[Fundguy1]

Originally Posted by Aragorn30d

The problem as i see it, is that people think "Speed is dangerous" due to years of govt propoganda stating exactly that.

They think, that driving slowly, as you've eluded to above, is safer.

The problem however, is that speed in itself isnt what causes the crashes. Bad driving, INNAPPROPRIATE speed, lack of concentration, showing off, frustration etc, are what causes the crashes.

Doing 100mph on a quiet motorway is not dangerous. The germans do it, and their death rate on their motorways isnt particularly high. But the drivers on german motorways are also VERY aware of whats going on around them. You dont find folk hogging lanes, and folk are acutely aware that someone might be doing 100mph, and thus are actually on the ball, and get out the way. The Germans also have reduced speed limits when there ARE reasons for it, usually dropping to 130kph near intersections and suchlike, and the drivers respect that, becuase they recognise the reason for it.

Unfortunaltey due to decades of brainwashing however, people here dont consider these things. The simply consider speed alone. Driving slowly = driving safely. And if your driving safely(slowly) you can then afford to pay less attention, because its not dangerous any more... Thus you get folk driving along texting etc.

I've been sat in a car with someone else driving, and they were going so slowly that she ended up being overtaken by a HGV on a country road. Her response? She commented on how dangerous the lorry driver was being for overtaking her. The overtake was a textbook job, long straight, plenty visibility etc etc. In effect, her driving slowly was creating danger but she couldnt see it. Instead she chose to attack the lorry driver for executing a perfectly safe overtake.

The issue is you cant easily quantify "bad driving". At the extremes its obvious, but general bad driving isnt something you can measure, thus theres nothing the govt/police can do about it and they ignore it, choosing instead to focus on a speed limit.

Recently the police in this area have said they're going to remove the 10%+2 guidance on the speed cameras etc. So in effect they're saying that its safer to drive along at 70.0mph staring at the speedo to ensure you dont go to 70.5mph, than it is to drive at 75mph paying FULL attention to the road. Brainless.

Exactly. Speed doesn't cause the accident. Relative speed is far more important as a causality. If everyone is going 100 very little chance for problems. If most are going 80 and some chuckle head 55 it causes major problems. In the US the limits haven't changed since the early 70s. Roads are better, cars safer, reassessing the safe speed and increasing it to a good level, then enforcing it more closely would actually be safer.

[ahmedb]

Originally Posted by jackstrath

Has the OP even found the hammer yet? If it's even there still lol

Lol this thread has gone way off topic. I haven't found it yet, been too busy and as such I haven't had any time with my car since starting this thread.

Who would have thought a newborn baby would take up so much time eh!?

[Fundguy1]

Originally Posted by ahmedb

Lol this thread has gone way off topic. I haven't found it yet, been too busy and as such I haven't had any time with my car since starting this thread.

Who would have thought a newborn baby would take up so much time eh!?

Priorities

[zltm089]

Originally Posted by Aragorn30d

The problem as i see it, is that people think "Speed is dangerous" due to years of govt propoganda stating exactly that.

They think, that driving slowly, as you've eluded to above, is safer.

The problem however, is that speed in itself isnt what causes the crashes. Bad driving, INNAPPROPRIATE speed, lack of concentration, showing off, frustration etc, are what causes the crashes.

Doing 100mph on a quiet motorway is not dangerous. The germans do it, and their death rate on their motorways isnt particularly high. But the drivers on german motorways are also VERY aware of whats going on around them. You dont find folk hogging lanes, and folk are acutely aware that someone might be doing 100mph, and thus are actually on the ball, and get out the way. The Germans also have reduced speed limits when there ARE reasons for it, usually dropping to 130kph near intersections and suchlike, and the drivers respect that, becuase they recognise the reason for it.

Unfortunaltey due to decades of brainwashing however, people here dont consider these things. The simply consider speed alone. Driving slowly = driving safely. And if your driving safely(slowly) you can then afford to pay less attention, because its not dangerous any more... Thus you get folk driving along texting etc.

I've been sat in a car with someone else driving, and they were going so slowly that she ended up being overtaken by a HGV on a country road. Her response? She commented on how dangerous the lorry driver was being for overtaking her. The overtake was a textbook job, long straight, plenty visibility etc etc. In effect, her driving slowly was creating danger but she couldnt see it. Instead she chose to attack the lorry driver for executing a perfectly safe overtake.

The issue is you cant easily quantify "bad driving". At the extremes its obvious, but general bad driving isnt something you can measure, thus theres nothing the govt/police can do about it and they ignore it, choosing instead to focus on a speed limit.

Recently the police in this area have said they're going to remove the 10%+2 guidance on the speed cameras etc. So in effect they're saying that its safer to drive along at 70.0mph staring at the speedo to ensure you dont go to 70.5mph, than it is to drive at 75mph paying FULL attention to the road. Brainless.

Spot on

[jackstrath]

As above is spot on , speed limits on motorways need to go up , even the yanks I States can drive at 80mph! And he we are fucking about at 70mph I'd like to see the cars sitting at 58-60 mph on the motorways pulled over , I drove from Aberdeen to Bristol and back towing the race car , I'm not allowed in the fast lane , but see the amount of trucks and me having to over take some dozzy person sitting in the inside lane , or even someone sitting the same speed as the person in the inside lane making no effort to over take boils my piss , put up with it for 10 mile and then snapped , went in the next lane and over took and it was some middle aged fart talking on the phone oblivious to what was going on

Winds me right up

[ahmedb]

It's not possible for me to edit the thread title is it?

