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 there are some real twats on the road. Some, like me, got caught with lead shoes on in a new car, others had an attitude of "you think this is going to stop me?"

Nothing.

It was just something I had to do as I was caught speeding.

Yep!!!

And about the speed limit outside schools isn't enforceable due to the signage? Assume it was.

Ours wasn't too in depth though. No interviews or anything like that thought there would be more about speeding to be honest...

Same. I have trouble keeping my speed down so they advised keeping in third gear which I do now.

That driving instructors encourage you to change up to 4th gear in a 30mph zone, so you are getting lots of experience of all the gear changes. But that it’s better to be in 3rd doing 30 as it’s more unlikely you will exceed the speed limit then.

Not much. Did it online and everyone was super nice and no annoying debates etc.

There was some about different speed limits in Wales which I doubt I will retain and hope these will be well signposted if I ever go to Wales.

As one of the most sceptical people on the internet, I could not have been more cynical about having to attend.

Having attended I have to admit it wasn't a waste of time, and indeed should be mandatory every 10 years.

So someone saying they learned nothing suggests they should go and make friends with people who think safeguarding is a waste of time. They can probably snigger at fart jokes at the back.

That any type of course like this with a mixed age demographic is a nightmare to do by zoom (just after lockdown). One man's mobile kept ringing; another's landline kept going and someone had a dog that barked if a bird flew by the window. And that's without the technophobes who kept losing connection.... It was the most stressful few hours of my life. I got caught doing 45 coming out of a 40 speed limit on a rural road with no houses, and is uphill so I'd accelerated. Know the road like the back of my hand and am in no way shape or form a dangerous driver unlike the Audi and BMW drivers that seem intent on driving their cars into my boot on most journeys into work

That a surprising number of people think the speed limit on single carriageways is 50, 60 on a dual carriageway and 70 on a motorway. I think there were only about 3 of us who knew the correct limits for those roads...

I did learn things and found it very interesting.

One thing that I concluded though is that some things you can never win. One of the illustrations they gave with an answer of 60 mph, looked exactly like where I was caught doing 38. There is no legal rule on how far apart 30 signs need to be nor do they have to be able to be seen (can be covered with vegetation) so it's quite possible to miss them when driving in an unfamiliar area.

My dad was in the original group of people to set these up. His main belief was that once on the course the participants should be treated as intelligent adults who were voluntarily on a course to learn about speed awareness - not as naughty school children in detention.

It is quite nice that over a decade after his retirement it seems that that is still going.

Has the speed limit changed since I learned to drive 30+ years ago? When helping my daughter revise for her therapy test I was surprised to find it's now 70 in some places, not 60 as I was taught in lessons. Back then, I'm sure 70 was only motorways and 60 / 30 was the national speed limit elsewhere?

That Amber means stop

That as rule of thumb, if a road has a dwelling on that someone can run out of a front door onto the road then it's max limit of 30

That streetlights mean it's a 30mph zone, even if there are no houses.

I got caught doing 38 in what I thought was a 40, as there were no houses, no footpath beside the road and at the end of the stretch of road there was a sign saying 'Now entering traffic calmed area'.

Apparently streetlights mean it's 30 unless it says otherwise.

That most driving deaths occur on country roads, not motorways

ExMIL learned that she couldn't even see the board from the front row (having missed the venue twice and taken 30 minutes to find the room) and she should probably call her consultant and get her cataracts done before her summer holiday instead of delaying them until after Christmas.

Still fucking drove home, though.

This reminded me of something I did learn. That Drs can write to the DVLA and have your driving licence revoked. I firmly believe in your exMILs case someone on the course should have prevented her driving away from the building.

What do you mean by that?

There isn't a minimum speed limit as far as I aware?

Drive at 30 in 3rd gear.
Increased awareness of hazards.
Don’t increase speed when you see a sign in the distance going from say 30 to 40, wait til you pass it.
How speeding when you’re late makes very little difference to arrival time.

That driving in the correct gear for the speed limit helps you stick to that limit - eg 2nd in a 20 zone, 3rd in a 30, 4th in a 40 etc. You can hear the engine straining if you creep over the limit.

Oh, and the way to work out if it's a built up area and therefore a 30 zone is if there are street lamps and pavements.

How incredibly stupid some people are.

People didn't know basic road signs, what a dual carriageway is, how to do basic mathematical calculations and how to answer simple questions.

And if you're wondering how/why I was there, the speed van was parked next to the sign leaving the village (on grass verge), no houses or footpaths on both sides of the road for quite sometime, I was going 34 along with the rest of the traffic leaving the village, but had a pony in the trailer so couldn't brake hard like the others did.

I hope I am quite aware of speed limits - we do a road trip in Europe every year and always try to take note of each countries speed limits.

In Norway, it's relatively easy - 50 mph (80 km/ h) or about 30 mph (50 km / h) in built up areas.

France is interesting with its random autoroute speed limits depending on rain. And speed cameras everywhere.

I did 40 in a road that had changed to 30. I was only in that city every few years so I didn’t notice, got done for speeding, and went on the course. I was cross, and indignant, and I was convinced I was innocent, and it was all very unfair, but you know what? I really enjoyed it and found it really useful. I can’t single out one fact or another, but I do know it has made me more careful on the road. I think everyone should be required to do at least an online version for an hour or two every two years - a bit like an MOT for the motorist - in the same way we have to do internet safety training every two years at work.

How speeding when you’re late makes very little difference to arrival time

How silly, of course driving faster means you get there earlier, just as driving slower means you get there later - is this what you were told on your course? That your driving speed somehow affects time itself?