Breaking the speed limit whilst overtaking

[dombooth]

And I will match that sum to help towards your petrol costs.

You could bring the girlfriend along. I'm sure she would find it very interesting and not what she might expect.

Thank you, again I'll consider going but I don't think I will be able to, maybe the next one though.

She is a learner at the moment and she didn't really enjoy going to AutoItalia car shows last year tbh.

Dom

[dombooth]

Exactly but what is the answer?

I think we may have come full circle and it's easy to say what's not the right answer, but much harder to come up with a workable solution

I think any campaign needs to be able to relate to the target audience and should seek to educate rather than use slogans like "it's 30 for a reason" (with the focus being on the number and statistics rather than the reason). I think some of the more over-the-top hard-hitting campaigns are a bit too Hollywood too and while they are effective in the short term, I don't think they're something John Smith is still considering on his drive to work in the morning.

One of the approaches I like are the "spot the hazard" type videos, such as this one from a few years ago http://think.direct.gov.uk/drivingchallenge/ which are more engaging, more every-day and people see themselves in the driving seat.

Chris

I do like that video thing and think more of those (possibly on TV) would be good.

Dom

[dombooth]

What do you think of these clips? You may have seen them before but there will always be the clever-dicks who will maintain that even such exercises as these are contrived and controlled in order to come to a conclusion that fits in order to pursuade drivers to a particular behaviour. In other words, they are arrogant in their ignorance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... -rCf3ScrCA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCI8G8EEsuA

I like them and think the message they get across is good, the UK should do something similar tbh.

Dom

[dombooth]

Your Dad is obviously a tough nut to crack, but he is so very wrong that it should be possible to convince him. Cannot you get him to try a reaction tester, and then show him how far he would travel before he started to brake? Then find some vid illustrating braking distances? Even take him to a skid pan event?

We all knew you did well to get a First, but you did even better to have decided to drive well in the first place when you were set such a bad example. I think a great number of drivers copy their parents' bad habits. Well done Dom.

But on this question of whether public education road safety video is being used to best advantage, you are in a small minority here. IMO the objective of such video should be to persuade people to look for potential hazards and to be ready to stop for them - regardless of the speed limit.

Dom, I fully understand and sympathise with you about the cost of non-essential miles - but to the list of things you would like to do I strongly recommend adding the HPC Young Drivers Day (if you decide you can afford to get there, I will pay what they charge for room and refreshments for you - let me know).

Thank you for the offer but the next one is on my 19th Birthday......

Dom

'Tis interesting to note how one can get some very fixed ideas at quite an early age.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

I don't know what you mean Dave?

Dom

[dombooth]

It is a modest improvement to focus on stopping distances rather than on chances of survival. However, I still find it depressing that yet again the idea is to make people obey an arbitrary speed limit, rather than to recognise situations for which safety requires them to slow down.

I think people obeying speed limits would be the first step in making them better at driving overall would it not?

I get constantly fed up with how close people are to my exhaust just because I'm driving up to the speed limit (where safe to do so of course).

I could get a sign for the boot - "THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER I GO!"

Dom

[Kevin]

I think people obeying speed limits would be the first step in making them better at driving overall would it not?

I get constantly fed up with how close people are to my exhaust just because I'm driving up to the speed limit (where safe to do so of course).

I could get a sign for the boot - "THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER I GO!"

Dom

A good driver should be aware of the speed limit for the stretch of road being driven and should be able to keep to the limit. An advanced driver should also be able to judge whether a speed above the limit would be safe, although of course not legal.

No driver, regardless of his or her attitude to speed limits, should tailgate, and if done in an attempt to pressurise or intimidate another driver who is driving at or even below the speed limit it is inexcusable.

[jameslb101]

I think people obeying speed limits would be the first step in making them better at driving overall would it not?

I get constantly fed up with how close people are to my exhaust just because I'm driving up to the speed limit (where safe to do so of course).

I could get a sign for the boot - "THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER I GO!"

Dom

In answer to your question, in my opinion, no. However, getting people to drive an an appropriate speed for the conditions would be a vital part of improving road safety.

The issue you are having is to do with tailgating, not speed. It does happen, particularly in the lower limits, and it's prevalence is dependent on what type of car you drive. As a road user, I get treated noticeably differently in my Volvo S60 than I did in my previous car, a Polo.

Dom, I do appreciate it is your birthday on the date of the HPC YDD, but I'd take up the offer of two extremely kind and generous ADUKers and come along - if only they'd offer it to me as a fellow 'yoof'! I went last year as an 18 year old and it was my first experience of advanced driving outside of the IAM. Sound familiar? Not only did I get a lot out of it in terms my development as a driver, but it's also great fun. A birthday treat if you will! If it does anything, it'll broaden your mind, and that's never a bad thing.

[dombooth]

I think people obeying speed limits would be the first step in making them better at driving overall would it not?

I get constantly fed up with how close people are to my exhaust just because I'm driving up to the speed limit (where safe to do so of course).

I could get a sign for the boot - "THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER I GO!"

