Who's been done for speeding?
- Thread starter John Sims
- Start date
Good or lucky?
Do you have a road angel or similar?
Maybe you don't visit different areas of the country very often without the required local knowledge,
Particularly,
South Wales - expect mobile vans over the M4 usually from above the opposite lane, no visible markings once the door is open.
Northamptonshire - some burgandy vans and a camera equipped motorcycle.
Dorset - hidden camera van, black mobile gatso on low level tripod.
North Wales - Brainstorms home patch - sometimes use there helicopter for caching speeders.
All camera partnership counties are in it for the money so they are getting more and more desperate to catch people. The 'partnership' (magistrates, camera operators, police, government etc.) have truly massive operating costs, Norfolk has been in the press lately (dodgy camera placement leading to head of partnership losing his job) last year, £1,125,490 in fixed penalty fines, which is just £70 more than its expenditure. Are they succesfull at reducing casualties? no not unless you feel a rise in fatalities is an accetable way to reduce the number of people with serious injuries.
At the same time as the 1,125,490 in one years fines I wonder how much the insurance companies will take from those people over the next 5 years?
Tony
or maybe you never break the limit!
Do you have a road angel or similar?
Maybe you don't visit different areas of the country very often without the required local knowledge,
Particularly,
South Wales - expect mobile vans over the M4 usually from above the opposite lane, no visible markings once the door is open.
Northamptonshire - some burgandy vans and a camera equipped motorcycle.
Dorset - hidden camera van, black mobile gatso on low level tripod.
North Wales - Brainstorms home patch - sometimes use there helicopter for caching speeders.
All camera partnership counties are in it for the money so they are getting more and more desperate to catch people. The 'partnership' (magistrates, camera operators, police, government etc.) have truly massive operating costs, Norfolk has been in the press lately (dodgy camera placement leading to head of partnership losing his job) last year, £1,125,490 in fixed penalty fines, which is just £70 more than its expenditure. Are they succesfull at reducing casualties? no not unless you feel a rise in fatalities is an accetable way to reduce the number of people with serious injuries.
At the same time as the 1,125,490 in one years fines I wonder how much the insurance companies will take from those people over the next 5 years?
Tony
or maybe you never break the limit!
Mark Davies
New member
Got done for 'speeding' in Reading along the man eastbound road out of the Town which is two lanes plus a bus lane, Caught doing 37 MPH in this 30MPH area ealy one Saturday morning (no traffic, no people around).
Now I could bang on about this road having the wrong speed limit, or something along the lines of I had a moments loss of concentration. But no it was my fault, fair cop etc.
But what really, really, really gets up my nose is that these people who skulk around in vans and bushes to catch 'speeders' have at some point I assume gone through the very extensive and proffesional training course to be a proper copper. Surely all this speed trap stuff and traffic policing in general could be handed over to a lesser (cheaper) civil body to allow these highly trained people to come out from the trees and start defending the general public from 'real' crime.
Mark
Now I could bang on about this road having the wrong speed limit, or something along the lines of I had a moments loss of concentration. But no it was my fault, fair cop etc.
But what really, really, really gets up my nose is that these people who skulk around in vans and bushes to catch 'speeders' have at some point I assume gone through the very extensive and proffesional training course to be a proper copper. Surely all this speed trap stuff and traffic policing in general could be handed over to a lesser (cheaper) civil body to allow these highly trained people to come out from the trees and start defending the general public from 'real' crime.
Mark
The scamera partnerships are mostly operated by civilian staff - there have been some questions over the accuracy of the data but it is virtually impossible to challenge can you really get a fair trial when the magistrates are part of the partnership?
The focus on speed is unecessary and wrong. The total number of fatalities in the UK caused by excess speed in excess of the speed limit is at most 3%, around 100 people a year. More people die from inserting foreign objects into their own bodies than that each year in the UK. Over 4,100 die from accidents in the home, over 7500 commit suicide. In a mild winter over 20,000 die from hyperthermia rising to 40,000 in a severe winter. Over 100,000 people die each year from smoking related deaths.
We are a nation of safe drivers and we were safer before the yellow box and the mass criminilisation of people going about their daily business.
We could be even safer with some newer roads, better verge clearing and a consistant grip level but that costs money - which we as drivers already contribute by the bucket load.
Tony
The focus on speed is unecessary and wrong. The total number of fatalities in the UK caused by excess speed in excess of the speed limit is at most 3%, around 100 people a year. More people die from inserting foreign objects into their own bodies than that each year in the UK. Over 4,100 die from accidents in the home, over 7500 commit suicide. In a mild winter over 20,000 die from hyperthermia rising to 40,000 in a severe winter. Over 100,000 people die each year from smoking related deaths.
We are a nation of safe drivers and we were safer before the yellow box and the mass criminilisation of people going about their daily business.
We could be even safer with some newer roads, better verge clearing and a consistant grip level but that costs money - which we as drivers already contribute by the bucket load.
Tony
Guest
New member
Ditto!
I think that there is too much distraction taking the drivers concentration away from actually driving the car and reacting to the traffic around you, when your attention is on looking out for cameras etc. And as everyone leaves it to the last minute to slow down for one......
