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[Martin_1962]

Too many artificially low limits now.

Most people ignore these.

Most people who speed tend to speed in 30s and 40s and I don't mean 35 (lots do 35 and are no problem).

That said I once nearly got hit by someone doing 50 to 60 in a 30 as I pulled out when clear but they came hurtling up behind me emergency braking and I just floored the car (pre VX days).

That person should have had a months ban

[Chris_H]

Increasing numbers of people are likely to exceed posted limits as they come inexorably down.

There is unquestionably a thing called excess speed and quite often it should be obvious to drivers before they have an "accident".  This boundary between excess speed and "making good progress" has little in common with the arbitrary posted limits sadly.
As posted limits come down, drivers (understandably) adapt to interpreting them as the speed they should driving at, which is foolish.  A lot of senses and interpretation, not to mention experience, goes into determining the best safe speed for good progress.  Low posted limits demolish that skill.

Re Zulu's homily above;  Do/did you have access/permission to exceed posted limits either off the public highway or on it?  If so that can remove the desire to drive fast in "normal" mode.

I've entered into roadside discussions with police in the distant past about my speed but managed to curtail it enough to avoid any points, penalties or compulsory re-training fortunately.

There's always tomorrow. 

[hercules]

too many bloody cameras these days to catch you doing 34 yes a bloke i know got snapped for doing 34 in a 30 and he was done for it,some might agree with it but its just money orientated and not logical..best thing i did was buy this bighorn automatic and now i just plod around

[Chris_H]

too many bloody cameras these days to catch you doing 34 yes a bloke i know got snapped for doing 34 in a 30 and he was done for it,some might agree with it but its just money orientated and not logical..best thing i did was buy this bighorn automatic and now i just plod around

I was in the XR3i generation (current Avatar shows it).  I replaced and XR3 with an XR3i which subsequently got a Piper cam, Janspeed exhaust and K&N air filter while the Missus had an XR2.

After 4 years of screaming around I bought a Granada 2.8i Ghia X Executive to slow myself down.  It struggled to spin the back wheels in the wet!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Yes, I love speed, but in sensible places at sensible times - NOT in residential areas with speed limits of 20/30/40 mph !

It is in my blood, as is being high up, and enjoy anything that goes at ever higher speeds.  Not ashamed of it 8-) 8-)


As for the risk, well the closest I have been to death on the road, on a number of occasions, I have been stationary!!

[kevinminton]

IMO

Oh dear there does seem to be a lot of uninformed or unthinking or inexperienced opinion on this subject.

About 2,500 people a year a killed on Britain's roads. I have driven around 20,000 miles a year for 30+ years and I have never seen a fatal accident. I never saw the fatal accident on the A34 near here  which caused the local authority to reduce it to 40mph. But, might it not be just a bit arrogant of me to think that because I don't see the accidents and I didn't see the person killed on the A34, that I know better than the LA as to what a suitable speed would be on that stretch of road?

K

[Shackeng]

IMO

Oh dear there does seem to be a lot of uninformed or unthinking or inexperienced opinion on this subject.

About 2,500 people a year a killed on Britain's roads. I have driven around 20,000 miles a year for 30+ years and I have never seen a fatal accident. I never saw the fatal accident on the A34 near here  which caused the local authority to reduce it to 40mph. But, might it not be just a bit arrogant of me to think that because I don't see the accidents and I didn't see the person killed on the A34, that I know better than the LA as to what a suitable speed would be on that stretch of road?

K

I imagine that once someone has either been involved in one, or lost a family member, they mey take a different view.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

I have seen the results of many collisions, with a large number of them fatalities.  I have known people killed in road collisions.

What it does is remind you that living is a risk, always has been and always will be.  We have all, no doubt, come very close to death as I know I certainly have on a number of very memorable occasions! 

All it does is remind you that we are all mortal, and when our number comes up we will be gone.  You value then the opportunity of enjoying life to the full, and sometimes right on the edge.

That is life, that is death, we live between the two until that final moment when the shit happens!!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

IMO

Oh dear there does seem to be a lot of uninformed or unthinking or inexperienced opinion on this subject.

About 2,500 people a year a killed on Britain's roads. I have driven around 20,000 miles a year for 30+ years and I have never seen a fatal accident. I never saw the fatal accident on the A34 near here  which caused the local authority to reduce it to 40mph. But, might it not be just a bit arrogant of me to think that because I don't see the accidents and I didn't see the person killed on the A34, that I know better than the LA as to what a suitable speed would be on that stretch of road?

K

Yep, but to put everything into propestive, 156,720 people died from all cancers in the UK in 2009.  1 in four people who die will do so due to cancer.

On the 1st July 1916 the first day of the First Battle of the Somme claimed 60,000 casulties, with another 60,000 the next day.  When HMS Hood blew up on the 24th May 1941 1415 men were lost, with just 3 left bobbing around in the water wondering why they had survived.

