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Blog > To speed or not to speed
Author: Belle Moss
Hands up anyone who’s ever been caught speeding? Come on you know you’re out there. Well to my horror a couple of months ago I received a letter through the post – caught doing 38 in a 30 mile an hour zone by a ‘speed’ – oh sorry – ‘safety camera’.
Given that this was my first offence (ahem – perhaps more accurately the first time I’d been caught) I was given the option to attend a Speed Awareness course courtesy of the Met Police. After weighing up the potential humiliation of attending a course versus the 3 points and increased insurance I decided, much against my better judgement, that the course it was.
Now my long suffering work colleagues will tell you that since I made that decision I’ve done nothing but whinge about it and in all honesty this blog was intended to be a rant about the absurd waste of time the whole thing was, but – and no-one is more surprised than me. I actually found it pretty useful.
I’m sure some of my fellow attendees would argue with that, certainly judging by their expressions during the afternoon and I’d be the first to say that I’m pretty sure the duration of the course at 4 hours is intended to be more of a punishment than the length of time actually required to teach us anything. Having said that I was surprised to find that I took away some useful information – not least a refresher on speed limits on various types of roads of which I was woefully ignorant - which rather explains me being there in the first place you might say.
So am I driving differently – yes I think so – and will that last – well I can’t say hand on heart I’ll not speed again, it’s so easy to fall back into bad habits when you’ve being driving for a long time. It did get me thinking though that if you take advantage of the earliest opportunity you can be driving at 17 and from that point on you are entirely left alone until at the age of 70 you get a letter asking if you’re still safe to drive, so even then you self certify.
It does beg the question as to whether all of us might benefit from a reminder every now and again on how and why to drive safely – as my instructor said rather well – ‘we all have a duty when we leave our house each morning to make sure that everyone we meet be they cyclists, drivers or pedestrians are able to get home to their families each day – food for thought.......
27th Jun 12
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