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National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

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National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by Waterbaby »

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Published 14 May 2018
From: Department for Transport

"The Department for Transport commissioned this evaluation to assess the effects of taking part in the National Speed Awareness Course (NSAC) and the likelihood of participants re-offending afterwards. The NSAC may be offered by the police to low-level speeders in lieu of a fine and penalty points."

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... evaluation

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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by AdamJ »

Done this so often I could present it myself now. Speed kills babies you know.
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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by stephen1974 »

You sure? I thought there was a magic number that once you reached it you just dropped dead.
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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by Andyblue »

Not really sure that much real analysis can be applied if we factor the dropping numbers of enforcement officer on the road, reduction of the use of fixed/mobile cameras and the reliance upon those who have been caught. In so ways, the chances of being caught exceeding a speed limit are very very small, so the chances of catching and documenting it for a second occasion are even smaller. Whilst statistics are not my thing, I'd say any stats arising from such poor data can only lead to poor stats.
Was it Oscar Wilde who said 'there areLies, there are damn lies and there are statistics"?
In concept, with the lowering of the enforcement threshold introducing a buffer or rehabilitation process such as the NSAC can only be a good thing. Imagine how many endorsable points would have been issued otherwise? If this report is correct in the idea that the effects on driver behaviour of receiving points or an NSAC course is about 3 years, then perhaps its an indicator for good business that driver behaviour is checked on a similar basis to ensure the company driving policy and behaviour is still being followed.
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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by stephen1974 »

If the government were serious about catching speeders they could force all new cars to come with GPS operated cruise control and they could force all speeding offenders to have black boxes fitted where they have to send the data to the police.

But just think of all the income they would lose if they did that.
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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by Andyblue »

With black boxes / telematics being so integral to so many fleets (car, van as well as LGVs), I wonder how many actually do anything about the exception reports for excess speed? Perhaps if employers were more pro-active on managing their employees off site as on site, it may have a significant effect on all road users - after all about 2/3rd of vehicles are allegedly engaged in driving for business. Even 10% of that being employer monitored would probably have a significant effect and no endorsable points involved!
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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by David68 »

On my way to work yesterday I was overtaken by white van man on a single carriageway road with a 30 mph limit. At the next roundabout I pulled up behind him and noticed the "speed limited" and "my speed is tracked" stickers. He took off like a stabbed rat and raced down the road like a complete moron. At the next set of lights I pulled up beside him and looked over at him on his phone.

Two things from this - I do not speed, I cannot afford to waste petrol but despite his speed, he did not get to the turn of towards J21 of the M1 more than 2 seconds ahead of me - lights, roundabouts etc slowed him down.

The second thing is that speeding is, unfortunately, socially acceptable and the police to not have the resources to do anything about it.
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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by AdamJ »

At the risk of getting in a needless debate about it, speeding is acceptable, it is inappropriate speeding which isn't.

Someone doing 30 down a busy high street may be within the limit but that is inappropriate speed. Someone doing 80 down a quiet motorway at night is perfectly acceptable speed. Exceeding the speed limit temporarily to overtake a slower vehicle is a perfectly good use of speed and something I do regularly on the motorbike. We have a few problems in the UK regarding 'resources' for the police but a lack of resources is not the only issue, it's how that resource is focused. They've replaced actual people with cameras which catch speed but don't catch dangerous driving which you see day after day after day. Especially when you are on a motorbike and clearly invisible to a lot of car drivers. We have stupid fixed speed limits which stay the same no matter the time of day - outside my village the limit is 40 which is a bit nippy in the daytime but at night is way too slow. It's the same as our ridiculous traffic lights which insist on stopping traffic all night rather than switching to flashing amber 'proceed with care' as they do in a lot of other countries.

I was caught for speeding once in North Wales where I lived at the time and got the letter for doing... 31 in a 30. It was a long straight gentle downhill by Llangollen where you pass a hotel and not a lot else. Clear Mr Plod would rather I was religiously watching the speedo in case it crept up as I went downhill, rather than me looking out of the windscreen. (And that also does prove that this '10% allowance' you hear about is a complete myth).

Speeding does save time. Fairly regularly I drive from the Cheltenham area to Glasgow and then back again in a day. I love driving - those are my favourite work days. But if I give it some juice on the quieter stretches of motorway, by the time I get home again it's shaved a lot of time off my working day. (When I say I love driving, I am a bit weird with it. For the hell of it I drove down through eastern Europe to Crete and back up through Greece and then Italy again - never more relaxed or happier than when in the car or on the motorbike going on a decent longer journey).

Speeding doesn't kill people. Inappropriate speed kills people. Driving like a moron within the speed limit kills people. Choosing to buy a Peugeot kills people as if someone chooses to buy a Peugeot then they clearly have no interest in driving and have given up on life and if you aren't interested in something you tend not to be good at it.
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Re: National Speed Awareness Course: impact evaluation

Post by Andyblue »

Davd68, isn't that a good example of poor driving skills, one of which is managing their speed, rather than 'speeding'.
For my 2 penneth, I often wonder if the NSAC courses were brought in as a buffer to drivers. If all those NSAC cases of the typical 36-39 in a 30 were converted to endorsable points the impact upon increased insurance premiums would probably have created outrage. As a strategy, many opt for the one off fee of a NSAC course rather than the longer term costs on premiums.
Having just run a session on root causes for collisions with an organisation, if RCA was applied to something like 'Why is the 30/40/50 speed limit on the A12345 being exceed so frequently', one might find that the limit imposed was not necessarily appropriate for that section of road. I can't be the only driver that wonders at some limits and if they are really appropriate or was it the easy option for the local authority.
Speed limits and driving skills and standards are possibly the most emotive topics.
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