Scamera poll

Nigel wrote: Have a word with your local group Rhys, when your ready, they will normally do everything they can to accomodate someone, and are well aware there aren't that many left doing 9 -5 mon - fri etc.

Nigel, the IAM doesn't bother me at all. I will be looking into it more seriously next year - the thing that puts me off at the moment is the time. I currently work a lot of Saturdays so this only leaves open Sunday mornings. Reading the IAM online litriture (if I've reads it correctly) says 2 Saturday mornings and 2 Sunday mornings a month.
Hopefully next year I won't be working as many Saturdays

I used to know a lass who was a member of the IAM, but for motorbikes (and I expect for cars as well). She used to go on rides with the IAM group she was with - and wasn't very happy at the way they rode, instead of practicing safe legal speeds they all went well over the limit which she refused to do. Incidently she rides/rode a BMW.

livvy wrote: just like having to wear a crash helmet is

Blimey! When did that come in?

livvy wrote: When you are prosecuted for speeding there is no requiremnt to show danger. It is not being alleged that what you were doing at that time was dangerous.

But if it's not dangerous, why is it illegal?

spokey wrote: Bryce wrote: I drive most days, sometimes in a car, somtimes abike and sometimes in a fire appliance, every single day I see more people do stupid things than do good things!  So I don't want those people going any faster! Tell you what, Bryce, let's introduce a 20MPH nationwide speed limit on all roads. Then we can all ride on horseback again, and re-introduce the covered wagon. The canals will come back to life as we use them to transport goods around the country, and rail can reclaim its rightful place as the fast means of transport. We can also ban intra-UK flights, because planes are dangerous and fast as well. Welcome to transport in the 21st century.

The speed limits have to be a balance between allowing people to go about their business & doing that at a speed they should all be able to interact safely at. What you suggest (even though I'm sure you say it facetiously) would clearly not strike that balance.

I personally think that our current limits pretty much do that, in that they cater for what all should be able to manage safely. If you think they are too low then that is telling you something about the way that the standard of driving is actually viewed by the authorities (i.e. it is not safe to let all our drivers assess what is a safe speed for the circumstances beyond our current limits because they don't have the skill level to equip them to do it safely)


Edited by livvy

livvy wrote: I would say again it means that you have moved over a line from a legal speed to an illegal one. It means nothing more in the abscence of any other evidence. Driving at 70mph doesn't infer that you are a safe driver anymore than driving at 71 infers you are a dangerous one.

But if I'm driving illegally, then it doesn't matter whether I'm dangerous or safe. If I'm in excess of the (ludicrously outdated) speed limit, then I must, per se, be driving dangerously. Or are you saying that a person can safely drive at speeds greater than the UK national speed limit? If that is the case, then why is there an emphasis on speed to the exclusion of everything else whenever I hear anything about road safety?

Yes Spokey, 1mph makes little difference but there have got to be limits, don't you agree?  And if there are limits then they have to enforced or don't you agree?  Put simply, you either have everyone driving at whatever speed they feel is okay, so granny at 35mph in lane 2 of the motorway, trucks doing 70+ cos they can, me doing 140 cos I can, that has got to be a recipe for disaster, agreed?  So we have limits, they are easy to follow and it reduces (if only slightly) the number of hazards.

Falling 100ft or 10,000ft, makes little difference, the last 1 foot does the damage, but fall from 10 foot and the damge is going to be less.

I think we need better driving awarness, higher standards and we all need to do something about it.  There is no case for increasing limits or reducing enforcmentr until the driving public learn to drive properly!
That means indicating, using mirrors, not pulling out in front of people, using lane 1 on the motorway.

I drive most days, sometimes in a car, somtimes abike and sometimes in a fire appliance, every single day I see more people do stupid things than do good things!  So I don't want those people going any faster!

livvy wrote: The speed itself confers nothing about the relative safety without referrence to the conditions in which it is performed.

A difference of 1 MPH is no difference at all, relative to any conditions whatsoever.

But arbitrarily, that 1MPH turns me from a "safe, responsible" driver into a selfish, criminal mastermind, singlehandedly trying to cull the aged and murder children.