Safe Speed Forums

Perhaps ,it's time you got down to some serious reading of the facts researched by Paul ,the founder of this site.
SPEED CAMERAS do only one thing - they measure the speed of a vehicle relative to the posted limit.
Tailgaiting - no detection
Drunk drivers- no detection
no driving licence -no detection.
No seatbelt - no detection
Mobile use -no detection .
Construction & use offences - no detection
In fact speed cameras have only been proved to prove that a vehicle exceeded the posted limit. They don't stop those drivers of non registered vehicles doing as they like .

TBH- the adverts for cameras sounds like a modified version of the words of the theme tune for a TV program .Instead of "we'll drop prices at a stroke " ,it "we'll raise road safety at a stroke" . And like the program ,it's full of the same sort of pitfalls .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Again you haven't read the post fully and understood it, instead you have just focussed on the speed limit side. Typical of someone who puts little thought into their own driving and stays more focussed on the "speed kills" mantra of the media...can you see where we are going with this?

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Having read what your aims are I totally agree with them. maybe the forum should have been named "safe driving" rather than "safespeed". some of your reply's do make it seem that you advocate increased speeds. I think you should redirect people to the page detailing what your aims are before entry to the forum, this would remove any confusion.

Though I still think there should be more use of speed cameras in built up areas, but not the gatso type but digital cameras which are capable of number plate recognition & also capable of giving live feed if needed.

Sorry but when you use terms like..... ", if someone is doing 40mph in a 30 limit & you are pulling out of a junction, it will be safe to pull out with that car at that distance but if the car is doing 40 then a crash will occur......"


Can you see that the "YOU" that you use in this case assumes it is you. If you had said...."....an inexperienced driver pulls out....." I would have thought it was not YOU and instead an in experienced driver that was in your scenario....."

I really couldn't expect an experienced driver of 40 Years doing that.....it would be a frightening thought if it did happen.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Well, if you have had to work out that the speed limit is too fast for the condition at that time, the limit hasn't helped to make the road safe in that instance, your judgment did that. You had to work out a safe limit, so why is it not possible to work out that under different conditions it may be safe above that limit?

The old smoke screen if you hit a child at --------, implies that the child was never seen. People get killed on drives so even very slow speeds can kill. If a child is in the vicinity or any other hazard or potential hazard for that matter, then this should have a bearing on what speed is chosen. The problem is recognising not just what is there, but what is not there or could be there and that comes from observation and thinking and that again comes from good training.

As I said in an earlier post, many of our country lanes are set at the national speed limit of 60mph, which means drivers have to "work it out" what is a safe speed for the road. So if drivers can do it then, and don't say these roads have not so many dangers, with blind entrances straight on to the road, sharp bends you cannot see around, roads that are narrow and without pavements, why does the law assume on a straight road with good visibility, wide verges giving good visibility into entrances, drivers need to be limited to 30mph. I can assure you Hampshire has many roads like this. The trouble is that the law tries to make something that has many shades of grey black and white and in its enthusiasm overlook what are the main dangers on the road.

There are many roads all over the country which should never have the national speed limit assigned to them. Many drivers think that if that speed limit is applied to that road, then it is safe to do that speed all along that road never thinking about what could be waiting around the next blind bend, not reading the road as they should be doing or thinking ahead.

Again you are thinking like a novice driver. Are you sure you've been driving for 40 years?

When I started driving NSL was 70 MPH even though few cars could maintain that speed for long and very few were safe to do it over many country roads. Drum brakes, crossply tyres, no brake servos, poor suspension etc, etc.(no doubt way back in your mind you can remember these times) No one tried to maintain 70MPH. Every road was driven as it should have been, with thought and care.

It's only in the last decade where speed limits have been reduced so much (dumbed down) for the benefit of the people/sheeple who aren't being allowed to think for themselves, that we have this mentality that if the lollipop (speed sign) says 40MPH then that must be the safe speed for that road. Which goes back to my original reply to you, where I stated that the control freaks no longer want drivers to think for themselves which is why roads aren't as safe in real terms as they were twenty years ago.

Don't forget these are speed LIMITS, which means a maximum speed they should be driven at. They are NOT advisory speeds or target speeds. They are however, being set ridiculously low in far too many places now, which is why so many novice drivers see them as advisory.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

But the overwhelming majority of drivers do manage to negotiate such roads without crashing, and aren't coming off the road on sharp bends by trying to take them at because the speed limit is . This suggests they are able to select a safe speed where the posted limit offers little guidance. And in any case, on a rural road the safe maximum speed can vary every hundred yards, and sometimes is as low as walking pace, so any speed limit is going to be pretty meaningless in most locations.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

This is precisely what is wrong with the current, speed enforcement based, safety regimes. They foster exactly this kind of problem.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

That is the exactly point I was trying to put across.

Well the only way we are going to get that to happen is to put all speed limits back to as they were in the seventies, where NSL was anything outside a built up area and then people will have to think about their driving more and adjust to a safe speed for every last yard of road as it is presented to them and not keep looking at the side of the road and then to a speedo (very distracting), to make sure they are doing the "recommended" speed, that some fool in an office decides is right, when that person probably doesn't even know where the road in question is.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Absolute rose tinted, misplaced nostaligia nonsense there.

Road deaths per Xkm have fallen year on year since records began, so clearly people weren't that careful in your golden oldie days.

Yup, and you'd likely put road casualty rates back to the seventies too, i.e. much, much higher than they are today.

I'll stop you there, NSL country roads have by far and away the most crashes on them, by a massive amount compared to our towns and cities. Why might that be I wonder. And let's not say the roads are more dangerous, cos roads ain't dangerous they're just pieces of tarmac.

Highway code says:

I think that if you actually look at statistics, the Accident rate for rural roads is 35A/100mvkms and I think 65 for Urban roads so how do you arrive at this wonderous bit of B@@@@@it

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

And another question to answer - your point is .......................................?

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Dragging that moldy old chestnut around still? Weepej.

You seem to have forgotten the massive safety improvements in cars, medical attention, etc etc since the seventies and have you and forgotten that the rate was falling faster before cameras were used too?

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

According to DOT figures for Q3 2011, Built up roads 28,680 accidents, non built up including motorways 9,900.

If a road has additional hazards then to me it is potentially more dangerous.

What limit? The limit last week, this week or next week?

I don’t know how many times I’ve levelled the one at you about the speed you did yesterday in a 60mph limit which has become a 40 mph limit today must mean, and have made you, a dangerous driver by your own definition yesterday. Comprende?

If you just admit it’s about the law, and about breaking it, fair enough. I have no argument there, or rather a different argument about what's happening on our roads. But this at odds with your stance and mantra which has always been that the sign, as a ceiling speed, knows best.

So then, was it safe yesterday at but today it's only safe at or what? You seem to want it both ways...

Add: If you were a passenger in my car yesterday and pat me on the back for doing the legal 60mph, presumably you would slap me in the face today for doing 20mph over on the grounds that somehow it’s become dangerous overnight?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.