Speed paranoia

zadocbrown · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 114

I despair at the moronic attitudes to speed that society now exhibits. And I don't mean boy racers.......

The grossly exaggerated emphasis on speed reduction/enforcement is becoming quite counterproductive, I believe. Speed does not kill: only hitting something kills, and the only way to prevent that is good driving.

That is not to condone speeding; but the present message going out to drivers is that the most important thing to do is to obey the rules. Not only is this untrue, but the weight given to that (unpopular) message, actively discourages people from taking any real interest in their driving.

What we need, is to make people realise that we all have, individually, the power and responsibility to deal with danger by making sound decisions before we drive, and all the time during which we are driving.

There is a direct link between the quality of our driving at any particular time and the likely outcome for ourselves and everyone else. This is all about assessing, and responding appropriately to risk; with observence of speed limits being a relatively insignificant part of this.

So forget 'speed kills' : how toothless is that? (Apart from being obviously wrong) How about some more appropriate slogans that might connect actions and consequences a little more strongly in people's minds. Here are some I thought of......

'Trees can slice your car in half, at below the speed limit: get a grip!'

'Road rage makes people think you're a wanker: chill out!'

'The safety device you need to fit today: yourself!'

'95% of accidents are caused by human error: learn to drive properly!'

martine · Joined: 17 Oct 2005 Posts: 1406 Location: Bristol, UK

Well zadoc...I broadbly agree with your sentiment...the only problem is: how do you raise the general level of driver education? Slogans are OK at reinforcing a message but what should be done in a concrete way?

Many people here have debated this in various guises. The people who contribute here are...well, lets face it 'nerds' who have an unusual interest in driving - the vast majority of the driving public just don't care or worse, even see the need.

I do like the idea of bringing 'risk assessment' into senior school curriculum...at my kids school they have a general slot each week called SPD (Social and Personal Development) - other schools call it other things. Risk assessment could include driving hazard awareness (amongst other things of course) and might lay the bedrock to becoming a better driver when older.

Just a thought.
_________________
Martin - Bristol IAM Group Senior Observer and Secretary.

zadocbrown · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 114

Of course, this is a complex issue which take much time, effort, and ingenuity to overcome. We are talking about fairly significant social change, after all.

The particular suggestion I was putting forward was that if we, or rather the establishment, could cut out some of the misleading propaganda we push on people; we would find it easier to get people engaged in a more constructive way.

I agree that driver education should start at school. In fact, it invariably does; alas not always to positive effect. A big problem we have is that children have 17 years to assimilate the bad attitudes of whoever drives them around, and only a few months to change their minds before being turned loose. In practice, of course, this just doesn't happen.

Still, although we rightly should think about the education of children and young drivers, I think again the emphasis we have lately put on this, is off the mark. It's far too easy for the majority ('experienced') to blame the minority (inexperienced) for all our problems, smugly putting forward statistics which appear to support the comfortable assumption that it's all 'their' fault, and if they were only more like 'us' everything would be ok. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We are constantly bombarded with the message that young drivers need to be more careful because they are X times more likely to crash than older drivers. This is supposed to be a shocking fact; but is it? I think not. Yes, it's unnacceptable for so many young people to die, but to compare their accident rate with that of vastly more experienced drivers is false reasoning. It is self evident that older drivers should have gained something from their longer practice; indeed it would be more disturbing to see no decrease in accident rate with age, as this would indicate we were learning nothing at all!

Why am I so bothered by this? The problem is that we foster an 'us and them' attitude to safe driving. The so called experienced motorist gets to blame the 'young idiots' for all the problems he encounters; and consequently is in denial about his own inadequacy. The young driver feels victimised on account of his inexperience, which he can't help. He therefore tries to copy older drivers' behaviour; having been led to believe that by doing this, he is joining the ranks of the good and great. Sadly, he is aping a flawed model, and ends up unwittingly driving worse than ever!

What we need to do is address the casualty rate accross the board by achieving a culture of life-long learning, where young drivers have good role models to aspire to. A good role model being someone who has a good attitude to driving, sound skills, but also the humility to admit to still having something to learn.

How do we do this? If anyone can give a conclusive answer, they should be assured of at least a knighthood! We could start by taking 2 positive steps: Stop the doomed attempt at damage limitation which is slowdown-mania; and stop treating young people as a problem.

ROG · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 1119 Location: LEICESTER

Answer = early education starting in schools with peer discussion groups and theory - as sort of American 'Drivers Ed' Question

_________________
ROG
Civilian Advanced Driver
Senior Observer
Leicester Group of Advanced Motorists
UNEMPLOYED LGV instructor

fungus · Joined: 17 Feb 2008 Posts: 78 Location: Dorset

Pupil informs me today that his freind who has been driving for two months, has already picked up a section 59, reason unknown. Further conversation reveals that he was doing 70 in a 30 limit. Whether this was the reason I do not know, but whatever, the fact that he was exceeding the speed limit by such a large amount would surely amount to dangerous driving.

Given the nature of the offence surely the magistrate would have to impose a ban.

[url]http://www.glass-uk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=267&Itemid=492[/url]

Nigel ADI
IAM car

TripleS · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 4:45 pm Post subject:

waremark · Joined: 15 Apr 2006 Posts: 752

I think it is bad enough even if the 30 limit is inappropriate! I think there is a level of disresespect for the law which makes the offence fairly serious even if no danger is involved. But I do not intend to start or get into one of our long debates on the great speed issue!

martine · Joined: 17 Oct 2005 Posts: 1406 Location: Bristol, UK

zadoc,

I read you post above with some interest and you made me think. Shocked

(that's unusual for someone as confident of my own opinion Rolling Eyes

as me). It's a different way of looking at things and for that I applaud. Being a bof it's easy to forget how older people come across sometimes esp. if they are in 'lecturing mode'.

I think you can go too far though is trying to emphasise the 'great down trodden youth'. There are many good, young drivers as well as bad. These good drivers may not have the experience but what makes them good is knowing their limitations and being aware their actions can have on themselves and others. It's not rocket-science.

What really annoys me are the young drivers who have no regard for risk or the safety of others. It's not their inexperience that makes them shoot a red light, drive at 70 in a 30 or not bother with insurance.
_________________
Martin - Bristol IAM Group Senior Observer and Secretary.

dth · Joined: 13 Oct 2007 Posts: 439

dth · Joined: 13 Oct 2007 Posts: 439

As far as education is concerned, I have mentioned before that I do a lot of work with those who've had licences a long time but also with those who've had licences for a short time.

As far as the former group is concerned, the majority cannot tell me how to recognise speed limits and a large percentage haven't a clue what the National Speed limit is.

As far as the second group is concerned, their knowledge is often no better than the first group's despite the fact that they've had lessons more recently and had to do a theory test. This group often have no fear of breaking the law and driving inappropriately because they do not understand what the consequences are.

The first group are often complacent and whilst may have a better idea of what life can hold, believe it will never happen to them.

Another factor, I believe, is that the fear of consequences, whatever they may be, is insufficient for many people to be pursuaded that complying with the law is worthwhile if they can get away with it.

I also believe that early learning, at present, often moulds poor attitudes. Early learning should be structured to try to steer new drivers away from some of the things their parents do.
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Life is not black and white - neither is driving.

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