SAFE SPEED SAYS RAC REPORT ''A MISSED OPPORTUNITY''
06 February 2005 - Safe Speed

The RAC report launched today with the alarmist headline: ''Speeding epidemic spreads as 15 million break limits ''most days'', reveals RAC''.

Safe Speed says that''s highly misleading because routine speeding is actually a perfectly normal and acceptable - even vital - road user behaviour.

We need to know the answer to the question: ''Why do drivers speed?'' Without a clear and accurate answer to this question conclusions are ill founded. Yet neither the government nor the RAC report have any useful illumination to offer.

Drivers'' speeding behaviour is clearly a complete mystery to the government, the RAC and much of the road safety community. On the one hand most drivers exceed the speed limit much of the time, yet it''s difficult to understand why they do it. They don''t save much time, they risk fines and licence suspensions and the government tells us that they are risking their lives. And why hasn''t drivers'' speeding behaviour changed at all after a decade of speed camera programme expansion?

Safe Speed says routine speeding, for the majority of responsible motorists, is nothing more than a side effect of a vital safety- oriented driver behaviour. Of course there are people who drive like maniacs and deserve the attentions of the Police, but these people are a tiny minority. What about the rest of us? Why do we speed?

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) explains: ''Actually it''s very simple. As drivers we constantly have to adjust our speed to the immediate conditions. In fact, one of the primary tasks of driving is to set an appropriate speed that enables us to slow down or stop if the situation ahead demands it. We do it constantly. We do it almost subconsciously and in almost every case we do it very well indeed. The message from the conditions ahead is powerful and accurate. In order to be safe a driver MUST respond to them.''

''We become so attuned to driving to the conditions that any other behaviour feels wrong. When there are hazards ahead we slow down. When there are no hazards ahead we speed up. And that''s exactly what we MUST do for safety. We don''t even need a speedometer to do it. When conditions are suitable we speed because we know we are setting
the right speed.''

''If we replace this behaviour with rigid speed limit compliance drivers will become less effective at slowing down when necessary and crashes and deaths will increase. In fact it''s already happening. So far the government has managed to persuade a few percent of drivers to drive rigidly to the number on the speedo instead of the conditions ahead.''

''Our reward for this grossly mistaken policy is an increase in deaths, typified by the known increase in single vehicle crashes where a vehicle leaves the road. These crashes happen when a driver fails to adjust speed to suit the conditions.''

Safe Speed demands that speed cameras are scrapped and the policies that gave us the safest roads in the world are restored. We do not need to eliminate routine speeding by responsible motorists - instead we need to emphasize the importance of responsible speed choice according to the conditions.

www.safespeed.org.uk

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