I do not aim to trivalise the loss of 2,500 people a year in road collisions, but let us put it into prospective.  Yes we should make the roads safe, but still recognise that no  matter what, as I stated in my previous post, life is a risk from the second we are conceived.  God has planned our life and it is meant to be lived.  Live in a small room for life and your risks are very limited, but who wants that type of existence? No, live life to the full; take risks, have faith, and accept the inevitable when it happens!

[kevinminton]

Lizzie, my concern with your argument is that it appears to fail to disintinguish between those who "live life to the full" by taking risks with their own life, eg hang gliding; and those who for the sake of a few moments of excitement on the public road, take risks with other peoples' lives.

The comparisons of death through war and cancer or other illness do not have any relevance.

K

[Chris_H]

IMO

Oh dear there does seem to be a lot of uninformed or unthinking or inexperienced opinion on this subject.

About 2,500 people a year a killed on Britain's roads. I have driven around 20,000 miles a year for 30+ years and I have never seen a fatal accident. I never saw the fatal accident on the A34 near here  which caused the local authority to reduce it to 40mph. But, might it not be just a bit arrogant of me to think that because I don't see the accidents and I didn't see the person killed on the A34, that I know better than the LA as to what a suitable speed would be on that stretch of road?

K

That actually comes across as a bit arrogant.

[kevinminton]

Two points

1 - it was prefixed IMO
2 - is this less arrogant than assuming I can break the law / take risks on the public road, and then excuse it on this forum?

K

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Lizzie, my concern with your argument is that it appears to fail to disintinguish between those who "live life to the full" by taking risks with their own life, eg hang gliding; and those who for the sake of a few moments of excitement on the public road, take risks with other peoples' lives.

The comparisons of death through war and cancer or other illness do not have any relevance.

K

Oh yes they do as they all form the fabric of our lives, and the various means of our deaths as destined by the laws of fate.  Personal actions whilst driving or doing anything else with our lives and the people around us is all down to those unwritten laws, and only they decide if it is time for anyone involved to die. 

You see I am seeing the wider picture Kevin as that is what we all live within.  The seconds of time can differentiate between a life or death, and whatever a person does do or not do is decided by a greater power than your judgement.  That has dictated man's history and always will do.  Speed for decades and (like me you "get away with it") whilst another person may do it once, and be killed or kill someone else.  That result was decide well before the actual action.  As in the cases of cancer or war  that I mentioned, fate and God's will is the ruling power and out of humans hands.

My father-in-law lived on the edge fighting through both WW2 and the Korean War without a scratch, although losing mates all around him.  My Grandfather on my mothers side fought on HMS Lion at Jutland, and came away without injury.  My father fought throughout WW2 and did likewise.  His father, my grandfather, went to work as a civilian on the morning of the 12th September, 1940 and was killed by a lone Luftwaffe bomber dropping high explosives on the factory were he worked. My mother, her 2 sisters, 1 brother and her parents lived through the Eastend of London Blitz and came through unscathed  My Great Uncle Albert fought all through the African Wars, the Boar War of 1900, and WW1, without a scratch. His brother, my Great Uncle Wally only served in the Great War and was killed in his first major action on 30th July 1917.

What I am trying to say is what my father-in-law rightly believed; when your number is up it is up, with the bullet or bomb with your name on it either heading for you, or not at all. So stop worrying about "being safe" and live your life to the full.  Only God will decide when it comes to an end!

Sorry Kevin for getting so deep with this, but it is the only way you can view what we do in life and remain sane (well I think I am!! )  

[kevinminton]

Lizzie

Are you suggesting that (for example) the death of a cyclist is down to "unwritten laws" and the hand of fate, and nothing to do with the deliberate actions of some body driving too fast?

Kevin (not Ken )

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Lizzie

Are you suggesting that (for example) the death of a cyclist is down to "unwritten laws" and the hand of fate, and nothing to do with the deliberate actions of some body driving too fast?

Kevin (not Ken )

Yes!   Fate put the cyclist there, it made that person be at that particular place, at that time, on that date, just as the car was fated to be on the same spot, with the rest of the  road perhaps clear, but the collision happened "as planned".  The death of the cyclist would have a  fated knock on effect, that can change history for those around that person; cause, effect, and consequence comes into the equation fully, with the motorists life also changed by the momentum of the "scheduled" event.  Life, or death, decided by fate and God.

Throughout mans history that pattern has been there, and gives rise to the if's, maybe's, could have beens, and should have been of counter factual history.  One bullet, one action of man, one event, that on the face of it appears to be "man made", will become a  situation where people will say "that was fated; it was meant to happen!" It is in fact God's will to ensure the destiny of his children and the world is fulfilled.