How to reduce road deaths!?

Berger · 12 Jun 2006 at 00:41

Remove speed limits completely, all the idiots will be dead in 4 years, problem solved...

Remove tongue from cheak, its never going to happen they have targets for everything. What they will do is stick masses more cameras up and sit back as it racks in money then spin some statistics up to show that 1 duck has been saved per year due to it being built.

Make the test down to 8 minors or something and retest people every few years, but obviously anyone can drive like a robot and jump through the hoops for 35 minutes (its what the whole education system is based on :rolleyes:

). I cant see any sensible viable alternatives though.

Chris1712 · 12 Jun 2006 at 00:43

I think increased training is definetely where its at, anticipation awareness and space control are where people need help, and lane discipline to!

The amount of people that still come to a halt or near enough at junctions/roundabouts with probably 200m or more visibility beforehand is staggering, it really grinds my gears. People who don't actually realise what give way lines are aswell!

Dup · 12 Jun 2006 at 00:44

Ex-RoNiN said:
So (much) better driver training seems to be the overwhelming answer, hmm.

Someone mentioned psychological tests - why? What would they achieve? Elimination of road rage? Of speeders? Of aggressive drivers?

What improvements/changes to the current method of educating drivers would you suggest?

Real life hazzard perception whilst riding a 250cc or so motorbike to be honest. The best thing I ever did was get a bike for 2 years before a car. You grow up very fast when you have your heart in your mouth after a few first moments. You learn to be the bait rather than the predator and learn to avoid accidents before they even develop.

The worst thing about driving today is most accidents are casued by kids and their mates whose sole perpose of getting a car is to look cool. They have no care in the world about what happens when you do 90mph in a 30 apart from getting caught doing it by the police.

You should be assessed on your needs for a driving license in some ways, like you are a council house.

Stellios · 12 Jun 2006 at 00:46

Instead of just presenting new driviers with driving errors via the theory test, do a practical test like what they do on worlds worst driver. Reaction tests and car control in low grip situations. Would be a bit of fun and educational and would give a driver an insight into sharp manouvres before a serious incident presents them.

JRS · 12 Jun 2006 at 00:46

Chris1712 said:
I think increased training is definetely where its at, anticipation awareness and space control are where people need help, and lane discipline to!

Lane discipline seems to be a huge problem on some of the roads in or near Coventry. I've had several people nearly wipe out the Fiat now by drifting over into me because they weren't watching what was going on around them.

DaveyD · 12 Jun 2006 at 00:51

I'll echo the whole driver training and more training, as at the end of the day, most "accidents" as we call them, are errors of judgement. Only a few percent are actually down to actual mechanical failure and other unforseen freak events. Experience is the main big thing, lots of driving hours, minimum hours to be allowed on the road etc.

Driver awareness is the main thing that needs to be looked at, as a lot of drivers just do things without thinking about their relative speeds and what is around them. High speeds are perfectly fine when the conditions are okay for those speeds, but add a poor driver to high speeds, then the speed can become dangerous.

With regards to airbags, there's only so much they can really do, and they're only really fully effective if the driver is sitting in the right place, and not everybody drives in the opimum driving position, and often too far or too close to the steering wheel.

In my opinion, not everybody is fit for driving cars. Even with the best training in the world, some people really aren't meant to drive, but in todays system, the majority of people will get a licence with reasonable ease, and then thrown in the deep end and out on their own to drive, with nobody to tell them what they're doing wrong, until they cause themselves a lovely accident and do some damage. It's something Pass Plus should help with, but from what I've seen, it's just a waste of time, with some people I know just giving their instructors the money, and after one lesson, getting the certificate, and everybody is happy.

tom_nieto · 12 Jun 2006 at 00:58

A harder driving test might not necessarily solve the problems. I have found that driving experience counts for a hell of a lot in terms of awareness and road safety. Perhaps a minumum training period including motorway driving could be implemented. Or a compulsory pass plus scheme which limits you to a car type or insurance group before you're 21 or have completed the further testing. Similar perhaps to motorbikes. Road deaths can never be completely eliminated as people will still do stupid things on the roads.

To add another thing, what about a dual speed limit like in France where the limit is lowered in the wet.

Driver awareness has an enormous amount to do with accidents, people should perhaps have to ride a bicycle around a busy town centre to get an idea of how stupid some people can be. That has increased my awareness immensely since starting to drive.

Morba · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:00

first of all, they need to realise that a lot of deaths arent simply from speed and in quite a few cases deaths arent even a fault of the road users!

how many people jump off of bridges into oncoming traffic, or run across dual carriageways etc only to be hit by an oncoming car.

get some real stats then start thinking about what can actually be done to minimise deaths due to all reasons.

Stellios · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:02

tom_nieto said:
To add another thing, what about a dual speed limit like in France where the limit is lowered in the wet.

