Posted By J Knight Here's a slight side issue, though I would like to say I agree about the averaging cameras, I think they're great and should be in every village in the country. But I have a feeling that a fairly big part of the problem with the widespread disregard for speed limits is taxis. When did you last take a taxi that didn't speed? The reason, of course, is that taxi drivers have a very strong incentive to complete their journey as quickly as possible. And I think that other drivers, seeing taxis doing 40 - 50 mph on urban roads on a Saturday night and getting away with it, must think, 'if they can, so can I'. Ive thought long and hard about how to slow taxis down, but short of either more traffic cops or some technological fix I can't actually think of any way of paying them which won't give them a very strong incentive to speed, John

Posted By Rob T Why not just buy one of those Speed Camera locators. You won't get caught then! I have driven and been driven in many countries, the worst being Peshawar in Pakistan (where you can never get above 20 mph and Lagos in Nigeria(where you're lucky to get to 15 mph) but in both places the accident rate is phenomenal. What on earth are we complaining about? It's not the speed that causes accidents it's the conditions and the driver. Some of the slowest drivers are the worst you'll ever come accross who have the mentality of "I'm driving slowly therefore I'm safe and everyone else can lump it" therefore causing stress to people in a hurry ("in a hurry" I didn't say speeding!). We have almost the best road accident statistics in the world and still maniacs like the Welsh Chief Constable (can't mention his name as I'll get sensored) who think their goal in life is to annoy people. I've only ever had 3 points and that was 12 years ago. I tend to drive carefully past schools or in built up areas, in the wet etc. but am happy to travel at 98 mph on a motorway in the right conditions, funnily enough never much more than that although the car will do 160. People have been talking about honesty on here - that survey that said 70% of people have broken the speed limit - nah - about 99.99% at some time. The rest were too busy crashing or causing people behind to want to overtake and causing them to crash. Bear in mind as well that people have been nicked for driving too slowly (particularly on motorways) as they have themselves become the hazard. Honestly, I think most drivers could be done for driving without due care and attention when they get to speed cameras as they're always looking down at the speedo. Drive carefully and for the conditions, that way you'll never cause an accident.

Posted By Sean Fraser Rob T, I was going to rise to your irresponsible statements until I realised you were just fishing. Good one. Still laughing.

Posted By J Knight Garry, If you did that, roads would pretty soon become the biggest cause of preventable death in the UK, John

Posted By J Knight True, from that point of view I often have similar ideas myself; problem is it seems you're not safe even in a Challenger any more, John

Posted By Rob T Hi John, I hope you're not advocating that kids should be playing on the street. This might have been OK 40 years ago in some places but that is just not viable nowadays. In the land of utopia I would not have any person allowed to cross a road and all crossings would be by footbridge however that's not likely at the moment. Roads are roads for vehicles and Not for people to walk on. If councils were so worried about pedestrians in the villages and country roads they would build pavements and make compulsory orders to take the land required - But, and you've guessed it, that doesn't make money and actually costs money. Speed cameras have a place in road safety but only at black spots and maybe outside schools. I know you like saying that the law say's etc. but we're getting close to the law telling us to do or not do everything. There comes a point when all decent people will actually rebel against this before the law rules our lives rather than enhances. The more law the less freedom! Cheers (and it's Friday). Rob

Posted By Sean Fraser Roads are for road users. Pedestrians can also be road users. Not all pedestrians are drivers, but every driver is a pedestrian. Everyone has a legal right to use the road, unless there are restrictions in place - obviously there is no place for pedestrians and cyclists on motorways. But everywhere else - they have every right to use the road. The only legal restriction is one where it is unlawful to block the Queen's highway. Because the results of a vehicle collision with a pedestrian means that in every case, the pedestrian will come off the worse then it is encumbant on the driver of the vehicle to take more care. Sailors know this rule - power gives way to sail. It is a shame there are drivers who cannot seem to understand this very basic principle. No doubt when they have their RTC it will be everyone elses fault, never theirs.

Posted By Rob T Not quite right John. Drivers pay for the roads through tax - everyone else is therefore a guest on our property!

Posted By Brett Day 'The biggest single cause of death and injury is excessive speed, with drink and drug driving and the failure to wear seatbelts continuing to be of concern.' (Modern Road Policing - A Manifesto for the Future - ACPO). Yes the old chesnut 'excessive speed' often used to justify speed enforcement. But what does it mean? Do we mean in excess of the speed limit? Do we mean within the posted limited BUT at a speed: inappropriate for the weather conditions (fog/Rain)? inappropriate for the road conditions (icey/oil/heavy traffic) inappropriate for the drivers ability experience? Excessive speed is wonderfully emotive but doesn't actually quantify the problem. Only two police forces seperate their 'excessive speed' catagory into above the limit and within the limit. If we follow the current policy then the logical progression would be to go back to the man with the red flag in front. As an aside, perhaps if we were not about 12 years behind basic road maintenance and didn't keep putting in traffic engineering measures that were ill thought out to create a rational for national road pricing, we might lower the accident stats. I can point to a scheme in my hometown that has claimed 16 lives in the last two years, the LA is well aware of it but to date has done nothing.