Ludicrous speed limit, what would you do?

[pikatchu]

Imagine yourself on a very long straight with a few scattered houses and basically all the "furniture" you would find on an average town centre road (ie intersections, pedestrian crossings, shopping centres).

Imagine that it is perfectly possible to do 190mph and not hit a thing.

A reasonable speed would be in the 55 to 70mph area as long as you keep a good distance to the car in front and stay alert. (With this I mean being actively involved in your driving and always making sure you can stop within visible distance.)





Now imagine there is a tyrant ruling authority that could have done everything to prevent pedestrians and cars from "mixing", but instead, it decides to prossecute every vehicle moving at over 10mph. (...even though they can't prove that you intend to kill someone with your car in the typical "guilty until proven innocent" atitude we already know, meaning you should prossecute for slander and argh let's not go there for now!)



WHAT WOULD YOU DO???



Second gear and the engine iddling leaves you at 10mph.

And now what?

What will happen to your driving?

Imagine you have 2 hours of this.

Imagine that pedestrians do need to get across and there aren't any safe places to do so. There is a lot happening.

Do you drive with the focus of a Formula 1 driver for 2 hours?

Or will your mind start wandering.

Wandering about that girl you fancied in college.

Wandering about what to eat for dinner.

Wandering about your past experiences.

Will you text someone?

Will you reorganise your glove box?

Did you shave properly this morning?

Did she tell you to meet her at the restaurant tonight? Or was it tomorrow night?

Do you remember the last 2 miles you've just covered?

Are you paying any attention anymore?



Do you think other cars and pedestrians won't claim the space you're not using due to your ridiculous moving speed?


Do you think that there won't be any accidents on this road based on the government's claims that you are now driving at a "safe speed"?

Do you honestly think it's impossible to kill someone at 10mph????



It's getting harder and harder to stay focused out there. In my honest experience, the slower drivers are the ones I need to watch out for.




My point...

Just because a narrow gap is 6ft 6", putting a 4ft restriction on it won't make it any safer.


Sorry for the rant,
Peter

[8Pack]

Agree totally Peter, but Dicky Bumsturmer, Head of Wales Police( or Dicky-Head as we like to call him) doesn't think so.

I just think back to the 55 mph blanket speed limit in America. That didn't do much for safety did it?
All you ended up with was a Nation of drivers who couldn't drive any more! and were hence: more dangerous!

OK! OK! ALL, The US 55 mph limit was about oil use, I know, but the "speed experiment" didn't work either.

[deltaf]

Id do what i do with all speed limits....i ignore em.
Unless theres a proven reason NOT to.

Simple huh?

[Richard C]

8pack said:

OK! OK! ALL, The US 55 mph limit was about oil use, I know, but the "speed experiment" didn't work either.

The limit was very little about oil use here or there but the oil shock was an excuse by the speed kills lobby to impose their knee jerk restrictions. The 'oil shock' itself was another excuse by the oil majors to make massive windfalls.

Agree that the xperiment did not work but reason and analysis never has the logical effect on these fools does it ?

[Tafia]

Bridget Driscoll was the first pedestrian to step in front of a car and be killed.

The car was travelling at 4 mph outside Crystal Palace on 17th August 1896.

[funkihamsta]

In Blood Diner, a person tripped and fell under a car trying out hydraulic ram suspension and had his head crushed. Speed 0mph.

[deltaf]

Tafia said:

Bridget Driscoll was the first pedestrian to step in front of a car and be killed. The car was travelling at 4 mph outside Crystal Palace on 17th August 1896.

Only cos the numpty driving didnt stop?

[Dwight VanDriver]

Ah so.... another speeder.

The Locomotive Act, 1865 imposed a 2mph in urban areas.

Sure it was a motor vehicle as a little dickybird tells me Driscoll was killed by a horse drawn carriage and that it was not until 1899 that the first fatal was recorded involving a motor vehicle.

DVD

[Winnebago Nut]

They said at the inquest of bridget driscoll :"Witnesses said that the car, driven by Arthur Edsel, was travelling at a reckless pace, in fact, like a fire engine. Mr Edsel claimed that he had only been doing 4 mph and that he had rung his bell as a warning". It seems even today nothing has changed (the way that the motorist is seen as by a minority) or it has gone round in circles like fashion does You know this speed thing .Atb Derek


>> Edited by Winnebago Nut on Sunday 4th July 21:05

[Cooperman]

The U.S. limit of 55mph has been mentioned, but don't forget that, in the interests of fuel economy, we had a blanket 50 mph limit imposed in the UK for a few months in December 1974.
It was almost totally ignored and disappaeared in 1975. It was so ignored I can't even remember when it was removed exactly. Even the manned police patrols ignored it virtually universally.
Now, if the cameras had existed then......?