05 December, 2005

Driven to distraction

So Bob Farrow writing in Seven days reckons that speed is the root of all the evil that is Dubai driving.

Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

It is not speed that kills, not here and in 95% of cases not anywhere. Speed makes accidents worse yeah that point can be made, but rarely is speed the cause. This assertion is simplistic nonsense that does not take into account the realities of any road situation. more

4 comments:

B.D. said...

Have to say I disagree with you Desert Weasel, but we may be dealing with a question of semantics. I think the term speeding also suggests "impatience" which does account for things like running red lights, tail-gating and riding on the hard shoulder. Yes, to label speeding as the sole issue to deal with is simplistic. But I think "speeding" refers to a mentality--you gotta get where you're going, yesterday. This amounts to a lack of attention to other things and and an inability to respond to sudden, unexpected events. I personally think "speeding" does a better job of referencing most of the ills you mention than other expressions like "inattentiveness," "carelessness," etc.

Desert_Weasel said...

How does speeding cover the guy that runs a light at 30kph? That is dangerous driving.

So how would you police the guy who cuts me up at 119 kmh in a 120 zone?
Or pulls out at 5 kph in a 60 zone.

Neither of these involve speeding, if you mean reckless or dangerous driving then say so.

The trouble with saying that speeding is the root of all evil is that then the way to combat it is to put in cameras and fine people.

So how well that has worked then? And more cameras,would that work?

Inapropriate speed or to put it another way, reckless or carelss driving is the major issue but to combat that you have to have police on the road, not rely on cameras or peoples non existant civic good will.

B.D. said...

Well, you've got me on some of those points. But can we safely say that speeding is say one of the top 3 causes of accidents? I get your point that police or the responsible authorities have to concentrate on all forms of bad driving, but I think the guy in 7 Days was still making a valid point that there is too much speeding on Dubai's roads.

Anonymous said...

It's not speed alone that kills. It's the huge differences in speeds. Seems 25% of the population is driving far too slowly, while another 25% is driving far too fast. Makes it quite unnerving when traveling on one of the long stretches. Pull over to pass someone going 80 km and suddenly out of nowhere another car going 140+ is on your tail flashing his lights or honking for you to move over. If there's a car in the right lane, you're screwed.

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