The High Performance Club will once again be holding a Young Drivers’ Day, on 1st August 2009.

This is open to those who are aged 26 years or less and hold a full driver’s licence, and are not already HPC members. The aims of the day are to:

• Promote awareness of driving skills at advanced levels
• Encourage the participants to develop their own skills
• Have fun

If you wish to attend, go to the HPC website, and register here

The High Performance Club exists:

• To further skill, interest and enjoyment in road driving and its relationship to reducing accidents on the road
• To provide members with the opportunity to widen their knowledge of various driving techniques
• To provide social activities of various kinds for the membership

You can read much more on the HPC website.

Skidsrus

Justice Blair’s Theory

FEET PER SECOND

The following is a talk by Mr. Justice Blair, recorded in “The Listener” and copied from “The Journal” of Criminal Law, No.5 January, 1988.

The basic cause of road accidents is widespread ignorance of ground speed, not only on the part of pedestrians but also on the part of virtually every driver of a motor car, and I add that if this widespread ignorance on the part of the road users be cured and it is curable, then there will follow a great reduction in the toll of road accidents. A speedometer does not tell anyone his ground speed. It does nothing of the kind, and it is because every motorist deludes himself into believing that a speedometer tells him how fast he is covering the ground that the danger or road accidents is increased. A speedometer gives you your speed in miles an hour. Have you any mental picture of the length of any hour or the length of a mile? No one has. How then, can anyone possibly get a mental picture of his ground speed when he is asked to put two unreliable factors together and obtain a result?

I have tried very many running down cases. Judges are conscientious when trying cases and I always felt that in order to understand any motor case it was necessary that I work out a respective speed of each vehicle in a measure that would tell me their respective ground speeds. The only measure that would give me any mental picture of the speed at which a vehicle covered the ground was the measure of feet per second. That involved me in a lot of Arithmetic. Sixty miles per hour works out at 87.9 recurring feet per second and every time I converted miles per hour into fee per second I got a result in recurring decimals. So then I had to look for a simple formula, and this is how I got it.

Instead of calling 60 mph 87 odd feet per second I called it 90 feet per second and that gave me the simple formula of adding half to my miles per hour to obtain speed in feet per second correct within 2%. Ever since then, I have driven cars and tried running down cases in feet per second. Now what I say to all motorists is that they try doing what I do, that is always to drive and think in speed in feet per second instead of in miles per hour and you will at once become a 100% better and safer driver. All you have to do is to add one half to the figure of your speed in mph and you will get your speed in feet per second.

Any child can do that. The other aspect of road safety touches what is called kinetic energy, which means the moving force possessed by a vehicle in motion. I cant give you a more detailed explanation, but another way to put it is to refer to kinetic energy as the kick possessed by a moving vehicle. A small motor car weighing about a ton and moving at a speed of 40 miles per hour strikes the same blow as eighteen ten ton steam rollers travelling at their highest speed, which is 3 mph. That is the force you are handling when you speed up a light car to 40 mph 60 feet per second. If you are driving a big seven seater 2 ton car at 60 mph (90 feet per second) its kinetic energy is more than that of 100 ten ton steam rollers moving at 3 mph.

Excellent advice, and as citizens we wish that every driver of a motor car would bear Mr. Justice Blair’s words of wisdom in mind.

Unhappily, human nature is such that when travelling from one place to another we are all inspired with the same desire, to get to our destination as soon as possible. So we all travel as fast as possible, the controls comprised by the words “possible” being (1) regard for your safety, (2) road sense, (3) consideration for others, (4) the law.

“Feet per second” and “Kinetic Energy” do not occur to most of us, until after the accident.

Derek Bradbury reviews the book The Psychology of Driving by Dr Graham Hole of Sussex University in the attached document. Feel free to download the review for your own perusal.

The book is available from Amazon, price £14.72.

The review is attached here Review of The Psychology of Driving by Dr Graham Hole

The results of the 2008 Questionnaire have been collated, and the results are here.

Overall, it shows we’re doing mainly what the membership wants. A few more activities wouldn’t go amiss, but no serious flaws. If you didn’t get a questionnaire, or you have comments to make, please add a comment below, or talk to a committee member.

Question When Approaching a tunnel it is good advice to:

a. Put on your sunglasses. b)Check tyre pressures.

c) Change to a lower gear d)Tune your radio to the local channel

Passing your test could depend on choosing the correct answer which is;- Tune your radio to the local channel.  A reader from the telegraph was puzzeled .  The Highway Code warns against such distractions and even if you know the local radio frequency you cannot receive the signal in a tunnel.  The correspondaence from the DSA failed to produce an explanation, although the following was received from the policy department.

I apologise for your difficulty in getting this question answered.  The requirement for this Theory Test question comes from an EU dirctive.  The DSA was asked to do this after the St Gothard and Mont Blanc tunnel fires in the late 1990’s in which a number of people lost their lives.  After this rdio transmitters were placed in the road traffic tunnel.  If a driver were to tune to the correct frequency, they would be warned of any fires or other dangerous occurance in the tunnels.  This is because drivers may not be able to get out of the tunnel if not forwarned!  The contradiction between the Highway Code and this questin is because we have few, if any road traffic tunnels in the UK, and it is more a Continetal concern.

