RE: Speed limit call is 'misleading': campaign
Discussion
Slowlane said:
Don't understand how DL can make these comments they insure vehicle and most likel;y pocess a good database of where and how people crash but that does not make them road safety experts
Slower speeds = slower impact speed = cheaper repair costs = money payout reduced for DL!
Also, breaking the speed limit causes some shenanigans from insurers saying you broke the law so you are not insured!
Mine is here but i doubt theyll print it.....
In stark contrast to "speed kills" Britain- land of the speed camera numpty, In Abu Dhabi, the speed limits were recently raised with a subsequent drop in accidents. How can that be possible?
Simple, speed isnt an indicator of safe driving practice, never was, never will be, and its a crying (and dying) shame that those who make policy in this common-sense forsaken dump dont understand anything of what make a particular drive (and driver/s) dangerous or safe.
Far too much importance is being attributed to the speed of a vehicle vs its propensity to be involved in an accident; Look that word up: Accident: an unforseen and unavoidable event.
Nowhere is the word "accident" linked with the word "speed" except in the feeble minds of those who would wish to control (for their own reasons) others progress and their chosen methods of transport.
Much more to this than "speed".
Wake up.
In stark contrast to "speed kills" Britain- land of the speed camera numpty, In Abu Dhabi, the speed limits were recently raised with a subsequent drop in accidents. How can that be possible?
Simple, speed isnt an indicator of safe driving practice, never was, never will be, and its a crying (and dying) shame that those who make policy in this common-sense forsaken dump dont understand anything of what make a particular drive (and driver/s) dangerous or safe.
Far too much importance is being attributed to the speed of a vehicle vs its propensity to be involved in an accident; Look that word up: Accident: an unforseen and unavoidable event.
Nowhere is the word "accident" linked with the word "speed" except in the feeble minds of those who would wish to control (for their own reasons) others progress and their chosen methods of transport.
Much more to this than "speed".
Wake up.
I'm in the US at the moment and most of the country roads where I am in New England are limited to 40MPH. I have never seen driving like it! People seem to drive in a daze, pull out in front of you onto main roads, don't indicate and this morning a guy was on the TV claiming he had gulf war syndrome and that an unfortunate side effect had been to speed up his reaction times when driving on the freeway ( and that's a bad thing?!)
So I guess the lesson from the US is that if Direct Line want to deal with all the accidents caused by people driving in a soporific haze, they might find their claims costs going up!
So I guess the lesson from the US is that if Direct Line want to deal with all the accidents caused by people driving in a soporific haze, they might find their claims costs going up!
Interestingly Direct Line appear to have waited until just after Top Gear and Fifth Gear have finished their current runs to publish this.
As the most high profile defender of the motor vehicle, I'm sure Clarkson would have had something to say about this to a large audience using the powerful medium that is television. Hopefully he'll mention it in his newspaper columns, even if it doesn't quite have the same impact.
My Direct Line Motor and Insurance policies will not be renewed and I'll be telling them why.
How dare they publish this headline grabbing PR spin in my name as a Direct Line customer?
As the most high profile defender of the motor vehicle, I'm sure Clarkson would have had something to say about this to a large audience using the powerful medium that is television. Hopefully he'll mention it in his newspaper columns, even if it doesn't quite have the same impact.
My Direct Line Motor and Insurance policies will not be renewed and I'll be telling them why.
How dare they publish this headline grabbing PR spin in my name as a Direct Line customer?
them. I'll continue to drive in the lanes at a speed which i deem to be a safe and appropriate one for the conditons/time of day.
One lane I know of can be driven quite safely at night in the dry at speeds of 50-60mph, even 70 in places, using the dipping of headlights to check for cars approaching i have never had an issue doing this.
However during the daytime I drive the same strectch at between 20 and 40mph, it's called common sense, when will the lentil eating t
ts realise this? Interfering tossers
The whole point of this is that the a small vocal minority, backed by a government that wants to limit individual freedom to an absolute minimum, wants us out of our cars (for good)Once they have got control of our ability to move about the country, they can exert even greater control over our lives. The F*ckwits that advocate public transport as being the saviour of the planet dont seem to realise that once they have got us out of our cars, public tranport will become the main source of transport related pollution (if it isnt already! anyone seen loads of empty buses and trains running around?)The problem is if they did succeed in making car use uncormfortable/too expensive and got us all onto trains, would trains be able to cope with the UK`s current population level,I suppose they could rip out all the seats in trains so that they could pack more people into the same wagons by making them stand up for the entire journey, and the stations could have camps attached to them to accommodate all the people who couldnt reach the required destination in a single day. Hang on a minute!didnt another historic administration try this type of thing once before?
