Ireland's Lower Speed Limits

Richard Goodman

njf>badger< wrote:

>
> Richard Bates wrote:
>
>> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
>> limit signs to Km/h.
>> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
>> often.
>>
>> Excellent, I say.
>
>
> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is
> bad enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the road
> is bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which scale
> on a speedo as well, means more time to miss and register someone else
> on the road.

Nah, that's part of the so-called 'safespeed' perpetual argument against
speed cameras, and it's a lot of tosh. As someone else said, the only
significant change is the one from 60mph to 80kph. Anyone who is
capable of receiving clue should quickly be able to adjust. It
shouldn't take more than one or two glances at the speedo at first
encounter with the 80kph limit to determine what it 'looks like' as you
pass through your surroundings. After that you look at your
surroundings and drive by 'feel'. I drove my last car for about three
years without any speedo at all as it was broken when I bought it, and
never got a ticket, nor held anyone up worrying about whether I might
not be going over, including occasionally driving past the inevitable
speed cameras. It's not difficult to get a 'feel' for speed and take
your clues from the surroundings.

Rich

Richard Goodman

njf>badger< wrote:

>
> Richard Bates wrote:
>
>> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
>> limit signs to Km/h.
>> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
>> often.
>>
>> Excellent, I say.
>
>
> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is
> bad enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the road
> is bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which scale
> on a speedo as well, means more time to miss and register someone else
> on the road.

Nah, that's part of the so-called 'safespeed' perpetual argument against
speed cameras, and it's a lot of tosh. As someone else said, the only
significant change is the one from 60mph to 80kph. Anyone who is
capable of receiving clue should quickly be able to adjust. It
shouldn't take more than one or two glances at the speedo at first
encounter with the 80kph limit to determine what it 'looks like' as you
pass through your surroundings. After that you look at your
surroundings and drive by 'feel'. I drove my last car for about three
years without any speedo at all as it was broken when I bought it, and
never got a ticket, nor held anyone up worrying about whether I might
not be going over, including occasionally driving past the inevitable
speed cameras. It's not difficult to get a 'feel' for speed and take
your clues from the surroundings.

Rich

Richard Goodman

njf>badger< wrote:

>
> Richard Bates wrote:
>
>> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
>> limit signs to Km/h.
>> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
>> often.
>>
>> Excellent, I say.
>
>
> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is
> bad enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the road
> is bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which scale
> on a speedo as well, means more time to miss and register someone else
> on the road.

Nah, that's part of the so-called 'safespeed' perpetual argument against
speed cameras, and it's a lot of tosh. As someone else said, the only
significant change is the one from 60mph to 80kph. Anyone who is
capable of receiving clue should quickly be able to adjust. It
shouldn't take more than one or two glances at the speedo at first
encounter with the 80kph limit to determine what it 'looks like' as you
pass through your surroundings. After that you look at your
surroundings and drive by 'feel'. I drove my last car for about three
years without any speedo at all as it was broken when I bought it, and
never got a ticket, nor held anyone up worrying about whether I might
not be going over, including occasionally driving past the inevitable
speed cameras. It's not difficult to get a 'feel' for speed and take
your clues from the surroundings.

Rich

Ambrose Nankivell

> Richard Bates wrote:
>
>> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
>> limit signs to Km/h.
>>
>> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
>> often.
>>
>> Excellent, I say.
>
> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is
> bad enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the
> road is bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which
> scale on a speedo as well, means more time to miss and register
> someone else on the road.

Of course, this is in a country were speed cameras are very rare, penalty
points less than 2 years old, and you only get two points out of twelve for
drink driving.

So there's not a huge worry in drivers about being caught speeding.

A

Ambrose Nankivell

> Richard Bates wrote:
>
>> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
>> limit signs to Km/h.
>>
>> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
>> often.
>>
>> Excellent, I say.
>
> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is
> bad enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the
> road is bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which
> scale on a speedo as well, means more time to miss and register
> someone else on the road.

Of course, this is in a country were speed cameras are very rare, penalty
points less than 2 years old, and you only get two points out of twelve for
drink driving.

So there's not a huge worry in drivers about being caught speeding.

A

Ambrose Nankivell

> Richard Bates wrote:
>
>> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
>> limit signs to Km/h.
>>
>> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
>> often.
>>
>> Excellent, I say.
>
> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is
> bad enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the
> road is bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which
> scale on a speedo as well, means more time to miss and register
> someone else on the road.

Of course, this is in a country were speed cameras are very rare, penalty
points less than 2 years old, and you only get two points out of twelve for
drink driving.

So there's not a huge worry in drivers about being caught speeding.

