Kill a cyclist, get community punishment

You've said that the truth of it isn't important

Not when it comes to perception that a lot of current road laws are there to raise a bit cash for the council rather than actually stopping dangerous driving. People aren't rational.

When you then consider a criminal case you'll naturally think that the driver's speed can't have been the problem, it was just bad luck that a child happened to step out in front of them (there but for the grace of god etc.). What this completely ignores is that every extra mph increases the probability of a collision if a child steps out in front of you, and increases the severity of injury and probability of death.

Not when some speed limits are completely fucking arbitrary. If they are going to fast in a residential area, then yeah they should have the book thrown at them.

But there are a lot of arbitrary limits i.e. 50mph on a 3 lane carriage way on the way into Sheffield... seriously why is it that slow?

Also "going slightly faster than the speed limit" is something that shouldn't happen. The speed limits reduce the severity of impacts and so people should stick to them. Rather than aiming to drive at the limit (30mph say) and not worrying about creeping up to 33mph, you should be driving at 25mph and not worrying if your speed goes up to 30mph.

Nobody is going to do that because everyone wants to get places quickly and 25 mph is really fucking slow on most roads.

There are a million good reasons to drive below the speed limit (poor visibility, fatigue, parked cars, lots of pedestrians, cyclists, rain, poor road surface, low sun, bad brakes) and no reason other than common-or-garden cuntishness to drive above it.

If your car's brakes are fucked the car should be in the garage FFS. You drive to the conditions. If I am speeding on a straight road with perfect visibility for miles ahead is that dangerous, obviously fucking not.