Keeping to the speed limit

[Nicola]

Hi Albie - I am nearly as new as you . I totally get what you mean but I take a perverse delight in sticking to 30 -( or whatever) even if they are breathing down my neck. They can do nothing to me and in the end they back off. Why let another human being push you into collecting points? They can make their choices as to how they handle the 'problem' but you stick to your guns. If (God forbid) you hit a pedestrian at 30 mph they would ( as I understand it) be very likely to be injured but not killed. If you hit someone even at 32mph the injuries would be much more serious . If you hit them at 36mph they are very likely to die. I probably haven't quite got the figures right but the differences in the 30mph zone are massive for the pedestrian.
I have been driving for a million years and 3 times I have been in a 30 and had a massive fright. The first I was doing about 28 on a dark night in a 30 residential. A boy of 13 ran out in front of the car and I hit his leg. He and his mate were playing 'chicken'! He was not injured at all. A few years later at 3.15 pm - a 5 yr old little girl just walked across a very wide and very busy main road in front of me as I came around a bend. Again - a lot going on and I was doing about 25 but 35 and she would not have stood a chance. A few years after that driving along a residential street where cars were parked both sides - an 18 month old escaped from his garden and casually wandered into the road. Again - all was fine but his parents were very shaken up. The first experience was the one that made me very wary and I still am. If you keep to those limits you are then doing your best. Let someone pressurise you and you run the risk of compromising the safety of another person. I hope you don't think I'm preaching - I just wanted to get you to think about everyone else in the world apart from Fred Bloggs breathing down your neck. Keeping him at your pace might save someone's life.

[revian]

Nicola &" I hope you don't think I'm preaching -

I don't like crowded pulpits...so please don't..

Close followers ... Make me leave a bigger safety gap in front... Tend to make slow into corners but quicker out... And if persistent and it's the odd one - I pull off the road and let them go (at whatever speed). As said; if you're going to get a ticket at least it's your own choice

As irritating is following someone who never varies their speed in changing speed limits and being unable to find an overtake...

[waremark]

Nicola, I have always thought it would be totally traumatic to hit someone, whatever their injuries; I am sorry you had that experience. My attitude in built-up areas is that I manage my speed to be able to stop in time if a child wanders out into the road (or a door opens or whatever) - I don't bother about how much damage I will do if I hit them, because I plan not to hit them. Sometimes that means much less than 30, other times much more than 30 would be safe and the choice of speed is then down to respect for the limit and/or fear of the consequences of being caught exceeding it.

[MGF]

What if you are not a perfect driver and occasionally it isn't safe to be driving much more than 30 mph when you think it is, you get unlucky and you do hit a child?

[Pontoneer]

Hi Albie - I am nearly as new as you . I totally get what you mean but I take a perverse delight in sticking to 30 -( or whatever) even if they are breathing down my neck. They can do nothing to me and in the end they back off. Why let another human being push you into collecting points? They can make their choices as to how they handle the 'problem' but you stick to your guns. If (God forbid) you hit a pedestrian at 30 mph they would ( as I understand it) be very likely to be injured but not killed. If you hit someone even at 32mph the injuries would be much more serious . If you hit them at 36mph they are very likely to die. I probably haven't quite got the figures right but the differences in the 30mph zone are massive for the pedestrian.
I have been driving for a million years and 3 times I have been in a 30 and had a massive fright. The first I was doing about 28 on a dark night in a 30 residential. A boy of 13 ran out in front of the car and I hit his leg. He and his mate were playing 'chicken'! He was not injured at all. A few years later at 3.15 pm - a 5 yr old little girl just walked across a very wide and very busy main road in front of me as I came around a bend. Again - a lot going on and I was doing about 25 but 35 and she would not have stood a chance. A few years after that driving along a residential street where cars were parked both sides - an 18 month old escaped from his garden and casually wandered into the road. Again - all was fine but his parents were very shaken up. The first experience was the one that made me very wary and I still am. If you keep to those limits you are then doing your best. Let someone pressurise you and you run the risk of compromising the safety of another person. I hope you don't think I'm preaching - I just wanted to get you to think about everyone else in the world apart from Fred Bloggs breathing down your neck. Keeping him at your pace might save someone's life.

If memory serves , the oft quoted statistics are that if you hit someone at 20 , most will survive , perhaps with only slight injuries ; hit someone at 30 , again most will survive , perhaps with more serious injuries ; hit them at 40 and most will not survive ; there are , of course , always exceptions .