]As well as (bit off topic) bus lane cameras, negotiating speed humps and those crazy bits of roads where they go from three lanes to one immediately and then back to three, whats that all about? Ship in a bottle! Traffic calming/red rag!
I was going to start a thread of the biggest speed humps gallery. Ok, I can see the purpose but do they have to be soooo big!!!!! [
]They have put so many in and around where I live that the roads are almost level again!Maybe the overbundant supply of tarmac would be put to much better use by filling the holes first. Just a thought.
I would like the Formula 1 to come to London, and go past my house=lovely road.
danmason
New member
Tell me about it... there's a speed camera in Brum that somebody turned round 180degrees about a week ago, so it's facing the pavement. It's part way down a long downhill stretch and people are STILL braking ridiculously as soon as they spot the lines on the road... must be wearing blinkers I reckon. A chap in a cronky old Beemer virtually did an emergency stop in front of me there this evening [
]
Guest
New member
OK time to own up. (Couldn't register poll John.)
M3 Shepperton travelling towards London. Light traffic. Doing about 75mph following another car, outside lane. Cars start to slow down, car in front pulls into centre lane . Spot Police car under bridge, doing 70mph at this point. Carried on, pulled into nearside lane, checking mirrors. Carried on, same speed for about another quarter of a mile, continually checking to see if anything was behind. At this point I couldn't see anything behind me at all, now I know why. The Police at this point must of pulled off, and everyone else was in the 'rolling road block'. Saw some headlights coming up really fast, next time I was looking at blue flashing lights inches away from me.
Pulled over to be told that they had followed me for a quarter mile using visual reference points to calculate my average speed which was 91.37mph. Gave me 3 points and a sixty quid fine. Showed me the times/speed on their mointor. As I had my license on me (as I was driving a Ford Fiesta hire car[:'(]) they would keep it and send it on.
Question: I guess a detector is quite useless if they are only using a video camera and their eyes. Or, is there some way of a detector picking this up?
It was a fair cop[&o]
M3 Shepperton travelling towards London. Light traffic. Doing about 75mph following another car, outside lane. Cars start to slow down, car in front pulls into centre lane . Spot Police car under bridge, doing 70mph at this point. Carried on, pulled into nearside lane, checking mirrors. Carried on, same speed for about another quarter of a mile, continually checking to see if anything was behind. At this point I couldn't see anything behind me at all, now I know why. The Police at this point must of pulled off, and everyone else was in the 'rolling road block'. Saw some headlights coming up really fast, next time I was looking at blue flashing lights inches away from me.
Pulled over to be told that they had followed me for a quarter mile using visual reference points to calculate my average speed which was 91.37mph. Gave me 3 points and a sixty quid fine. Showed me the times/speed on their mointor. As I had my license on me (as I was driving a Ford Fiesta hire car[:'(]) they would keep it and send it on.
Question: I guess a detector is quite useless if they are only using a video camera and their eyes. Or, is there some way of a detector picking this up?
It was a fair cop[&o]
I'm not aware of a detector for such things, at least "not of this world".
I have modified the poll accordingly. Welcome to the three point club Flamin'. I'm assuming you were a "Not been stopped or caught" previously?
Many, many years ago, in my Capri days, I was shadowed by a police car around my local roads. Obviously, being aware he was there, I was being a good boy. He eventualy pulled off and I carried on my way but now massaging the speed limits a little. The cunning little sod doubled back on me and I hadn't noticed. [&o]
edited 'cos I put the wrong name in
Guest
New member
Just a little point, but, if you knew the police were around doing some speed checks, why then do 91.37 average a bit later on ?
If I sound too 'holier than thou', I'm not. I do speed, I have no detector of any sort (never have), been done - once - in 1987. But I wouldn't do 91.37 on a motorway, especially with a lot of traffic around, as it would be pushing my luck too much, and I find motorways boring enough without that.
Maybe I'm too boring, and always drive within the rules (fat chance ! Why would I need 320 BHP otherwise ?).
If I sound too 'holier than thou', I'm not. I do speed, I have no detector of any sort (never have), been done - once - in 1987. But I wouldn't do 91.37 on a motorway, especially with a lot of traffic around, as it would be pushing my luck too much, and I find motorways boring enough without that.
Maybe I'm too boring, and always drive within the rules (fat chance ! Why would I need 320 BHP otherwise ?).
wedgepilot
New member
ORIGINAL: danmason
Tell me about it... there's a speed camera in Brum that somebody turned round 180degrees about a week ago, so it's facing the pavement. It's part way down a long downhill stretch and people are STILL braking ridiculously as soon as they spot the lines on the road... must be wearing blinkers I reckon. A chap in a cronky old Beemer virtually did an emergency stop in front of me there this evening [
What really gets me are the people who are well below the speed limit and still brake when they see the white lines/camera! [
] What planet are they on?
Ah but you have to realise that you are driving a 944 whos speedo is pretty accurate - well mine is.
Lesser cars are set on the safe side so as to avoid any claims against the manufacturer as being at fault and causing a speeding offence. Our Freelander reads 30mph @ 25 and 85mph @ 77 according to my GPS. BKE is almost spot on.
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