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  #11  
Old 09-Mar-2009, 11:50
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Ray Ray is offline
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The Authorities like to cater for the lowest common denominator, be it speed, what we eat, what we drink, etc

We just can't be trusted

Tha age of "we know best" is fully upon us. The age of the individual taking responibility for their own lives and those around to the best of their ability has ended.

The only 100% safe speed is zero.

The Authorities will always take the easy option. Lower speed limits, shows they are doing something and has the potential to rake in more ££££.

Education, improving skills etc costs money and is really only for the "clever few".


Time for me tablets.................and book a trip to the Isle Of Man..........no posted limit over the mountain.........wahoo!

Ray.
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  #12  
Old 09-Mar-2009, 15:28
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DSC Member Jools Jools is offline
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One of the other factors in governmental thinking is that once a law is in place it is almost impossible to change it, through the politician's fear of losing potential votes to the propaganda of lobby groups.

Take the 70 mph speed limit for example. Introduced as a temporary measure it soon became permanent, but by the standards of the day it was hardly a limit at all. Why? Because a common or garden family saloon in those days was something like a Ford Anglia 105E, top speed was 75mph on skinny little zero grip crossply tyres with antique suspension. The only reason that the brakes didn't completely overwhelm the available grip of the tyres was because they were miserable little drum brakes that took as long to stop the car as it takes to slow a tanker down. So at 70 mph you'd have been driving the little Ford Anglia at over 9/10ths.

Imagine you applied that logic to the Anglia's great-great-grandson and set the speed limit based on 93% of a common or garden Mondeo 2.2 Tdci...that would make the motorway limit 130 mph. Can't see that happening any time soon.


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  #13  
Old 09-Mar-2009, 22:39
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900SL Pete 900SL Pete is offline
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Don't often make any comments on such topical threads, I agree with all these comments.

But, we hear so much about the death rate of motorcyclist and how dangerous bikes are and the iresponsible riders albeit, born again or the boy racer types.

However we hear very little about the tragic numbers of casualties which are caused by wreckless drivers killing whole families or multiple numbers in car accidents.

I can think of several accidents in the last few months where several people were killed by irresponsible drivers hitting oncoming cars and wipping out a whole family or several occupants.

So wouldn't it be a great idea for this well thinking government, to carry out an experiment in line with the Bejing way of thinking. Cars travel on one day Motorcycles another.

So for example, Monday cars, Tuesday Bikes, Wednesday Cars, Thursday Bikes, Friday Cars, Saturday & Sunday Bikes.

Wouldn't it be interesting for the statistics to see how many drivers and families are wipeed out in comparison to the numbers of riders killed.

Now this is obviously not practical. but if it were possible that the statistics were written in categories of,
Accidents involving cars/Bikes
Accidents involving Bikes/Bikes
Accidents caused by rider error

Someone will come along in a moment and tell me this is how they are compiled, but not from the ones I have seen.

What the stats don't often take into account is the numbers of vehicles on the road ten years ago, in comparison to the numbers of vehicles on the road today.

There are so many factors now that were not aparent 10-20 or 30 years ago, speed is not the only factor.

We see all too regulary how illegal imegrants, youngsters and foreign drivers can drive a car with no UK licence or any idea of legislation, so where should the new legislation start, surely reducing the speed limit is not solving the problem. People will still exceed the limit if it is 60 or 70 miles per hour.

Don't know the answer I'm afraid, but neither do the law makers. But I fee slowing people down will increase convictions for exceeding the limit which generates revenue!

There I've had a little moan now I'll get back in my box and come out when its rattled again.
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  #14  
Old 09-Mar-2009, 23:17
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swannymere swannymere is offline
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Personally i think that if this limit comes into place the death rate will increase. My train of thought is along the lines of people who are mollycoddled tend to switch off and therefore are sucked into a false sense of security, i think the way to go would be for everybody to only be able to insure their vehicles third party only, we'll soon see if people are prepared to take the same risks.
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  #15  
Old 10-Mar-2009, 09:11
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Tonio600 Tonio600 is offline
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Speed does not kill on its own, but it is still one of the most common factors in road accident. With poor visibility, tireness, unsafe vehicles, poor standard of driving, etc... It is not rocket science that tackling as many of those factors will reduce the number of accidents and as such the number of deaths on the road. Saving 500 more lives is priceless.

