There are other factors – for instance, tyre tests by motoring magazines suggest that braking distances can vary in the order of 5-6% or so between brands; and, yes, el cheapo no-brand Chinese and Indonesian tyres are the worst by some margin. Not keeping your tyres at the recommended pressures can also add a couple of percent or so.

He defines “petty maliceâ€? as “dobbing for things I don’t think are a big dealâ€?. You only differ on where you draw that line.

No, I don’t think so. I define dobbing as a persistent and malicious outsourcing of bullying. A complaint about every infraction of every rule is nothing more than bullying by proxy, for mine, and I have a problem with that.

I agree that his thesis about trust is utter bollocks – but I do worry that the Government is encouraging a surveillance culture within our community:

The only trust we get from anti-dobbing is the trust that we won’t get caught for petty offences well, you could always, y’know, not commit them.

I don’t see how this differs substantially from: “If you haven’t done anything wrong, what have you got to worry about?”

Robert Merkel didn’t say that driver skills overcome the laws of physics. He was saying that speed isn’t the only contributor to safety in a car.

What is a neo-liberal anyway?

But in answer to your question, capitalism (or any political philosophy for that matter) can’t function without knowledge. Though it can function perfectly well without perfect knowledge. Indeed, perfect knowledge would be inefficient.

Oh no, he recognises it. He defines “petty malice” as “dobbing for things I don’t think are a big deal”. You only differ on where you draw that line.

Much more silly for me is the suggestion that anti-dobbing culture is a really important foundation of trust in society. The most important sort of trust – the security of knowing you’re unlikely to be robbed, bashed, ripped off, murdered with impunity, is a product of our trust that people dob when it’s important.

The only trust we get from anti-dobbing is the trust that we won’t get caught for petty offences – well, you could always, y’know, not commit them.

So ringing the water line on a neighbour who’s using a couple of thousand litres a day on watering a couple of marigolds and a lemon tree isn’t ‘dobbing’ – but running them in for watering their plants, jaywalking, opening a bottle of wine in a public park, and spitting on the street would be.

There’s an element of petty malice in the way that I conceptualise ‘dobbing’, that I don’t think that Chris Berg is recognising.

The vast majority of drivers don’t use the maximum braking force available the brakes in a crash situation. Manufacturers have had to introduce Brake Assist, which, essentially, slams on the brakes and holds them on if it thinks you’re trying to do a crash stop.

Speeding is a problem, but it’s by no means the only driver failing out there.