So now we know know.  Thank goodness the DSA is working hard to improve British driving standards.  Perhaps we should also instal speed camera’s at Britain’s “few if any” tunnel’s and fine anyone who exceeds the limit while fiddling with their radio in search of Smashey and (white noise to fade).
This came from the Telegraph Motoring December 1st, 2007

A high number of motorists have no idea that the rules regarding the positioning and colour of speed cameras changed in April this year.

Speed, or “safety” cameras, as the Government calls them, no longer have to be painted yellow, or be visible from 60m (200ft), and no longer have to be sited only where there is a history of road accidents. The regulations were relaxed in April after the Government had announced in December that camera partnerships would no longer be able to keep the money generated by speeding fines to pay for more cameras; instead, they’ll get grants from a yearly, central road-safety fund of £110million.

As part of the new autonomy for the local partnerships, the Department for Transport handed over the regulation of the cameras, saying “the Department does not want to be prescriptive about the conditions to be met for the use of safety cameras.” It now merely issues guidelines as to how the cameras should be operated. The guidelines still state that cameras should be painted yellow or covered with “retro-reflective” sheeting, and that they should be visible at up to 60m where the speed limit is 40mph or below, and 100m at all other speed limits. They also still recommend siting the cameras where at least three people were killed or seriously injured in the 36 months prior to the camera proposal being submitted, although the guidelines now state: “While the primary objective for camera deployment is to reduce KSIs [collisions where the person was killed or seriously injured] at known collision locations, cameras can also be beneficial where there is community concern - ie the local community requests enforcement at a particular site because traffic speed is causing concern for road safety, or where there are engineering factors that cannot be implemented in the short term and enforcement is being used as an interim measure.”

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But all the DfT stipulations are guidelines only, and some local partnerships have already said that they find the DfT regulations too restrictive. Meredydd Hughes, head of Roads Policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers (who appeared in court this week after being flashed by a speed camera doing 90mph in a 60mph zone), told a national newspaper in June that covert speed cameras would help cut road casualties, and when the proposal to deregulate speed cameras was first aired, Lee Murphy, speed camera manager for Cheshire, said: “If the rules weren’t compulsory, we could use cameras to tackle emerging trends rather than waiting for the minimum number of collisions.” Road safety charities, including Brake, also welcomed the possibility of more covert enforcement.

The DfT meanwhile says that if local partnerships are found to be abusing their autonomy, it will consider bringing back enforced regulation.

From Telegraph Motoring 3/12/2007

From The Times In Gear Supplement

January 21st 2007

Q ” I’ve heard a lot about “winter Tyres” but cannot see why I would need them in the UK.” What would I gain and would I need to switch tyres for summer and winter driving?” Also will winter tyres wear out more quickly when driven in hotter weather?

——-

A. Most people think that winter tyres, more accurately perhaps cold-weather tyres, are needed only in Scandinavian countries, where snow and ice are prevelant for months at a time. Not so, At temperatures below 7C from(from roughly the end of October - to end of March in Scotland and northern England, for example) “summer tyres” will harden, giving them less grip.

Cold weather tyres are designed for use below this temperature and have more rubber in the compound to prevent hardening, along with the tread pattern better able to cope with slippery winter roads. This will bring shorter stopping distances on both dry and wet roads in low temperatures.

Stastitics from Continental Tyres (0845 6000801 www.conti-online.co.uk) suggest that for a car on cold-weather tyres below 7C, stopping distances at 31mph will be reduced by 36ft compared with summer tyres on dry roads, by 26ft in snow and 16ft on wet roads.

Winter tyres don’t wear out more quickly than summer tyres and experts say it is more advisable to drive all year on winter tyres than on summer ones. However swapping from one to the other every spring and autumn is still the safest option. All leading tyre manufacturers list cold-weather tyres on their wen sites, along with dealer lists and /or centeral call centres.

MPs have urged the government to carry out a study into the possibility of fitting speed limiters to motorbikes.

The House of Commons Transport Committee said accident rates are far too high and radical action is needed.

The report on government motorcycling strategy also said motorbikes were too polluting and that illegal use of mini motos was a problem.

The committee called on ministers to support the development of cleaner motorbikes to reduce pollution.

‘Sensible debate’

The report said: “We recommend that the government commission…research on the viability of introducing speed limiters on motorcycles in order to stimulate a sensible debate of the options.”

Cutting pollution was another argument for reducing the maximum power and speed of bikes, the MPs said.

The report noted that there was a massive increase in numbers of Motorcycles for Use on Private Property (MUPP).

The market was about 7,000 new bikes a year of this type in 2001, but an estimated 170,000 were imported to the UK in 2005.

There have been at least seven deaths involving mini motos since mid-2004, five of which were children under the age of 15.

Mini moto danger

The police have the power to seize mini motos being driven illegally off or on the road, or in an anti-social way.

The committee said police “blitzes” on the vehicles were effective short-term, but the long-term results were not so conclusive.

