Morality of speeding drivers discussed

On 14 December Guardian columnist Andrew Brown reported his experiences on a speed awareness course, which he attended after being caught by a speed camera. “It was an interesting opportunity for the examination of the emotional mechanisms underlying moral conduct,” he began. “Driving a car is almost certainly the most dangerous thing that any of us do in our lives. Certainly it’s the most dangerous to other people. So there’s no doubt that regulating drivers is part of any kind of utilitarian concept of morality, and certainly part of the essential functions of a state. Bad driving is wicked and antisocial under any recognised scheme of morality.

“I suppose you can argue that some speeding is entirely safe,” Brown conceded. “But in a country where the speed cameras are painted bright yellow anyone who fails to notice one is guilty at the very least of driving without proper concentration.”

He then turned to the speed awareness course itself. “One interesting thing is that there was no attempt by our lecturers to make explicit the moral dimensions of what we had done,” Brown noted. “I’m not saying there should have been. It wouldn’t have been effective. But the emphasis was entirely on self-interest and the unpleasant social and financial consequences of being caught again.

“Related to this was the extraordinary lack of remorse or even interest shown by some of the participants,” he added. “The only time there was an outbreak of moral outrage was when one of our number confessed that he sometimes rode a bicycle. Cyclists, we rapidly learned, were vile, dangerous outlaws who shot red lights, paid no tax, rode on the pavement and behaved with utter disregard for the safety of anyone else on the road.

“While this noise was going on, I had a small epiphany,” Brown concluded. “The cyclists were hated because they are cheats. They are getting away with something that car drivers cannot. The motorist is born free, but is everywhere in queues. They [drivers] have become anarchic individualists, held in line only by fear of punishment. They don’t see anything wrong in cheating, nor in other drivers cheating. Only in their hatred of cyclists is a vestigial mark of any moral sentiment… As for me, for the moment, I am driving more slowly.”

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