Is Speed Worth It?

Is speed so important nowadays? Other thanroads where the police consider to be hotspots
bragging rights, do people really care about thefor over speeding. So we have constant
top speed of their cars. Outside of a race track,monitoring in place, which means that there is
there are very little opportunities to test the limitmore chance of being caught and prosecuted with
of your car. So given that the speed limit in the3 points or more on your licence. 12 points in the
UK is 70mph, and allowing for some overtakingUK, means an outright driving ban for 2 years.
speed, a top speed double this seems pointless.Before cameras, a 'human' police officer may
Sports cars, which will have more powerfulconsider the conditions of the road, or the
engines and thus higher tops speeds, also havenumber of others vehicles in proximity to you,
exotic and distinctive looks. So, the sports carbefore deciding to issue a fine. You could have
may say more about the status of the owner,probably been let off with a caution if you were
rather than any particular need for the car tonot travelling too much over the limit or driving
travel at the speed it was designed to do so. Therecklessly. A camera however, is ignorant of such
question is not really targeted at these owners,factors. So once you are photographed, there is
but more for the person who would sacrificelittle you can do to escape the penalty.
features in a car for a gain in speed.As electronics become more sophisticated, there
The obvious reason against driving fast would beare more advanced ways of detecting your
to reduce the risk of accident to you. Driving fastspeed. Sure there are ways of detecting the
does not necessarily kill you, but stopping does.camera's themselves, including advanced
You may be familiar with the road safety tests,detectors that use GPS, but speed cameras are
where the stopping distances needs torelatively cheap to install. So for most of your
memorised against the speed of the car. So atjourney, you'll will be driving within the speed limit
higher speeds, there is less reaction time toas you slow down to avoid the speed traps,
danger ahead, and so there is more of a chanceespecially as speed camera's become more
of being involved in an accident.common.
Another reason for driving slower, would beSo next time you shop for a car, you may find
increasing amount of surveillance techniques usedthat a model with more luxury items may be
by the police.more desirable than a model with a higher top
Here in the UK, there are speed surveillancespeed.
cameras, such as Gatso's, that are placed at