Its a good idea, but speed cameras would make a mint off it. One persons definition of wet is different to the next persons. Some would class a slight drop of rain as wet, but with others it takes a thunderstorm. If they were to do this they would have to implement matrix boards ro similar informing drivers of what state the road is classified as, and im sure peopel know how long matrix boards take to update

RiPz · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:08

Everyone should buy helicopters :>

On a serious note, totally agree with the less speed cameras, more police thing.. its easy for idiots to not get caught by speed cameras, it would be much harder for them to avoid getting caught if there's police everywhere... lets face it, an idiots luck will run out soon enough

sja360 · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:10

RiPz said:
Everyone should buy helicopters :>

On a serious note, totally agree with the less speed cameras, more police thing.. its easy for idiots to not get caught by speed cameras, it would be much harder for them to avoid getting caught if there's police everywhere... lets face it, an idiots luck will run out soon enough

its not even the fact that the police will need to be everywhere, they can go out at random times and spot check areas and road users wont have a clue when exactly the police may be there.
however i dont think that would happen ^^ the government are enjoying the speeding fine profits from motorists too much

RiPz · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:16

sja360 said:
the government are enjoying the speeding fine profits from motorists too much

Its a shame the government dont realise how these things work..

Yes, i'm sure they make a mint from cameras.. but ti costs them X amount to put one there and then even more to keep them operating

if they totally got rid of cameras, and employed more police.. there WOULD be less accidents, so they'd have to spend less repairing damaged armco, lamp posts, etc., they'd be more in profit.

Obviously that would take time, but eventually they'd be more in profit...

if you compare the driver training / speed camera situation in germany to ours, it puts ours to shame, quite considerably.. germans are trained so much better as drivers than we are (targeting young drivers more here - experience (good experience) is obviously better than training)

I think the regular retest thing would be a good idea.. though that wouldnt stop idiots.. they'd have to totally change the testing.. it's not nearly as true to life as it should be, nobody would drive like they normally do in a test.. they'd turn their good/bad driver on/off

Rich_L · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:25

I figure the reason tests aren't as hard as they could be is because it allows a greater proportion of the workforce the additional flexibility to do jobs which they otherwise wouldn't be able to do as they'd be stuck trying to (re)pass their test. The negativity of a few hundred road deaths a year is probably outweighed by the economical benefit of a flexible workforce.

Cyanide · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:34

Banning hgv's from overtaking would be a good start. The amount of times i've been stuck behind a pair of lorries because one's decided it can overtake the other when they should both be limited to 55mph... Being stuck behind a lorry or other slow moving vehicle is frustrating and only causes drivers to speed right up when the lorry finally moves back over.

Oblivious · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:40

Cyanide said:
Banning hgv's from overtaking would be a good start. The amount of times i've been stuck behind a pair of lorries because one's decided it can overtake the other when they should both be limited to 55mph... Being stuck behind a lorry or other slow moving vehicle is frustrating and only causes drivers to speed right up when the lorry finally moves back over.

Better driver education is the answer to that, stopping HGVs overtaking isnt a solution. There will be plenty of other things to cause other road users to get frustrated and perform dodgy impatient moves, its in the human nature.

sja360 · 12 Jun 2006 at 01:40

Cyanide said:
Banning hgv's from overtaking would be a good start. The amount of times i've been stuck behind a pair of lorries because one's decided it can overtake the other when they should both be limited to 55mph... Being stuck behind a lorry or other slow moving vehicle is frustrating and only causes drivers to speed right up when the lorry finally moves back over.

lol i've seen that before like a tesco's lorry trying to overtake a morrisons on a uphill climb lol its funny doesnt really cause problems as in accidents its more a nuisance as you cant get past till he's infront.

Sagalout · 12 Jun 2006 at 02:04

Instead of giving drivers a false sense of security with airbags and seatbelts, basically giving the impression its ok to crash, banish seatbelts and have a huge metal spike sticking out of the steering wheel.

That should focus your average disinterested car driver on actually paying atention to the road and their surroundings

....and I'm only half joking.

End of the day you've got often poorly trained and inexperienced humans controlling a ton of metal at high speed with no appreciation of the physics involved (partly due to PAS, assisted brakes CPU management etc). Accidents will happen. I dont think theres much more the government can or should do. At least theres plenty more important things for them to sort out first!

sja360 · 12 Jun 2006 at 02:31

Sagalout said:
Instead of giving drivers a false sense of security with airbags and seatbelts, basically giving the impression its ok to crash, banish seatbelts and have a huge metal spike sticking out of the steering wheel.

That should focus your average disinterested car driver on actually paying atention to the road and their surroundings

....and I'm only half joking.

End of the day you've got often poorly trained and inexperienced humans controlling a ton of metal at high speed with no appreciation of the physics involved (partly due to PAS, assisted brakes CPU management etc). Accidents will happen. I dont think theres much more the government can or should do. At least theres plenty more important things for them to sort out first!

i agree with the PAS and some other driving assistance, i'd have personally liked to have used a non-pas car so atleast then once you get a PAS one you know what it'll be like if you do get a non-PAS car.

Bear · 12 Jun 2006 at 07:07

Get police on a motorway and get them to revoke the licences of all the middle lane drivers, tail gaters and people that swerve in and out of the traffic. That should at least remove a large majority of the morons off the roads making it safer for the rest of us.