Oil at new record: so what else is new?

[jverne]

Any tax levied specifically on motorists should be used in order to benefit motorists. The transport network in this country is a joke, and far from the extortionate prices we pay actually being used to improve things, the motorist is treated as a cash cow to be oppressed and terrorised.
The majority of traffic problems in the UK are not caused by the volume of cars, but by lack of investment in the infrastructure and intentional sabotage. Under Ken Livingstone for example, they deliberately sequenced the traffic lights in London so people would keep getting caught at a red light whereas before traffic flowed relatively smoothly from one green to another, and also so people get stuck in huge jams at junctions to justify the congestion charge and to force people onto public transport. It's completely and utterly unforgivable.



Road deaths fell massively between 1970 and 1993, when they introduced speed cameras and started to spread the "speed kills" message. Now people focus on their speedo instead of the road, and think that their only responsibility as a driver is to obey the speed limit. Subsequently the standard of driving has plumetted in the last 15 years, and the casualty figures have stayed static - factoring into improvements in car safety and engineering, road safety policy of the last 15 years has killed hundreds of people. At the same time, it punishes and penalises safe drivers and makes using the roads a miserable experience.
Now they're trying for widespread introduction of 20mph zones enforced by average speed cameras, which will be an absolute nightmare both for traffic flow and safety. Drivers will all be watching their speedo, and mark my words - if this happens, accidents will go through the roof. There are actually more accidents at the vast majority of speed camera sites than there were prior to their introduction.



So you're becoming a capitalist at last.

i must agree with repi here. just a month ago we had a new law that vastly increased penalties for traffic offenses.

here's my current take on it. for now it seems that the traffic has slowed down a bit, but i can't remember how many times i almost crashed into a car or a person because i was watching the speedy. in the long run i guess people will get used to there new laws and carry on with their old ways, driving like idiots.

fortunately for me i don't drive too fast by default.

for example in an area with the limit 50km/h if you go 5-10km/h more you get a 120EU ticket. and it goes up with the speed...i think its 240EU 20kmh, 500EU for 30kmh, 1000EU for 40kmh, 1000EU+ loss of license for 50kmh.

let me tell you there, going 70kmh in alot of areas around me is so easy that you just don't notice, even going 100kmh is not that difficult, especially at night. but i'm not talking about in the middle of the city. the outskirts have a 50kmh zone too and the roads are designed at least for 70kmh. our road management is total crap

 

[Escaep]

Gas in Bosnia is $11 a gallon. That is the most expensive in the world. The cheapest is like Venezuela 12 c/gal.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/104996/Why-Gas-in-the-U.S.-Is-So-Cheap

 

[AiM]

Free market dictates that you charge whatever the market will pay for. And you realize that the cost of oil extraction is constantly rising as the easy to get to oil is disappearing.

Free market also dictates that companies follow the economic laws of supply and demand, which is obviously not the case here. The oil companies realize there is no current viable alternative fuel to oil, which then enables them to perform their blatant price gouging. The supply of oil is there, it's just that oil cartels like OPEC are intentionally limiting the supply to raise profits through the roof.

Whatever the cost of oil extraction is, it's irrelevant when you look at the record setting profits oil companies make year-to-year. It's not like they're scraping by in earning at marginal levels here.

 

[repiV]

i must agree with repi here. just a month ago we had a new law that vastly increased penalties for traffic offenses.

here's my current take on it. for now it seems that the traffic has slowed down a bit, but i can't remember how many times i almost crashed into a car or a person because i was watching the speedy. in the long run i guess people will get used to there new laws and carry on with their old ways, driving like idiots.

fortunately for me i don't drive too fast by default.

for example in an area with the limit 50km/h if you go 5-10km/h more you get a 120EU ticket. and it goes up with the speed...i think its 240EU 20kmh, 500EU for 30kmh, 1000EU for 40kmh, 1000EU+ loss of license for 50kmh.

let me tell you there, going 70kmh in alot of areas around me is so easy that you just don't notice, even going 100kmh is not that difficult, especially at night. but i'm not talking about in the middle of the city. the outskirts have a 50kmh zone too and the roads are designed at least for 70kmh. our road management is total crap

I hear you. Our fines aren't so extortionate, but speeding offences also result in points on your license, which is the worst part. You can literally get snapped doing 33mph in a 30 zone by a camera and get 3 points on your license plus 60 quid fine. 12 points and you're banned.
And the really galling thing is that 3 points and a 60 pound fine is the usual punishment that's handed out to drivers that don't look properly at junctions and pull out on a biker, even if they cause serious injury or death. There's no sense of proportion here at all.
One of the really, really dangerous side-effects of the speed kills mantra is that people are now believing that it's good practice to never exceed the speed limit to overtake. Head-on collision anyone? Any advanced instructor will tell you to use full throttle to overtake to minimise time exposed to danger, it's just bleeding common sense.

My theory is that so many people buy the "speed kills" crap because they can afford to. It's easy to get away with pootling around in a car without having any real idea of how to drive, and the risks involved are actually very low, so it's entirely possible for them to believe that they haven't crashed yet because they've always obeyed the speed limit.
It's all a delusion, ultimately. On a bike I don't have the luxury of believing in false safety dogma, I need to know and understand real dangers because if I didn't then I would crash on a daily basis.
On a suitably high quality motorway/dual carriageway, by scanning and observing all the way up to the horizon line as I do, I find that even 120mph is a fairly relaxing speed given low traffic volume. People only think it's fast because all they do is drive on autopilot and stare at the car bumper in front of them.

The key to making good progress on the road is your ability to process information. The keener, broader and further ahead your observations, the more information about your surroundings that you take in, the faster you can safely travel and no matter what speed you choose to drive at, you will identify hazards far earlier and those "oh shit" moments will not happen. It's entirely possible to ride at well into three figure speeds (and not just on dry, empty motorways either, but rural roads too) whilst being entirely calm, collected and leaving good safety margins. It's a skill that eludes your average driver because their ability to process information about their surroundings is beyond abysmal.