Operation Slow Down

draffodx wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0706/operation-slow-down-gets-underway.html





Anyone know any more specific details on how they are raising awareness and also how they are making sure to target excessive speed as stated rather than punishing people just going over a stupid limit?

surely breaking the speed limit is considered excessive speed.

I assume they are raising awareness by people posting articles on online forums along with it being all over the news etc. For instance I know now that deaths have decreased but injuries have increased and that a 1% decrease in speed can result in a 4% decrease in fatal accidents.

gpf101 wrote: »

Have gotten 4 points and €160 fines in the past few months doing 57 and 58km/hr. It's very hard to take, and neither were even close to being in areas known to be dangerous and neither were areas hilighted on the map on the guarda website.

So you got got breaking the speed limit twice. Have you learned yet?

I do agree that points should work on a graduated basis. 1-10km/hr over = 1 point, 10-20km over = 2 points etc..

nice_guy80 wrote: »

however, you will not see the Gardai out on the bad road, full of bends, with one/two places to pass out. These are the real dangerous roads imho

i can imagine there are practical and safety issues with catching people on bendy roads with regards catching speeding, catching bad manoveurs and then getting onto the road to chase them down.

I'll just do all my speeding tomorrow

It's raining, there' no way the Garda will be out in that!

Seems to me that in Iteland the only 2 traffic offences enforced are speeding & drink driving. The following are fine 99% of the time (some may not be actual motoring offences but you get the drift)

- speaking on mobile phone while driving
- breaking red lights & completely ignoring other traffic signals
- using indicators optionally
- parking anywhere as long as you stick your hazards on
- crawling along a perfectly good, straight 100k N road at 60
- sitting in the middle lane of a 3 lane road
- basically being a rubbish driver

I find this whole speeding campaign seriously flawed. Like everything else in this country, we cannot seem to debate things intelligently and openly, and maybe learn something in the process.

Speeding causes carnage. The faster the speed, the greater the carnage.

But the accidents that facilitate the carnage are generally caused by one or a combination of three things. 1) Driver error, including a) insufficient driving education or experience, b) lack of care and attention and c) bad or deliberately dangerous attitude; 2) Mechanical failure; 3) Road engineering.

Cutting speeding can cut the serious effects of accidents, and cut the number of fatalities, which in itself is reason enough to clamp down on it.

But the wrong message is being sent out. The message being sent out is that speeding in itself causes accidents, and therefore by not speeding, accidents will not occur. I beg to differ.

If someone is stupid or ill educated enough to cause an accident at a black spot on the road above the speed limit, they are generally just as likely to cause a similar accident below the speed limit. Cutting the speed will give extra time for avoidance of an accident, but will not cure the lack of education or awareness of a careless driver.

In my experience, the larger proportion of the driving public are simply not educated or experienced enough for safe daily driving, and within that, some are woefully inadequately educated. The message being sent out to these people is that, so long as they don't speed, everything else they do is okay or acceptable. We are all familiar with the grossly dangerous and ignorant behaviour of far too many drivers on the road, and much or most of it is below the speed limit, or even at a stop.

Have we decided in this country now, that educating drivers properly, promoting the Rules of the Road, and enforcing road traffic law across the board, is simply too costly or too much trouble? Or even more worryingly, do we have a general viewpoint now that proper driver education and the Rules of the Road is simply irrelevant? Is targetting speeding drivers, and in the wrong locations at that, simply the easiest cop out, while announcing that we are 'doing something' about traffic accidents?

By all means enforce speeding law. It quite obviously produces results in the cutting of road fatalities and serious injuries.

But for God's sake, stop with this ridiculous message that cutting speeding absolves all responsibility for proper driving education, and the Rules of the Road generally. Irish driving standards are very poor, regardless of how bad they may be elsewhere in the world. We really should be trying to raise standards and awareness. I fear we are dumbing it down instead.