Speeding discretions to go?

Question: What is the first thing you do when you see the big yellow speed camera?... Answer: Look down away from the road to look at the speedometer.

How are you supposed to know what speed your doing without keeping a constant look at the speedo ?

 

In doing so, your attention is taken away from the road infront and everything that's going on in the immediate area, obviously you know if your driving slow but is it slow enough to meet the speed restriction in that particular area ?

 

No matter how good a driver you think you are, it is difficult to keep your foot in the same

place on the accelerator for a specified length of time......as an example: you could be driving through a little village that has a 30mph speed restriction and you are going at 30mph, something distracts you for a couple of seconds and your foot goes that little bit further down on the accelerator and now you are doing 35mph - hidden away and out of sight there is a Police un-marked van with a policeman inside behind a camera, you have no idea of this until a few weeks later when a letter drops through the letter box from the police stating you were found to be doing 35mph in a 30mph area and can either pay a fine or attend a speed awareness course.

 

The above happened to me whilst on holiday last year and I elected to go on a speed awareness course - I've been driving for 44 years and touch wood, never had an accident and have always had a clean license......a few seconds distraction and I was over the speed limit.

 

The moral behind this, is just use common sense........drive at reduced and sensible speeds

in built up area's, save the extra speed for motorway journeys !

 

Just as a point of interest, the road infront of my home ( approx. 1/4 mile from top to bottom ) is riddle with pot holes, you cannot drive up or down it even at very slow speeds without being thrown about in the car...............despite being like this, I can look through the window and see the younger generation going past as though they were at Brands Hatch !

I manage to know what speed I am driving at by engine noise and a well-developed speed sense. I can also gauge quite accurately the speed of the driver I am sat next to without having to check the speedo. So it is possible.

Holding my right foot in a particular position, given good posture and seating position is entirely possible. Some drivers, I know, can't and the most irritating amongst them for me are the ones who pulse the accelerator on and off without being able to find the happy medium.

In a 30 village, try "3rd for 30" and 35mph won't be quite so easy.

The moral of the story: you can't afford to be distracted too often in high-risk areas - bad things don't just happen to bad people!

Question: What is the first thing you do when you see the big yellow speed camera?... Answer: Look down away from the road to look at the speedometer.

¿So it would be safer if the speed cameras were hidden from view?

Good idea, but I reckon there would still be complaints.

C

Re BIB. I think a lot of the overall safety improvements come about through a change in attitude, as well as having more time to check for others etc.

 

I used to have to drive home over the snake pass on occasions, late at night on fairly empty roads. I used to enjoy it, driving quickly, as well as wanting to get home as quickly as I could. Then one day, everything changed when I stopped to think about what I was doing. There was little margin for error, but also there were situations where I couldn't truly say that I could stop or otherwise safely avoid (for example) a sheep if it was stood just around the bend. My attitude to driving changed overnight.

 

I'm now much more relaxed in general, and don't get fazed by inconveniences. Following a cyclist (or several), or a tractor etc, I pootle along behind them until it is safe to pass. If someone pulls out in front of me, I ease off and let them on their way, I'm happy for aggressive drivers to push ahead (I'd sooner the bad drivers are in front of me where they can do me least harm). Driving is once more a relaxed experience.

The reduced speed limit on the Snake may have the effects:

- it makes it eadier for motorists/riders to get past

- it makes the overtake more likely if the motorists/riders feel the reduced limit is unreasonable

- it makes any crashes less injurious (?) and easier to avoid

On two occasions in the last six months I have had to brake from 50 almost to a complete stop in order to allow a biker then a car to get back in after their crazy (opposing) overtake - a higher speed (and lesser observational and anticipation skills on my part) would have ended very differently.

I'll take the reduced speed limit and the fact that I am still here as a benefit, methinks, rather than as a sleight on my driving prowess.

Ah, that will the crux of the issue I think: I didn't say that my driving abilities improve with a lower speed. Indeed, they don't.

 

I've said driving slower makes me a better driver, then I've clarified that this is by reference to other drivers and road users around me

Better is an increase in your level of ability though. It's not safer, it's not slower, it's actually somehow improved from how you were when driving faster.

---------- Post added 08-08-2015 at 08:31 ----------

No. And even if it does that`ll be far outweighed by the reduction in the number and severity of accidents that do occur.

I'll put £50 on the fact that changing this will have absolutely no impact on the number or severity of accidents. It will almost certainly not measurably change the average speed driven at, and the only thing that will happen will be a slight increase in the number of fines handed out and motorists will feel slightly more persecuted.

---------- Post added 08-08-2015 at 08:32 ----------

How are you supposed to know what speed your doing without keeping a constant look at the speedo ?

 

In doing so, your attention is taken away from the road infront and everything that's going on in the immediate area, obviously you know if your driving slow but is it slow enough to meet the speed restriction in that particular area ?

