be quicker. These points are something that “speed kills” completely overlooks. The nearest thing that touched on this was the roadsafety advert for motorcycles that ran a couple of years ago.