scoobynutta555

Think santa sticks to speed limits? He must have millions upon millions of presents to deliver is such a small time frame.

damian666

Speed limits F*ck that. I drive as fast as I like where I like. I will accept the consequences if anything happens - by being observant, 99% of accidents would be avoided.

How can you speed outside a school at 9am anyway? Its usually jam packed with chav mums in their X5s.

I don't see anything wrong with bursts of speed to 120+ on the motorway. The M1 is very straight in places, and 'dead' at 4am.

damian666

All I am saying is that appropriate speed should be used for every situation. On occasion, that dual carriageway with a 30mph limit is silly - especially when there are no pavements and no padestrian crossings. I believe in making progress, and I think I'm not alone about driving/riding quickly on the motorway at certain periods.

There are very few roads where you are actually able to drive quicker than 30mph ouside a school. I drive past 3 on the way to work and the traffic is heavy from 8.30 onward!

I'm not out there to kill padestrians, and sometimes residential areas mean that not even 30mph is appropriate - speedbumps However if I recieve a speeding ticket and I genuinely was speeding, I would accept the consequences.

Perhaps this is better put

Damian

Leslie

Damian666,

Whatever you say, three figure speeds are never appropriate on public roads. You have a particularly selfish attitude which cannot be justified however much you might try.

Go and do a track day or two to get it out of your system, but show a bit more responsibilty on public roads.

Les

damian666

OK

Thanks for the advice.

Senior_AP

I have, on accasion driven around 100 on a clear motorway or Dual Carriageway. In an appropriate situation this is not a major problem.

OllyK

Funny how they seem to manage OK in Germany on the Autobahns though huh? However IIRC a speed limit does come in to force under adverse weather conditions.

We need something similar in this country. Travelling at 100mph at 3am on a deserted 4 lane A1M can be safe. If it is raining, then it probably isn't, even if it is still deserted.

People need better road training first and foremost, the speed kills message is killing people sadly as (in general) people focus on their speed and not observing what is actually going on around them.

Senior_AP

Twice in 2 days!!!!!!!!

RB170

I agree that the law is the law but if a law is outdated or irrelivant should we still follow it like sheep?

"It is illegal for a woman to be topless in public except as a clerk in a tropical fish store"
"If someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your commode, you must let them enter"
"With the exception of carrots, most goods may not be sold on Sunday"
"All English males over the age 14 are to carry out 2 or so hours of longbow practice a week supervised by the local clergy"
"It is illegal for a lady to eat chocolates on a public conveyance"

So how many of you have done your longbow praccy this week?

My point being that there are many laws in this country some of them make sense some of them don't.

The speed limits in this country were set at a time when doing 70mph was getting close to the top end for most cars on the road and I'd imagin that it was prettty scary (unless you're driving a Cobra I guess)

It's time for the speed limits in the UK to be updated, appropriate speeds for approprate area's is what's required not just a blanket 1960's speed limit just because the area you're in passes a farm.

20 mph in residential areas is OK but 70mph on UK motorways at 3am in the morning is rediculous. If the laws made sense then most people would abide by them

Oh and you ladies make sure you keep that chocolate until you get off that coneyance.

VTEC to Turbo

If this was aimed at me you missed my point completely and why is it so ludicrous? - It is not worrying about where cameras are that I have a problem with (I just do not see why people should be criminalised 'these days' for straying over a limit by a couple of miles per hour), get more bobbies on the beat to police the roads and use their discretion.

I drive past 2 schools on the way to work and neither have a cameras outside the front of them. I don't have an over inflated ego and I definately don't believe I am a driving god (to coin a phrase).

All I am saying is that people drive around in a daze most of the time, a question to you? do you drive down residential roads (where cars are parked end to end) looking under each to see if small feet are about to step out in the road without looking? I do! No speed camera is going to make me a safer driver - it is my driving practices that, touch wood, will keep me and others around me safe on the road.

The fact of the matter is, even with all these cameras on the roads, road deaths have not gone down. I hope that you and your speedo are able to keep within 2mph of the limit for the rest of your driving career. I for one will be laughing loudest at all those who say it is right that we should now except this nannying of the roads, who find they have got points by a letter in the post.

I would like to end by saying that if cameras were an effective measure in reducing road death I would support them 100%, the fact is they are nothing more than a revenue earner.

damian666

I would not be surprised if most of scoobynet resounds with a 'yeah, right' at this one. Do you really do this? You must drive at about 5mph!

VTEC to Turbo

I see your point but no mate I'm not taking the pi$$.

It's pretty easy to look 10 cars down the road, looking at what is happening around you. same as when driving on motorways I am aware of the car in front but I'm not watch it. I'm looking threw it (not superman style) a few cars in front!

You'd be supprised how much info you can take in if your not staring at the car infront of you!.

damian666

I know it, I just cant do it

Its one of the few driving tips given to me by my driving instructor which I cant use that often

I do however use car windows - braked early many a time to stop myself flattening a ped.

Leslie

The basic point about high speeds on motorways is that because 70 is the speed limit then the average driver is just not expecting someone to be barreling past at an overtake of anything up to 40mph plus and that is where the danger would lie. Of course it is safe enough to do three figure speeds on an empty motorway but the law does not permit it and that is why you can expect to be seriously "done" if you are caught. I have driven many miles on the Autobahns at very high speeds and because that is the norm over there it is not a problem. Generally our roads are much more crowded too.

