..
I wholly endorse that! Go with the flow, but leave space. Folk who travel at 40 mph in a car on the motorway cause havoc, are inconsiderate to HGVs and seem to have no appreciation of the dangers to which they put all other users of the motorway. There does not seem to have been any purge to advise and/or prosecute such inconsiderate drivers.
That's it. Sussed. Dennis is a mobile crane escort driver.....
The timing kit worked by someone outside the car sending a signal that both started the timer, and signalled the driver. the timer then ran until the car came to rest. The equipment also recorded the distance travelled from signal to stop. So it must have included some thinking time - although I expect less than real world for someone who has been plodding down a motorway for a couple of hours.
Probably more down to judgement. Most fast drivers I know don't speed in silly places (i.e. through villages, in close proximity to where they are people etc).
Don't know about Dave, but on the three occasions someone has managed to involve me in an accident, they all occurred well below the speed limit.
The message from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:
I wouldn't know but that reputation (for freedom) is more myth than truth. The right to bear arms is about the only one that has stood the test of time. Prohibition doesn't exactly smack of freedom and in the same era teaching evolution was a criminal offence. They were still practising slavery in the 1860s and apartheid in the 1960s.
The message from John Rumm contains these words:
ISTR that in quick fire contests the total time from signal to shot can be less than 0.1 seconds. Keyed up drivers could perhaps match that. So I was wrong about not including thinking time but I remain convinced that retardation rates much in excess of 1 g are outside the realms of reality for normal road cars even on the best of road surfaces.
There is requirement for a vehicle to do more than 25 mph or it isn't allowed on the motorway.
So you can see a flashing light but not a car?
Lets think about it...
"drive at 60mph and jump on the brakes when the lamp lights" no thinking involved
"drive at 60mph and maybe something unexpected will happen, then jump on brakes" considerable thinking involved
I wonder which one will produce thinking time?
So the test was *totally* invalid for thinking time.
But were you driving too fast to avoid them?
reaction time v thinking time.
I like to think I react pretty quickly to hazards ahead, without conscious thinking. I note I'm finding it a little hard to program in that a van parked on a motorway bridge is a hazard, I'm still having to think, while a yellow box on a stick has now become automatic).
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Boy, are you an (innumerate) moron.
flashing lights are more readily seen than cars, that's why they are used.
(cars are not "invisible" for any of the fans of nonsense English reading)
ISTR that a Porsche in good nick can do about 1.1.
Depends. On how experienced the driver is when assessing a situation is almost instinctive.
Experienced drivers assume that an accident is ALWAYS about to happen and are ready to react to the most likely ones all the time.
Oh yes. Reversed into things, had people run into the back of me etc. Its hard to average about 25k miles a year over 40 years of all conditions driving without knocking a few corners off here and there.
Fatigue and inattention and personal stress have proved to be FAR more dangerous than excessive speed.
My greatest danger is thinking I don't need the pitch of concentration that I know I need at high speed, at low speed.
Quite. I tend to drive on the limit or less in the villages and towns, far more so than most people who regard my driving as 'fast' ...my wife regularly is to be found doing 40mph plus through 30mph limits. She considers herself to be a careful slow driver.
Me too. 15mph on a country road.. 40mph on a country road. 15mph in town. 5mph in town (motorcycle overtook someone turning left as I pulled out in front - completely hidden..whose fault? he blamed himself)..-3mph in a car park twice..(blind spots)..3mph in another car park..scraped a wall..I mean what do you class as an accident anyway? Hit pheasant at
60mph on an unrestricted road..only dent ever in my Defender..Haven't claimed anything since 1987 or thereabouts.
that tends to be inevitably true except for side/rear impacts, the only sensible question is was he driving at a speed *reasonable* for the perceivable circumstances, which is what speed limits are (supposed to be) about.
Hmm. In one case too slow to avoid them..in another well that WAS a tricky one..a case of a completely random and panicky elderly gent who dithered about stopping at a pedestrian crossing, put his brakes on, then as I slowed, took them off and proceeeded halfway across before slamming them on again when I had already used up my safety distance. Wet road...Police said he had been done for careless driving a month before and was very nervous about hitting people on crossings. Insurance company didn't hit my no claims bonus..that was back in the early 70's..
Taught me to spot erratic drivers really early..
Worst one was a country road at 2 a.m. ..road being repaired..loose gravel everywhere..been up working for 18 hours solid..came to a fork and realized I was supposed to take the left one..swung the wheel lazily, hit the bank, broke the rear springs, and that spun the car into a ditch. Speed? about 40mph..
