Been on the naughty step today 🙁

[Andy™]

whole thing is just a money making scam

if you want to speed and drive like a twat without fear of punishment then retrain as a cop. or an MP

 

[Murdoch]

whole thing is just a job creation scam

if you want to speed and drive like a twat without fear of punishment then retrain as a cop. or an MP

Edited that for you

 

[binky]

There but for fortune......... I guess I've been lucky so far.
What annoys me is that I'm sure there is as much fund raising as safety involved in the operation. I've often seen the mobile trap van early in a morning, when traffic is at a minimum, and there is actually no danger caused by a few extra MPH. On top of that it's been on roads where the long standing limit has been recently lowered.
I personally think that the average speed systems are more effective at controlling speed and fairer in that they don't punish a momentary breach like the camera vans do.

Ain't that the truth, nice day, light traffic, bumbling along at overvthevspeed limit, but not in a danderous way - that's when you get caught. Beware average speed cameras, some now have speed cameras aswell.

 

[johnb2713]

During my time as an approved driving instructor I had the 'pleasure' of presenting a couple of speed awareness courses on behalf of Lincolnshire Police. Around 30 innocent people each time being unfairly made to spend a morning or afternoon in the classroom. Very few drivers gave a positive review at the end of it, there were perhaps 2 or maybe 3 people that said they had learned from the experience.
In my 50+ years of driving, I've never had points on my licence, I have been stopped for speeding and I was absolutely straight and polite to the officers and always got let off with a bollocking.

 

[Murdoch]

300 mile trip yesterday. Noticed 1 mobile camera on a bridge.

But encountered undertaking, excessive speeding, people on phones, cars towing in the 3rd lane of the motorway.

Speed cameras are a rather blunt tool and no wonder driving standards have dropped so much.

 

[johnb2713]

300 mile trip yesterday. Noticed 1 mobile camera on a bridge.

But encountered undertaking, excessive speeding, people on phones, cars towing in the 3rd lane of the motorway.

Speed cameras are a rather blunt tool and no wonder driving standards have dropped so much.

Totally agree with you, 100%. Speed cameras of all flavours are a good revenue raiser. Speeding IMHO should only be a fixed penalty offence with no points on your licence unless it's excessive speeding eg 20mph above the limit.

 

[Murdoch]

One thing on the course I did learn is that lorry drivers are sending dashcam footage to the Police to report lane hoggers and they are getting fined.

 

[kerching]

I admitted I was speeding in my response letter and on the course
It was 35 in a 30, clear , dry spell , empty road and, oh yeah, I was responding to a call from Lancashire Fire Brigade to kill a fire alarm in a factory that we had just installed.we told the Chairman NOT to fiddle with it as it had not been commissioned and that it would be on test for a few days BUT his original system was still functioning so he was still covered for his insurance. He 'forgot'. Turned old one off, new one on and all hell let loose. It triggered 10 minutes after he left site and nobody knew what to do. Hey ho, he paid for the course

 

[Murdoch]

Interestingly the Course tutors didn’t ask us about our speeds

the lady next to me said she was clocked at 36 in a 30, when I said I was clocked at 86 on a motorway at night when it was clear, she said she thought I should have been given a ticket automatically.

after they gave us the stats about how many injuries / deaths occur in urban areas versus motorways, she changed her tune

 

[Geoff1946]

One thing on the course I did learn is that lorry drivers are sending dashcam footage to the Police to report lane hoggers and they are getting fined.

Well that's a good one. The worst lane hogging I've observed on many occasions is two HGVs side by side for long distances, sometimes finishing with the attempted overtaker eventually dropping back.

 

[ProDave]

How does the calibration of your speedometers stack up?

For years I used to think they were accurate, and I might just creep up to an indicated 80 on the motorway if I was feeling lucky.

But now we have GPS so readily available and roadside speed displays. That has been a revelation. When I got my new car this year, the first thing I did on a long journey with a passenger (so he could play with the phone to get the GPS speed) I worked out that when GPS says 70 my speedo was saying about 79. So 80 is where I now set the cruise control which should only just be above a real 70.

If speedo's have been under reading on all the cars I have owned before I actually calibrated one, it is no wonder I have never had a speeding ticket.

 

[Geoff1946]

Speedos reading high is normal.
They obviously have a manufacturing tolerance, and its illegal for it to read low so calibration must be set high to start with..
Consider also that it's normally based on engine/ transmission speed and that the wheel diameter of a car varies with tyre pressure and tyre wear, so it's no wonder that the dashboard indication is only an approximation.

 

[Andy™]

they vary wildly

pass one of those signs that tell you your speed every day. im my van, speedo needs to say 34-35 for sign to say 30. car is 32-33

many different factors taken into account

 

[binky]

One thing on the course I did learn is that lorry drivers are sending dashcam footage to the Police to report lane hoggers and they are getting fined.

My local plod have been asking the general public to send any dashcam evidence they have to prosecute motorists.

 

[UNG]

The calibration of a vehicle speedometer has to take into account the rolling diameter of the tyres which with tyre wear will vary from new to worn out. The allowable reading margins for a speedo is +10% / -0% so it can't read under the actual speed the vehicle is travelling. On a lot of modern cars especially when there are a number of different wheel and tyre options the vehicle has a configuration file in one of the ECU's that has settings for changing the wheel / tyre diameters so the speedo is corrected

 

[Andy™]

My local plod have been asking the general public to send any dashcam evidence they have to prosecute motorists.

saves having police on the roads, jsut let someone snitch on others and send them the video allowing office staff to deal with all prosecutions with no consideration for any background info (like the camera car being the cause of the incident in the first place)

policing on the cheap. same with the cameras. no wonder people have no respect for police

 

[johnb2713]

saves having police on the roads, jsut let someone snitch on others and send them the video allowing office staff to deal with all prosecutions with no consideration for any background info (like the camera car being the cause of the incident in the first place)

policing on the cheap. same with the cameras. no wonder people have no respect for police

I dont see it as policing on the cheap, I have no issues in helping the police which is helping to maintain law and order for me and my family. I have reported 2 drink drivers and in both cases they were lifted and banned, I have no guilt over this at all.

 

[binky]

I dont see it as policing on the cheap, I have no issues in helping the police which is helping to maintain law and order for me and my family. I have reported 2 drink drivers and in both cases they were lifted and banned, I have no guilt over this at all.

It's definitely policing on the cheap, but I'm not against it per se. You just have to view some of the you tube videos to see how bad some people's driving is. What does concern me is overtaking dreadful drivers, the sort that go around hedgerow lanes at 20 mph, or slow down to stare at the view - get a lot of tourists who drive like that in my area. So you overtake them and risk getting fined.

 

[Andy™]

I dont see it as policing on the cheap, I have no issues in helping the police which is helping to maintain law and order for me and my family. I have reported 2 drink drivers and in both cases they were lifted and banned, I have no guilt over this at all.

in addition to normal policing is good. instead they reducing policing on the streets and instead relying on this to prosecute bad driving. policing on the cheap

 

[Murdoch]

If I had time today I would go back and find the footage of the BMW X5 towing a trailer in the 3rd lane of the M5 doing over 80. What a plank to say the very least