Glad to see you know how to use your observation techniques Damian666, but you can never guarantee that will cover for every eventuality and the day a small child runs out in front of you, then the faster you are going, the more difficult it is to stop and the more damage you will do. It is a matter of playing off your somewhat selfish need to speed everywhere against the possible consequences.

Les

damian666

If a child runs out in front of me?

Darwin in action sir, Darwin in action. I do my best to keep an eye out like any driver. There are however many numpties that do not know that standing in the middle of the road is not the best idea when you have 1600kg bearing down on you at a fair speed.

It won't stop me feeling bad, but in all seriousness - if they run into the road after a ball and you are doing the speed limit and they die, will you be fighting for lower speed limits, more speed cameras, etc?

Senior_AP

Drive according to conditions.

There you go, debate over.

Bottomfeeder

Where does our illustrious leader stand on "Taking corners too quickly"?

Sprint Chief

Its not the 25-30mph in a 30 limit I was getting at, it was the lack of thinking of your whole approach and the implication that your speed should be a function of the speed limit and not the prevailing road conditions.

About a year or two after passing my basic test, I got interested in advanced driving, and based a lot of my driving style on a book called "Very Advanced Driving" by A. Tom Topper. Those who have read the book will recognise the terms "one speed driver" and "fastard", categories of commonly occurring "bad drivers" the author recognises. Your recommendation doesn't put you fully in the "one speed" driver category but your way of thinking is not far removed from this.

The issue I read - about ten-fifteen years ago now - would be a bit dated by todays standards, but I think he updated it. It makes a good, thought provoking read, even if you don't agree with all of it. Why not put it on your Xmas list - it's available on Amazon, I genuinely believe if all drivers stopped and read this sort of book, and just spent some time thinking about their driving style, considerably more lives would be saved than if the roads were plastered with speed cameras. The cost is only five quid plus a few hours of your time.

BTW in the issue of the book I read, the author recommends that if you have a decent car capable of it, you should at least once go to a deserted motorway and run up 100mph+ speeds just to learn a bit more about how your car reacts at these speeds. Food for thought?

Tiggs

typical comments.

70mph was introduced when Mways where quiet...now they are busy so if yo want to play the "time changes laws" card then lets make it 60mph.

while 100mph may be fine at night there are plenty of times in the day when it isnt. to intoduce graded limits for time of day would be hard and for level of driver impossible so get over it. Bottom line is 100mph isnt a public need. if you are on the mway at 3am and its quiet you can do 80ish without anyone caring and everyone know it........why bother changing that law?

Senior_AP

I stay more alert doing 100 on a dead motorway at 3am than doing 75 or so.

At 75 you might nod off. At 100 you are a tad more alert. imo.

Sprint Chief

Strongly agree with this sort of philosophy. Also extra care should be taken when driving along a two lane road with queuing traffic in the other lane in case something or someone (car/pedestrian etc.) suddenly pops out of the queue.

There was an interesting response to this suggesting this would result in driving at around 5mph. For many people this isn't far from the truth - when you first take an Advanced Driving lesson, and the instructor highlights how much information you are missing, most people slow down a lot because it is the only way to allow yourself to process all that you should be.

After a few lessons most drivers generally start speeding up again as they become accustomed to more automatically handling the information that you see. Only this time they are driving far more safely at that speed than they were before.

Tiggs

common answer and it does seem that way...but think about it...how can that be right? by that reasoning at 45 you'd slip into a coma or at 200mph you could do crosswords witha pen in your teeth.

also in my 540 70 felt like 50 so should i do 120?

being alert has more to do with fresh air in the car and your own state of mind + if you did 100 knowing it was allowed would yo still get the same rush that causes you to wake up a bit?

Senior_AP

Yeah good point.

Speed limits are there for people that are too stupid to drive to the conditions.

National speed limit should probably be upp-ed to 80 though. Problem is, in this crappy country it's unlikely you'll build up any speed at all.

Sprint Chief

Nice bit of absurd extrapolation. Why let sound reasoning or any kind of understanding of what the poster was trying to say get in your way?

RB170

Tiggs nobody said variable speed limits would be easy but does not mean it shouldn't be done?

I agree that maybe the average level of driver would have difficulty understanding it so while they're at it they should improve the quality of driver training in this country

That's the problems this government and previous governments are lazy, thats why speeding is being targeted as the number 1 cause of road accidents even though their own investigations prove that it's only a small contributing factor, it's the easiest thing to prove

Just because a law's inplace doesn't mean it's right

Traffic creates it's own spead limits, you know this wehn you're stuck in a queue for no other reason than volume of traffic but limits are needed as you'll always get some pr1ck trying to go far too fast for the conditions so an upper limit needs to be set.

To say that the limit for 5pm on the M25 is reasonable for 3am on the M25 is rediculous.

P.S I presume you're refering to earlier, what I actually said was "The speed limits in this country were set at a time when doing 70mph was getting close to the top end for most cars on the road and I'd imagin that it was prettty scary "