Speed Limiters

[fossyant]

Speeding hasn't ever injured me on the bike, it's lack of drivers actually looking, even at slow speed - how do we fix that ? My injuries have been caused at much less than the speed limit.

 

[Globalti]

Until cars are actually limited, maybe a good interim step would be for them to be compulsorily fitted with an illuminated sign on the roof, which flashes the word "COCK" when the driver speeds or accelerates violently.

 

[Edwardoka]

Until cars are actually limited, maybe a good interim step would be for them to be compulsorily fitted with an illuminated sign on the roof, which flashes the word "COCK" when the driver speeds or accelerates violently.

Some of them come fitted with such a device already

Spoiler

 

[Spiderweb]

My car already has the limiter, you can turn it on and off, the car is a year old, I’ve never used it.
It works in conjunction with the traffic sign recognition system and not GPS.

 

[Milkfloat]

I work a lot with the sensor data from multiple car manufacturers, trust me the technology is not ready yet for prime time.

 

[slowwww]

A friend of mine is a paramedic, sometimes working on ambulances, and I spoke to him about this last night.

Interestingly, he advised that while excessive speed was sometimes a factor in a number of the road traffic accidents that he is called to, he is not in favour of speed limiters. He cites many instances where they have come up behind cars traveling on single carriageways, where the driver panics and slams on their brakes as soon as they notice the 'blues and twos' behind them, and if there is solid traffic coming in the other direction, this means immediate gridlock.

His advice is that in these instances the driver should always accelerate to find the next available place to pull in and let the Ambulance (or Police car/Fire Engine) pass. He is not saying that they should do so recklessly (he's not trying to drum up more work for them!) but if they can safely exceed the speed limit to prevent further delays in the Ambulance getting to the patient, then there is an element of greater good at play.

Indeed, as you would expect, he is attuned to such instances, and found himself in a similar situation when driving his un-marked personal car when a police car came up rapidly behind him. The traffic in the other direction was almost stationary, and so he accelerated up to just over 60mph (the speed limit being 50) and then pulled into a layby 1/4 mile ahead to let the police car past. As they passed, the police officer in the passenger seat gave him a thumbs-up.

Of course I am not advocating carte-blanche to speed in the event of an emergency vehicle approaching from behind, but in the above instances a speed limiter could result in delays that could have harmful effects on patients/victims.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A friend of mine is a paramedic, sometimes working on ambulances, and I spoke to him about this last night.

Interestingly, he advised that while excessive speed was sometimes a factor in a number of the road traffic accidents that he is called to, he is not in favour of speed limiters. He cites many instances where they have come up behind cars traveling on single carriageways, where the driver panics and slams on their brakes as soon as they notice the 'blues and twos' behind them, and if there is solid traffic coming in the other direction, this means immediate gridlock.

His advice is that in these instances the driver should always accelerate to find the next available place to pull in and let the Ambulance (or Police car/Fire Engine) pass. He is not saying that they should do so recklessly (he's not trying to drum up more work for them!) but if they can safely exceed the speed limit to prevent further delays in the Ambulance getting to the patient, then there is an element of greater good at play.

Indeed, as you would expect, he is attuned to such instances, and found himself in a similar situation when driving his un-marked personal car when a police car came up rapidly behind him. The traffic in the other direction was almost stationary, and so he accelerated up to just over 60mph (the speed limit being 50) and then pulled into a layby 1/4 mile ahead to let the police car past. As they passed, the police officer in the passenger seat gave him a thumbs-up.

Of course I am not advocating carte-blanche to speed in the event of an emergency vehicle approaching from behind, but in the above instances a speed limiter could result in delays that could have harmful effects on patients/victims.

To travel 400m at 50mph takes 18 seconds, to do that at 60 mph takes 15 seconds. No need to break the law for 3 seconds.

 

[Freds Dad]

Although limiting the speed of vehicles it will not remove the twattish way that some are driven including middle lane hogging, cutting from lane 3 to lane 1 as they nearly missed their exit and not indicating when changing lanes.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It is a good idea. The more barriers we can put in the way of people thinking it is fun to drive the less they will unnecessarily use cars for journeys. The less cars on the roads at any one time the better.