Dom

A good driver should be aware of the speed limit for the stretch of road being driven and should be able to keep to the limit. An advanced driver should also be able to judge whether a speed above the limit would be safe, although of course not legal.

No driver, regardless of his or her attitude to speed limits, should tailgate, and if done in an attempt to pressurise or intimidate another driver who is driving at or even below the speed limit it is inexcusable.

In my driving - not legal = not happening!

Exactly. Which is why I occasionally pull over and let them fly past if they wish to.

Dom

[dombooth]

I think people obeying speed limits would be the first step in making them better at driving overall would it not?

I get constantly fed up with how close people are to my exhaust just because I'm driving up to the speed limit (where safe to do so of course).

I could get a sign for the boot - "THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE SLOWER I GO!"

Dom

In answer to your question, in my opinion, no. However, getting people to drive an an appropriate speed for the conditions would be a vital part of improving road safety.

The issue you are having is to do with tailgating, not speed. It does happen, particularly in the lower limits, and it's prevalence is dependent on what type of car you drive. As a road user, I get treated noticeably differently in my Volvo S60 than I did in my previous car, a Polo.

Dom, I do appreciate it is your birthday on the date of the HPC YDD, but I'd take up the offer of two extremely kind and generous ADUKers and come along - if only they'd offer it to me as a fellow 'yoof'! I went last year as an 18 year old and it was my first experience of advanced driving outside of the IAM. Sound familiar? Not only did I get a lot out of it in terms my development as a driver, but it's also great fun. A birthday treat if you will! If it does anything, it'll broaden your mind, and that's never a bad thing.

I mostly drive in towns/city so lower limits generally apply so I think getting people to slow down would be the first step to getting them to see more and think more.

Is it to do with speed though because the driving tailgating me want to speed off into the distance. (Generally BMW/Audi/Merc etc. )

It would cost me in excess of another £100 which at the moment at least is difficult. And I have already said the girlfriend can have me on my Birthday anyway. Next time though!

Dom

[waremark]

And I have already said the girlfriend can have me on my Birthday anyway. Next time though!

Dom

Was that the way you meant to put it?

If not the HPC day, then hopefully an ADUK day in due course. But I still recommend the YDD next year.

[dombooth]

And I have already said the girlfriend can have me on my Birthday anyway. Next time though!

Dom

Was that the way you meant to put it?

If not the HPC day, then hopefully an ADUK day in due course. But I still recommend the YDD next year.

It was 20 past 11.

It is right but I could've worded it differently: And I have already said I'd spend the day with the girlfriend. Next time though!

Like I say, when this restrictive overprices insurance is over, definately!!

Dom

[jc2012]

.

[jcochrane]

I think people obeying speed limits would be the first step in making them better at driving overall would it not?

Dom

In answer to your question, in my opinion, no. However, getting people to drive an an appropriate speed for the conditions would be a vital part of improving road safety.

You can't have one without the other, can you? Driving at an appropriate speed for the conditions means slowing down at least to within the speed limit, otherwise you're breaking the law. If a driver can't demonstrate sufficient discipline to abide by one of the few rules of the road that is completely black and white, it doesn't give him much hope of driving responsibly in circumstances where more personal judgement comes into play.

In answer to your question I would say you can. I would say Jameslb101 has got it right.

[GJD]

I have never, ever had a member of the public assert what is being suggested here and neither have any of my colleagues.

Have you ever heard a member of the public assert, "I am a safe driver. I always obey speed limits", as if the first statement is a logical conclusion to draw from the second? I have, and it makes me bristle with anger - at the individual concerned for asserting such dangerously flawed logic, and at those in authority who do so much that reinforces that flaw instead of challenging it and showing it up for what it is.

If drivers were more interested, then the number of them that have taken any sort of post-test training would be considerably higher than the current 0.001% (I think I remember this figure correctly)

Do you think there is any scope for raising the level of interest drivers have in the task of driving by promoting the benefits that being interested can bring (for example, in terms of not driving into the child in the first place), as an alternative to reinforcing the lack of interest by portraying driving as the kind activity that can be carried out in the back of the mind, one's only concern being adherence to simplistic rules?

Another example of this is the advert back in the early 1990s where the boy was hit and cartwheeled to his death on a busy shopping street where the car was travelling at 35mph instead of 30mph.

I remember that one too. I was just as disgusted by it as the other one we've discussed, for exactly the same reason.

Most drivers fail miserably at keeping decent stopping distances in front of them at any speed. To ask them to have the knowledge and will to choose safe speeds for conditions will always be problematical.

Problematical...
Is that sufficient reason to give up trying? Personally, I don't believe so.

[GJD]

A good driver should be aware of the speed limit for the stretch of road being driven and should be able to keep to the limit.

I would suggest that that ability alone is far too little to qualify someone as a good driver.

An advanced driver should also be able to judge whether a speed above the limit would be safe, although of course not legal.

And I would say, as I think I did earlier in the thread, that every driver (not just the advanced ones) needs to be able to do that because it's exactly that skill that one needs in order to identify when driving at the speed limit is too fast.