Safe Speed Forums

Or, for example, you saw the new limit signs on the A31, thought "f**k that" and carried on completely safely at 70+ like everyone else.

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Andrew.

Try doing that on an auto that has a torque-convertor! On mine, I can set the engine speed at 3000 rpm at standstill and keep that engine speed as the car accelerates smoothly all the way to 70 mph. Just like a manual car, at a "constant speed" minor changes in gradient, camber, windspeed, and even the road surface affect the speed I'm doing. However, that change of speed happens without a change in engine note.

If only that were true. Many speed limit signs are overgrown with vegetation or hidden behind other signs so that you can't see them until you're almost on top of them.


I used to choose the speed to travel by time rather than by miles per hour. If I had enough time to spot and avoid hazards, it was safe. Of course, I tempered this with some deference to speed limits. I had a scan pattern where I'd scan ahead from near to as far as I could to identify possible hazards as soon as possible and then rescan, paying particular attention to the hazards identified until each could be discounted or developed into a "problem". My normal "anticipation region" was at least ten seconds ahead and I reduced speed to keep that true where necessary. On no account would I drive with less than a four-second region (except for some very rare geographical factors - and I felt uneasy until I had my safety zone back!)

Now, the draconian and pedantic enforcement of speed limits has changed my priority from safety to preservation of my licence. I now do not exceed speed limits knowingly. However, to do that I need to know two things at all times: the speed limit, and my speed. Ensuring that I have that knowledge takes a huge amount of attention away from my scan. Speed limit signs have a habit of becoming hidden by vegetation and by other road signs. So, to ensure that I always know the speed limit, I need to scan the road sides above the level of my safety scan. To always know my speed (particularly in an auto where you can't use engine speed as a guide) requires constant checks of the speedo.

So, to ensure that I always obey the speed limit, I have to fit three scans into the time I used to fit one. This means that, at the speeds I used to travel, my scan-ahead zone would reduce to about four seconds. However, I don't travel quite so quickly now, so that has only reduced to about five seconds. Yes - rigid obedience of the speed limit has significantly reduced my observation and anticipation - and that can't be good for road safety.

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Will

Also, while it's fairly easy to maintain a constant speed, urban road and traffic conditions usually make it impossible to drive at a constant speed. In such situations you're constantly slowing down, speeding up and changing gears - so it becomes a lot more difficult to ensure that you're not overstepping the limit.

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

Also, you have to have something of a 'musical ear' to be able to tell speed from engine note.

Those with perfect pitch (AND experience of the vehicle AND no slippy torque converter) could soon learn to tell speed in miles per hour accurately from the engine note. Those who are tone deaf cannot do such tricks.

Most of us are somewhere inbetween, and can do it to some limited - often very limited - extent.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

i prefer to stay within, at a speed I feel is safe for the conditions ie sometimes below (but never above) the speed lmit.
AND alert.
This is best for road safty NOT one or the other.

come on guys admit it ypur a bunch of people who hate speed cameras not because speed limits arn't safe but because YOU wish to travel at higher speed ome what may, and then he come what may is a nip you whinge like little girls.

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Why not put on speed limiters we have the technology only idiots break the speed limit

I'm on here "whinging like a little girl" because I can see people's driving standards getting worse as the years go by, and I believe it's because of cameras, not despite them. So the medicine of more cameras is going to make driving standards worse, not better.

Many drivers are becoming less and less considerate and paying less attention to what they're doing, and accidents are resulting.

sensible majority, do you really think people who post here (whose opinions are a lot more diverse than you seem to have the subtlety of perception to realise) don't have an interest in road safety? If we were all so anti-law enforcement, why are most posters here so keen on more traffic police? Surely if we all wanted to drive round town centres at 90 mowing down expectant mothers, more policing would be the last thing we wanted. Don't you understand yet?

And for the record I have never had a "nip" because I pay attention to the road, whatever speed I am going.

Thanks for all responses, points taken. No time to reply properly now. For the record, I play six different stringed instruments and sing in a band (see our website), maybe that's why I can tell the speed I'm going from my engine note?

What's your website? (reply PM if you don't want to make it public knowledge in this forum)
I'm also a musician and play in a band.

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

Er, click his WWW button

Also note he's located in Wolverhampton, whereabouts mate?

You're missing the point of this site completely.
Kindly take the trouble to find out what we're about, and stop making false assumptions.
If you're not willing to do that then I'm sure that most of us would prefer that you refrained from posting here. You're not doing us or yourself any favours.

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

I think you'll find most of the regular contributors have clean licences of many years' standing. I have had no convictions for 25 years.

But we are concerned that the recent trends in speed enforcement are seriously misguided and actually have a negative effect on safety.

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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

what is the point of the site?? or the thread if you refuse to attempt to answere the question posed wat harm does sticking to the limit do, if all other factors such as paying due care ect are taken into account.

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Why not put on speed limiters we have the technology only idiots break the speed limit

Let's get one thing crystal clear. Maximum safety requires that you concentrate on the road, so that you are aware of and respond to hazards before they become unsafe. To rigidly comply with the speed limit requires that you concentrate on knowing both the speed limit and your speed. Thus if you rigidly comply with the speed limit you cannot give your full concentration on the road, and so cannot drive with maximum safety - the two are mutually exclusive.

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Will

That's a bit rich don't you think?

The point is that an excessive emphasis on precise adherence to speed limits tends to divert attention away from other more important aspects of observation when driving.

The dangerous view that so long as you stick to the limit you're doing nothing wrong seems to be heard more and more often.

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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

1) Some speed limits (motorways in particular) are set unnecessarily low, resulting with drivers more likely to fall asleep (uninvolving drive, more time spent behind the wheel)

2) Rigorous regard for the limit will hinder hazard perception (distraction), hence it could be dangerous

3) Our over reliance on driving by numbers is leading to a fall in driver skill in other areas


....and ‘if all other factors such as paying due care ect are taken into account’ then there’s no need for rigorous enforcement of speed limits at all!

Have you read any of our posts?

Does not look like it. Keeps on banging the same old drum. There are many people here who have taken a great deal of time and effort to explain and discuss the issues raised by TSM but this moron is now just taking the piss.

This twat just switches off as soon as he/she reads something that actually takes some kind of effort to absorb or in any way contradicts their one-dimensional thinking

A bit of a waste of effort I think.

Not worth the bother any more.

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Speed camera policy Kills

the first thing all the people I've spoken to who've caused an accident have come out with was "but I wasn't speeding" as though it's some sort of magic shield. Now, what was your question again?

OK - here's a good example of harm. If it is safe to travel faster than the posted limit, then it is a waste of time and resources not to travel at the faster speed simply because some arbtrarily set number that bears no relation to the actual safe speed has been imposed on you and every one else.

Wasting resources and time can be harmful, if not at least inefficient.

Moreover, badly set limits result in properly set limits being discredited.

Try reading this Height Kills!

Sticking to a speed limit just because someone says you should is ignorant. If a law was passed tomorrow saying that all people with more than two words in their forum names were to go and kill themselves because the country is overpopulated and we need the space, and this arbitrary measure was considered an easy and effective solution to the problem - would you comply?