Do you rigidly stick to speed limits 100% of the time?

[misterbarlow]

Do you speed? Even marginally! Even if its like 1am?
Creep up to 33 or 35 in a 30 if its late, nudge up to 75/80 on the mway if its quiet and the weather is good?
I am sure almost everyone does or has done at some point!

I admit to mainly driving more within the conditions of the road and paying little attention to my actual speed.
Dont get me wrong I dont excessively speed, I am not a nutter behind the wheel, but would often creep up to 5 or even 10mph over any given limit at times if I thought it was safeat the time (and if it was also keeping up with the flow of traffic), I regularly do 80 on the mway when in my own car!
Its seen as a given right once you pass your test, that YOU are in charge of your car and you must take the consequences of your driving, if you choose to speed, you have to deal with it!

I have been driving like this for 19years and have had in that time one accident, have now 11years without claiming, and never been given any points or fines for anything! I do about 10k a year in my own car and approx 20k in company van)

I work for a large national utility with a fleet of approx 5,000 vans!
Every 3 months they want to see your licence to check for any points accrued privately!
Every year someone from the H&S team comes out to assess EVERYONES driving for two hours and they treat it like a driving test, they pick holes in everything, speeding, not holding hands at ten to two, not checking your mirrors enough, the works, and if you fail it, they review or can revoke your 'permit to drive company vehicles'!

Now this month they have 'forced' us to all have a tomtom link 300 installed in every van, and have stated its only for safety reasons, due to the number of avoidable accidents in the past few years and they have told us they expect everyone to rigidly stick to speed limits 100% of the time, and that the data will be checked by local management, and anyone found speeding AT ALL, will face disciplinary action, possibly losing your permit to drive, or even get a verbal or written warning on file.

OK so I know it is the speed limit, and its there for a reason, and its the law, etc, etc, we all kow the morality of it, but who can honestly say they have NEVER EVER gone over the limit?? Maybe 1% of drivers!

In work we are all united in the belief that its the government/police/council/DSA/highways agency, whoever you pick, that are responsible for enforcing that drivers stick to speed limits, and it is NOT up a private sector company to do this!
It might be their van, but at the end of the day its my licence!

They now have us all so paranoid, we are all trundling along at under the limit, having cars riding up your backside in 30zones, flashing lights etc and cursing you!
Remember how frustrated anyone gets when they come up behind a learner crawling along. Well now thats me, all day every day, I am finding myself staring down at my dash like every other second to check my speed, and suddenly panic if I see it on 32, and its completely taken my concentration off the road and my hazard perception, and I am focused 100% on my speed!

I drove my own car yesterday for the first time since having mine fitted, and found myself crawling along a busy A road with a 50 limit, doing 40 and worrying about my speed!

Some would say this is a good thing, but in a recent depot meeting we (approx 75 people) all think its completely wrong for them to put this on us, but I probably leaving myself open for a flaming, but I would like to get some impartial opinions on it from you guys!

thanks!

[MaFt]

if it's for work, and you get paid by the hour, isn't it better to drive slowly?!

MaFt

[Duddy]

I like the vote (I noticed Iwas 2nd to vote giving it a 50% spread) but I think there should be another choice "I speed some of the time" i.e. more than "occasionally creeping over" but less than "most of the time"
_________________
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RoadHawk in-car video
Reading glasses getting thicker as is my waist
Retired but want to go back to work for a rest.

[mostdom]

I agree with duddy as there arn't enough options. I am fairly ridged in sticking to the speed limit but I'm no saint.

I think I also need to point out the variance in gps and tacho speed measurement. It is widely considered the gps measurement is more accurate than that shown on your vehicles dashboard so that when you are traveling at 50mph your gps will most likely be showing only about 47mph. This will then give you that piece of mind you are looking for.
_________________
Dom

HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot

[MaFt]

on a slightly more realistic / serious note than my earlier post!

quick question to possibly put your mind at ease:

they may be able to see what your current speed is but do they have a list of every single road speed limit for the entire country? i would assume that with the amount of work that would be involved in logging and checking all these records that it would most likely be more of a 'simple' test for speeding. eg if you speed ever goes over a 75mph threshold, or if your speed is over 45mph in a built up area then it is clear you were speeding. i highly doubt they would go to the hassle of saying "hey look, driver z just hit 31mph - let's go have a drive to see what the speed limit is on that road"... 45 minutes later ..."damn... that was a waste of time wasn't it? who would have thought there are roads with 40mph limits".



anyway, just my thoughts! basically the shear amount of work involved getting people to check drivers speeds against the actual road speed is a HUGE task. even if they 'simplified' it by using teleatlas's or navteq's road speed data then they would still need to physically check the road as at times the map's speed data is laughably wrong or just simply missing.

MaFt

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