When nothing goes wrong, it is seen as a "victimless crime".

Interesting question.

I think it comes down to from a child, we are told what is right or wrong. In western society our values are based around the ten commandments - whether you are religious or not.

Those are some simple rules to promote a fair society, and how we should treat others.

So, if you drive down a road your whole life at a certain speed, and the next day a sign goes up to tell you to drive more slowly, these rule is so arbitrary and abstract from our values that it is no longer viewed as a 'law'.

Speed which is appropriate for the conditions is fine with me - noise on the other hand is way more annoying.

as for breaking speed limits...as said earlier theres a lot of 40mph sections which used to be NSL 60MPH sections and nothing has changed on these roads (ie no extra houses or schools etc.) in 30 years.

1. bet they have
2. this is a forum on the internet, so boarders on no more reality than Big Brother is
3. speeding is not a fair judge of a persons inclination to law breaking

1. It's more fun than not speeding.
2. It gets you where you're going quicker.
3. Female pedestrians assume you are good in bed as you are assertive, male pedestrians assume you might be Steve McQueen reincarnated.
4. It suggests to all those around you that you are important, skilful, masterful, rich and possibly a celebrity of some sort.
5. You are more likely to run people over and kill them, the world is overpopulated.

its not that speeding is ok, its the fact that some speed limits are set to low for the road(dangers), take for instance, the road behind my house;
the road is 14 ft wide, all along one side is fields,protected by hedges, with no gateways, with a grass verge, ranging from 6ft to 20ft wide.
the other side of the road has 8ft walls all the way down, a grass verge ranging from 4ft to 15ft, with every house having a covenant on their deeds, stating "no rear access to nsl road"
the council have even stated that the estate was designed for pedestrian safety with no-one ever needing to walk down that road, hence no footpaths.
speed limit? you would think would be nsl?
average speed 40 to 45, 85th percentile 40.
scam van parked right off the road in the 20ft verge
speed limit actually 30

Because shut up, that's why.

As others have said, ignoring an arbitrary number on a sign set by a bloke in a council office that does not vary with traffic, weather or daylight is an absolute must for me. Exceeding the safe speed for any given set of conditions is absolutely not.

I asked a similar question a few months ago.

I speed, in fact I probably spend more time over the posted limit than within it as long as I'm not in a traffic jam. I make no secret of this and tbh don't really care.

My speed is regulated by me though as I tend to drive c10mph over the limit as a norm except for NSLs and motorways where it depends what sort of mood I'm in and those stupid 50mph limits being posted up in former NSLs for no good reason that I can see.

However, if and when I get caught I'll take my punishment with good grace and not bleat on here about "it's OK in Germany / the IOM" (despite the obvious flaws to that argument).

I didn't pass comment on what I thought

Yes I do on occasion speed.

Speeding and serious accidents for me are like the lottery. Lots of people do it every week but the odds of you winning (or being involved in a serious crash) are very low. However because so many people do it, the odds of someone winning(or having a serious crash )are high.

If you work for camelot you spend a lot of time dealing with lottery winners. If you're just someone who puts a ticket on every week you've probably never actually met a winner. The Police etc deal with the results of fatal crashes all the time but most drivers will never have any experience of them.

People speed because they do it all the time and never suffer any serious consequences other than a ticket/points. Many people speed every day and in most cases will go there entire driving lives never having a serious crash, let alone one attributable to exceeding a posted limit. The probably watched there parents do the same.
How are you going to convince these people that speed kills? Given how many peiople speed, how many vehicles there are on the roads and how many miles we do every year, can we even say with any ceretainty that speed kills? In the majority of cases i'd suggest that it doesn't. It may increase the risk of injury/fatality but increase it from what.

In this country, in most developed countries in fact, we are Policed by consent. The state could not afford to prevent crime through fear of punishment. The law works because most people choose to obey it so the Police only have to deal with a minority of offenders. IMHO one of the reasons why there has been a proliferation of speed cameras and publicity/information about 'speed kills' is that the state did not have the consent of the people so has had to try and enforce limits though fear of punishment as well as trying to alter peoples opinions of speeding. Given most people who speed won't die or kill someone as a resault of speeding they seem to be relying more heavily on the cameras.

I speed in certain situations based on my own judgement. I take a risk and will accept the consequences. I accept the need for limits but I don't agree with how they are set.