Speed Limits

Speed Cameras Become Counter-Productive
Speed Limit Increases

The attitude that no speed camera means no speed restriction has surpassed the lethal. Clearly, a conventional sign means nothing to many.

• If there is no sign to indicate speed then this means 30mph. If there is a limit of 40mph or 50mph then such speed will be explicitly displayed. A declassified stretch of road will be either 60mph if single carriageway or 70mph if a dual carriageway or motorway. No sign defaults to 30mph. The MAXIMUM speed on British roads is 70mph. Simple.

Some drivers are possibly deluded by believing that since the car can go faster they are allowed to drive faster. Or probably just don't care. No camera and the chances of being caught are very, very low. The attitude of the gambler playing the odds. It has nothing to do with personal responsibility or self-control, but simply what can be got away with.

• A car capable of high speed (not the driver - DA) is never sold with the brain that ought to go with it. But like many things in life, people often live outside the limits of their ability (and finances - DA). Try swimming in water at depth by holding a single breath. A trained free-diver will know their limit or death will quickly follow. An untrained diver would drown. Experience can be critical.

If there is no camera then it seems to be a case of:

'my time is more important that yours and
speed restrictions don't apply to me.

I will do as I please and sod everybody else'

Local knowledge also enables sudden (dangerous - DA) slowing or last minute identification of a bright-yellow camera (if not highly visible this can bizarrely be interpreted as entrapment - DA). Pathetic. And the law allows it. Even more pathetic. The rights of the 'speeder' appear to exceed those of the safe driver (staying legal seems perversely to be regarded as the attitude of a 'loser' - DA).

Those who drive fast may believe they can do as they please (they are the 'good drivers'), but such 'good drivers' have NO AWARENESS OR CONCERN for the hazards around them. The attitude of the moron. They also believe that they can stop quickly enough. Complete delusion. Also it makes no allowance for the fact that not everyone can react as quickly. Someone driving within their own limitations and at the limit of speed or slower.

• A large and heavy car driven at speed will take longer to stop even if reaction speed is fast. It can never be fast enough.

Of those who ride powerful motorcycles, many (probably the majority by far - DA) seem to imagine themselves excluded from laws that apply to everyone else. As an estimate of all RTA (road traffic accident), bikers amount to just 1% of road users, but account for 25% of those killed.


A speed limit declares the maximum speed permissible and not necessarily the safe speed that depends on the conditions at the time. An experienced driver does not even need to consider the argument. Experience is unconscious. The inexperienced driver has no such knowledge. Or conscience.