A

Ambrose Nankivell

> Richard Bates wrote:
>
>> Heard on Radio Four this moring that ROI has now converted all speed
>> limit signs to Km/h.
>>
>> He also said that drivers would need to look at the speedometer more
>> often.
>>
>> Excellent, I say.
>
> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
> the speed against the new limits whilst driving. Driver awareness is
> bad enough at the best of times, but each look down away from the
> road is bad enough, let alone trying to work out which point on which
> scale on a speedo as well, means more time to miss and register
> someone else on the road.

Of course, this is in a country were speed cameras are very rare, penalty
points less than 2 years old, and you only get two points out of twelve for
drink driving.

So there's not a huge worry in drivers about being caught speeding.

A

njf>badger

Peter Clinch wrote:
> njf>badger< wrote:
>
>> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
>> the speed against the new limits whilst driving.
>
>
> This wouldn't be a problem if more people didn't regard limits as
> targets to sit at...
True, but then going just gets in the way of the buses/trucks trying to
keep to timetable/make a living....

> As it is, in the longer term the speeds should (/if/ enforced) come
> down, plus it possibly brings forward the day when Britain joins the
> rest of the civilized world in having a single measurement system in use.
>
> Pete.
Do I detect an old alliance connection here?

Niel ;-)

njf>badger

Peter Clinch wrote:
> njf>badger< wrote:
>
>> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
>> the speed against the new limits whilst driving.
>
>
> This wouldn't be a problem if more people didn't regard limits as
> targets to sit at...
True, but then going just gets in the way of the buses/trucks trying to
keep to timetable/make a living....

> As it is, in the longer term the speeds should (/if/ enforced) come
> down, plus it possibly brings forward the day when Britain joins the
> rest of the civilized world in having a single measurement system in use.
>
> Pete.
Do I detect an old alliance connection here?

Niel ;-)

njf>badger

Peter Clinch wrote:
> njf>badger< wrote:
>
>> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
>> the speed against the new limits whilst driving.
>
>
> This wouldn't be a problem if more people didn't regard limits as
> targets to sit at...
True, but then going just gets in the way of the buses/trucks trying to
keep to timetable/make a living....

> As it is, in the longer term the speeds should (/if/ enforced) come
> down, plus it possibly brings forward the day when Britain joins the
> rest of the civilized world in having a single measurement system in use.
>
> Pete.
Do I detect an old alliance connection here?

Niel ;-)

njf>badger

Peter Clinch wrote:
> njf>badger< wrote:
>
>> Humm, a disaster more likely, looking at a speedo and trying to check
>> the speed against the new limits whilst driving.
>
>
> This wouldn't be a problem if more people didn't regard limits as
> targets to sit at...
True, but then going just gets in the way of the buses/trucks trying to
keep to timetable/make a living....

> As it is, in the longer term the speeds should (/if/ enforced) come
> down, plus it possibly brings forward the day when Britain joins the
> rest of the civilized world in having a single measurement system in use.
>
> Pete.
Do I detect an old alliance connection here?

Niel ;-)

Tony Raven

Scrumpy Joe wrote:
>
> And most people know that the roads they travel on can be travelled faster
> than the posted speed limit. Just because it's the posted limit it doesn't
> mean that it suddenly becomes dangerous at 10 mph more. As far as speed
> limits being seen as a target go; I never came across a driving instructor
> that didn't expect you to hit that 'target' in as short a time as possible.

I don't know about now but many moons ago when I took my test you could
fail for going too slowly. Failing to make adequate progress I think
they called it.

Tony

Tony Raven

Scrumpy Joe wrote:
>
> And most people know that the roads they travel on can be travelled faster
> than the posted speed limit. Just because it's the posted limit it doesn't
> mean that it suddenly becomes dangerous at 10 mph more. As far as speed
> limits being seen as a target go; I never came across a driving instructor
> that didn't expect you to hit that 'target' in as short a time as possible.

I don't know about now but many moons ago when I took my test you could
fail for going too slowly. Failing to make adequate progress I think
they called it.

Tony

Richard Bates

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 20:41:57 +0000, Scrumpy Joe <spamcop@spamcop.net>
wrote:

>And most people know that the roads they travel on can be travelled faster
>than the posted speed limit. Just because it's the posted limit it doesn't
>mean that it suddenly becomes dangerous at 10 mph more.

Correct - it becomes logarithmically more dangerous as you approach 10
mph more.


--
Amazon: "If you are interested in 'Asimov's I-Robot',
you may also be interested in 'Garfield - The Movie'.
... erm, how do they figure that one out?