Speed awareness course inbound

[fatboy b]

Slightly north of 80 on the dualled A30 in Devon for those interested.

First time I’ve been caught in some 30 years, and have elected for the course.

No idea what to expect other than being told to think of the children. But is it a case of nodding and keeping quiet?

[fatboy b]

HC??

[fatboy b]

parabolica said:

Highway Code.

Your experience will depend on the instructors tbh; had to do my first one last March and tbh, it was much better than I expected. Leaders were from AADriveTec and were really engaging; none of this hellfire and damn-nation stuff; they said out the very start "everyone speeds, we're just here to show you the consequences of a few things". 4-hour course and it honestly went by pretty quick; being London the vast majority of my class were Uber drivers and... minorities... whose knowledge (or lack thereof) of the road laws was pretty eye-opening.

My cousin didn't have the same experience; he had an ex-police Sargent who went full-on Metal Jacket apparently.

Thanks for the info. Yes it’s the AA course. I would honestly like to know why our motorways and DCs are not in line with European speed limits.

[fatboy b]

cat with a hat said:

Turn up and be shocked that you have to share the road with the general public.

You'll here quotes like "but I feel safer when I follow the car in front closely", "why aren't you allowed to stay in the middle lane" and "I don't like it when someone tries to overtake me".

[fatboy b]

Strudul said:

We were told that 3rd gear is the most efficient gear at 30mph. (Politely) called BS on that, explaining the throttle input required to overcome engine breaking and that 4th / 5th would be better from an efficiency standpoint, but apparently the tutor knew better and has done "extensive testing" so I was wrong.

Other than that, it covered:
- Speed limits for different roads and vehicles
- Crash stats
- Braking distances
- Hazard perception
- Why people speed and how to avoid it

Not too painful to sit through, but very basic and mostly irrelevant to speeding.

90% of the people are clueless, not knowing speed limits or what road markings mean, so admittedly it was probably very useful for them.

The crash stats are just for injuries and deaths on different types of roads, no indication of how or whether speed was a factor.

Braking distances are just the advisory ones, had to bite my tongue to avoid pointing out that it's completely dependant on the car / tyres / brakes.

Hazard perception, we were told to "count the pens", then flashed an image of some pens and pencils briefly. Turns out it said "10 pens" or something in the top left corner, but not sure what that was supposed to teach.

All in all a massive waste of time and money, but better than points.

Thanks. Kinda what I thought.

[fatboy b]

130 or 80. Still the same rate..

[fatboy b]

vonhosen said:

fatboy b said:

130 or 80. Still the same rate..

They are not all 130 limits.
We don't share their fatality rates either.

I guess that depends on the country. The unlimited sections in Germany keeps you focused and proves that speed doesn’t kill, but rather inappropriate speed kills. I survived the Jag at 170mph, but on sections 60 was more appropriate.

[fatboy b]

Take away the obvious revenue stream, I’m still astounded by the attention minor motorway speeding is given. I set the cruise in 30s & 40s as IMO, those speeds need to be observed (even though the knobs 6’ from my arse think otherwise). Yet there’s next to FA being done about those who use phones on the go, and use the wrong lane on DCs and motorways. I guess they can’t be enforced unless plod gets off their backside and starts to patrol. In my trip from the midlands to the West Country where I got the ticket, I never saw one cop car. That’s about 230 miles each way.

[fatboy b]

MLMing is a big issue, so I’ll disagree with you there. It causes one of the biggest (IMO) causes of crashes and road rage. And that’s frustration. All too often I’ll see people undertaking and pulling into non-existent gaps. That’ll end in a collision or a display of bravado from the people involved. That then has a knock-on effect to the immediate surrounding cars having to avoid cars heavy braking or swerving. Proactive policing will help stop this, but as you say budgets are being cut. That can be accepted (as is the case apparently), or it can be fought appropriately if so desired.

Edited by fatboy b on Monday 22 January 17:30

[fatboy b]

Course done. Nothing said I already knew. The two presenters were completely pro-brake and had no common sense between them. One was an ex-cop, and would have been more at home running a hotel in Torquey from the 70s tbh. When I tried to partake with an answer to a question, I was shot down in flames in front of everyone for giving (so they thought) an incorrect answer. I kept quiet after that and started clock watching.

What I took away:
3/4 of the room had little idea on the rules of the road. So I guess I will drive with that in mind now. 3/18 didn’t know the national speed limit for car on a single carriageway. 17/18 didn’t realise two lanes in each direction separated by a white line wasn’t dual carriageway.

[fatboy b]

Strudul said:

The problem with the highway code is that it's so dependant on the car being driven but it's stated as a generic fact, especially on SACs.

Yes, the thinking time is the same regardless (or probably worse), but as we've seen from tests such as the ones done on Top Gear in Oz, a 2 tonne M6 will stop in 22m from 60mph, not 38m like the highway code states.

This means 2 things for cars with better brakes, they:
1) can go safely go faster as they can still stop in time
2) should go faster as this will increase stopping distance, reducing the chance of someone with worse brakes going into the back of them

I was going to point out that. And the fact that there are also buses and lorries occupying our 30 limits that will take way longer to stop than a car at 30. So, given the worst case - a 40 tonner, maybe we should drive at the speed that allows us to stop in the same distance it does at 30.