Avert your eyes, Michael...

However, even at 70mph the majority of drivers disregard safe distances. How many people do you see leave a 66m (yes, metres, not feet) gap to the car in front? I regularly see cars so close that in an accident they'd not even have time to react to the brake lights before hitting the car in front.

Despite this, I support an increase in the motorway speed limit with the proviso that a lower limit should exist and be punitively enforced in bad weather conditions.

 

I generally agree. The fact the speed limit has been unchanged (if anything generally lowered in parts), yet vehicles are now much much better at stopping/not skidding is somewhat out of kilter (sic?).

There's no doubt that "speeding" is gradually becoming villified in the same vein as drink driving (which of course is rightly villified), yet there is not the same body of evidence to support how speeding, particularly in non-urban areas is directly connected to road safety in the way drink driving is. I would also add that driving when tired has been shown to be more dangerous than driving under the moderate influence of alcohol, though that latter can lead to greater recklessness.

Yes we understand that greater speed upon impact with a pedestrian is considerably more likely to result in death, but this is somewhat simplistic.

 

Yep the French adaptive speed limit seems to make some sense - a smidge over 80mph when dry and just under 70 when wet. IME most people seem happy to drive at around 80-85 on Mways, but whether this is their personal "speed limit plus a bit" thinking which would just rise if the limit rose it's hard to say.

 

You are very wrong! Yes you may be safer than most by sticking to the limit but the advanced way of driving takes into account the bad drivers and much more. Why not do a RoSPA course then at least you will be practicing what you preach?

Its about £80 including tuition, books and the test with a class 1 traffic cop.

surprised no one has risen to the written test chalange I laid down C'mon Bottleneck!

 

I think it is largely what people think they can get away with. If even 1mph over the limit could land you with a ban then people would stick to 70. I certainly would never exceed 100mph in the UK as the risk of losing my license was just too great. It would be interesting to see how fast most people would drive on the mways if there were no limit.

Mike is right that m-way speed limits were originally imposed for fuel economy reasons more than safety reasons. Those reasons are arguably even more valid now than they were. Above about 60mph fuel economy reduces drastically with increasing speed.

 

The problem is you can't judge the speed others are doing by your own. Speedometers are inaccurate. It is likely that if you are doing 60mph and you are overtaken, that the other driver thinks he's doing 60 as well. There can be as much as a 10% variance allowed so in extreme cases one car might be doing 55mph and another 65mph whilst both believe they are dead on 60mph.

 

I think it's now llegal for speedometers to under-read.

 

Ping Michael...sorry to butt in...was trying to pm you but your inbox is full...

Rsand...I got 31..thats a pass...and without any googling!

 

Now cleared

 

It always has been. The allowable range is 0% to +10%.

Mine over-reads a bit under 5% compared to my GPS.

 

quite right!

With the mileage I do ... here's a thought, in the last 10 years I have done the same number of miles that an 'average' person will do in their entire life.

my point regarded COMPULSORY driving tests every ten years, not encouraging additional driving qualifications.

I freely admit that there is no way I am going to spend even a fiver on further driver training.

why should I when I dont have to?

I should be FORCED to re-take my license every 10 years (along with everyone else) just like they do in America.

Im not saying 'come in in, the waters lovely' more like - 'lets push everyone in, including myself'!

I dont see any hypocrasy there.

 

"Im not saying 'come in in, the waters lovely' more like - 'lets push everyone in, including myself'!

I dont see any hypocrasy there."

Fair enough! but the theory test I posted is free to do

It was up on a car forum I also frequent and the amout of pople who failed was simply shocking with results as low as 22! This backs up your re test argument BTW. When was the last time any of us re-read the highway code?

Congrats Heavymental the only taker for the test (appart from me)

 

The first chapter of roadcraft says:

When I took my advanced driving course and test, I was 21. I was driving 20000 miles per year. I was (and still am) male. The odds seemed quite heavily stacked against me. Perhaps even more so because I drive that denizen of evil, a car with more than a 1.1 litre engine...

Cost was £65 (due to £20 worth of discounts to under-25s). Subsequently I have saved more money than that on AA membership and car insurance because now statistics can work in my favour... Those with an advanced driving qualification are 75% LESS likely to be involved in an accident.

So maybe that's why you should take such a course. You can complain about "their" driving all you like, but you can only do something about your own. Until you do, to anyone else you'll still be one of "them".

 

I got 31 and the questions I got wrong were about:
- toucan crossings (never heard of them or seen one)
- markings you might find on a skip
- how tram lines are marked on the road (never seen a tram in the UK)

I consider my score (which is a pass) pretty good considering I no longer live in the UK and last looked at the highway code about 15 years ago.

Michael.

 

aaah but sir, in the last 7 years alone I have driven approx 300,000 miles.

if the average motorist has a 1 in 7 chance of crashing in just 10,000 miles - then I have not crashed in 30 times that figure.

I am clearly a driving god!

kneel before your master!!

 

Same mistakes here...never driven in a city with trams, and never noticed those markings on a skip...until I drove home yesterday! And what is a toucan crossing!?

 

A particularly stout one?

P.S. The worst tram problems of which I'm aware are in central Melbourne, on the intersections where two sets of tram lines cross (Swanston St. with Flinders, Collins and Bourke Sts and Elizabeth St. with Collins and Bourke Sts, IIRC). There you have to make a right turn from the extreme left of the road!

 

It's the one with the Belisha Beacans. I got 32

 

Toucan (Two can [cross]) crossings are for bicycles as well as pedestrians. They have no flashing amber stage on the lights.

 

I failed (27). I simply didn't know most of the signs, as many of them don't exist here.