Quote:
Originally Posted by irons
My view is that in most case's and please note i said MOST case's points on your licence does show poor driving. By poor i mean, reckless, stupid, dangerous,etc etc
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Nonsense. I am a high mileage driver. In 30's, 40's and most 50's (unless until recently it was perfectly safe as a 60) I always stick to the speed limits, or at least to within 10% of them. In 60's and 70's I don't. I never have a clean license. Do high mileage and break the speed limits and the occasional ticket goes with the territory, so long as you don't get 4 tickets in a 3 year period all is tickety boo. In my 19 years of driving and riding, I have had two years spent on 9 points where I had to be a very good boy. I have never got points in a situation where I was reckless, stupid, or dangerous. Only got caught speeding on an open road, in dry conditions, with clear visibility
MOST cases of points, across the board are for speeding. Not tailgating, not undertaking, not without due care, not drunk driving. MOST points are for speeding and MOST are fixed penalty tickets for a speed that is within the ACPO guideline for a court apperance (the speed at which the authorities consider it becomes inherently dangerous, not just illegal). MOST points are an SP offence code which is largely ignored by insurance companies as they don't consider it reckless, stupid, or dangerous.
MOST points do not mean "poor" driving under your definition of "reckless, stupid, or dangerous".
MOST points are ordinary people who slipped a few miles per hour over the speed limit.
We have the explosion of speed cameras and the constant cut backs in the number of police traffic patrols to thank for this. I'd love to go back to the days where you had to keep your eyes peeled for coppers if you were speeding. There would be more points issued for reckless, stupid, or dangerous driving if that were the case. Nowadays you can speed with relative impunity so long as you know where the cameras are likely to be. But you can perform dangerous manoeuvres such as tailgating, undertaking, crossing SWL on bends or blind dips, with almost complete impunity. Which is why, "the standard of driving [you] see day in day out is beyond bad", there is nobody to correct, educate and where necessary punish this kind of driving.