That old chestnut - Speeding

[Zedmeister]

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Two opposing camps, best summed up by these quotes:

For more Cameras/Harsher Penelties

Philip Hale said: "More effective deterrents do need serious and urgent consideration."

For more lenient methods inc. Education

Paul Smith said: "If there are more people prepared to admit it this year, it means the government's message is being laughed at."

As a personal viewpoint, some speeding restrictions are a little too zealous. For example: A road I regularly drive on is a dual carrageway, has a central reservation and no crossings. The speed? Not 70 or 60, but 50.

Thoughts on the "Speeding Issue"???

[joshwa]

The idea of the governments to try and get people to stick to the speed limit seems to be based on them wanting there to be less accidents, injuries and deaths on the roads - so whilst it may seem that some of the speed restrictions (such as the 50 you mentioned) seem too low, it would make sense to stick to the speed limits just in case someone does jump out in front of the car - you're more likely to be able to stop and avoid the accident.

Everybody thinks it's okay to go 10 miles per hour over the speed limit because 99% of the time you don't have an accident and nobody jumps out in front of the car - but it's the 1% of the time when accidents do happen that you wish you were going slower.

In Northern Ireland - everybody does stick to the speed limit even on 50 roads that seem just like a motorway (nr belfast / road to bangor) - so it's the 'norm' for people to stick to the speed limit - surely it should / could be the 'norm' to stick to the speed limit in England as well? Why are we always in such a rush?

In New Zealand, everybody sticks to the speed limit, because you get major fines if you don't and there's police patroling the roads, the speed limit is 100kph, at 120 you get a $120 fine, at 140 - I think you get a $500 fine or perhaps more, and if you're going more than 160 you loose your license. Again - 100kph is fairly slow compared to England, plus on most of the roads, there's no cars, so it would be easy to say 'the limit should be 120' - but still the majority of people stick to the speed limit - so why can't we?

[Rave]

I think the problem is that because a lot of speed limits are apparently completely arbitrary (aforementioned dual carriageway for example- another is the first bit of the A3 that went from 70 to 50 a few years back for no apparent reason), people get the idea that all speed limits are too conservative and think that it's safe to break them by 10mph at any time- even when road and traffic conditions say otherwise.

If I'm honest, I largely ignore speed limits- I just drive at a speed that's safe. On the wide open urban A-Roads round where I live that's sometimes 40-45mph, down a narrow side street or past a school it'll be 20-25mph, even though both roads have the same 30mph speed limit. On a wide open, quiet motorway I'll do 90-100 if I'm in a hurry, whereas if the same road is busy or it's raining hard etc. I'll do 60.

Admittedly I don't do a lot of miles nowadays, but I've driven like that for years and have never had an accident or a speeding fine. I think the solution to the whole problem would be to have a more flexible system of speed limits- all the way from lowering some 30 zone roads to 20, to increasing some motorways from 70 to 85-90. Couple that with funding more actual traffic policement patrolling the roads and applying sanctions fairly, and I think people would be more inclined to stick to speed limits because they'd look a lot more sensible and reasonable. TBH if the police had a blitz on middle lane hoggers, undertakers etc I reckon the speed limit on a lot of motorways could be raised no problem. The fastest French motorways have a limit of about 83mph, and although in general they have far more accidents than us, their motorways are pretty safe AFAIK, proving that higher speeds do not automatically lead to more accidents.

Rich :¬)

[TiG]

THe major thing about speed being an issue was recently rejected following years of assumptions that speed was a major part of accidents. I wish i could find the white paper on it as its an interesting read. People's attitude to driving tired was found to be a much more major issue.

If you want to control speeding permanently put sensors in all new cars, or stop cars being able to go over the imposed limits by GPS detecting which road they are on and electronicly limiting the engine.

Personally i completely oppose speeding fines and think losing licenses should be stopped as this can make peoples lives a misery, losing jobs etc. It takes up too much police and court time as well.

TiG

[Zak33]

Zak plan:

Dump Speed Camera's
Employ more Policeman
Up the Motor Way Speed Limit to 85mph
Reduce the speed limit past schools to 20 mph

Leave Dual Carriageways at 70mph and A roads at 60mph. Towns stay at 30mph.

Allow Policemen to do their job, decide on the situation and either throw the book or not at offenders.

Full license bans should still be at 30mph over the limit, hence 100mph on a dual carriageway is a ban, 115 on a Motorway.

Thats the best "middle" route I can think of.

More cops, less machines. Simulataneously then the old bill will be driving round towns and streets and puting off other crimes, and be more avaiable to respond.