They did this blanket speed limit thing across the New Forest, initially on the unfenced roads, Which I guess is fair especially at night. Then it has spread wider to fenced roads that used to be NSL and ones that just don't justify it at all. As a result people ignore the latest limits.... And I've noticed too that people ignore the original ones..
By setting blanket limits regardless of the roads you then dilute the meaning of the limits where they are needed...
Recently for those in the South the road from Stockbrige to Romsey has had a 50 and 40 limit slapped everywhere.. guess what, except for road captains nobody takes any notice of them..
By setting blanket limits regardless of the roads you then dilute the meaning of the limits where they are needed...
Recently for those in the South the road from Stockbrige to Romsey has had a 50 and 40 limit slapped everywhere.. guess what, except for road captains nobody takes any notice of them..
I've been thinking about why the government focuses on speeding at the expense of the obvious solution, training, for a while now and come to the following conclusion:
Putting training forward as an alternative would be political suicide.
The standard of driving on the roads is shocking with some of the worst offences coming from people driving well within the speed limit. But when are these faults ever addressed? As an obvious for-instance, when was the last time you saw or heard of a middle lane moron pulled over and bollocked as they should be (and this is getting worse now we have arrogant idiots sitting in the outside lane too)?
There are simply too many of these people (voters) out there. If the government was serious about this they'd start re-testing and training for all drivers to a proper level of skill, including graded licenses so you can't pass your test and go drive a Ferrari (this is already there for motorbikes - ask yourself why the same rule doesn't apply to cars). Ensuring everyone could control their car in a skid should also be compulsory - skid pan training.
BUT if the government introduced this there would be howls of protest from all the numpties. Many of them don't want to be able to drive safely, they'd prefer to drive slowly and make everyone else wait. And the more the test was stiffened (i.e. the higher the level of training required) the more people would not have the skill to pass and would be forced to stop driving.
For instance: The lady who was paraded by the TV stations a few years ago because she'd taken a record number of attempts to pass her test and had all her routes planned so she didn't have to turn right. She shouldn't be on the road - she's an obvious menace but there she was on national TV. Then we have "Britain's Worst Drivers" or whatever it was called. It's not funny. These people shouldn't be on the road. How have they got licenses?
There doesn't seem to be enough money in speed cameras for it to matter to a country with an economy the size of the UK's. The reason we continue to hear this mantra is because actually doing something about the state of the drivers on the UK's roads is not an option.
If someone can counter the above then I'm interested to hear, but I am firmly convinced I'm right. The politicians can't be THIS stupid.
<P.S. I have Direct Line house insurance which I'm going to move>
Putting training forward as an alternative would be political suicide.
The standard of driving on the roads is shocking with some of the worst offences coming from people driving well within the speed limit. But when are these faults ever addressed? As an obvious for-instance, when was the last time you saw or heard of a middle lane moron pulled over and bollocked as they should be (and this is getting worse now we have arrogant idiots sitting in the outside lane too)?
There are simply too many of these people (voters) out there. If the government was serious about this they'd start re-testing and training for all drivers to a proper level of skill, including graded licenses so you can't pass your test and go drive a Ferrari (this is already there for motorbikes - ask yourself why the same rule doesn't apply to cars). Ensuring everyone could control their car in a skid should also be compulsory - skid pan training.
BUT if the government introduced this there would be howls of protest from all the numpties. Many of them don't want to be able to drive safely, they'd prefer to drive slowly and make everyone else wait. And the more the test was stiffened (i.e. the higher the level of training required) the more people would not have the skill to pass and would be forced to stop driving.
For instance: The lady who was paraded by the TV stations a few years ago because she'd taken a record number of attempts to pass her test and had all her routes planned so she didn't have to turn right. She shouldn't be on the road - she's an obvious menace but there she was on national TV. Then we have "Britain's Worst Drivers" or whatever it was called. It's not funny. These people shouldn't be on the road. How have they got licenses?
There doesn't seem to be enough money in speed cameras for it to matter to a country with an economy the size of the UK's. The reason we continue to hear this mantra is because actually doing something about the state of the drivers on the UK's roads is not an option.
If someone can counter the above then I'm interested to hear, but I am firmly convinced I'm right. The politicians can't be THIS stupid.
