How often do you hear somebody complaining about getting "done" for speeding? Why are they complaining? They broke the law, got caught and got punished, same as any other criminal.
If you tried getting sympathy for being late for work due to an over fastidious security guard at the supermarket having finally caught you stealing Mars bars on your way in to work every day, you would be ostrasized as a thief by all except other criminals.
If you go into pretty much any social setting and complain that you got pulled, or caught on a speed camera, however, numerous people would join in sympathetically berating the authorities for picking on you all.
Now, what's the worst thing that can happen if people habitually steal chocolate bars from supermarkets? The prices go up and maybe there's one or two less job vacancies with that company, but overall, there's no great loss of life.
Drive into something at high speed, though, and we're talking fire, death, carnage. What gives?
2006-09-20 03:15:50 · 27 answers · asked by lickintonight 4 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Safety
Its not acceptable... most drivers have a serious problem if they think they should get away with speeding...
run over a Child or anyone... then these drivers cry like babies...
look speed cameras are there to stop people speeding... i welcome more of them... i do not care if people say it is over zealous of the police, and they are designed as an extra tax...
It's a pretty simple philosophy really... don't speed, you don't get points... after all speeding is illegal!
I wonder how these drivers would feel if it was them hit by a speeding car... or if it was there child that was mown down and killed...
I thoroughly believe stronger penalties should be issued for killer drivers... After all it is classed as a lethal weapon... and if you run someone over on purpose the same principles apply as if you shot someone... so why is the law too lenient? thats your question...
Thanks... some of my first questions related to this question... feel free to browse!
Peace!
edit... fao miss B (above)
that is the kind of attitude that i mean exactly... you will suffer the rest of your life if you do kill someone... if not in jail... then emotionally... it's the same irrational thought process that causes the accidents in the first place... YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ISSUED WITH A LICENCE>>> PERIOD!
Fao stephen k also above...
that is just plain ridiculous... no matter where you speed if it is a motorway or a back country lane... you have a 70% more likely chance of killing someone... obviously i do not give a jot if your right wheel explodes whilst doing 100 mph down an autobahn, as your selfish speeding caused your death or injuries in the first place... it's the ones doing the driving legally that end up in a pile up because of your actions that i care for... you, you plainly do not matter! Sorry but that is the way it is... if you do not care that you could kill me speeding... then the book should be thrown at you, and deservedly so...
2006-09-20 03:29:42 · answer #1 · answered by AZRAEL è 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I think you're acting a bit ignorant. maybe they're should be a speed range. someone being stopped and being given a ticket over going just a few miles per hour over the speed limit, isn't right. also, I think many speed limits are too slow. also, how come in many car commercials, they show cars that appear to be a lot faster than the well-known 55 mph speed limit? cars aren't built the same way they were built in the 1960s and 1970s, so think speed limits for many roads are outdated. people got married and had sex when they weren't even 18 years old back in biblical times, so it was ok for wait until marriage to have sex, but nowadays, people don't marry until they're around 30 years old, so the "no sex unless you're married" is outdated, especially since some never get married, and they're beyond the age of 40.
also, you calling people criminals just for speeding, is pretty stupid, because that would that literally 100% of all people that have ever obtained their driver's license, are criminals. that would include ever you, because EVERYONE has gone at least 1 mph over the speed limit, so by logic, you'd have to be just as "guilty" as anyone else who has ever driven a vehicle on a road. also, that movie "fast and furious: tokyo drift" casted the US and the American legal system in a bad light. I mean, destroying someone's car just for racing, that's pretty stupid and that right there should be deemed wrong and illegal for anyone to do, unless it's their own and they made the decision to that themselves, oh, and them saying he was finished and done after they crushed his car when they should've had no right to do that, was vague, but gave the impression that he could've been done for life, but haven't many people from may years ago, including police officers before they were police officers, done that when they were younger, and weren't they still able to continue living life, and not have to leave the country just to continue driving later on, and then the guy who he raced against in the movie didn't get in ANY trouble at all, and that was messed up. if anything, shouldn't he have gotten in trouble for throwing a baseball into his back window as he was driving away before the race, or considering how they raced anyway, the fact that he did that to window, should've offset their illegal racing so that his car would not have been crushed.
2014-07-25 17:56:27 · answer #2 · answered by Me first 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
One of the problems is that speed laws are routinely broken because they are seldom enforced. There are too few traffic policemen and too many jurisdictions, so they just give up trying to enforce the law. Then when someone does bother to ticket a speeder, the offender feels picked on.
As for people knowing that they are better than average drivers, that's a laugh. I bet the guy who tailgated me for a mile, passed on a solid line, and then immediately came to a stop in front of me so he could make a left turn thinks he's a superb driver!
One way to stop speeding would be to print expressway tickets with the earliest time you are allowed to exit at each interchange. If your destination is 130 miles away and the speed limit is 65 mph, the ticket could be stamped with a time for that exit of exactly two hours after you entered the road. If you attempted to exit before the time on the ticket, you would incur an automatic fine. (The present time should be displayed prominently at each toll gate so nobody could argue about what time it actually is.) The cost of new ticket-printing machines capable of doing such a thing would be minimal. The only reason it doesn't happen is that the toll road operators believe that people will not pay to travel at the speed limit.
Speeders need to realize that even if they (ha!) are extremely proficient drivers, there are new drivers on the road, older drivers with cataracts, etc. who cannot react swiftly to some speed demon . And tires do fail and other mechanical problems develop - not serious at a prudent speed, but a big risk of a pileup if you're going like a bat.
As for getting places on time, if we all knew we couldn't speed, we'd allow a few more minutes for the trip. Problem solved!
Let's try and make it less socially acceptable to speed! As it is, speeders make rude gestures to law-abiding drivers - it should be the other way around!
