Thoughts on Excessive Speed

That's a symptom of medication to treat depression/anxiety.

My other half is on anti-depressants and certainly doesn't behave like that. Ok, sure it might be a side effect of a different medication, but that's still no excuse - if it's affecting their driving to that extent then they should be prosecuted for driving under the influence and lose their licence.

Yes, I'm sure people are on their phones whilst driving, but even so you don't stop at a green light, then wait for it to change red.

You do if you look up from Facebook for a second, notice it's amber without realising you've missed a whole cycle, and then set off whilst commenting on Lisa's drunken photo from last night's party.

I could post photos like this on a daily basis!

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In fact, any point sending this one to the police (the footage clearly shows his reg)?
 
@Haggisman if what you say is true, it paints a very dark picture for society.

"You do if you look up from Facebook for a second, notice it's amber without realising you've missed a whole cycle, and then set off whilst commenting on Lisa's drunken photo from last night's party."

No, this was a person sat at a green light looking out the windscreen. I was a few lanes over (my lane was at red) watching in disbelief.
 
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Were lucky where we are, still plenty of roads very quiet to enjoy been so close to Peak district helps, but you do generally need a smaller call to enjoy them, hence buying a Caterham for some fun.

Driving standards seem to be dropping massively, this morning there is a horse rider, first car decides to sit right behind them not over taking on a straight road with no cars coming, then as they come to the bend they decide to overtake whilst literally driving into the hedge opposite. Signs of a driver with zero confidence but then proceeding to be dangerous. If a car had been coming opposite way it would have ended very badly and all down to lack of confidence and poor judgement, no excessive speed involved. Watching it all unfold I literally sat several car lengths back and far away expecting a major accident.

Then the next car behind them then proceeds to overtake so close and drive alongside the horse instead of accelerating pass, causing distress to the horse. Again driving so slow and poorly potentially causing another accident.

Then my turn comes, I await for the cars who performed their terrible overtakes to accelerate away so when I go pass I do so totally on the opposite side of road as if overtaking a lorry and do so in a high gear to get pass swiftly without causing noise and further distress to the horse. I was in the 600 LT so not the easiest car to keep quiet and a wide car at that.

The problem I am seeing is people seem so nervous, so slow on the roads they are actually causing accidents, I truly felt sorry for the horse and rider as it was clear the horse was so alarmed by the car which sat riding alongside them for so long and the first car no doubt did not help by driving into the verge.

Driving standards and pot holes seem out the window.

Excessive speed I feel though an issue is far less an issue than bad driving or people been distracted by mobile phones or cars full of stupid touch screen buttons, it is always excessive speed been blamed but I feel there are far greater issues and accidents been caused simply due to bad driving, poor driving or drivers been distracted either by themselves with mobiles/infotainment or passengers.

To give you an idea of truly alarming driving, I was with a friend in his bright yellow Ferrari (not mine), were in the fast lane coming down a dual carriage way (70 limit) doing around 75mph, I spot a car wanting to join the dual carriage-way and instantly spot their road position seems weird, so I warn him they might do something stupid so he stays in the fast lane instead of moving over left. There is no other cars, we are easy to see as visibility is excellent and the road is straight with a roundabout about a further 1/2 mile down the road.

The driver in the red car proceeds to pull out as we are on top of them, were now doing circa 60mph as he heeded my warnings, even worse the driver then moves into our lane (the fast lane) my friend has to emergency brake and use the gears to get the speed off to the point I literally believe we hit them, his car had new tyres and brakes a month ago, the best tyres, we only just stopped short of hitting them by literally an inch or two at best.

The driver then moves over to left lane as they are turning left at the roundabout, I was so mad I was literally hanging out the passenger window calling this driver every name under the sun, to which the women flipped me the bird, so she got fully abused as she essentially was so close to causing a pile up, then the car that was behind us pulls between us both, an older gentlemen and wife who then proceed to hurl abuse at the women driver who pulled out on us and checked we were ok as they also firmly believed we hit them and they were so close to crashing into the back of us.

