Good old Brake are at it again
Discussion
I see Brake are at it again, why they have concentrated on the M62 is a mystery ?
A SAFETY chief in Huddersfield is urging drivers: “Slow down on our motorways”.
The message came from Brake campaigns director Julie Townsend as a new survey revealed most motorists are driving at dangerously high speeds on motorways.
More than half are also not leaving a big enough gap between their vehicle and the one in front, the poll by Huddersfield-based road safety charity Brake and Direct Line motor insurance found.
As many as 61% of drivers admitted to going at speeds of 80mph or more on motorways such as the M62 – at least 10mph above the limit, the survey showed.
Some 23% of motorists reached these excessive speeds at least once a week, the poll of 942 drivers revealed.
Out side Schools and urban roads used to be their brief now they are sitting on Motorway Bridges
A SAFETY chief in Huddersfield is urging drivers: “Slow down on our motorways”.
The message came from Brake campaigns director Julie Townsend as a new survey revealed most motorists are driving at dangerously high speeds on motorways.
More than half are also not leaving a big enough gap between their vehicle and the one in front, the poll by Huddersfield-based road safety charity Brake and Direct Line motor insurance found.
As many as 61% of drivers admitted to going at speeds of 80mph or more on motorways such as the M62 – at least 10mph above the limit, the survey showed.
Some 23% of motorists reached these excessive speeds at least once a week, the poll of 942 drivers revealed.
Out side Schools and urban roads used to be their brief now they are sitting on Motorway Bridges
They've got a point about the tailgating but 80mph is hardly "dangerously high speeds" on a Motorway!
I drive 400-500 miles a week on one of the UK's busiest motorways (the M6) and see many vehicles travelling at approx 80mph. If doing so represented a seriously elevated level of danger I'd expect to be seeing large amounts of crashes - I don't, in fact the ones I've encountered the aftermath of (I've not yet seen one happen "live") have more or less all been in dodgy conditions (the snow last year wreaked havoc).
Also if they feel that strongly about that level of speed then why aren't they complaining at the French govenment? I drove hundreds of miles up and down the Autoroutes last year at a steady and legal 130km/h. I spent precisely none of those miles dodging horrific multi-car pile ups or in fact crashes of any kind. The spectrum and standard of vehicles and the speeds they were doing appeared to be very similar over there the only difference was that drivers in the UK were breaching the law and those in France were not. If driving at 80 was automatically enough for it to be considered "dangerous" then surely people being caught at that speed would be prosecuted for dangerous driving automatically. Suprisingly enough they aren't.
I drive 400-500 miles a week on one of the UK's busiest motorways (the M6) and see many vehicles travelling at approx 80mph. If doing so represented a seriously elevated level of danger I'd expect to be seeing large amounts of crashes - I don't, in fact the ones I've encountered the aftermath of (I've not yet seen one happen "live") have more or less all been in dodgy conditions (the snow last year wreaked havoc).
Also if they feel that strongly about that level of speed then why aren't they complaining at the French govenment? I drove hundreds of miles up and down the Autoroutes last year at a steady and legal 130km/h. I spent precisely none of those miles dodging horrific multi-car pile ups or in fact crashes of any kind. The spectrum and standard of vehicles and the speeds they were doing appeared to be very similar over there the only difference was that drivers in the UK were breaching the law and those in France were not. If driving at 80 was automatically enough for it to be considered "dangerous" then surely people being caught at that speed would be prosecuted for dangerous driving automatically. Suprisingly enough they aren't.
Brake are utter pillocks-thankfully, they're disregarded by most people as just such.
If 80mph speeds on motorways are dangerous, why do so many other Western states have (admittedly often variable) speed limits above 80?
I once sent them a b
hing email in my spare time and got back a reply so full of self-absorbed and poorly researched twaddle I was too astonished to reply.
If 80mph speeds on motorways are dangerous, why do so many other Western states have (admittedly often variable) speed limits above 80?
I once sent them a b
hing email in my spare time and got back a reply so full of self-absorbed and poorly researched twaddle I was too astonished to reply.marlinmunro said:
I see Brake are at it again, why they have concentrated on the M62 is a mystery?
Probably because it's a motorway where large parts of it aren't congested, but are wide, gently sweeping and well surfaced. So drivers are choosing safe speeds above the arbitrary limit.marlinmunro said:
As many as 61% of drivers admitted to going at speeds of 80mph or more on motorways such as the M62 – at least 10mph above the limit, the survey showed.
Sounds like most people not only think the limit is inappropriate but act upon it.marlinmunro said:
Some 23% of motorists reached these excessive speeds at least once a week, the poll of 942 drivers revealed.
They haven't got a clue. 
This is outrageous.
Only 61% going over 80.
