Speeding is not the cause of incidents.
However, it is one factor that limits the response times of drivers and is the origin of the odds at which said drivers find themselves with the rest of the traffic.
There is a range within which a vehicle is expected to operate under certain conditions, that allow other road users to factor in expected behaviours and make use of forward planning. By speeding and breaking the rules of the road, you rob them of that forward planning and even the most advanced driver training goes out the window as much as if you break the laws of physics.
Since speed is the variable most readily governed and regulated, it is being reinforced.
Yes, there are other, perhaps bigger factors, but I'd like to see you enact road laws that govern the human mistake...
Great... who is going to administer all the changes, force everyone to retest and upgrade... but more importantly, who is going to pay for it and where do you think that money is going?
And when people cannot pass the new tests, what then?
And what about all those driving without licences anyway? I know a couple of people who went decades before they got found out and had to take their test... one even had insurance, believe it or not!
Balfour Beatty are part of the government?
Or you mean Theresa May and her Civil Servants are the ones who need to be doing the building?
No, quite simply, it is down to privately owned companies making money by skewing the brief, and already overpopulated towns not needing yet more housing to attract even more people... especially since the roads are also insanely crowded.
No-one let them. They just decided and forced the sale of farming land, which they can apparently do...
But heck, it's only countryside, right? Not like we grow any food, maintain nature or anything, especially since we're driving diesels, too...
Da guv'mint...
Because the UK are stupid and voted in Da Guv'mint.
Err... yes, I know. I work for one.
I don't believe they can, or if they are able I'm sure there will be a UK-based shell corporation somewhere. Also, I wouldn't call 2-bed starter homes "luxury". Half don't even have gardens. That's another Richhunt you're looking for.
They default because owning the latest iPhone or buying drugs is more important than having a roof over your head, based on most of the bailiff programmes... And rents are so high because people keep defaulting and/or wrecking the place and Landlords have ever-increasing maintenance and admin costs with which to contend and protect themselves from being shafted by ignorant, abusive tenants who think the world owes them something.
Plenty of housing around the UK. My brother-in-law recently bought (to rent out) six houses up North and two in Ireland, for a total of less than £400,000.
Ownership isn't everything, though. The UK is especially fixated on owning, while a lot of Europe still rents.
Plenty of jobs around, too - We have pages of vacancies right here... no-one wants to work for a living any more, though.
I don't go down the pub (or even drink).
I don't smoke.
I don't do drugs.
I drive a tatty old diesel car from 2003 that I only got because it was free, because it was broken and even now it's still borderline MoT fail.
I only have a PC as good as that there on the left because some silly young girl wasn't paying attention, while doing 80mph in a 40 and slammed into the back of me and I was fortunate that she was insured...
So... Better off than who or what, exactly? Do you think I'm better off than "the poor people" just because I post on a tech forum? I live from paycheck to paycheck, usually from the bottom of an overdraft. I ain't exactly the richest rogue in Reading...
I'd get the same pay wherever I went, outside of the London Weighting zone. That's what the Union is for and why commuting is so popular. We have staff who commute 3-4 hours each way, every day, because housing is cheaper and it means they can buy a £40,000 car.
Reading is still very expensive, especially given what you get for your money.
Oh no, I made a typo, what will I do. My whole argument is defeated over missing a letter K.... But then you seem to think I said I actually own a 3mil house, despite me saying quite clearly I not only just rent it, but that the house is only half a mil... but carry on.
Ridiculous.
There's a load round here, sat empty. People just don't want to live in them. They want to be closer to London.
There's loads of empty offices, too.
You can even make money from spotting empty properties, because there are hundreds of thousands all over the place.
Yes, yes, loads of empty properties, so lets build more and let them sit empty, too...
London is PACKED and the people have to go somewhere. That's no reason to Brexit, because they'd still spread out.
Well apparently it works in Scandinavia, so it can't be all bad...!
Because I'm stonkingly rich and don't care about you peasants, because I have a fleet of private helicopters. Cars are for poor people!!
Nah, they still have to pay out money. The more they speed, the more they pay in the end and, if caught enough times, they get banned just like everyone else.
Worry instead about the ones who already don't declare their income, drive a slightly battered Beemer at 140+ and really don't care if they kill you, because you are in their way and they're so important they don't need indicators...
So?
No less of a hit than to someone with no provable income, like the local drug dealers who are officially on 'corner shop' wages...
I really don't care about the cap. Those people who do earn lots, likely a fortune or two more than your friends, actually earn their money and I don't begrudge them that in the slightest. I also don't believe in hammering them heavily just because they can afford it.
For myself, I'm more worried about the points, really.
Whatever the fine is, I'll have to pay it by installments, maybe even sell my car to pay it anyway, so big whoop. I'll go back to walking everywhere.
Richhunt again. Wrong tree. You want the Money Tree next field over.
Speed alone does not kill. But there must still be a standard to which everyone drives, part of which requires a limit. Cross that limit by 1mph or a thousand, it's still crossing the limit.
I do.
I also know that it is a monumental undertaking the implement and regulate that will take many years to filter through, as well as there being a lack of alternative transport for those who will fail the new and either not get, or will lose their existing, driving licence.
I also know that people will still break the law in spite of all this. Heck, we know how dangerous smoking is, but we still do that. What's a little speed in your Audi Fastmobile?
No.
Certainty of punishment will.
If you think you might be able to get away with it, you'll be tempted. If you know 100% that Mr Policeman will hurl the book at you and take your licence/vehicle away the instant you transgress the law, you'll be the goodest little Cat there ever was.
The more certain we make the chances of being punished, the less people will take that chance.
Having been unemployed and briefly homeless, before working my way back up to where I am now, I feel suitably qualified to respond - A good measure of those people are just lazy. When you have to, you do what you must or you die. That's all there is to it. You go where the work is and you work as smart as you work hard. You live the same, which means going without iPhones, drugs or even meals if it helps you step up.
There will always be richer than you and there will always be poorer. There will also be those who circumvent the law wherever possible and most people would if given the chance.
All you can do is look after yourself, which in this case is simply not speeding and thus robbing the government of their alleged "stealth tax".