This is driving standards today, pulling out on a dual carriage way and then moving into the fast lane causing a very near miss to then just pull back to the left to turn left, I felt bad after as I went bat crazy mental at the old couple in the car but feel if that is their driving standards it won't be long until they kill someone.
Speed is not always blamed at all in every accident, in fact it is usually driver error that is blamed which is exactly what you say should be blamed!

Take a look here for the causes of accidents in the UK.
1Driver/Rider failed to look properly22,67137.8%
2Driver/Rider failed to judge other person’s path or speed11,80719.7%
3Driver/Rider careless, reckless or in a hurry10,80618.0%
4Poor turn or manoeuvre6,94511.6%
5Loss of control6,83211.4%
6Slippery road (due to weather)4,8718.1%
7Exceeding speed limit4,4577.4%
8Pedestrian failed to look properly4,0276.7%
9Travelling too fast for conditions3,7446.2%
10Sudden braking2,8364.7%

The issue with speed is that is listed as a contributory factor in a much higher proportion of deaths on the roads.

Also, no such thing as a fast lane :p
 
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@Haggisman if what you say is true, it paints a very dark picture for society.

To be honest, the standard of driving in the Midlands seems to be significantly worse than anywhere else I've driven in the UK (other than perhaps London) - maybe to do with traffic density, the selfish attitude that busy city life seems to breed, or more controversial socio-economic factors that I'm not going to go into! I used to do 30k+ miles/year around the South West and Wales, and I have far more close encounters with terrible driving around here doing less than 8k
 
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To be honest, the standard of driving in the Midlands seems to be significantly worse than anywhere else I've driven in the UK (other than perhaps London) - maybe to do with traffic density, the selfish attitude that busy city life seems to breed, or more controversial socio-economic factors that I'm not going to go into!

Go a bit further east if you want a real shock :cry:
 
Come drive in West London if you want to relive the wild west! :eek:

1: Insane undertakes in the hard shoulder are quite common & or anywhere there is a gap someone will do a big send into it regardless of which lane you or they are in.
2: People ignoring speed cameras & average speed checks driving way beyond the posted limit. This causes big problems as others try to stick to the limits but some seem to want to follow the leader.....!
3: Drivers creeping through traffic lights at fast moving junctions (had someone blast through one of these in front of me the other week doing a good 70-80 in a 40! ONLY reason they did not cause a massive wipeout was sheer blind luck :mad:
4: Cars which are clearly not road worthy being driven like they are dodgems at a funfair with little regard to other road users.
5: Cyclists & moped riders completely ignoring traffic lights & rules of the road to keep momentum going regardless of how dangerous it is to motor vehicles & pedestrians.
6: LHD lorry drivers on non UK plates who clearly do not understand how to drive safely & are on the verge of causing a massive pile up due to lack of basic understanding of simple lane discipline & how sudden lane changes cause big problems for vehicles in the surrounding lanes!

If only the police had more road traffic resource they would have a field day catching this horrible little lot :( but it seems their budgets have been slashed so drastically they just do not seem have enough on the road presence so its a real challenging environment :eek:
 
In fact, any point sending this one to the police (the footage clearly shows his reg)?

I had one like that a few days ago, phone up against the middle of the steering wheel, tailgating me on the outside lane at a good 70MPH! (and they weren't trying to get past me either - I moved over at the first opportunity and they just followed me matching speed :( ).

I think some of these people are so living in a bubble of their own world they'd be in for a rude awakening if/when something happened.
 
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I’m drawn back to this thread after spending last week in Corfu, Greece.

Basically one very hair raising experience in that paragon of power and speed… a Citroen C3 hire car…

Their speed wasn’t necessary the major issues it was the complete lack of driver ability and awareness of any kind of rules of the road, pedestrian crossings? I was advised by the hire company to not stop at them for risk of being rear ended, indeed this happened as my fiancée and I were crossing at one, a car stopped to let us cross which was rear ended by a van and the stopped car was nearly shunted into us!

Traffic lights, optional it seemed if you obeyed them or not, perhaps a high degree of colour blindness amongst Greek drivers?

Generally the speeds there were low, you rarely got above 90 Km/h anywhere on the island, the roads frankly didn’t encourage any more regardless.

That said, as I instruct the newly passed drivers I take out on “re-training” as part of my job, the one thing I drum into them is the faster you go, the quicker things can go wrong and the greater the speed the worse the outcome- it’s undeniable ultimately.

