prolfe
07-06-2007, 09:06 AM
I went on a Speed Awareness course yesterday in Stevenage old town.
I was quite sceptical about the whole thing and wondered if they were going to use shock tactics.
but
it was fine, there was no pressure to feel that you must not speed. The guy taking the course was light hearted throughout.
We were able to voice our opinions all the way through the course.
There was about 15 people on this session that started at 8.15am and went on to 2.30pm.
We had up until 10.45 of the issues around speeding and how to lookout for the maximum speed for the road you are on by looking at road markings, lamposts etc
We then had from 11.30 until 2.00 in a car with an instructor, I had another bloke in with me, but some people were on their own.
This was like an advanced driving lesson.
What I learnt was; if there are regular lamposts and no maxiumum speed signs then you are in a 30 zone. if there are no regular lamposts and no maximum speed signs then you are in a national speed limit.
The road you are on will tell you if the speed is anything different from 30 or 60.
30mph signs are not permitted to be on lamposts. (the law)
20,40 and 50 are allowed and you quite often get reminder signs.
I also noticed that on the approach to roundabouts is where you are most likely to see maximum speed signs to indicate that you are coming out of one speed zone and are going into another.
We were also told that for a particular stretch of road to have a fixed speed camera there has to be at least 1 maybe 2 deaths and or a few serious injuries. Serious injury as in life changing (brain damage, loss of limb etc) not just a couple of broken legs.
Although more often than not we are stuck on the motorway due to an accident, on average only 3% of the uk's accidents are on them.
So after my scepticism i would recommend this course to anyone, even if they're taking it just to avoid 3 points.
I was quite sceptical about the whole thing and wondered if they were going to use shock tactics.
but
it was fine, there was no pressure to feel that you must not speed. The guy taking the course was light hearted throughout.
We were able to voice our opinions all the way through the course.
There was about 15 people on this session that started at 8.15am and went on to 2.30pm.
We had up until 10.45 of the issues around speeding and how to lookout for the maximum speed for the road you are on by looking at road markings, lamposts etc
We then had from 11.30 until 2.00 in a car with an instructor, I had another bloke in with me, but some people were on their own.
This was like an advanced driving lesson.
What I learnt was; if there are regular lamposts and no maxiumum speed signs then you are in a 30 zone. if there are no regular lamposts and no maximum speed signs then you are in a national speed limit.
The road you are on will tell you if the speed is anything different from 30 or 60.
30mph signs are not permitted to be on lamposts. (the law)
20,40 and 50 are allowed and you quite often get reminder signs.
I also noticed that on the approach to roundabouts is where you are most likely to see maximum speed signs to indicate that you are coming out of one speed zone and are going into another.
We were also told that for a particular stretch of road to have a fixed speed camera there has to be at least 1 maybe 2 deaths and or a few serious injuries. Serious injury as in life changing (brain damage, loss of limb etc) not just a couple of broken legs.
Although more often than not we are stuck on the motorway due to an accident, on average only 3% of the uk's accidents are on them.
So after my scepticism i would recommend this course to anyone, even if they're taking it just to avoid 3 points.