Edbear
25th November 2005, 07:17
I've re-attached an essay I wrote in Nov. '03 after picking up my bike as I can't seem to find where I put it!
Some comments on Policing... It would be so simple to find out if speeding was a real problem and whether severe Policing of the speed limit was working, simply release the statistics on fatal and severe injury accidents with the percentage of those caused by excessive speed along with the stats on those caused by simple driver inattention or incompetence! I drive a small truck around the Rodney County every day and my annual mileage on the roads including my car and bike would be in the region of 70,000km, and believe me, speed is not the problem! It is those who are simply incompetent to drive and cruise at 20k/mh or more below the limit, weaving over the road because they don't know how to go around corners, holding up long lines of vehicles being either oblivious or too arrogant to pull over and let faster traffic past! 9 times out of 10, if I see a driver weaving dangerously at lower speeds it will be because they are on their cellphone! Another observation, is that as cars become safer, with air bags, crumple zones and seat belt pre-tensioners, the speed at which a fatality is likely to occur, will naturally rise. Witness the F1 drivers who walk away from 200k/mh + accidents! In my 32 years of driving on the roads in a huge variety of vehicles, I have never seen that speeding is a cause of more than a small percentage of crashes, and I have never seen so many incompetent nongs on the road who cannot drive within coee of the open road speed limit!:doh:
Some comments on Policing... It would be so simple to find out if speeding was a real problem and whether severe Policing of the speed limit was working, simply release the statistics on fatal and severe injury accidents with the percentage of those caused by excessive speed along with the stats on those caused by simple driver inattention or incompetence! I drive a small truck around the Rodney County every day and my annual mileage on the roads including my car and bike would be in the region of 70,000km, and believe me, speed is not the problem! It is those who are simply incompetent to drive and cruise at 20k/mh or more below the limit, weaving over the road because they don't know how to go around corners, holding up long lines of vehicles being either oblivious or too arrogant to pull over and let faster traffic past! 9 times out of 10, if I see a driver weaving dangerously at lower speeds it will be because they are on their cellphone! Another observation, is that as cars become safer, with air bags, crumple zones and seat belt pre-tensioners, the speed at which a fatality is likely to occur, will naturally rise. Witness the F1 drivers who walk away from 200k/mh + accidents! In my 32 years of driving on the roads in a huge variety of vehicles, I have never seen that speeding is a cause of more than a small percentage of crashes, and I have never seen so many incompetent nongs on the road who cannot drive within coee of the open road speed limit!:doh: