47 per cent of Norwegian motorists state that they often or occasionally break the speed limit in the 50 zones. As many as eight out of ten break the speed limit in 80 zones.
The figures are from a new nationwide survey from Kantar carried out on behalf of Trygg Trafikk.
Many people in the 30 zones also drive too fast. Three out of ten do it occasionally or more often, according to the survey.
“There is talk of densely populated areas and residential areas with children and novice road users. Then it is extra important to keep your speed down and be vigilant. We at Trygg Trafikk also want more police patrols in densely populated areas,” says Bård Morten Johansen, senior adviser at Trygg Trafikk.
48 per cent of those who drive too fast say they do it because they forget, while 37 per cent think they can drive too fast because the road is good enough.
Most dangerous driving occurs on the highways. In the 80 zones, more than two out of ten say they almost always break the speed limit. More than eight out of ten say they do it occasionally or often.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
Many years ago now, I was following someone driving along a city back street with backyards and garages on it, on our way to a funeral.
This fellow – idiot – ahead of me was apparently trying to show me how he could get to the funeral first and was dashing down it at like 40 kph or so.
*I* was terrified. Back in the States a kid once came shooting down out of an alley on his bicycle without bothering to look either way, and I hit him broadside. I was going very slowly, so he wasn’t hurt … as I later found out after finding his address and checking with his mom. (Today, bloodthirsty lawyers would be lined up outside her door begging her to sue me, of course.)
Anyway, in this Sør Trondelag town’s back street I was scared to death of some 3,4, or 5 year old running out in front of me from behind one of the garages, but my Norwegian … passenger … thought I was being “paranoid.”
WHY would anyone like that driver ahead of me take such a chance? … for any reason?
A happier episode. I was on the side of our dead-end, inclined back street talking with a couple neighbors, and my children – son 6 and daughter 4 then, I believe – wandered out into the street, and I told them to STAY OUT OF THE STREET. It’s DANGEROUS.
One of the neighbors said I didn’t need to worry so much, since there were so few cars on the street, so my daughter ignored me. And AT THAT VERY INSTANT a fast-moving DHL delivery truck coming fast up the road turned to accelerate up our lane, and my daughter … of course … FROZE right in front of it, very much a deAr in headlights.
Fortunately!, the driver saw her in time to break HARD, and I “escorted” her off the road, re-iterating my point about being in streets unnecessarily was DANGEROUS. (I have also told them to look both ways each for his/her self when crossing a street and not just blindly follow the other one. And they do.)
And I left my neighbors to ponder what had just happened.
Denial (of danger) is something of a Norwegian cultural art form, I have observed.
I wrote an e-mail to DHL commending that driver, and got back a very nice, appreciative acknowledgement from them.