Whilst accidents and incidents are not always a direct result of your speed, when speed is a factor the consequences are always worse the faster you are going….
 
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I’m drawn back to this thread after spending last week in Corfu, Greece.

Basically one very hair raising experience in that paragon of power and speed… a Citroen C3 hire car…

Their speed wasn’t necessary the major issues it was the complete lack of driver ability and awareness of any kind of rules of the road, pedestrian crossings? I was advised by the hire company to not stop at them for risk of being rear ended, indeed this happened as my fiancée and I were crossing at one, a car stopped to let us cross which was rear ended by a van and the stopped car was nearly shunted into us!

Traffic lights, optional it seemed if you obeyed them or not, perhaps a high degree of colour blindness amongst Greek drivers?

Generally the speeds there were low, you rarely got above 90 Km/h anywhere on the island, the roads frankly didn’t encourage any more regardless.

That said, as I instruct the newly passed drivers I take out on “re-training” as part of my job, the one thing I drum into them is the faster you go, the quicker things can go wrong and the greater the speed the worse the outcome- it’s undeniable ultimately.

Whilst accidents and incidents are not always a direct result of your speed, when speed is a factor the consequences are always worse the faster you are going….

Reminds me of when we went to Croatia. Locals seemed to have a habit of overtaking on blind bends on very narrow roads with 40m drops into the sea right next to them and no barriers!
 
not new, but. technological solution to the mobile distracted - eu mandated driver monitoring / telematics should provide an attitude adjustment - big brother

How Does the Smart Eye Driver Monitoring System Work?

Polestar's system comprises two closed-loop premium driver monitoring cameras and software from Gothenberg-based Smart Eye, which tracks the driver's head, eye, and facial movements. The system will intercede if the driver shows tiredness or lack of attention.
 
I drove from Derby to Brighton and back yesterday. Holy Moly!! The weather on the way home was terrible there was still folk absolutely caning it along in very bad visibility. It was actually quite scary and I was worried for my Daughter and I. Madness!
 
I drove from Derby to Brighton and back yesterday. Holy Moly!! The weather on the way home was terrible there was still folk absolutely caning it along in very bad visibility. It was actually quite scary and I was worried for my Daughter and I. Madness!
Whats caning it along in this context? 60mph? 70mph? more?
Just because it was bad for you and got you worried, does not mean everyone has that same feeling.
 
I drove from Derby to Brighton and back yesterday. Holy Moly!! The weather on the way home was terrible there was still folk absolutely caning it along in very bad visibility. It was actually quite scary and I was worried for my Daughter and I. Madness!

Depends on the conditions. Far too many pootle along. Just leave a bigger gap. It’s going to take a fair bit of standing water to get my car to aqua plane at legal speeds.

I’d worry more about drivers like those I encountered yesterday who dodge a puddle by moving into oncoming traffic.
 
Depends on the conditions. Far too many pootle along. Just leave a bigger gap. It’s going to take a fair bit of standing water to get my car to aqua plane at legal speeds.

I’d worry more about drivers like those I encountered yesterday who dodge a puddle by moving into oncoming traffic.


It was horrendous last night! I was hitting bit patches of water and there'd be a little wiggle at 55/60mph.

Wow! dodging puddles! :D It's funny when you see the folk in SUVs dodging small puddles....
 
It was horrendous last night! I was hitting bit patches of water and there'd be a little wiggle at 55/60mph.

Wow! dodging puddles! :D It's funny when you see the folk in SUVs dodging small puddles....

Problem nowadays is that a small puddle can easily be hiding a one foot deep pothole that will trash your tyre and rim even in an SUV as they all seem to come with 22" rims and low profile tyres nowadays. I wouldnt bother dodging in a proper SUV with 15" rims and proper tyres on.
 
Checked your tread and/or alignment? Cheaper tyres also can be a factor. Is your car really light?

In tyre tests even the best tyre with brand new tread starts aquaplaning at 56mph. part worn with 3.5mm tread and that drops to 46mph.
 
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Don't think I've ever felt anything at such low speeds.

e: granted, I drive to the conditions
 
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