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by ahmedb

It's not possible for me to edit the thread title is it?

We've already got an angry thread

[ahmedb]

Originally Posted by IanS100

We've already got an angry thread

I was thinking more along the lines of

"Speed limits, propaganda and conspiracy theories"

[IanS100]

+1

[1 AKY]

Originally Posted by jackstrath

As above is spot on , speed limits on motorways need to go up , even the yanks I States can drive at 80mph! And he we are fucking about at 70mph I'd like to see the cars sitting at 58-60 mph on the motorways pulled over , I drove from Aberdeen to Bristol and back towing the race car , I'm not allowed in the fast lane , but see the amount of trucks and me having to over take some dozzy person sitting in the inside lane , or even someone sitting the same speed as the person in the inside lane making no effort to over take boils my piss , put up with it for 10 mile and then snapped , went in the next lane and over took and it was some middle aged fart talking on the phone oblivious to what was going on

Winds me right up

So true. It's "drivers" like these that the boys in blue need to deal with....with harsher penalties.

[Jimmy-M2OG]

Originally Posted by jackstrath

As above is spot on , speed limits on motorways need to go up , even the yanks I States can drive at 80mph! And he we are fucking about at 70mph I'd like to see the cars sitting at 58-60 mph on the motorways pulled over , I drove from Aberdeen to Bristol and back towing the race car , I'm not allowed in the fast lane , but see the amount of trucks and me having to over take some dozzy person sitting in the inside lane , or even someone sitting the same speed as the person in the inside lane making no effort to over take boils my piss , put up with it for 10 mile and then snapped , went in the next lane and over took and it was some middle aged fart talking on the phone oblivious to what was going on

Winds me right up

I drive from ayrshire to Aberdeen once a fortnight and this is a regular occurrence and as you said it makes your blood boil 😡 there's also the f*cking audi drivers who either don't pull over and just hog the outside lane even though there's f*ck all in the inside lane or ride your bumper because your taking too long over taking traffic but what really makes me laugh are the morons on the road who still cannot get the logic of average speed cameras like today for instance a wee Peugeot flies by me doing at least 70mph on a stretch of road with a 50mph limit and average speed cameras (been installed for about a decade) Im thinking to myself WTF! But as they approach the cameras holy shit batman they put the thing practically on its nose the slammed the brakes on that hard then once they were by it took off again
And on the topic of speed cameras I thought they had to be installed on accident black spots and be clearly seen so they were more of a deterant rather than a money making machine so how do they barstewards justify this????

[ahmedb]

Woah that's seriously messed up. I've never seen that kind of thing.

That can't be right!!?

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by ahmedb

Woah that's seriously messed up. I've never seen that kind of thing.

That can't be right!!?

It all depends whether the main object of the exercise is to slow traffic or impose penalties, I think we know the answer to that!

[Jimmy-M2OG]

But they aren't money making machines they are strictly for safety reasons 😏 aye right 😡

[MrPogle]

Originally Posted by ahmedb

Woah that's seriously messed up. I've never seen that kind of thing.

That can't be right!!?

It's not but the picture is 7 years old. As I recall it was the Welsh police having a crackdown on hooning motorcyclists. They weren't looking to catch speeders so much as discourage road racing day trippers.

[Jimmy-M2OG]

Originally Posted by MrPogle

It's not but the picture is 7 years old. As I recall it was the Welsh police having a crackdown on hooning motorcyclists. They weren't looking to catch speeders so much as discourage road racing day trippers.

Is this the same jokers that posted a picture of an RTA to try and deter bikers from speeding where a biker had been beheaded without asking permission of the family and that was how his kids found out how he had actually died 😳 Im pretty sure the p*ick responsible got his P45

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-451537/Police-apologise-dead-biker-pictures.html

[MrPogle]

Probably. It was about the same time (2007). However I doubt Richard Brunstrom got his P45 as he continued in the job for another 2 years.

It's also pretty unlikely that his kids learned of his death from the reporting as it was 4 years after he died.

[Jimmy-M2OG]

The kids part although not mentioned in that article was well documented in MCN coverage of the story as there was a petition Im sure to get brunstrom sacked as there was a major stink going on in the motorcycle community regarding it 😏

[MrPogle]

Ahh. I see what you mean. Sorry, I thought you meant "learned of his death" rather than "learned of the fact he was beheaded".

I think Brunstrom's main issue was he wasn't sensitive enough in general (as this incident demonstrates) because he stood for a lot of things that were pretty liberal (e.g. legalising drugs)

[Fundguy1]

Originally Posted by ahmedb

Woah that's seriously messed up. I've never seen that kind of thing.

That can't be right!!?

They've done radar equipment in Maryland on lawn tractors in the median. Some jurisdictions take their tax collection seriously.

[mob17]

I would happily pay more road tax if we had unlimited speed motorways, with speed restrictions when appropriate. Also would be happy to pay more road tax to get nice flat smooth roads.

But too many idiots in this country who cant drive safely so the above would be a bad idea. Unless they had specific licenses to use the autobahns.

[Fundguy1]

They don't have road tax in the US. Just city, state, and federal. Hides where it goes.