FAST IS DANGEROUS

Not really a sensible question from my point of view...

Does speed make you dangerous? There's no absolute definition of dangerous.

Does speeding make you more dangerous?
Of course it does. Your chances of an accident increase at speed (whether your fault or not, and probably only a small increase per mph) and the chances of being KSI also increases in the case of an accident.

The question is at what point the risk becomes unacceptable. And who gets to decide what is unacceptable.

Originally Posted by BillyC

Perhaps this is one of the limitations of speed limits, in general we have 30, 40, 60 and 70 mph limits on our roads, with little variation in between.

I believe the speed limits (and the theoretical braking distances) are also massively flawed in the way they are (with a few exceptions for lorries/caravans on motorways) not specific to vehicles. The differences in braking distance for a superlight like a Caterham compared to an Austin Allegro is massive. Similarly, handling, width of the vehicle and even acceleration play a part. When driving, most people take these factors into consideration (I don't bomb down narrow alleys in a wide van the way I do on a bike/a small car). Speed limits don't take these things into consideration (nor would it to realistically be able for them to do so).

I believe this is why many double white lines are irrelevant to bikes, they are in place because 90%+ of cars on the road could not perform a safe overtake there, whereas a lot of bikes could.

There's also the practical considerations to consider- we couldn't have speed signs every 20 yards (which is probably around about the frequency with which changing road conditions, let alone traffic/pedestrians etc. would cause the maximum 'safe speed' to fluctuate). Aside from the cost of implementing it, it'd be massively distracting to drivers. However, there are short stretches in some built up 30s where it's save to do 40, but then after that 50 yard stretch, it may only be safe to do 20. For bikes (and similarly, high performance cars) it might be worth quickly accelerating up to 40, then braking to 20, but again, for most vehicles (ie your bog standard car) it's not worth it.

I could go on, but it boils down to the need for traffic police, who would use reasonable discression, and pull people for dangerous speed when it exceeds the posted limits. Traffic police are quite capable of turning a blind eye to speeding when it's safe to so (they did to me, today).

riding fast is not dangerous until it goes wrong

Originally Posted by shutdown

riding fast is not dangerous until it goes wrong

riding is not dangerous until it goes wrong

dont you think you are going to get a bit of a "biased" opinion on this poll?, lets face facts here, i would say that most of the members of this forum break the speed limit at some point when out and about on their bike, but you can ride safely outside the limit in the same way you can ride unsafely under the speed limit

as said its not black and white, it depends on how fast you were clocked at( i presume your being done?) you would have a pretty weak case if you were trying to argue that 140 in a 70 is safe for example

Originally Posted by weegaz22

...you would have a pretty weak case if you were trying to argue that 140 in a 70 is safe for example

See I personally think that there are very straight and empty stretches of motorway that early on a summer's morning are (in the right and experienced hands) perfectly safe to achieve these sorts of speeds. I mean look at Germany's Autobahns for instance.


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speed = danger

danger = fun



i agree with the rubber duckies post.

think wills post was irrelevant - as this is a very good thread (often repeated though)

ok - your on a motorway. totally empty, you can see for miles, conditions are good,

if i do decide to go from 70, to 100mph - whats the worst that can happen ?

Gernerally, it's probably true to say that the amount of danger increases with speed if only because you have less time to adjust and more chance of hitting something that appears unexpectedly. Ther are cases when slow speed increase risk but I think they are the exception.

I think there are quite a few occasions when driving in excess of arbitrary speed limits - I can remember when we didn't have a national speed limit - is pretty safe but it's difficult to argue that driving at 90 is less dangerous than at 60 in the same conditions.

The trouble with the 'you should always obey the speed limits, it's safer' lobby is that there are clearly occasions when driving at the speed limit is not safe (fog, heavy rain, very heavy traffic, high winds etc etc) just as there are plenty of occasions when it is safe to drive (well) in excess of the limit. Obviously, it varies not only with conditions but also with the type (and condition) of vehicle and the skill and condition (tired, drunk etc) condition of the driver. I am sure most of us see crap driving ecah day which is mainy caused by people not concentrating, driving on automatic pilot etc. i.e. not exercising their own judgment about road conditions etc.

The trouble with cameras is that they can't judge all these variables but are, of course much cheaper than police - it can be argued that the fear of them keep speeds down and as the consequence of high speed accidents are generally worse than slow speed ones are a good thing.

I guess most of us accept speeding tickets etc as part of the cost of motorcycling - personally (and I'm not 17 year old on a sportsbike) - I can't imagine not speeding when I deem it safe (in both senses - risk of accident low and no cameras/police) and I would be very surprised if there were many bikers who did not think and act similarly, or am I wrong??

Originally Posted by northwind

Speed don't kill people, drivers do...

Sounds a bit like:

Guns don't kill people, rappers do

Sorry for my totally stupid contribution to this serious conversation, but as soon as I read that line, I thought of that song (well rap I suppose), Don't know the name of the artist.

You know the one...

GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN.