to presume NO ONE speeds ever on mn

[Jedward]

or at least admits to it.

I don't speed- and intfact hate driving fast- and I'm in the police- infact when I was having my lessons at work to be passed to drive a police car- I was shouted at (not horribly) to speed up and to move my nose away from the windscreen! (As i lean so close to it) I was a very nervous driver ! (I don't think I'll be doing my advanced drivers for a while...

I try not to speed unfortunately it doesn't always work out. In Switzerland, speeding cameras are a means of generating revenue rather than an attempt at road safety. I recently got a 40chf fine for doing 58 in a 50kmh zone from a temporary camera. In my defence, the road is very steep and I was braking at the time. OTOH, there is a fixed camera on the way to my dd's school and everyone knows it is there. The red brake lights are visible from around 500 metres away as everyone slows down for it before speeding up once you are past it. Last year the sneaky bastards put a temporary camera underneath the sign that says you are leaving a 30kmh area and I got clocked at 42. 250chf later.......

Erm its really not that hard to remain within the speed limit. Drive a few miles underneath it if necessary. The limit applies the whole time, not just where theres a camera. If you were driving over the speed limit, you can hardly complain if you get caught and have to pay a fine. The whole complaining about the government generating revenue is stupid, you don't HAVE to pay, its quite simple, just stick to the limits. If you really find driving so hard you can't do this then you are not safe to be on the roads

Being entirely honest, I drive far slower these days since having DC. I used to speed a lot in my past life, just slowed down for the camera. Used to travel at 90mph on motorways.
Now I really really try to keep to the limit. I don't go above 70 on motorways/dual carriageways.
I was caught by a speed camera doing 37 in a 30 zone when I was pg, it was near DH's work and I'd just assumed it was 40 limit

DH's car has the current speed in big digits on the dashboard, there is no excuse to speed with such a car. You can't miss what speed you're doing.

I like the point about it being a limit not a target. We live near the derestricted sign at the end of our village. We cross the road in a section that should be 30mph, but because drivers know the sign is ahead many come round the bend doing well over because they seem to think they need to be up to 60 by the time they reach it.

And of course in the other direction the 30 sign evidently means 'you might want to slow down now', not that you should be pretty much down to 30 by the time you reach the sign.

I do stick to the speed limits, much more carefully than I used to in fact. Coming down a hill (very steep) and changing gear is, I think trying to keep to the speed limit. FWIW, I have become so used to not exceeding any limit that I found it a bit discombobulating to be driving in England this summer and having people flash their lights at me to speed up.

I don't have a car anymore which is possibly a good thing as I do speed. I always observe 30 mph/ 40 mph limits, but speed on motorways, dual carriage ways and single country roads where the limit is 60mph.

I drive around 85-90mph on motorways, have been known to go faster.

Somehow have avoided any points. I think the speed limit on motorways should be higher, since they're the safest roads and a 70mph limit seems odd. Much better in France where you can actually put your foot down and cover some miles.

I have broken the speed limit, I have used speed to get somewhere faster, I have used speed to get me out of trouble, I have got older and tryed to mend my ways as I don't want points on my licence and have never had them.

I don't go over the spped limit often now.

I have been stopped for speeding - don't quite know how nothing happened? But I smiled answered the questions and he explained I had been speeding and sent me on my way?

I try to drive carefully as my actions in a car could devestate someones life and their family forever

I've found that since the advent of speed cameras, other drivers are much less prone to flashing/tailgating if you're doing the limit (unless its 70 in the outer lanes of the motorway and theres no reason for you no to have pulled in) Even a white van man can appreciate you might really need to avoid points.

If you do find you're being harrassed, it might be worth checking your speedo... we found when we got a Garmin satnav, which displays the speed, that while both of our cars register high, one is just a bit but the other is significantly out.

I don't speed on MN, I do however speed when driving. Will do 80mph on a motorway, I don't speed in built up areas.

the braking distances of 1930s cars and I drive a 2002 car.'
You might drive a 2002 car but not everyone on the road does, others drive older cars and that also needs to be taken inot account for your braking distance.

On a side note I had a mondeo drive into the back of my car - the mondeo front was caved in and smashed to peice on the road - my car was not damaged at all and I drove away where as the mondeo had to be towed. The mondeo was new and my car 15 years older. My older car had been made to take an impact, the mondeo had super dupper brakes - but the lady driving had super douper not seen me soon enough and the super douper brakes didn't stop in time (I could hear the brakes for a while before we felt the crash in the back)

AitchTwoToTangOh, I'm not saying that making people who have no awareness of what is going on around them drive faster will make them drive safer. That is a deliberate misinterpretation of what i said.

What I am saying is that slow does not necessarily = safe. This fixation on speed rather than appropriate speed for the situation sends out completely the wrong message.

Personally I think we need to get rid of some of those god-awful speed cameras, which do nothing to deter aggressive driving (which may be well within the speed limit) and get a few more traffic cops out stopping the bumper huggers and general dangerous driving (whether within the speed limit or not).

Speed is just a single aspect of safe driving and I think that is often forgotten these days.

I think everyone would agree that there are many other factors in safe driving. It also makes me really cross when people fail to indicate/ pull out of junctions without looking/ drive when exhausted etc etc.

BUT these should not detract from the clear argument against speeding.

""the braking distances of 1930s cars and I drive a 2002 car.'
You might drive a 2002 car but not everyone on the road does, others drive older cars and that also needs to be taken inot account for your braking distance."

I do take all factors into consideration which is why I am points-free and accident-free (except for when some eejit goes into the back of me, and there's not much that I can do about that).
I am perfectly aware that a car is a potential lethal weapon and drive accordingly i.e. try not to kill or maim other human beings, believe it or not. One of my biggest annoyances when driving is when other drivers cut into the safety-space that I leave between me and the car in front.
It does not help the Govt's case when they try to imply that their limits are sensible when everyone knows that they are based on the way cars/braking systems/tyres/road surfaces were generations ago. It's like trying to compare 'push button A' phone boxes with broadband (if you are too young to understand 'push button A' then that illustrates my point exactly)

Also, ivykate, regarding your story of the bump with the Mondeo:
I believe that modern cars are purposely designed to crumple and absorb shock, rather than inflict it. Have you thought which vehicle would do more damage to a pedestrian?

the mondeo drive was in a neck brace for the following week

My daughter had love bit marks on her chest and I had whip lash on the sunday (enough to be painul but still cycled all day)

So the mondeo crumpled and took the impact - not all the impact and was crumpled a lot for a 40 mph crash - at 60mph I wouldn't want to be in a mondeo.

Perhaps the large rubber old fashioned bumpers (I am talking about 6" rubber bumbers) on my car took the impact far better and that was why my old car was not damaged, and the whiplash is difficult to aviod in any impact - whereas her car may have taken some of the impact, but not all and left her with worse injuries than ours and a broken up car to boot

Fembear, you do not appear to be taking any note of reaction times, as well as braking times in your argument that speed limits were set generations ago, and are therefore largely irrelevant. I am sure that my reaction times are just about the same as those of my grandmother's, or my great-grandmother's. To give you a clue about how a person's reaction times impact the total stopping distance (not just braking distance), see this table:

20mph: braking distance: 19ft, reaction distance: 44ft, total stopping distance: 63ft

30mph: braking distance: 43ft, reaction distance: 66ft, total: 109ft

35mph: braking distance: 59ft, reaction distance: 77ft, total: 136ft

40mph: braking distance: 76ft, reaction distance: 88ft, total: 164ft

So, if you're happily driving along at 35mph and someone walks out in front of you, you react. You slam on your brakes. And you will travel a further 27 feet than if you had been driving at 30mph. That basically means that the person who stepped out in front of you will be dragged a further 10 odd yards down the road than if you had been observing the speed limit. Hence the higher the speed, the higer the fatality rates.

Doing 20% over the speed limit is not in my mind driving slowish shiney - sorry but I think it is wrong to drive 20% over the speed limit - and I do it aswell

This thread has made me think about speed

I find I often wander over 70mph when on the motorway but my car is getting on a bit and the rattling tends to alert me to the fact I am going to be speeding.

Having said that I attended a Learn2Live tutorial with some students where I work and still have horrible memories of the stories they told us about accidents I truly think they should take this event all over the country if they don't already, it featured real life policemen, ambulance staff, surgeons, firemen/women who told you what they found when they came across a collision. A very harsh wake up call to some of the teenagers we went with, I hope they paid some attention to it!

"That basically means that the person who stepped out in front of you will be dragged a further 10 odd yards down the road than if you had been observing the speed limit."

And this assumes that I do not anticipate and ,therefore, avoid accidents.
I believe that hazard perception is now included in the theory section of the test for today's new drivers.

ANYONE can have an accident Fembear. Unfortunately however careful a driver you are it could still happen, perhaps through no fault of your own. That is why sticking within the legal limits is important, to minimise risk of damage/ loss of life. There is no exception for "good drivers" in the statute.

(the laws on speeding - sorry wasn't v clear)

Sorry Fembear, but I do not understand the point you were trying to make.

The laws of physics are quite simple: the is a 1 second delay (driver reaction time) in hitting your brakes on seeing an incident ahead of you. The faster you are travelling, then obviously the further you will travel during that one second. Like it or not, those few feet could be the difference between life and death. But since you don't have accidents, other than those which are caused by people driving into your rear (which incidently, if you took some advanced driver training you could learn how to avoid in most cases), and you drive a 2002 plate car, then this obviously doesn't apply to you.