joemarshall said:then the idiots who can't drive well would get their licences taken away
from them.
I think speed cameras are great. They only catch idiots who aren't
paying enough attention to the road to even spot a speed limit sign. Or
dumbasses who suppose that because there are 'no visible dangers' there
aren't any dangers that they haven't noticed, despite admitting to
being incapable of paying attention to the speed of their vehicle
whilst driving.
If you're not skilled enough, or have too poor eyesight to be able to
see the signs at the side of the road that tell you how fast you should
be going, you're a [censored] driver and shouldn't be allowed to drive, you
shouldn't be investing in technological gimmicks to allow you to drive
poorly.
Joe
The expected reply: There is always at least one.
JoeMarshall, do you drive? Are you an experienced driver? Do you
ALWAYS stick to the speed limits: honestly! ...in traffic flowing at
35 in a 30 zone, which it often does. Do you stick at 28 and annoy
everyone behind you? An annoyed driver may well do something stupid,
not all can remain calm. Maybe they should not be driving, but our
driving test does not assess temperament. And when the traffic is
flowing freely at 35mph, 90% of drivers are then driving to the
conditions rather than the signs: are they all idiots? Indeed not.
They are the majority and they are driving safely. The few who hold
people up at 28 mph are *often* old drivers, some of whom should no
longer be driving, too old and infirm to react appropriately when
something happens. I see many of them. Rita, my next door neighbour:
82 years old , still unable to reverse out of her drive without several
goes at it, and does 28 mph everywhere. Buys a new car every time hers
gets dented. A Godsend to the local Ford dealer. She will never get a
speeding ticket, but she should not be in a driving seat either.
Driving within the limit does not make you a safe driver. Driving
sensibly and with thought does.
The point is that speed limits, as signed, are somewhat arbitrary, and
based around a number of factors: are there houses? street lamps?
etc etc. One size fits all. They take no account of conditions on the
day, and little account of many other relevant factors. So what is a
reasonable limit in a howling night blizzard can be inappropriate at
almost any other time. It works both ways around too: I have seen many
drivers doing 70 or more in the outside lane of the M6, when I and 90%
of other drivers had stopped because very, very heavy rain had made
driving dangerous at ANY speed. A simple demonstration that a camera
cannot house good sense in its box. A policeman would have had a chance
to book them for dangerous driving, although in those conditions, had I
been a copper, then I too would have been stopped on the hard
shoulder.
The multiples of 10mph on speed signs also restrict accurate
evaluation. A road may be accurately considered safe at 37 mph: so is
it then signed at 40 or at 30? If 40 then any driver doing 38 to 40
is driving dangerously but legally? If 30 then any driver doing 31
to 37 could be booked whilst driving safely? To drive "precisely to
the speed signs" is like writing without any adjectives and adverbs. It
is robotic. It has been shown that drivers trying to keep at a steady
28-30 can get so bored that they make mistakes. They have had their
brains replaced by the signs, and are not using their minds actively to
drive sensibly. Some of them are a positive danger as they clockwatch
their way down the road. At weekend, many of the speed signs near
Leek were obscured by snow stuck to their faces: it didn't matter: I
continued to drive at a safe speed, and reached my destination incident
free.
I would rather watch the road and drive safely than spend my time
reading and remembering the profusion of roadside litterature (
intentional misspelling!) that I am presented with on our roads these
days.
Yes I bought a SATNAV for guidance, and yes I added a camera database,
so that I do not get booked for driving safely in a zone where someone
else has got the sums wrong, or applied an arbitrary formula.
And the vast amounts of money some new cameras take in day 1 of their
existance, suggests to me that the speed limit at that camera is signed
too low. Most drivers drive sensibly. A few don't.
The police also need the support of the public, when I was booked for
driving IMHO very safely at 36MPH, I felt a great sense of injustice.
It was hard not to feel antagonistic towards the police. So I went out
to beat the ticket, and I won and was proved right. I am not an
"idiot" but merely someone who chooses to drive safely using my mind
rather than driving precisely as directed by roadside lollipops. You
would not be scared in my passenger seats.
Nao
--
Naomi
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