Who do you think you are, Lewis Hamilton?

[bobsbeer]

When I was in the police the discrepancy used to be 10% as this was the legally allowed error for speedometers. As far as I know this error is still in force, but I may be wrong. So 33 is the limit for 30mph and 77 for 70mph etc. So I would anticipate that fixed cameras would be set for 34mph. But test that at your own risk. :lol:

 

[Jeltz]

However if that variance is there to allow for inaccuracy in speedometer readings then you might think you are doing 33 when really you are doing 36.......

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Regarding speeding....sorry OP...speed limits are set for a reason.....yes I know that modern cars can go faster and brake better than cars that were built when the speed limits were set...Its really not about that is it? weve all seen the advert..."if you hit me at 40mph Ill have a xxx% of living".
Drive sensibly

 

[Jeltz]

I agree, I thought it was just me that's a grumpy old sod about that. Yesterday evening, near where I live, there was a nasty crash on a road where several people have died over the years and always because people speed there.

99% of the time they get away with it but 1% of the time they come round the corner to find a stationary queue of traffic or just drift over into the path of oncoming vehicles.

The car last night had been hit at some speed from behind. I didn't see the car which had hit it and don't know if anyone was seriously hurt but if there were rear seat passengers in the one I saw they would have been in trouble.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

I have first hand experience of the problem with speeding.....In 1999 two of my best waiters were driving home too fast...too much speed, going around a corner...Police Report...too much understear, flipped the car and ended up in a small (and repeat "small") pond. They didn't die from their injuries, they drowned to death.
Please drive sensibly

 

[Moley]

All West Mids Police speed cameras were turned off in April. The only ones about are the mobile vans.

I live in Worcestershire and got nabbed in Staffordshire. Even so, I don't plan on testing that claim, just in case it was announced on April 1st.

Regarding speeding....sorry OP...speed limits are set for a reason.....yes I know that modern cars can go faster and brake better than cars that were built when the speed limits were set...Its really not about that is it? weve all seen the advert..."if you hit me at 40mph Ill have a xxx% of living".
Drive sensibly

Well I know that now. Like I said, the course has had a lasting effect on my driving habits.

And I'm driving even more conservatively now I've got a car with a trip computer, my interest is in MPG rather than MPH.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Regarding speeding....sorry OP...speed limits are set for a reason.....yes I know that modern cars can go faster and brake better than cars that were built when the speed limits were set...Its really not about that is it? weve all seen the advert..."if you hit me at 40mph Ill have a xxx% of living".
Drive sensibly

Modern technology is of little use if there's ice on the roads or a pillock behind the wheel, and if you're unlucky enough to be anywhere near both? God rest your soul!

There's a junction in Bedford, coming out of De Parys Avenue onto Broadway, where cars have to stop or slow to a crawl even in the best of conditions, because they're joining traffic that is coming from diagonally behind them and there's a building that blocks the line of sight until the last few yards. About ten years ago I had a very nasty near miss when a Mercedes shot out right in front of me at about 40mph at that junction - 10mph higher than the limit in that area and, since it was just after dawn on a day that was some way below freezing, over twice what was safe for the conditions. Broadway was very icy that morning, so how the driver didn't end up in the line of shops opposite I have no idea. Had I been a few yards further along Broadway I'd have been killed, as would the pedestrians on the pavement opposite if the ice on the road had been more slippery.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

As Clarkson keeps on saying "the weakest link in any car is the driver"
Drive responibly

 

[PaulCa]

Regarding speeding....sorry OP...speed limits are set for a reason.....yes I know that modern cars can go faster and brake better than cars that were built when the speed limits were set...Its really not about that is it? weve all seen the advert..."if you hit me at 40mph Ill have a xxx% of living".
Drive sensibly

If it says 30mph on a sign, does that mean it's safe to do 30mph? This is my problem. Enforcing speed limits takes no account for the risk imposed by speed. In my opinion, barreling past a school at 30mph (in a 30 zone) while there are kids darting across the road should get your done for speeding. Yet, when doing 40mph along the same stretch of 30mph road at 11pm where there isn't a sinner around shoudn't get your done for speeding.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

The legal line is you must be given a 10‰ tolerance.

So in a 30mph zone that means you can't be done up to 33mph.

They are also optional extra tolerances up to 2mph, in Essex they use 2mph so you would have to be doing 36 mph to get caught by a camera, and then you would get offered the speed awareness course. The courses are great, I did one voluntarily as I have contacts.

 

[bobsbeer]

I think safety is the problem with any speed limit. A limit does not mean it's safe as you say. But one person's judgement of safe will be very different to another. It often surprises me when you see people doing 70mph in thick fog or snow on the motorway. They may not technically be speeding, but they are reckless. And even 30 mph may be reckless in those conditions. What we need are autonomous cars not humans making decisions. Let's face it we are crap at it.

 

[Cononthebarber]

I was done a while back by a fixed camera in a village called Haydon Bridge on the way to Newcastle from Carlisle. I was apparently doing 38 miles an hour. I remember the road clearly and there is a straight stretch of road as you go through the village you then go over a bridge and then you can see the national speed limit sign on your way out. I started to speed up on my way out of the village and the buggers have stuck a camera just after the bridge, behind some overgrown bushes. I read later in an newspaper article that that camera was in the top 50 earning cameras in the UK! Safety camera my A**E! Cash machine more like!