<P.S. I have Direct Line house insurance which I'm going to move>
vinny1275 said:
Presumably the people who said that the limit needs to be 40 are the same bugg3rs I get stuck behind on my way to work - doing 45 in a 60 - who then completely ignore the 30 signs when they enter a village, where they're much more likely to encounter pedestrians / cyclists / horses / other cars joining the road.
......
They then go through an Amber Traffic Light with plenty of time to stop, leaving you obeying the Red !......
ARGGGH!
Where I grew up EVERY SINGLE road would be covered my there blanket limit, with the exception of the M5. And you can guarantee the only ones they'd bother to police are the ones near civilsation which tend to be wide and open and especially unsuitable for this treatment. Whereas the small minority of roads where it is genuinely dangerous to reach even 40mph (they do exist), will be the ones with 7ft tall grass bank hedges and nowhere to stick a gatso van!
Of course this is fine for most people (PHers excepted of course) because not only are they not the least bit interested in driving, but also the countryside is somewhere quaint and sleepy that they go for their holidays, wreaking of sun cream and dragging their bloody "Monza V12 Excelsior GT touring" behind their honda.
I would say its a call from a lunatic fringe, but given the voting public's "doesn't concern me" attitude to anything rural, the government may just get away with jumping on the band wagon. So be afraid, be very afraid.
Right, now my rant is over. How 'bout composing your own with the following buzz words.....
"police state" "legislating for the lowest common denominator" "turkey brained" "moronic" "publicity grabbing" "Brunstrom felching" "ignorant" "arrogant" "mis informed" "pile of" "donkey droppings"
Where I grew up EVERY SINGLE road would be covered my there blanket limit, with the exception of the M5. And you can guarantee the only ones they'd bother to police are the ones near civilsation which tend to be wide and open and especially unsuitable for this treatment. Whereas the small minority of roads where it is genuinely dangerous to reach even 40mph (they do exist), will be the ones with 7ft tall grass bank hedges and nowhere to stick a gatso van!
Of course this is fine for most people (PHers excepted of course) because not only are they not the least bit interested in driving, but also the countryside is somewhere quaint and sleepy that they go for their holidays, wreaking of sun cream and dragging their bloody "Monza V12 Excelsior GT touring" behind their honda.
I would say its a call from a lunatic fringe, but given the voting public's "doesn't concern me" attitude to anything rural, the government may just get away with jumping on the band wagon. So be afraid, be very afraid.
Right, now my rant is over. How 'bout composing your own with the following buzz words.....
"police state" "legislating for the lowest common denominator" "turkey brained" "moronic" "publicity grabbing" "Brunstrom felching" "ignorant" "arrogant" "mis informed" "pile of" "donkey droppings"
Edited by Chris71 on Thursday 3rd August 10:13
Edited by Chris71 on Thursday 3rd August 10:13
ElectricYeti said:
I've been thinking about why the government focuses on speeding at the expense of the obvious solution, training, for a while now and come to the following conclusion:
Putting training forward as an alternative would be political suicide.
The standard of driving on the roads is shocking...
[...]
If someone can counter the above then I'm interested to hear, but I am firmly convinced I'm right. The politicians can't be THIS stupid.
Putting training forward as an alternative would be political suicide.
The standard of driving on the roads is shocking...
[...]
If someone can counter the above then I'm interested to hear, but I am firmly convinced I'm right. The politicians can't be THIS stupid.
I think you're wrong - because training doesn't need to be training.
The objective of policy is to make the roads safer - not in great chunks - but by small steady increments. A little bit safer each year.
The skills we use to avoid crashes are mostly self-acquired as we have gained experience on the roads. They are observation, anticipation, judgement, hazard perception and risk assessment. These are not things that are 'taught' in any traditional sense. They accrue through experience within a framework that is taught and acquired from social interactions.
So a good policy will *create an environment* where essential skills are acquired more quickly, more completely and more accurately. It's not really about 'training' - it's about beliefs, attitudes and information. These factors are well within reach of official budgets. It's done with advertising, key information, good legislation and good roads policing. In an industrial context the health and safety people (the good ones!) work to create an appropriate safety culture - and that's EXACTLY what we need to do on the roads.
In the past the British road safety culture developed under a series of ad hoc influences and delivered the safest roads in the world. Now the opportunity is to develop it in a managed way.
It's also easy to see how 'modern' 'speed kills' road safety undermines the previous good safety culture, and of course, that's why drivers are getting worse.
catso said:
Just voted and currently 60% think the limt is NOT too high. (14,ooo+ votes cast)
I suggest that the other 40% have their licences revoked and have to take a retest.
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