Fatigue, stress, unusual conditions (very loose surface there)...sure it was 'too fast for the conditions' ..but WHAT conditions..the roadworks weren't marked..all the white lines were erased..
Or another case..back in 1970 or thereabouts..temporary bridge of wood planks with a metal entrance and exit strip ..raining, ford MkI escort with RWD..approached at about 10mph..as wheels put down power to get up the ramp onto it, they touched the metal strip, lost traction completely and swung the tail out..the wood planks were muddy and sopping wet, no grip, hit the side of the bridge. I'd only been driving 3 years then and didn't have my own car..so not many miles under the belt..today one would sue the council for a dangerous road surface.
Those are my worst ones..ones that required insurance claims.
Ive spun a jaguar at 50mph on snow, and controlled it well enough to (after getting towed off the verge) have no damage...lost it at 100mph on black ice..found grip on the sunny side of the road and made it through..had a chap pull out in front of me doing 120mph in Belgium..would have been OK if he hadn't panicked and jinked from side to side..any side would have done..finally he settled on the slow lane and I went past at 50mph..it WAS a dual carriageway, though not a motorway..but apart from that I simply don't go fast when the conditions don't allow it. Ive only had two 'moments' when driving over the speed limit, but I have had dozens when driving at less than the speed limit.
Notwithstanding I have probably got about 15 speeding tickets over the years.
Not one of which ever caused any insurance company to turn a hair. THEY know there is zero correlation between the amount of speeding tickets and the likelihood of having an accident. Police habitually look for places where most drivers WILL exceed the speed limit because its potty. Or for cars that arouse penis envy. Learnt that one early on. Do 100mph in a Mondeo and they leave you alone. Do it in a sports car and they are tailing you into the next county.
Looking back on my driving career, there are several dominant causes of the accidents I have had..Inexperience at the start..not understanding what the road conditions were..or how daft other drivers were or how to spot them..and then finally fatigue and stress. Lethal. Fatigue, or a temperature, or extreme stress and distraction.. frankly I'd rather drive on 2 pints of beer than those. I used to carry aspirin to counteract the odd cold etc. And finally learnt to force myself to concentrate when I didn't want to.
These days I have the luxury of not having to drive when I don't need to..
However the point remains: the driver is finally the best judge of appropriate speed, and, if he/she has enough experience, will finally come to an understanding of what that is. The greatest danger remains other drivers, and spotting the ones who are stoned/drunk/having a row with their wives/driving stolen cars/putting on makeup/ or have zero vision due to excess age..is the art.
Plus knowing the usual suspects of hazardous road conditions..any silly speed reduction measures..all lethal. Tailgating round the M25 at 70mph plus.in full rain..standing water..wet leaves..freshly rained on places where cars idle and spew out oily exhausts...black ice..small children running around streets..school leaving times..deer road crossing points (yes, they have definite tracks..they always pop out of areas near woods)driving at 11pm on a weekend evening in towns..the old boy with a hat on driving too slowly..the middle aged woman whose head never moves but stares fixedly straight ahead..the middle aged gent in a Volvo..anyone with a fish symbol on their car..the one who never signals, the one who hesitates and then does something silly..the ones who drive 5 ft from your tail and never try to overtake..the middle aged mum with kids in the car leaping around and yelling..the young lad in a white van...the car that slowly deviates from the crown of the road to the gutter and back..after a while you have a pattern of what is 'good' and you know that if something doesn't fit the pattern, its extra risk. Add space, add extra time..if you have the horsepower, overtake it.
After a few years of early driving, at which point your greatest danger is yourself, you realise the greatest danger is other road (ab)users. Not speed. Given a couple of clear visibility miles of empty road,
130mph is safer than 5mph in a crowded town street. Or 65mph in full wet conditions on a crowded M25. Fast cars on good roads are predictable. Other road users are not.
Speed differential is the key. The Germans found that out..its fine to do 140mph down the autobahn..till some clot pulls out to overtake a car doing 60mph..in front of you.
Thats really the rationale behind urban speed limits - which I accept as a reasonably necessary evil. It's pedestrians at 2mph versus cars at
30mph..mixing it in close proximity..whether one feels the pedestrians should be given minimum speed limits, or banned, is a matter of opinion ;-)
Up a hill?
I must say I didn't like dropping to 25mph on the M1, We got overtaken by a tank on a transporter fer heavens sake!
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