Me being a bright spark I though in the dark at 23:30 at night the average speed camera on telegraph hill would not be able to get me as there is not enough light....... wrong.. Hence got an invite to a speed awareness course.
And yes they said the line that i hate more then anything else which is "Speed Kills" after they had shown us a solum video about 1 mph making a massive difference in stopping distances and you could be killing a child.
Now don't get me wrong I get the concept and much prefer that they educate rather then just throw points at people so welcome the different approach. but got talking to the trainer as was concerned they were just showing the physics after somebody hits the brake pedal and was not discussing the time taken from something happening on the road that should require a reaction to the time that a driver actually makes a rection and some vey interesting information started to immerge that i would like to share with you...
Number 1 cause of accidents = Tiredness
Number 2 cause of accidents = Lack of awareness / driver being distracted
Number 3 cause of accident = excessive speed for the situation.
Also 93% of accident in 2022 were deemed as being avoidable accidents and were deemed as driver / rider error
So if my math is right then a trainer of a speed awareness course just told me that speed is 3rd reason for an accident and only accounts for 7% of accidents on our roads.
On challenging him with this information one on one he highlighted that speed can be measured and more easily captured where as awareness has to be seen and acted on by officers which is more difficult and that is why speed awareness courses also focus some of the training on road awareness and highlight the importance of should you get behind a wheel.
Also another interesting comment is that speed limits on our roads are decided based on national and regional information taken for the accidents that happen on that type of road. This is why we have 40 or 50 mph. This also explains why a single track b road with your car wing mirrors touch on either side is a 60mph as there is not enough accidents on these roads to result in the speed limit needing to be lowered. Hence this is also why we have so many roads in Devon that are deemed as A roads but are also deemed as Rural and why we get to keep them at 60mph.
One thing I did take away from the course and really actually made me think... was how much time do you actually save by going faster and exceeding the speed limits. If your talking a journey of 10 / 20 minutes your talking seconds, minutes at best. if your talking hundreds of miles then might just be able to save 15 minutes if your lucky and really push it. But in a situation where your in one of those car things and you just need to get from A to B and know your never going to get any enjoyment out of driving then may as well just do the speed limits.
If i want to actually enjoy a motorised vehicle will be turning (as i already do) to my motorbike where you can really enjoy great roads, with no traffic, no houses, no paths, no school and nothing but fields as far as the eye can see and open winding roads.
Or even better book another track day
Hope you found this of interest
)