And look at the roads in this country (in the South East at least...) they are just not fit for speed.

Brands Hatch is though.

Incoming
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  #16  
Old 10-Mar-2009, 22:56
peter grover peter grover is offline
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in the paper i read it said accidents are caused by vehicles overtaking.they do so due to women in 4+4s and old farts in fiestas doing 35-40 mph.drivers behind get frustrated and overtake when it is not safe to do so.lowering the speed limit will have no effect.
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  #17  
Old 10-Mar-2009, 23:40
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Tonio600 Tonio600 is offline
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What paper do your read?

From the 2007 road casualties annual report of the Dpt for transport:

Quote:
For fatal accidents the most frequently reported contributory factor was loss of control, which was involved in 33 per cent of fatal accidents.

We can't really make a direct link between "overtaking" and "loss of control" can we?

The few times I have lost control of my car on a public road was due to an excessive speed.
And the many times I lost it on track was for the same reason, plus some knackered tyres, nutters passing me on the apex, etc...
Did I mention my forks as well?

( http://www.dft.gov.uk/pdf/pgr/statis...atbritain20071 )
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  #18  
Old 11-Mar-2009, 19:01
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DSC Member Paul James Paul James is offline
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Having represented the club on the local motorcycle casualty reduction forum since its inception you'd be very interested to hear the outcome of an in depth speed statistics analysis that we carried out. Some high speeds (some too high to be accurately clocked by the equipment) and not a single accident during the collection of info due to excessive speed.

I know it is my personal hobby horse but I'm waiting for the day the TRUE statistics (if that isn't a contradiction in terms?) of how many KSI's are caused by the illegal use of handheld mobile phones.

Why won't the police have a high profile purge on that? Surely anybody texting or pi$$ing about trying to dial a number or juggle a phone is far more likely to cause injury or death to another road user than a driver not wearing a seat belt?


http://www.multirole-eng.com

http://www.audicator.com Check out our simple to fit, potentially life saving turn signal alert system.
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  #19  
Old 11-Mar-2009, 21:37
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Bionicle Bionicle is offline
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When you think of all the distractions available to car drivers that bikers do not have, it stands to reason that bikers are concentrating on the road ahead where as its more or less certain that car drivers 60-80% of the time are either talking on their phone, texting, reading the paper, playing with their CD collection, lighting up a smoke, talking to their passenger, shouting at the kids, looking at a map\satnav, picking their nose, eating their bigmac they just bought from the drive through or one of a hundred things that can cause distractions to a car driver that is denied to bikers, its these things that should be addressed before they look at reducing speed limits.
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  #20  
Old 11-Mar-2009, 22:12
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DSC Member Paul James Paul James is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bionicle
When you think of all the distractions available to car drivers that bikers do not have, it stands to reason that bikers are concentrating on the road ahead where as its more or less certain that car drivers 60-80% of the time are either talking on their phone, texting, reading the paper, playing with their CD collection, lighting up a smoke, talking to their passenger, shouting at the kids, looking at a map\satnav, picking their nose, eating their bigmac they just bought from the drive through or one of a hundred things that can cause distractions to a car driver that is denied to bikers, its these things that should be addressed before they look at reducing speed limits.

Exactly but it is always easier to pass the blame.

Without doubt some people ride like tw*ts and are just an accident waiting to happen but they by no means represent the majority.

The other thing that I find concerning is the number of people driving who, when you watch how they drive, could never have passed a driving test. There are so many cars on the road now and so few resources to tackle the real issues that all the authorities do is reduce the speed limit and bung in a few more revenue raising cameras.


http://www.multirole-eng.com

http://www.audicator.com Check out our simple to fit, potentially life saving turn signal alert system.
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