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Driving Standards

Looby said:
You should have been going 6 mph slower actually!
I think it's more annoying because you seem to find it funny. You might not have been caught that often but they're not the only times you both speed I'm guessing. You were expecting another ticket for doing 88 weren't you?

Speeding is idiotic and selfish.
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While I'm not excusing speeding, I do think there is a, frankly, ludicrous emphasis being placed on speed to the exclusion of pretty much all else. And a lot of it is about economics, not safety.

Speeding is easy to enforce - we now have machines that can do it automatically, at a fraction of the cost of training, equipping, and paying police officers to patrol the roads. So that's what we do. It does mean that all kinds of other, equally dangerous, driving faults - aggressive driving, tailgating, moving without signalling, hesitancy, careless driving, even driving under the influence, are far less likely to be detected than they were.

Which is fine, so far as it goes. But it grieves me to see people buying totally into the propaganda that [because it's easier to measure] speeding is the sine qua non of driver misbehaviour. It's not. It's one facet, and not necessarily the worst one, of a whole range of misbehaviours, and falling into the trap of assuming it's the worst one is to encourage drivers in the idea that, so long as they're not speeding, pretty much anything goes.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't enforce speed limits: human nature being what it is, if people don't think they'll get caught, they'll commit the offence. But that's exactly what's happening with other offences - people really do believe that, so long as they stay within the speed limit, then (within some limits) pretty much anything goes. Because they know they're very unlikely to get caught. Which means there's a lot of very complacent drivers going around out there, feeling safe in the knowledge that, just because they're doing 29 in a 30, they don't really have to devote that much care to other aspects of their driving.
 
existentialist said:
While I'm not excusing speeding, I do think there is a, frankly, ludicrous emphasis being placed on speed to the exclusion of pretty much all else. And a lot of it is about economics, not safety.

Speeding is easy to enforce - we now have machines that can do it automatically, at a fraction of the cost of training, equipping, and paying police officers to patrol the roads. So that's what we do. It does mean that all kinds of other, equally dangerous, driving faults - aggressive driving, tailgating, moving without signalling, hesitancy, careless driving, even driving under the influence, are far less likely to be detected than they were.

Which is fine, so far as it goes. But it grieves me to see people buying totally into the propaganda that [because it's easier to measure] speeding is the sine qua non of driver misbehaviour. It's not. It's one facet, and not necessarily the worst one, of a whole range of misbehaviours, and falling into the trap of assuming it's the worst one is to encourage drivers in the idea that, so long as they're not speeding, pretty much anything goes.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't enforce speed limits: human nature being what it is, if people don't think they'll get caught, they'll commit the offence. But that's exactly what's happening with other offences - people really do believe that, so long as they stay within the speed limit, then (within some limits) pretty much anything goes. Because they know they're very unlikely to get caught. Which means there's a lot of very complacent drivers going around out there, feeling safe in the knowledge that, just because they're doing 29 in a 30, they don't really have to devote that much care to other aspects of their driving.
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I quite agree. Tailgaters and aggressive driving in particular really pisses me off and I see it all the time. Quite often when cunts are pissed off that others are doing the speed limit and not faster. It does feel like there's a massive amount of dickheads on the road.
I know there's more to road safety than speed, I think I'm a pretty safe driver but don't we all!
 
One of the most dangerous and easy mistakes to get into while driving is lack of concentration. How many of us will admit to arriving at a frequently used destination without really recognising a large part of the journey? (driving on mental autopilot)

And it is easy to fall into bad habits, particularly with the myriad of potential distractions there are in today's cars.
 
When I find my concentration slipping I try commenting mentally on the circumstances as I progress, so I go - 30 limit, car on right, vehicles approaching, junction car waiting - that sort of thing. It soon engages me again.
 
I started doing that when i started cycling and it crossed over into driving, sort of switches off on motorways still
 
I drive loads and regularly see people who have their phone stuck right in front of them on the windscreen, presumably to use as a sat nav, being tempted to use Facebook etc or watch telly.

