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Good Morning,

Last week I drove to a business hotel just off the M40. There, I made my way to a room where around 50 people were gathering, each with the same ‘I really don’t want to be here’ expression on their faces. It was as broad a cross section of society as you could find. But the thing that united us was our common offence. We had all broken the speed limit and were taking the inconvenience of four hours of correction instead of the punishment of points.

Last year, just over a million drivers opted to complete a Speed Awareness Course, as an alternative to receiving fixed penalty points and a fine. The course is designed to change the behaviour of speeding motorists and prevent them from re-offending. Not since school detention had I been in a room full of so many wrongdoers. And just like a detention, we had two choices: moan and get punished again, or use the time to learn something.

At first, the mood was recalcitrant. I think many had the feeling that if others deserved to be here, they didn’t. We were, to quote the gospel, ‘confident of our own righteousness – and looking down on everyone else.’ The entitlement and self-justification in the room was palpable. When asked to confess our offences nearly all offered an excuse: ‘I was doing 57 in a 50 but I didn’t see the sign; or ‘it didn’t feel like 60.’ Or ‘Everyone else was going 75.’

It was like a scene from an existential comedy. With everyone (as Beckett put it) ‘blaming on his boots the fault of his feet.’ Thankfully the people running the course knew how to get the best from the players. Instead of compounding our guilt, they asked us why we thought we had broken the speed limit. And then, what the consequences could be for us and others. They showed us how speeding made it worse for everyone. And slowly, through a curious combination of confession and information, the room moved from self-justification and resistance to self- awareness and acceptance.

Someone who’s done the course it 23% less likely to speed again than someone who took the points. So there’s something in the confession-information formulae. To repent means to change direction and turn around. But it’s much easier to turn around when you are given the space to admit you need to, have an understanding of why you need to, and are shown that there’s a better way.

As I drove home afterwards, the needle of the speedometer nudging the speed limit, I eased off the accelerator. It was still easy to transgress in this world. But at least I knew I was doing something wrong and had an informed desire not to do so again. When we’re heading the wrong way, too fast, awareness that we’re doing it is the first step to changing direction and driving to a safer future.

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