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So, what would you do if you were doing 50mph, someone was crossing the road, didn't see you coming around the corner and you knocked them over?
You are an idiot.
I actually do hope that you are involved in an accident, then hopefully you would care about speeding. And remember, it's NOT just about knowing the roads, meaning that it's 'safe' to speed. Speed limits are there for a reason; not just for the sake of it to make monee...
30mph through built up residential areas :yes: 70mph on a quiet dry motorway :no:
It's quite safe to do 60 on many of the roads near me, but because they're in the New Forest they're automatically 40.
Motorway speed limits are perhaps 10mph too low, but on just about all other roads the speed limits make sense.
You hope somebody who you have never met has an accident. You're obviously the epitome of decency yourself aren't you?
Well so are you if you dont wish that upon someone, who is the greatest stereotype likely to kill you or any member of your family as they walk somewhere, or even drive
Take note that the number of fatalities on UK roads had a steady decline until the point of speed camera introduction. Does this suggest anything?
Interesting to note that 58% of vehicles monitored in a 30mph limit were speeding. This is the very, very worst possible place to speed, yet it is also where most people speed.
I regularly ride with police riders. I have friends who are driving instructors. Myself - I've never had an accident, or been caught speeding. I've never hurt anyone on the road. I came off my motorcycle last year in the rain, at 20mph, as the road surface changed. It was 11pm at night, and had been pissing down for a good 4 hours. I couldn't see the change in road surface to be able to react to it - pictures are available.
Any informed driver or rider out there knows that is it safe to speed. It is inappropriate use of speed that causes accidents, and kills people.
Well boo to the pair of you. Any thread like this should be about education, and rationalising with the other person. It really isn't the right place to call people names, or to basically tell them that you wish they were dead.
When you're on the heath you can see if there are animals about so no it's not dangerous. What's dangerous is the amoutn of grockels on sundays and during the summer who suddenly slam on the breaks just to get a picture of a pony. They're the fucking idiots on the road.
did you actually read what he said?:rolleyes:
He is certainly not an idiot, and doesn't deserve to die. But - in my opinion - he needs to spot the risks involved with where he speeds. Country lanes are all well and good, but there is a high risk of wildlife roaming the road. There is also a real risk of roadkill already there. You get mud, bicycles, pedestrians, and lord-knows what else.
Stuff like this needs to be taught to young and/or inexperienced drivers. They're taught to pass the test, and whilst I think the test is getting better on the whole, there are a heap of aspects that really ought to be taught, and in quite some depth. Including, but not limited to:-
--Motorway driving - why the fuck this isn't done, I've no idea. Being taught how to make proper use of the motorway should be a pre-requisite of driving. Too many people don't bother looking right into the distance. They don't care about making the correct use of lanes. They have little idea that poorly-maintained tyres will overheat and explode. And they also believe that anyone speeding is automatically wrong - it is entirely possible to hit 100mph each and every day in a safe manner - but nobody is taught this.
--Simple physics. Tyre adhesion is virtually non-existant in the snow, and rather minimal in the wet. Nobody gets taught how to control a car which understeers - or oversteers - on a corner or a roundabout. We should have dedicated test centres specifically for teaching learners how it feels when it begins to go wrong, and how one should react to try and balance it out. Hands up all those who would stomp on the brakes...
--The effects of YOU on other road users. Each learner should be thrown at 30mph, so they have an idea of how vulnerable motorcyclists are to their inconsiderate habits. Do any car drivers have the slightest idea how unsafe they make the road when driving with foglights on during the day, or evening? Next time you're out in the rain, stop using your wipers. Let the water accumulate on the screen. Then try looking out of it when some tosser comes the other way with his fogs on.
Motorcyclists don't have wipers. Wiping it with a glove just smears it around, and scratches your visor.
There are plenty of things that are more dangerous on the road than speeding. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people have been taught to believe that 'speed kills'. In reality, ANY speed can and WILL kill. Use the right speed in the right place and you don't have a problem - but in order to do so, you need to be taught what is appropriate and what isn't.
Absolutely though people should be taught vehicle control in extremes (skid pad testing or whatever) and some degree of motorway / fast carriage driving.
Mind you to be honest when I see folk driving badly on the motorway it normally falls into two groups - Old people and middle aged salesmen.
:yes: And Doofay - he said in his post that the ONLY way for him to change his driving habits is to be involved in an accident...
Don't get me wrong here - from what he's typed, he's not doing everything right. And concentration should be taking place at all times, whether you are able to sit there and have a conversation with passengers or not.
I used to do some pretty mega-miles. An average day would be 250, going up to over 300. A busy week would be over 2000 miles. My van was going in for a service every month and a half
The majority of bad motorway drivers are those who use it infrequently. They come on - generally in the summer - and sit in the middle lane. They're the ones with so much luggage in the back that their rear-view mirror offers no rear view at all. The ones who didn't think that they may have to adjust their tyre pressures to cope with the 4 people + luggage the car now has. The same ones who end up on the hard shoulder, because they didn't prepare properly, and didn't maintain their car.
Motorway driving is a skill, and it really should be taught and taught thoroughly. It is perfectly safe - in my lousy opinion - to use them all day at speeds over the limit, without causing harm to anyone else. Unlike residential areas, where speeding really does pose a risk to other users - road and pavement alike. 35mph really can be more likely to cause harm than 100mph - speed in the right place and there is nothing wrong with it. Speed in the wrong place and even 5mph can be the difference between life and death.
I'm not the right person to stand on the soapbox here - I'm no saint, and I've done bad things in the past. But I've learnt from them, have a pretty good driving record, and I dare say I've done more miles than most other people who have commented in this thread. This gives me no right to shout or dictate, but my opinions are based on real-life activity and observations, rather than just jumping in with the crowd and slapping everyone who speeds with the same label.
I was actually praised on one of my motorcycle lessons for whacking the throttle open when leaving a lay-by. We all hit over 100mph - the road was dry, visibility was perfect, and there were no other vehicles on the road. I did it because I wanted to - and was told by my instructor that if I'd done that on a test, I probably wouldn't have been marked down at all. Why? Because it was done in a safe fashion, and demonstrated that I felt comfortable with the machine. A capable driver/rider who understands the limits and is within them is a better road-user than someone who doesn't understand physics, who doesn't understand what happens when they start to run-wide on a corner, and who travels at the speed limit all the time.
Saul may not be getting everything right, and I can't comment on his driving(what people say and what they actually do isn't always the same), but I can point my finger at four of my friends who I'd be happy in a car with. They all speed, but they're all on-the-ball and understand a lot more than most a-to-b car users. The rest generally make me feel rather uneasy at least once per journey.
I guess some people just find it more natural than others?
Yep. That's people for you. All different. Some are capable of driving at higher speeds without sacrificing control - others are not. That's probably why there is an imposed limit, because you can't have two sets of people on the same road doing drastically different speeds.
More tuition might help, but you can't stop some people drivng like fools, with no forward planning and exercising every move on a knife edge of predictability. I've been in a car with a few people who drive like that and consider themselves good drivers - they ain't. They put their passengers on edge and IMO a good driver should make whatever speed they are doing look comfotable and practiced, and the passengers shouldn't notice it.