No wonder there are so many queues on motorways and dual carriage ways with clueless people with their foot to the floor in 5th in their underpowered borinvaagon lorry racing their numpty equivalent at 1 mph difference at 55mph when everyone else knows to change down a gear going up hill so they don't hold everyone up.
Surely though if the majority feel that the limit is too slow and are travelling above it, then it is time for the limit to be raised.
Only 61% going over 80.
No wonder there are so many queues on motorways and dual carriage ways with clueless people with their foot to the floor in 5th in their underpowered borinvaagon lorry racing their numpty equivalent at 1 mph difference at 55mph when everyone else knows to change down a gear going up hill so they don't hold everyone up.
Surely though if the majority feel that the limit is too slow and are travelling above it, then it is time for the limit to be raised.
As above, Brake are a bit of a joke really so most people just ignore them. They're clearly obsessed with the idea of a speed limit, when really they should be just comparing speed with safety and leaving the law out of it. The truth is that 71mph is about 3% faster than 69mph, it's not a binary switch in safety as soon as you cross the speed limit, just a binary switch in legality. If 80mph was really an "unsafe" speed, then the majority of Europe would have vastly higher accident and injry rates than the UK, which isn't the case. The 70 limit is the same now as it was twenty years ago, despite a vast increase in vehicle safety. It's the law, and nothing else. So really, they're a bunch of idiots.
If 20 MPH were the law would they say the doing 30 was very dangerous? Well yes they would, because as we know pressure groups such as Brake would like us all to use bus's and trains as our primary means of conveyance.
LBC were discussing using hard shoulders at peak times today, among other spokespeople sticking they're two penneth in was some guy/cock from "Friends of the Earth"!!! Now what the fk does he know about trafic management? Unsuprisingly he mostly droaned on about money being wasted on the road network when it should be put towards public transport, he went as far as to suggest us plumbers using P/T and cycling between jobs!
LBC were discussing using hard shoulders at peak times today, among other spokespeople sticking they're two penneth in was some guy/cock from "Friends of the Earth"!!! Now what the f
k does he know about trafic management? Unsuprisingly he mostly droaned on about money being wasted on the road network when it should be put towards public transport, he went as far as to suggest us plumbers using P/T and cycling between jobs!TuxRacer said:
marlinmunro said:
I see Brake are at it again, why they have concentrated on the M62 is a mystery?
Probably because it's a motorway where large parts of it aren't congested, but are wide, gently sweeping and well surfaced. So drivers are choosing safe speeds above the arbitrary limit.They were hardly going to get the same result on the Western side of the M25 were they?
I suspect they also 'surveyed' those 942 people at some services mid-morning when the majority using it are going to be sales reps and delivery van drivers. So, once you've ignored the Lorry drivers who have to sit below their limit, and disregarded the old gits who wouldn't be on a motorway middle of a weekday morning, and you've got the survey results.
Off-topic, but are these the same mentally impaired people who put up those huge billboard signs asking drivers why they are distracted? If I ever met the person behind that campaign I would find it very hard not to punch them straight in the face. Its your god damn billboard thats distracting me, nothing else.
ManOpener said:
Brake are utter pillocks-thankfully, they're disregarded by most people as just such.
Not by the last government, they weren't...As an example, new criteria for the setting of (lower) speed limits were formulated by the Commons Transport Select Committee, after taking evidence from the likes of BRAKE.
Speed_Demon said:
.. From my experience, lane 3 cruising speed on the M6 is roughly a full lepton Seemed perfectly safe to me.
It is the same on any stretch of camera free motorway. I use the M69 daily and you have to be doing at least 0.9 leptons to venture into the outside lane, average crusing speeds of 1.0 to 1.1 are not unusual if the weather conditions are good. Seemed perfectly safe to me.BRAKE are just another pressure group manipulating statistics to try and prove a point which isn't really valid. Driving at 40 in a built up area at 3pm is asking for trouble, crusing down the motorway at 0.85 leptons in good weather conditions is not.
Edited by VolvoT5 on Thursday 28th October 07:21
Heard about this on the radio yesterday, and I was surprised to find no thread for this story (especially as it features PH's favourite "charity"), but I was looking in Speed, Plod & the Law. I didn't expect it to be hiding in General Gassing.
Telegraph - Most drivers admit speeding on motorways
It's all a matter of interpretation, I suppose...
"Most motorists are driving at dangerously high speeds on motorways, a survey has indicated."
Or, alternatively, "Most motorists drive at speeds above the motorway limit without crashing".
Telegraph - Most drivers admit speeding on motorways
It's all a matter of interpretation, I suppose...
"Most motorists are driving at dangerously high speeds on motorways, a survey has indicated."
Or, alternatively, "Most motorists drive at speeds above the motorway limit without crashing".
Edited by gareth_r on Thursday 28th October 17:40
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