 

No matter how good a driver you think you are, it is difficult to keep your foot in the same

place on the accelerator for a specified length of time......as an example: you could be driving through a little village that has a 30mph speed restriction and you are going at 30mph, something distracts you for a couple of seconds and your foot goes that little bit further down on the accelerator and now you are doing 35mph - hidden away and out of sight there is a Police un-marked van with a policeman inside behind a camera, you have no idea of this until a few weeks later when a letter drops through the letter box from the police stating you were found to be doing 35mph in a 30mph area and can either pay a fine or attend a speed awareness course.

 

The above happened to me whilst on holiday last year and I elected to go on a speed awareness course - I've been driving for 44 years and touch wood, never had an accident and have always had a clean license......a few seconds distraction and I was over the speed limit.

 

The moral behind this, is just use common sense........drive at reduced and sensible speeds

in built up area's, save the extra speed for motorway journeys !

I find that I can stay at a constant speed pretty accurately with a glance at the speedo every 15 seconds or so, I can tell if my speed changes by engine note and observation.

---------- Post added 08-08-2015 at 08:35 ----------

In a 30 village, try "3rd for 30" and 35mph won't be quite so easy.

 

The moral of the story: you can't afford to be distracted too often in high-risk areas - bad things don't just happen to bad people!

Hahaha. 3rd for 30. So many reasons not to.

Incredibly inefficient, wasting huge amounts of fuel, contributing to pollution.

Car actually accelerates more quickly and easily in 3rd, it's harder to accelerate from 30 in 6th.

Excess power available, in the wet or poor conditions you want less torque available to get you into trouble.

Okay, it's only 3 reasons, but they're good ones.

---------- Post added 08-08-2015 at 08:36 ----------

C

 

The reduced speed limit on the Snake may have the effects:

- it makes it eadier for motorists/riders to get past

- it makes the overtake more likely if the motorists/riders feel the reduced limit is unreasonable

- it makes any crashes less injurious (?) and easier to avoid

 

On two occasions in the last six months I have had to brake from 50 almost to a complete stop in order to allow a biker then a car to get back in after their crazy (opposing) overtake - a higher speed (and lesser observational and anticipation skills on my part) would have ended very differently.

I'll take the reduced speed limit and the fact that I am still here as a benefit, methinks, rather than as a sleight on my driving prowess.

Of course you were free to drive at 50 before, nobody ever made you drive at 60...

And at 60 you wouldn't have even seen the overtake, as you'd have been 5 minutes further up the road.

Someone here is either too unintelligent to recognise that we have no control over the randomness of coming-togethers on the Highway or is intelligent enough to be disingenuous.

Note to myself: I must drive faster to make sure that I won't be at the point where, otherwise, I might have crashed into overtakers.

"3rd for 30" works in my car and for my style of driving (flexible, responsive, progressive) and in/for many others. "Get into top gear, lad" is just last century, darling - and my default/preferred style of driving is definitely not "Safed" or "Energy Saving Trust" etc. When I drive in those styles, I definitely spend more time checking my speedo because the same amount of movement of the accelerator has more effect on the needle and I've less engine noise to use for speed calibration in 4th in 30 zones.

4th in 30 got most of my speed awareness delegates to 37 and an £85 bank account debit. £85 is a lot of fuel. Chopping and changing gears: 3, 4, back to 3rd uses fuel and is harder work on the driver, too - drivers who sit with their hand on the gear stick (their brain looks for work for their hand to do) can be accused of "fiddling" or "stirring soup" and, in my way of thinking, that's not clever and is without finesse.

But it's a driver choice - there's no hard and fast rule. My job is to allow drivers to make good choices on a decent amount of information and knowledge.

My car will break the speed limit (30) in any gear except 1st. 6th is most definitely the safest for not accidentally twitching and being at 50... 3rd would be preparation for joining a motorway slip and intending to be doing 70 in 3 to 4 seconds.

My car will break the speed limit (30) in any gear except 1st. 6th is most definitely the safest for not accidentally twitching and being at 50... 3rd would be preparation for joining a motorway slip and intending to be doing 70 in 3 to 4 seconds.

Not being a petrol-head at all, I feel you are inviting a reaction of "wow" to your sales pitch on your car but mine is more like "yawn". Then I wonder about your Eco credentials driving a car like that at the same time as mocking my suggestion of "3rd for 30". But then, what do I know about anything, yours is no doubt capable of huge acceleration whilst returning impressive fuel-efficiency.

I do like my car, I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

My point is that your advice about gearing might be correct for your car, but it certainly isn't for every car.

It's very inefficient, it does about 20 - 25 mpg most of the time. Fortunately I only drive about 2k miles a year, by cycling my commute most days. So that's pretty eco friendly, if that were a concern.

It would certainly be more inefficient if I drove around in 30 zones in 3rd gear all the time. In fact, I'd hazard a guess that even a modern small engined car will actually be less efficient than mine is, if you're driving it like that.