“We recommend that the government undertake a review of enforcement against mini motos to gauge whether police blitzes work to reduce anti-social behaviour in the longer term,” said the report.

The MPs were concerned that the bikes were being bought by parents for their children “without understanding that they can be dangerous”.

They concluded: “If the problem persists, the government should make the case to the EU trade commissioner to restrict the imports of these goods if they are of a particularly low standard, as the (motorcycle) industry appears to think is the case.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6505423.stm

Motorists must switch on lights during day, EU says

By Ben Webster

MOTORISTS may be forced to switch on their headlights when driving in daylight under European proposals aimed at improving road safety.

The European Commission wants all EU states to set a common date for making daytime running lights mandatory. It is also proposing that all new cars be fitted with lights that turn on automatically whenever the engine is started.

It claims that this will save between 1,200 and 2,000 lives a year across the EU, because cars will be more conspicuous to vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

The Government opposes the idea, but admitted this week that it was losing the argument and would be unable to veto a European directive.

Stephen Ladyman, the road safety minister, said that the move could result in more motorcyclists being killed. Motorcyclists tend to use their headlamps during the day to mark them out in traffic.

Speaking in a Commons road safety debate this week, Mr Ladyman said: “Because motorcycles use daytime running lights, they have greater visibility than they would do if everyone used such lights.

Given that one of the most serious problems that we face in this country is to bring down sharply the stubborn rate of motorcyclist fatalities, we cannot afford to compromise an important safety concern for motorcyclists.

But the minister added that he had been unable to persuade his counterparts in other countries to vote against the Commissions proposal.

I am increasingly pessimistic. The tide is running against me. A number of powerful states believe that it is a good idea. I believe that they think that it is a panacea and an easy solution to which their public will not object and which will help to reduce their casualty statistics, Mr Ladyman said.

I do not think that it will reduce their casualty statistics, but it will affect our casualty statistics. I will continue to fight the good fight, but I cannot promise that I will win.

The Government is also concerned that daytime running lights would increase fuel consumption and pollution.

Motoring groups claim that fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions increase by 3 per cent when drivers use dipped lights.

The Commission claims that dedicated daytime running lights, such as those found on Volvos and Saabs, would increase fuel consumption by only 0.3 per cent.

The dedicated lights use separate bulbs that are less bright than headlights.

The Commission said 14 of the 25 EU member states already require drivers to use daytime running lights. However, most of them are in northern Europe where the days are much shorter in winter.

Some countries compromise by requiring lights to be used in daytime only during the winter months.

The Commission’s consultation paper on the issue concedes: “The benefits of daytime running lights are likely to be greater at latitudes further away from the Equator.”

But it adds: “Contrary to widespread fears, the fact that cars are using daytime running lights does not seem to diminish the effect of any motorcyclist’s daytime lights. There have been numerous experiments under laboratory conditions and field experiments that corroborate that finding.”

The Motorcycle Action Group said that the proposal was being supported by many European politicians because it was cheaper than forcing manufacturers to redesign car fronts to make them less lethal to pedestrians.

Ian Mutch, the group’s president, said: “This is EU lunacy at its cynical worst and a red herring that distracts attention from the real causes of accidents between cars and vulnerable targets, such as motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.”

Mike Nattrass, the UK Independence Party MEP, said: “If other countries want to force drivers to use lights in broad daylight that’s up to them, but they shouldn’t be forcing us to do it.

A good compromise would be to require sensors in all new cars so that the headlamps come on when the light falls below a certain level.

The European Parliament’s transport committee voted in favour of mandatory daytime running lights this week.

A final vote by member states, which will be decided by qualified majority voting, is expected by the end of the year. The directive, if agreed, could come into force within three years.

Thousands of motorcyclists may be on the road illegally after errors at the Government’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency led to documents being returned with entitlement to ride a bike removed.

In some cases this has resulted in motorcyclists, who have held a motorbike licence for years, having to retake their tests in order get their entitlement back.

Motorcycling organisations are advising bike riders to photocopy their old licences before applying for renewals or replacements and to ensure that their new photo-identity licences contain the correct categories when returned by the DVLA.

Many riders passed their motorbike tests years ago and no longer have proof that they did so. Unless the DVLA can be convinced they have passed a test, they will be required to take a new one, even though the mistake was not of their own making.

The British Motorcyclists Federation has set up a page on its website warning of the problem. It states: “We strongly advise anyone about to send their licence to DVLA to photocopy it and any

supporting documents and check immediately upon receiving a licence that it retains formerly held motorcycle entitlement.”

Jeff Stone, press officer for the organisation, said: “There are 1.5 million motorcycle licence holders in the UK. We do not know the scale of the problem but we are aware that it has affected some of our members.

“As a result we have taken it up with the DVLA which has indicated the entitlement has been accidentally left off as the department tackled the problem of licence fraud.

“The DVLA has been helpful in the cases we have brought to its attention, but, at the end of the day, if a rider cannot prove he or she has passed a test, they will have to retake it.”

Despite evidence to the contrary, a DVLA spokesman said there was no evidence to suggest that motorcycle entitlement was being accidentally removed.