 

[Edwardoka]

A friend of mine is a paramedic, sometimes working on ambulances, and I spoke to him about this last night.

Interestingly, he advised that while excessive speed was sometimes a factor in a number of the road traffic accidents that he is called to, he is not in favour of speed limiters. He cites many instances where they have come up behind cars traveling on single carriageways, where the driver panics and slams on their brakes as soon as they notice the 'blues and twos' behind them, and if there is solid traffic coming in the other direction, this means immediate gridlock.

His advice is that in these instances the driver should always accelerate to find the next available place to pull in and let the Ambulance (or Police car/Fire Engine) pass. He is not saying that they should do so recklessly (he's not trying to drum up more work for them!) but if they can safely exceed the speed limit to prevent further delays in the Ambulance getting to the patient, then there is an element of greater good at play.

Indeed, as you would expect, he is attuned to such instances, and found himself in a similar situation when driving his un-marked personal car when a police car came up rapidly behind him. The traffic in the other direction was almost stationary, and so he accelerated up to just over 60mph (the speed limit being 50) and then pulled into a layby 1/4 mile ahead to let the police car past. As they passed, the police officer in the passenger seat gave him a thumbs-up.

Of course I am not advocating carte-blanche to speed in the event of an emergency vehicle approaching from behind, but in the above instances a speed limiter could result in delays that could have harmful effects on patients/victims.

My understanding is that the system is designed with a manual override to allow for situations such as that which you described.
I'm at least as interested in the black box telemetry as I am in the limiters. Should make for interesting evidence collection - maybe it will encourage thorough investigation after RTCs instead of what appears to be the default of taking drivers at their word...

 

[Crackle]

It's the Black Box which should focus peoples minds. If insurance companies are going to look at them in the event of an accident you'd better hope you were driving correctly. As someone who's been driving a black box car for the last two years and am about to do a third, I don't like them. I mean that they're manageable etc... but there are occasions when rigidly sticking to the speed limit, does limit your response to a situation or on an unknown road you do spend time looking for the limit signs as not every road is well signed. They also don't know why you've braked hard or accelerated hard and yet you are penalised for that and they don't take account of poor road positioning, pulling out on people, tailgating, plus all the other bad habits you can have whilst still sticking to the speed limit, so I'm not convinced. Oh and score still 90 on my policy with three of us driving after two years.

 

[nickyboy]

It's interesting that some folk cite the 0.1% of the time when maybe being able to exceed the speed limit may be helpful as a reason not to have speed limiters. Ignoring the 99.9% of the time when it would, potentially, save lives

Most recent statistics show 14% of all road fatalities in UK had exceeding the speed limit as a contributory factor. That's 250 people, dead

 

[Levo-Lon]

And then you have to factor in the thousands and thousands of illegal drivers who know they will get away with it for ages.. what if the fine was small and meaningless for breaking the law. Oh hang on it already is..

More people will just ignore and drive illegally , more crime less police , I can't see any problems.

The news item last night for instance.
Three men in a golf being pursued by police,nearly kill a 14 yr old,ruined his life, driver gets 16 MTHS..he should have got 15yrs for atempted murder.

Law needs sorting befor we worry about a car going 35 in a 30

 

[Sharky]

I was a little concerned to read the Head of the AA commenting that "a little speed is sometimes useful such as overtaking or filtering onto motorways"

I interpret that as being speeding is ok in those circumstances which continues to peddle the narrative that sometimes faster is safer than slower. I remember lorry and bus drivers saying exactly the same thing when speed limiters were introduced for them

I would agree. You only need the extra speed to filter into traffic which is already exceeding the speed limits.

The only times I can think of when speeding is possibly excusable is when an accident has happened or is likely to happen and you quickly need to get out of the way. I had a situation when a huge lorry changed lanes and clipped the side of my car. I was quick to push the accelerator to the floor to get out of the way.

 

[Globalti]

HGV drivers are already regulated by the tachometer, which records their driving. I bet the technology for a black box in cars wouldn't cost very much; it could be GPS enabled with an accelerometer and record, say, one week of driving. Investigators could simply plug in a tablet like the ones used by garage mechanics and see everything the driver has done.