Yes, but anyone could see the full context in all its glory in the post immediately above, and most who saw it would probably have by then read the whole thread and formed their own conclusions and opinion on the matter. As for "biased responses", well, which of us is not guilty of them from time to time?
Helmet debate... new twist
- Thread starter Beeping-Sleauty
- Start date
I do wish that were true Bode, but I know from responses that many clearly don't read through a long thread and just note the last few things said in isolation. That's why I was unhappy about the lack of context since it implied I was complacent about the risk of my having an accident, a travesty of the truth. It's precisely because I'm not that I've remained so safe to date.
We obviously have very different views on this issue, but since mine have served me so well for most of a long lifetime, I trust you'll forgive me for sticking with them. Changing them could only lead to no advantage or a worse outcome.
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We obviously have very different views on this issue, but since mine have served me so well for most of a long lifetime, I trust you'll forgive me for sticking with them. Changing them could only lead to no advantage or a worse outcome.
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I do agree with Flecc's post (#94) - it is the drivers on the motorway who drive like automatons (on the speed limit, indicating every lane change when there is nobody within caring distance) who are the real dangers. You just know that they are focussing on a spot 25 yards ahead and would plough into a stopped line of traffic at a perfectly legal 70 mph. Personally I find driving somewhat over the speed limit much safer - less chance of them catching and hitting me!
Yes, I'll forgive you, so long as I don't encounter you coming in the opposite direction at twice the speed limit.
"On the contrary, illegality of drugs fuels crime. Make them legal and society benefits; the users may be damaged but that is their responsibility. If you really want to protect society as a whole then alcohol and tobacco should also be prohibited. Tobacco kills more people than all other drugs, legal and illegal, put together."
I agree BarryHeaven - but those who argue for prohibition don't take this second order argument into account - the reason prohibition is imposed is on arguments on the breakdown of society (too many drunks, stoners) - the fact that this can actually be a consequence of prohibition is forgotten or missed. I am not sure where you end up on prohibition, though, because your first sentence (with which I agree) conflicts with your third (with which I do not agree).
I agree BarryHeaven - but those who argue for prohibition don't take this second order argument into account - the reason prohibition is imposed is on arguments on the breakdown of society (too many drunks, stoners) - the fact that this can actually be a consequence of prohibition is forgotten or missed. I am not sure where you end up on prohibition, though, because your first sentence (with which I agree) conflicts with your third (with which I do not agree).
. Don't worry, twice the speed limit would never happen. Remember I said I use the law for guidance, and that clearly wouldn't be doing anything of the sort.I think it's fair to say that many local speed limits are set by the authorities veering on the safe side. One example is the disappearing 50 limit. When it's determined that 60 mph is too fast for a particular section, these days it is invariably dropped to 40 mph, a huge reduction and 50 never even considered. This is so widespread and the 50 limit becoming so rare that it can only be because of an arbitrary government decision, of necessity having no regard to local circumstances and therefore irrational.
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Indeed, and this is a major contributor to my avoiding accidents so successfully. Driving at the legal limit in company with everyone else doing that greatly multiplies the opportunities for collisions.
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I agree with Flecc about the speed limit issue. There are nearly always wrong and they just encourage the twits to drive at just below the limit, regardless of the conditions. For example how can my road (residential and not enough room for two cars to pass plus it has a blind bend) and the Embankment (three lanes and effectively a dual carriageway) both be 30?
In fact crashes are common outside my front door due to excessive speed - the couple opposite have had to have their front wall re-built after one off. You can guess what the last driver who crashed said ..."I wasn't speeding I was doing less than 30"... honestly you can't make it up.
PS is anybody else annoyed by the use of the word 'speeding'? Speeding is driving too fast for the conditions and has nothing to do with obeying or breaking the speed limit.
In fact crashes are common outside my front door due to excessive speed - the couple opposite have had to have their front wall re-built after one off. You can guess what the last driver who crashed said ..."I wasn't speeding I was doing less than 30"... honestly you can't make it up.
PS is anybody else annoyed by the use of the word 'speeding'? Speeding is driving too fast for the conditions and has nothing to do with obeying or breaking the speed limit.
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It is inappropriate and does irritate me as well. I think it's used wrongly through it being a one word convenience, the alternatives like "exceeding the speed limit" being long winded. It doesn't help when the authorities also use it.
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Probably - it's a familiar course to those who have been around a while - but, like a rerun of the Italian Job, it remains entertaining while being comfortingly familiar.
I choose not to wear a helmet...
Before this thread peters out and while on the subject of road speeds, am I alone in wondering where the pseudo 40 mph speed limit came from? Or is this a phenomenon that only affects me?
It's that default speed that people seem to do these days regardless of the limits set for the road.
I first noticed it around 2001 on a stretch of single carriageway that just about counts as 'not in a built up area' (though the street lights are likely close enough together for other bylaws to come into play - but that's another story). I used to be able to do 60 for most of its length, but then more and more often I would be behind someone doing 40. To the point where after a few years the majority of cars were doing 40. It seemed as though the speed limit had been changed without anyone telling me. Oddly enough more of the road is now a 40 limit (this was changed a year or two ago). As if to rub salt into the wounds most drivers get to the 40mph and speed up! Its like most people see the National Speed limit sign and are confused so default to 40mph. But when they know what speed they are allowed to do they feel confident that they can break the law! Weird...
So is it just me?
Before this thread peters out and while on the subject of road speeds, am I alone in wondering where the pseudo 40 mph speed limit came from? Or is this a phenomenon that only affects me?
It's that default speed that people seem to do these days regardless of the limits set for the road.
I first noticed it around 2001 on a stretch of single carriageway that just about counts as 'not in a built up area' (though the street lights are likely close enough together for other bylaws to come into play - but that's another story). I used to be able to do 60 for most of its length, but then more and more often I would be behind someone doing 40. To the point where after a few years the majority of cars were doing 40. It seemed as though the speed limit had been changed without anyone telling me. Oddly enough more of the road is now a 40 limit (this was changed a year or two ago). As if to rub salt into the wounds most drivers get to the 40mph and speed up! Its like most people see the National Speed limit sign and are confused so default to 40mph. But when they know what speed they are allowed to do they feel confident that they can break the law! Weird...
So is it just me?
No it's not just you, 40 mph seems to be increasingly a standard speed everywhere now, very irritating on the open road where much faster is safe. I know why this has happened in the South East where I live, it's because the very high frequency of coming into 40 limits has left drivers not bothering to change their speed, just sticking to it all the time. Due south of London down to and right across the Ashdown Forest is mostly 40 limit now, motorways excepted, so the drivers have a point since the few 60 limit areas and the vanishing 50 limit areas are almost too brief to bother with gaining speed.
This is why I sold my last motorbike after a lifetime of riding them, not enough legally faster road left to enjoy it.
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This is why I sold my last motorbike after a lifetime of riding them, not enough legally faster road left to enjoy it.
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It's not just you, acording to a BBC News item I read a couple of weeks ago it's called the anchoring effect, some scientists did an experiment in which they found that if a credit card bill for £435 had a 2% minimun payment then people payed back 70% less than if there was no minimum payment (£99 instead of £177).
BBC NEWS | Business | Can credit cards mess with your mind?
It's also something I noticed when I used to busk (a decade or so ago), people would put a lot less money in the hat if they could see copper coins in their, I always made sure that it was all silver with a pound coin or two.
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