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?

That the motorways people will put speed limits on stretches to try and space drivers out and prevent phantom braking waves. That driving at 80 vs 70 mph means a difference of minutes over a long journey. I drive within the speed limit now on motorways instead of at 80.

This seems really odd to me-I often see broken down cars on hard shoulder but hardly ever see an accident.

I know. People are fucking nobheads on here sometimes. Those lanes are colloquially known as the slow lane, middle lanes and fast lanes. Nothing to do with speeding at all. I call them that and I don't speed! Calling it a fast lane doesn't mean people will use it to speed. Everyone knows that there's a speed limit. We've all done a driving test. Just some people choose to ignore it, and some people make mistakes and speed. It's nothing to do with what people call the lanes!!

Completely agree with this.
MN has even created a Pedant's corner for these people to hang out in but they still sneak out to derail other threads.

this is useful! I’d like to hear more tips, this is a brilliant thread.

we have a first responder family member and we all have a hammer in our glove compartments after a story they told. I also don’t drive cars without a long boot.

(Sorry, the 'Quote' Function has disappeared from this thread, for me )

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.

I completely agree with this.
Mine was 11 or 12 years ago and I can't remember what surprised me, or if anything was new to me, but I do remember - just like everyone else in the room - feeling a bit hard done by for having to go, but then coming away thinking how good it was, and how every driver should have to do a course like this every 10 years or so.

I was also surprised at the number of drivers on the course who were getting the answers to so many questions so very wrong - including people who drove for a living, which was quite concerning.

that its not a good idea when it was mentioned a friend had activated a nitrous kit, it led to discussions on engines being able to withstand the pressures of the nitrous and also the hazards associated with the speed etc

A what, @TheBeeHives ?

"More paint, more danger" I recall my car driving instructor telling me this over twenty years ago. I already had a motorcycle licence and readily agreed, because that paint is bloody slippy when you're on two wheels. Apparently that wasn't what he meant!

(Sorry, the 'Quote' Function has disappeared from this thread, for me )
If you're on a browser, the quote function has moved from the three dots in the right hand upper corner, to underneath the post. Caught me out the other day too!

Nitrous oxide in cars.

Thanks

Have never heard of this! I need to mix with more boy racers, obviously!

I feel a bit daft but the terminology just makes no sense to me! It’s like near side and offside of a car - I cannot get those to stick in my head either and end up saying drivers side or passengers side if I need a tyre changing for example !!
Yeah, I don't understand inside/outside lane or nearside/offside either. I think inside is the left lane but that's the outside of the road. Even more acutely confusing on a roundabout because the inside lane is furthest away from the middle of the circle.

As for nearside and offside is nearside the passenger side? Surely nearside should be the one nearest to me, the driver.

I only use passenger side/driver side and left/middle/right lane

I know it's off topic and quite pendantic, but yes it is possible for most people to be above average, for example if a very few people are so poor that they drive the average right down. In the same way that the vast majority of people have an above average number of legs

What's the 10% thing?

The speed limit on roads with a central reservation, and that more signs etc means there've been fatal accidents. And that it's ok to drive in third gear to restrict your speed.

And that I'm a below average driver but very few others will admit it, despite being on an actual speeding course.

Having taken my test 45 years ago, an enormous amount! I didn't know there were different speed limits for vehicles on motorways for a start

I haven’t done a course but my brother also said exactly this about his course!

Again - not answering the question

The comment was about someone saying there were going to slow when a dual carriageway had a central reservation.

It's a mindset - and I don't care if you think it's pedantic.

They are the inside and outside lane.

As you will have learnt from here, there are many people who speed and who don't understand speed limits - so saying what they are collaquially known as just reinforces the fact that people speed and don't understand the lanes.

Have you been on a motorway recently?
With idiots doing 90 - 100 mph in the outside lane?

I bet they call it the fast lane.

For the love of God, stop banging on about the fast lane.

We’ve all got the message.

The 10% thing is that you’re only prosecuted if you are over the speed limit +10% so 77 miles an hour for example

No. Because some haven't got the message and continue to argue the toss about it.

If someone calls me pedantic and if someone else calls me thick, then I am going to respond.

If that's ok with the thread police?

I was the only woman, I’d done 41 in a road that was 30 (it used to be 40 I didn’t know it’d come down, it was 5am in the morning and I’d just pulled off the motorway and I wasn’t aware of the chaneg, I’d say nearly everyone would have got done that morning by the speed van).

I learned that it’s mainly arsey men with probably small dicks just trying to appear manly.

This too, plus the fact that distance distance distance is important - you can't hit a car you're nowhere near.