[04smallmj]

As someone who wants to see decent cycling infrastructure in the UK (i.e. https://lichwheeld.files.wordpress.com/ ... arion1.jpg ), and regularly walks and uses a bicycle for transport, I'd like to butt in and say that speed limits in built up areas aren't just to prevent crashes (and reduce the severity of them), but also to increase the subjective safety (how safe it feels) for people on bicycles and on foot, which is the main reason why I pay special attention to them. If you are walking, motor traffic rushing past you at 40MPH is very unpleasant. They also reduce noise levels and pollution, which makes the area nicer to live and stay in. The point about noise (and vibrations from large vehicles) especially applies to rural villages which have A roads cutting through them.

[MGF]

What if you are not a perfect driver and occasionally it isn't safe to be driving much more than 30 mph when you think it is, you get unlucky and you do hit a child?

That is an irrelevant distraction as Waremark is himself thinking of the children. My question relates to the possibility he may make a mistake.

The fact that some may choose to limit their speed in consideration of their own fallibility doesn't mean that they are not choosing a safe speed in the circumstances within that parameter.

[Nicola]

Nice to hear all the thoughts boys- for me - whenever I am in a busy 30mph area ( such as Grayshott which I have to drive through every day) I am still terrified that someone will walk/run out in front of me. In this particular village there are too many hazards to process and I rarely do more than 25 - often 20. It should be a 20mph zone really just for a few hundred meters.

[GJD]

What if you are not a perfect driver and occasionally it isn't safe to be driving much more than 30 mph when you think it is, you get unlucky and you do hit a child?

Has that concern got anything to do with the speed limit? If you make that mistake - driving faster than 30 when you think it's safe to do so but actually it isn't, and you hit a child - on a road with a higher limit that you weren't exceeding, are you entitled to feel any less bad about it than if you'd done the same in a 30 limit?

[Albie]

Many thanks for all your replies to my initial question. I'm still struggling with sticking to the speed limits but i'm getting better. Its the pressure i feel from the other motorists that is causing me the most problems. Nicola's posts reinforces the importance of sticking to designated speed limits.

One thing i have noticed by slowing down is 'situations' seem to clear before i reach them if that makes sense. Before i would be speeding towards things and have to brake or take some kind of action, now things take care of themselves before i get there!

Another thing i have noticed is my MPG has dropped as i'm in a lower gear much more of the time!

[martine]

...Another thing i have noticed is my MPG has dropped as i'm in a lower gear much more of the time!

By much?

[Albie]

Not much Martin, but i have noticed it. From your experience does this ring true with?

The MPG comment wasn't meant to sound like a moan, it was purely an observation.

[martine]

Not much Martin, but i have noticed it. From your experience does this ring true with?

The MPG comment wasn't meant to sound like a moan, it was purely an observation.

I don't monitor my mpg closely (it comes from driving a Focus ST ). I wouldn't have thought using 3rd @ 30 (instead of 4th or even 5th as some do) for example makes much difference. It's a no brainer for me...I much prefer the control and options being in a lower gear gives over saving a few pence in fuel.

[fungus]

Not much Martin, but i have noticed it. From your experience does this ring true with?

The MPG comment wasn't meant to sound like a moan, it was purely an observation.

I don't monitor my mpg closely (it comes from driving a Focus ST ). I wouldn't have thought using 3rd @ 30 (instead of 4th or even 5th as some do) for example makes much difference. It's a no brainer for me...I much prefer the control and options being in a lower gear gives over saving a few pence in fuel.

+1

[fungus]

As someone who wants to see decent cycling infrastructure in the UK (i.e. https://lichwheeld.files.wordpress.com/ ... arion1.jpg ), and regularly walks and uses a bicycle for transport, I'd like to butt in and say that speed limits in built up areas aren't just to prevent crashes (and reduce the severity of them), but also to increase the subjective safety (how safe it feels) for people on bicycles and on foot, which is the main reason why I pay special attention to them. If you are walking, motor traffic rushing past you at 40MPH is very unpleasant. They also reduce noise levels and pollution, which makes the area nicer to live and stay in. The point about noise (and vibrations from large vehicles) especially applies to rural villages which have A roads cutting through them.

If drivers drove according to conditions, there wouldn't be the need for some of the unreasonably low speed limits that are creeping in on many roads.