2006-09-20 20:00:45 · answer #3 · answered by Maple 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Exceeding the speed limit is not only against the law it is life threatening as well.
I suppose the problem is that it is difficult for even the most conscientious person to keep below the speed limit 100% of the time. When you are driving its very easy to go with the flow and let your speed drift up.
Stealing a chocolate bar on the other hand requires a deliberate act of will. Stealing is the exact opposite of not stealing but driving at 35 mph instead of 30 mph only requires a slight extra pressure on the accelerator.
Most people do not understand just how dangerous driving is. 3000 people die on the roads each year in the UK and about 40000 in the US. We don't notice because its a few people here and a few there. If this number of people died because of terrorism or air crashes we'd be afraid to leave our homes.
2006-09-20 10:40:26 · answer #4 · answered by alan P 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Driving over the speed limit is a civil offence, which isn't seen as being as bad as a criminal offence such as theft, assault and so on. Plus - driving fast makes most people feel good, so it's far more common than complaining for being reprimanded for stealing. The biggest reason that people can openly complain about being caught by speeding cameras is that they cost people a lot of money, anything from £50 upwards even for being a few miles over the limit - people feel that the police should use their resources to target vicious and dangerous criminals, rather than those who break the speed limit. Local councils make millions of pounds by issuing speeding fines every single year - and people don't like the idea of others making profit from their misfortunes, plus council tax is continually on the rise on an annual basis.
2006-09-20 10:23:39 · answer #5 · answered by squirrellondon 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Its socially acceptable to break the speed limits because everyone does it! Well, almost everyone, except for those snails driving. The problem is that most of those speed limits are outdated, meaning that those speed limits were for the cars of yesteryear. Modern cars can drive a lot faster and a lot safer at higher speeds. Why people want sympathy for getting a ticket, I think is mainly to get some sort of consolation, after all, the officer did pick you, lucky you, out of all the other speeding motorists out there! Plus, I think that we got our speeding habits from Germany's Authobahn, after all who doesn't like to go vroom vroom. For some people, it gets the adrenaline going, to them driving fast and surviving is sort of like cheating death. Other people who speed just thinks they own the road and think they can do whatever they want. Yes, death is a possible outcome due to speeding, but what else doesn't have death as a possibility? You might think your perfectly healthy, a long time law abiding citizen, walking down the street and sudden have a heart attack, what gives with that!? Digressing, but the point is most people like to be a little rebelious, and some can only be rebelious in a very small obscure way, such as speeding.
2006-09-20 13:21:49 · answer #6 · answered by bloop87 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's my personal feeling that better cars cause speeding.
When you were driving that 1980s OldsmoBuick at 65mph, you knew it because the engine noise and wind noise was very noticeable inside the car.
Today's cars are quieter so the perception is that you are not going that fast. Despite the advances in cars, the physics have not changed. Your vehicle behaves different when you're doing 100mph vs 65mph. The dynamics are totally off.
In addition, car makers advertise safety more than they used to so people feel safer at high speeds even though car makers do not test 100mph crashes.
The quiet interior give people the false sense of security/control. They should open the window or door and see how fast the pavement is moving.
People are freaking out about gas prices... try driving 65 and wow, all of a sudden you get better mileage - and wait, my brakes/tires last longer... how did that happen?
2006-09-20 11:28:46 · answer #7 · answered by KrautRocket 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Speeding isn't always the 'killer' many would have you think it is. Think of it like this: 30MPH outside a school at kicking-out time may be far more dangerous than, say, 90MPH on a dry motorway.
Additionally, a lot of traffic police patrols seem to have been replaced by speed cameras, so it's not uncommon to hear of folk being fined for minor speeding offences (eg: 34 in a 30 perhaps).
The speed camera partnerships will try and convince you that speeding is a big killer, because of course, they've got to justify the cameras lining their pockets.
Obviously, doing silly speeds in residential areas is dangerous, don't get me wrong, but let's not forget, there's also the danger from drunk, drugged and incompetent drivers.
If you want to make the roads safer, then put more human cops on the roads, though then again, Britain is said to have one of the best, if not the best road safety records in Europe.
2006-09-20 21:25:31 · answer #8 · answered by mr_carburettor 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There are some really interesting answers here! I can tell you that my police agency gets less than $5 for a $75 dollar speeding ticket when it comes down. Does it generate revenue, yes it does. But they have to pay me 3 hours of overtime to appear in court which calculates out to about $85 dollars. Many fugitives and other criminals have been caught and arrested on minor traffic offenses. You are driving a 2000lb death machine when you speed and think that you are Mario Andretti or whoever. People think its socially acceptable because many do it on a regular basis. Of course they are usually the first to complain about it. Even though everyone knows its the law, I should be out looking for murderers and rapists if I can quote a recent stop. I told him as I did above that we do catch these type of folks, and many of them are caught in their car driving too fast or having a tail light not functioning.
2006-09-20 14:49:53 · answer #9 · answered by gotseatbelts 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are different categories of law. Some are rooted deeply in history, thou shall not Kill, steal, commit adultery, which people obey because they believe that it is morally right to obey, and laws which are arbitrary, such as speed limits, parking restrictions, building regulations, declaration of income for tax purposes etc which are seen as arbitrary and have no historic roots.
Speeding is generally of no consequence unless an accident occours, at which point the increased energy caused by the increased speed causes more damage but we dont differentiate between a Land Rover Discovery at over 2 tons and a Mini at about half a ton, the mini doing 45 will do less damage than a Disco at 30, neither do we properly take account of the fact higher speeds mean less time spent on the road and many "accident" situations occour in terms of incidents per minute rather than per mile, so the linear link between high speed and accidents does not exist.
2006-09-20 11:38:54 · answer #10 · answered by "Call me Dave" 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