Have you tried walking along a country lane in recent years? Also, due to excessive speed by others, the pleasure of driving in most situations is lost. I welcome any speed reductions, across the board. I shall not sign the petition.
Quite shocking to read that to be honest.
Im no speed racer of any sort, i never tailgate, or a lunatic or a pushy/angry driver, and i do keep to the speed limit - ready for when its possible that some kid or drunken fool stumbles out onto the road from a parked car blocking the view somewhat, and just all other typical run of the mill possible hazards. By keeping to the speed limit in such places, atleast if i do run someone over then i can think im within the law and its your own stupid fault, or your parents for letting you out onto the road, funny how people always blame the driver regardless isnt it? almost never the pedestrian, yeah... so drop the speed limit, while we're at it lets take all motors off the road and do the eco friendly thing and walk everywhere, like our grandparents had to.
Almost every where i drive now i always see atleast one of these type of drivers every couple of minutes:
- people pulling out of side roads, very slowly building up speed, to.. wait for it, 25mph! (or even 30mph sometimes which takes forever to get to) in a long and wide main 30mph limit road.
- people entering and exiting round abouts without direction indications
- pulling away slowly from traffic lights.
- cars parked on both sides of the street or staggered, if a fire engine had to get through...
- people driving in the middle lane of a motorway, no cars in the left lane for quite a distance.
- parking near schools entrance, parked cars every where, and they blame speed as the cause of accidents. Its parents too idle to park the car down the road which would also ease traffic congestion and would make the road more viewable for drivers driving down the road.
- people rushing over traffic lights when the other side is about to come to a stop, leaving a car or 2 either fully or partially blocking the other direction traffic.
- people parking on the road side outside their house, when they have an emptry driveway.
- slow moving traffic on the motorway, car infront builds up more speed than the car infront of him, results in him and atleast a few other cars behind him to break, which results in even slower moving traffic.
- and other things i cant think of right now.
Most drivers need to pay more attention, stop driving as if youre the only one on the road, help other drivers out alot more - 'plan ahead' instead of being a motorized lemming thats focused only on awareness of the road. Alot of drivers on the road would make drunken drivers look professional, they really would, big time.
Reading this, no doubt youd think im some sort of crazy driver. Im really not, im 28, never ever had a speeding ticket, i almost never get road rage, never pulls anyone up, keeps good/normal seperation distances, never pushes anyone to go, if i speed its usually like 40 in a 30, 50 in a 40, or a touch more if its a long wide road etc. Im no profesional driver either, im just quick off the ball i suppose, just feels that way when im following the drones of cars to work and back, bored out of my mind with my right arm resting on the door resting my head, thinking how slack and slow this world is.
Then i reads stuff like this, of how people are putting their foot down every where. Its the complete opposite from my experiance.. yet they want to drop the speed limit? seriously, get out and walk people. or use buses/trains, drop the limit anymore and the roads will become a cattle sheep market, peoples reaction timings will drop even more, then in 20 years time theyll drop the speed limit again.
Dont forget, those stopping distances in the highway code were made up decades ago. Now theres more widespread tarmac and other grainy surfaces on our roads, tyres have advanced a bit for more grip, brake pads all round, ABS. So if we need to drop the speed limit, it just shows how slow driving makes our reaction times drop.