 

[PaulCa]

What we need are autonomous cars not humans making decisions. Let's face it we are crap at it.

Machines don't make decisions, or rather we program the machine with decisions and the tolerances and thresholds under which to make them. As a computer programmer, the level of complexity in deciding your speed is immense, the number of type of inputs are truely huge, orders of magnitude more complex than most computer systems in existence with exception of high end modelling systems.

In my opinion, driving standards need to be improved for *safety* not for cash. I would support spot enforcement for retraining and retesting portions of the driving test. Similar to the speed awareness test, but for specific driving skills. Observation awareness, indication awareness, hazard perception awareness, how to control the car awareness, driving on ice/snow awareness, pedestrian and cyclist behaviour (lemmings) awareness and so on.

To many people, including people I know, see their driving test as a right of passage that can be simply forgotten about once passed. They simply forget everything they were taught and make no effort to learn further, (like most people do with Maths), in fact their skills and observation degrade over time and bad habits and lack of due care and attention increase. I know people who, from as far as I can see, the only reason they don't have more accidents is because they have not met themselves on the road all that often and it actually increases my opinion of other drivers that they are still alive!

What qualifications do I have to make these comments? I have survived on the roads for: 39 years as a pedestrian, 30 years as a cyclist, 12 years as a motorcyclist and 8 years as a car driver without a single accident. How? I respect the fact that the roads are probably one of the most dangerous places we frequent on a daily basis. I respect the fact that people are often unaware, non observant, incapable of following the rules and sometimes simply stupid to the point of being suicidal. Expect the unexpected? No. Expect the stupid, ignorant and clueless. If you can't see it, consider it a priority one hazard. Every corner has a huge pitch fork welding tractor round it. Every parked car has a kid waiting to run from behind it (or the door to open). And... NEVER EVER assume someone has seen you. NEVER EVER trust an indicator or lack of. Always assume the worst.

Oh and as to the rules. Having the right of way, being in the right, following the rules does not stop it hurting. I always place safety ahead of the rules and laws. I will happily go to jail for saving my own life or others by breaking the rules/laws.

And... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BKdbxX1pDw

 

[evanvine]

they offered me a speed awareness course (and no penalty points) for the same price as the fine

I wondered where you'd been. :whistle:

 

[morethanworts]

What we need are autonomous cars not humans making decisions. Let's face it we are crap at it.

Machines don't make decisions, or rather we program the machine with decisions and the tolerances and thresholds under which to make them. As a computer programmer, the level of complexity in deciding your speed is immense, the number of type of inputs are truely huge, orders of magnitude more complex than most computer systems in existence with exception of high end modelling systems.

In my opinion, driving standards need to be improved for *safety* not for cash. I would support spot enforcement for retraining and retesting portions of the driving test. Similar to the speed awareness test, but for specific driving skills. Observation awareness, indication awareness, hazard perception awareness, how to control the car awareness, driving on ice/snow awareness, pedestrian and cyclist behaviour (lemmings) awareness and so on.

To many people, including people I know, see their driving test as a right of passage that can be simply forgotten about once passed. They simply forget everything they were taught and make no effort to learn further, (like most people do with Maths), in fact their skills and observation degrade over time and bad habits and lack of due care and attention increase. I know people who, from as far as I can see, the only reason they don't have more accidents is because they have not met themselves on the road all that often and it actually increases my opinion of other drivers that they are still alive!

What qualifications do I have to make these comments? I have survived on the roads for: 39 years as a pedestrian, 30 years as a cyclist, 12 years as a motorcyclist and 8 years as a car driver without a single accident. How? I respect the fact that the roads are probably one of the most dangerous places we frequent on a daily basis. I respect the fact that people are often unaware, non observant, incapable of following the rules and sometimes simply stupid to the point of being suicidal. Expect the unexpected? No. Expect the stupid, ignorant and clueless. If you can't see it, consider it a priority one hazard. Every corner has a huge pitch fork welding tractor round it. Every parked car has a kid waiting to run from behind it (or the door to open). And... NEVER EVER assume someone has seen you. NEVER EVER trust an indicator or lack of. Always assume the worst.

Oh and as to the rules. Having the right of way, being in the right, following the rules does not stop it hurting. I always place safety ahead of the rules and laws. I will happily go to jail for saving my own life or others by breaking the rules/laws.

And... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BKdbxX1pDw

I don't understand why anyone who recognises how dangerous our roads are as much as this would ever want to get on two wheels with no metal box around them. Defensive driving alone may one day not be enough.

I would ultimately defend your right to ride a motor bike and much of what you say about drivers is very true, but it will barely matter whose fault it was if you're dead.

 

[PaulCa]

I don't understand why anyone who recognises how dangerous our roads are as much as this would ever want to get on two wheels with no metal box around them. Defensive driving alone may one day not be enough.

I find it calming and empowering to be that close to death, but yet 100% in control. I can lie awake at night worrying about driving a motorbike, or even driving a car, but when I pull away from the kerb I have no time for that kind of thought as I am immersed in concentration. Less so with the car as it's always full of distractions and creature comforts that can make you forget where you are.

Not so on the bike, nor in my other hobby, paragliding, another activity that 100% consumes your concentration and puts your own life directly into your own hands.

Studies have shown that, counter-intuitively, that such dangerous activities have a calming effect on those who partake in them. For those who don't enjoy them it would probably scare the living hell out of them.