What did you learn on a speed awareness course you didn't know before?

[rondo]

Or I suppose you had forgotten?
Or what were you surprised other people did not know?

I discovered that I'd been driving too slowly on dual carriageways with a central reservation 🤣

I found the course really interesting and quite good fun. I think it's really good that we get them offered instead of the fine. Everyone would benefit from attending one really.

What the symbol for NSL means.

Absolutely nothing. I generally don't speed and thought limit was 40 but it was 30. Totally my fault and accept responsibility. But in 20 years of driving there was nothing new to me.

That I can't spend hours on a hard plastic chair without two days off sick and very heavy painkillers 😳

That was my mistake too @Snowsp. They'd reduced the limit on that particular road since the last time I'd driven down it, and it was dark and I didn't notice.

Nothing new, but they showed us some very sobering interviews with the family and friends of people injured/maimed/killed by speeding drivers which has stayed with me for the 18 years since.

Speed is more about stopping distances rather than the speed of a car if that makes sense .

The mechanisms of smart motorways. Everything else I knew because it was in the highway code.

Nothing I didn’t know but was astounded by what others didn’t know and it absolutely reinforced to me how important it is to stick to the limit in built up areas.

That speed cameras/other initiatives to encourage people to slow down can only be put at a location if there have been a certain number of fatal or life changing accidents at that spot.

Was caught at 36 in a 30, was on a course near Crowthorne,Berks. The instructor gave us a blow by blow account of a pile up on a motorway.

A man had run down the hard shoulder waving to slow everyone down, but they all ignored him.

Then the awful bit about a family being trapped as their car was on fire but nobody could get them out, and how the dad inside was trying to kick the window out.

It was harrowing but I'm now the slowest driver in East Anglia.

interesting - a lot of the stuff people have just said wasn't mentioned on mine - nothing about smart motorways or where speed cameras can be placed, and no interviews with family members killed by speeding/drunk drivers, examples of bad crashes etc. It was only last year too.

the difference between stopping distances at different speeds was interesting - I obviously knew it took longer to stop the faster you were going, but not how much it increased from 30-40 etc.

it was enlightening how many people on mine didn't know the NSL on different types of roads

Best tip for me was - when in town, don't get above 3rd gear. Brilliant advice but not so great for the new car that won't to go to 4th at about 28.

That men between the ages of around 30-60 are the biggest speeders out there. And the highest demographic to go straight to a fine/ban and not be offered a speed awareness course are young men in late teens to early twenties.

The stopping distances in different types of weather. I knew obviously, that it was different in bad weather, but not by how much.

There was nothing about smart motorways though.

I was doing 35 in a 30 limit, but it had recently changed from 40 and I didn’t know.

That there is always one irritating person who wants to debate each point and holds the whole day up.

That some people are twunts (and I already knew that)

We were shown a video of a stretch of road, as part of the "state the speed limit despite no signs" round. All 24 of use correctly determined it was 30 and noted the school on the way.

Towards the end, we were told of a school that had begged for a traffic census, and saw the results - between 12 and 2pm, most cars were speeding and 2 doing over 70.

We were then told it was on the stretch of road we had all rated as 30.

That the white van driver trope is real. I've never been stuck in a room for half a day with so many arses.

I discovered that I'd been driving too slowly on dual carriageways with a central reservation 🤣

Ha! I was just popping on to post this too.

The accident on the M4? We watched the reconstruction and it was horrible

That coloured (ie Red) tarmac is really expensive so it only gets put on dangerous bends.

One person on my course came within a hairs breadth of being removed and referred back to the court. They had been caught on a road that used to be 60 and was now 40. Apparently that was a mistake and they shouldn't have been done because the road is OK for 60, despite the limit.

Personally I took away some learnings that have stood me in good stead these past 10 years.

• speed limits are generally being lowered (happened around here).
• zones really are a thing (again, happened round here).
• Average speed cameras aren't going away anytime soon (again, plenty round here on the 30mph A roads).

I was snapped at 33 in a 30 as I was setting my limiter (which I have used since 2010) down from 40. Shit happens I guess.

that speed itself think german autobahn, is safe, its all the not focusing, that causes majority of accidents

I think the person delivering the course went off at a bit of a tangent but it was very interesting, about how they slow the traffic down miles from an accident to keep it flowing and the engineering of how it all works.

That the daughter of two people I went to secondary school with was on the same online course as me. I live in a completely different part of the country now. That women over 60 with drive Range Rovers don't realise that their rural roads have speed limits which apply to them too.

In all seriousness, I realised that I had got sloppy and careless over 30 years and I needed to get back into better habits quickly. 20 mph limits might be a pain, but they are there for a reason, so ignore the dr8ver getting frustrated behind you.