Shouldn't be allowed to stick it on the screen like that
 
twentythreedom said:
I drive loads and regularly see people who have their phone stuck right in front of them on the windscreen, presumably to use as a sat nav, being tempted to use Facebook etc or watch telly.

Shouldn't be allowed to stick it on the screen like that
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You're not, i infrequently but regularly see tweets from West mids traffic police who have pulled someone over, obstruction of drivers view, or something like that. Maybe the same law that covers windscreen chips and such like
 
BigTom said:
You're not, i infrequently but regularly see tweets from West mids traffic police who have pulled someone over, obstruction of drivers view, or something like that. Maybe the same law that covers windscreen chips and such like
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Yeah, what I meant really is that drivers shouldn't be getting away with it - they should be made aware of the law and it should be enforced heavily. Fucking dumb having a big screen obscuring your view like that. And drivers reaching forward to the touch screen :facepalm:

Of course, my Audi, being awesomely cool, has a screen which is below the windscreen, controlled by a jog wheel and / or voice control, running Android Auto which limits apps to phone, messages, music and maps :thumbs:
 
twentythreedom said:
Yeah, what I meant really is that drivers shouldn't be getting away with it - they should be made aware of the law and it should be enforced heavily. Fucking dumb having a big screen obscuring your view like that. And drivers reaching forward to the touch screen :facepalm:

Of course, my Audi, being awesomely cool, has a screen which is below the windscreen, controlled by a jog wheel and / or voice control, running Android Auto which limits apps to phone, messages, music and maps :thumbs:
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My workmate has apple CarPlay. The first thing I do when I get in his car is send him a really offensive text to be read out. [emoji4]

I thought you were allowed stuff on your windscreen as long as it's not causing a distraction. My sat nav is on my windscreen because it doesn't stick on my dashboard.
 
Looby said:
I thought you were allowed stuff on your windscreen as long as it's not causing a distraction. My sat nav is on my windscreen because it doesn't stick on my dashboard.
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You are, so long as it is not in the area swept by the wipers.
 
The commentary was not something I had to do as part of my IAM advanced assesment, but I gave it a go; it is much more difficult than I realised...ie not only did I have
to note a pedestrian crossing light was coming up, but what type of crossing; Puffin, Pelican Etc. It was a great challenge.
 
Looby said:
I thought you were allowed stuff on your windscreen as long as it's not causing a distraction. My sat nav is on my windscreen because it doesn't stick on my dashboard.
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Bahnhof Strasse said:
You are, so long as it is not in the area swept by the wipers.
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If it is not causing a distraction, why bother having it there? I thought it had to be out of line of site as with cracks and chips in the windscreen.
Have seen several cars recently, where the drivers smart phone was attached to the middle of the windscreen :facepalm:
 
The observed drives were fine, though my observer target my weak spots ie narrow country lanes.
I remember my assesment. The assessor clearly said if you exceed the speed limit, I will give you a warning; go over the speed limit three times and I will fail you.
We started out from Chiswick and headed straight down the M4. By counting some markers at the side of the motorway, he reckoned I was speeding. When he
checked my speedo, he saw I was not. :):thumbs:
BTW, they were very good about the observed drives as I work odd hours I could not make the regular Saturday/Sunday observed drives and they found a volunteer observer who worked round this for me :thumbs:
 
mojo pixy said:
It's the IAM course. I haven't done any of the observed drives yet but I've got my head stuck in the book every day...
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Nice one. I did it a few years ago - it was hard work & a pretty frustrating experience at times, but paid off in the end - the final drive was ace, I passed and got their 'F1RST' award or whatever it was. Shout if you want to chat about it, plus a few others on here have done it.
 
Supposedly. I find it's always best to shop around as only some companies offer a cheaper rate for this, which can normally be beaten.
 
weltweit said:
Do you get cheaper insurance if you have done it?
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IME, no, but the IAM-linked insurer will usually match or very slightly beat the cheapest quote you can find elsewhere. And since the cheapest quote is usually a pretty basic offering, whilst theirs is OK, you end up slightly better off.
 
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