[[GSV]Trig]

Zak plan:

Dump Speed Camera's
Employ more Policeman
Up the Motor Way Speed Limit to 85mph
Reduce the speed limit past schools to 20 mph

Leave Dual Carriageways at 70mph and A roads at 60mph. Towns stay at 30mph.

Allow Policemen to do their job, decide on the situation and either throw the book or not at offenders.

Full license bans should still be at 30mph over the limit, hence 100mph on a dual carriageway is a ban, 115 on a Motorway.

Thats the best "middle" route I can think of.

More cops, less machines. Simulataneously then the old bill will be driving round towns and streets and puting off other crimes, and be more avaiable to respond.

I agree with the man!
More coppers n less cameras will also have the knock-on effect of reducing other crimes as well, surely thats a good thing, unless of course less coppers and more machines works out to be a bit of a business way of thinking eh....

[Bunjiweb]

I ignore every speedlimit. Im not really ashamed to say that. On the A40 between my home and Cheltenham the speed limit changes 5 times in about 7 miles....

There are also 2 speedcameras on this stretch, neither of them work! So whats the point. One of them is RIGHT on a corner where anyone with 2 cents would slow down to a realistic speed anyway.

Also, WHY do they warn you about speed cameras in advance, this means you can go "oh theres a speedcamera ahead", slow down for it, then speed up after. Speed cameras need to have a "surprise" factor and catch you un-awares.

As already said, We need to have a highway patrol like they have in every other developed country in the world. Stop pissing about policing people smoking a bit of dope, concentrate on the people that will really cause harm....


etc..


Ben

[cyzmyass]

Certainly need more cops, dont see it happening though.

[Clingy]

/me puts flame retardant suit on

You dont want me to start on this. Last time it ended up with President Gas "proving" to me that going faster is safer and that anyone doing 10mph is a serial killer!

I know a lot of what you say makes sense, but if you were responsible for implementing a policy would you really raise speed limits? Would you employ more policeman and raise taxes? Would you conduct a survey of every meter of road and adjust the limits acccordingly? Would you allow all drivers to "use their discretion"? And how difficult is it going to be to implement laws that rely soley on the judgement of an individual policeman?

Aye, I know we all break speed limits, but what bugs me is the whining when people get caught. And all this "its not fair" and painting speed cameras yellow??? All I will say is that perhaps all store detectives should wear yellow coats? If the law is wrong by all means lobby to get it changed, but be prepared to come up against passionate people who have lost loved ones to maniacs.

My 2d

[Big RICHARD]

The problem with the speeding argument is that ALL speeding is put under the same category, where my opinion is that speeding (say 90) on the motorway at midnight is significantly different to speeding (say 35) past a school at 3pm.

[[GSV]Trig]

When they say that speed kills they dont state >limit itself, driving slowing can also cause accidents and yet its still classed as a speed related incident...

Its not just driving fast that kills, its the state of the roads, how often have you been doing the speed limit and had to stop in a hurry but the state of the road has drastically altered your stopping distance or the actual direction of your car?
Makes you wonder where all that ROAD TAX goes....

[GAteKeeper]

There is no easy answer to this problem.

My personal preference is for 'In towns' to all be 20/30 except bipasses etc with no crossings on. Motorways to be 85/90.

And there to be enough police to stop the f**king w**kers on there mobile phones - this really gets on my nerves I almost had a woman in a corsa drive into me because she was on the phone and couldnt turn the wheel fast enough with one hand.

I also think police should be given the power to force people to stop and sleep because driving tried is more dangerous than going 10miles an hour over the limit (Thinking distance then outways braking distance)

GAteKeeper

[Russ]

education is a good idea i think. i drive past 2 schools on the way home a 3pm, i drive at about 10-15mph cos of kids and speed bumps, and yet, i nearly killl a child a day cos they run out in the road, educate them not to do silly thingsand that would cut road accidents..

back on topic, i agree with Zak

[[GSV]Trig]

I agree with the education for kids side of things as mentioned by Russ, when I was at school there was the green cross code and cycling proficiency test, you dont get that kidna thing these days n then u get the d1cks that walkin slowly infront of a car makes them look hard...

[Zedmeister]

Not sure what the current education is like, but I remember when I were t'lad going on a school day trip to learn about the greencross code with Mr Belisha and Miss Beacon What do they teach these days???

[[GSV]Trig]

Nothing IIRC....
Cheaper to put up speed camera's n rant at people that speed than it is to pay out for adverts and the likes...