Isn't the advanced driver training teaching to anticipate the gear you need and be in that gear? 3rd is an intermediate gear for moderate acceleration from 30mph. If you don't anticipate joining a 50 zone in the next 30 seconds or less, then it's not appropriate.

I manage to know what speed I am driving at by engine noise and a well-developed speed sense. I can also gauge quite accurately the speed of the driver I am sat next to without having to check the speedo. So it is possible.

 

I'm very impressed. You can tell by the engine noise the difference between 30mph and 31mph?

---------- Post added 10-08-2015 at 09:08 ----------

How are you supposed to know what speed your doing without keeping a constant look at the speedo ?

 

In doing so, your attention is taken away from the road infront and everything that's going on in the immediate area, obviously you know if your driving slow but is it slow enough to meet the speed restriction in that particular area ?

 

No matter how good a driver you think you are, it is difficult to keep your foot in the same

place on the accelerator for a specified length of time......as an example: you could be driving through a little village that has a 30mph speed restriction and you are going at 30mph, something distracts you for a couple of seconds and your foot goes that little bit further down on the accelerator and now you are doing 35mph - hidden away and out of sight there is a Police un-marked van with a policeman inside behind a camera, you have no idea of this until a few weeks later when a letter drops through the letter box from the police stating you were found to be doing 35mph in a 30mph area and can either pay a fine or attend a speed awareness course.

 

The above happened to me whilst on holiday last year and I elected to go on a speed awareness course - I've been driving for 44 years and touch wood, never had an accident and have always had a clean license......a few seconds distraction and I was over the speed limit.

 

My worry about the end of discretions is that it will hit careful, conscientious drivers who've been driving for years without having an accident, and not actually have an impact on road safety.

These will be the people who normally support the police, but you can see resentment creeping in. Watch out for a home-counties, blue rinse mutiny!

Z

I do like my car, I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

 

My point is that your advice about gearing might be correct for your car, but it certainly isn't for every car.

 

It's very inefficient, it does about 20 - 25 mpg most of the time. Fortunately I only drive about 2k miles a year, by cycling my commute most days. So that's pretty eco friendly, if that were a concern.

It would certainly be more inefficient if I drove around in 30 zones in 3rd gear all the time. In fact, I'd hazard a guess that even a modern small engined car will actually be less efficient than mine is, if you're driving it like that.

Isn't the advanced driver training teaching to anticipate the gear you need and be in that gear? 3rd is an intermediate gear for moderate acceleration from 30mph. If you don't anticipate joining a 50 zone in the next 30 seconds or less, then it's not appropriate.

We have to disagree, then.

Advanced is to be in the right gear at the right time in the right place and, in many cars, third is far more than an intermediate gear - it gives the flexibility and responsiveness that is required in a "Gold" drive.

It's down to driver style and choice.

An example: I'll exit Sheffield up Hathersage Rd. Until you leave the houses it's 40, uphill. I'm in 4th gear, reasonably flexible and responsive. In my defensive and eco moments I'll accelerate to 50 in 4th and stay in 4th to have the continued flexibility and responsiveness up and around the next few bends.

In my Gold moments, I'll use 3rd to accelerate briskly to 50 and then select 4th.

By contrast, 3rd in 30 on Eccy Rd allows me the flexibility and responsiveness (uphill and downhill) to deal with anything other than stop/start motoring that road entails.

My point for the contributor who suggested keeping to 30 was all too difficult has merit since it's a lot more difficult to stray over 30 when in third. No throttle downhill consumes no gas, it only takes a small amount of gas to keep it going on the level and the uphill stretches at 30 (with the inevitable slowing and re-acceleration phases) are best handled in 3rd (with many cars feeling comparatively sluggish in 4th).

Advanced does not sit comfortably with (4, 3, 4 "fiddling") unnecessary gear changes - it's a style and a choice.

Perhaps it's entirely dependant on the car. I can accelerate from 30 in 6th gear, although I generally wouldn't. If I KNOW that I'm in a 30 or 40 zone and it won't be changing for a while then I'll use 6th and change down when I actually need to accelerate.

Otherwise it's the gear equivalent of getting in the right hand lane because I'll be turning right in 2 miles time at the roundabout.

I'll be taking Hathersage Rd as far as Fox House tomorrow, I'll try to concentrate on remembering my gear usage. In the 40 zone, even uphill, I think it will be 6th.

I had a think about it as I drove across town yesterday, I use about 1500 - 2000 rpm in each gear, and almost always short shift from 4th to 6th.

If I want to move off quickly I use 1st to 30 mph, there's not much call in town for acceleration beyond that speed, but if it's a 40 zone I use 2nd, then short shift rapidly up the box.

Anyway, probably way off topic.

I think the straying point is down to the car as well, in 3rd my car will just touch 100mph at the rev limiter. I don't have to fiddle with my gear choice, the engine is very torquey, I'd change down to 4th if the average speed fell to about 20mph.