General Chat

I got caught by one today and I was wondering whether it was legal or not. I was breaking the speed limit I had taken my eyes off the spedo and before I new it I was doing 38 in a 30 zone. So guilty as charged. the only thing was I didnt see any warning signs that it was there and the van was hiding round a blind corner. You had no way of knowing it was there til you were on top of it. are they allowed to do this?

Jane

It's legal alright!!I don't know if things have changed but I think you may get points and a fine.

Hi

Yes they are allowed to do it, they only have to have signs for fixed cameras.

Personally if people didn't speed then they wouldn't be necessary, whether for 30 secs or 30 mins speeding is illegal.

Hi Sandra,

what is a speed limit?
is it an optimum speed that is safe to drive at?
not neccesarily.......
it is a speed that some body ????
HAS decided is appropriate for that road condition. it take no notice of changing road /weather/ traffic conditions..what might be safe in broad daylight in dry weather is likely unsafe at night , maybe with darkness, bad lighting,and rain.

Talivans are becoming more and more covert,
they sometimes have the appearance of a broken down vehicle in a layby, or hidden under trees........but they SHOULD not be directly round a blind bend...

I would ask EVERY ONE....hand on heart that they have NEVER EVER strayed above the posted limit.
if you drive with one eye on the speedo.........you definately are not a safe driver.....and not watching the other idiots or the road..........slow, but not safe.........

I suggest a look at this site might enlighten some, to the use of speed traps.....http://www.safespeed.org.uk/



Bob

thanks everyone. I'm not trying to get out of the fine. I did wrong (not intentionally I'm usually very good at keeping to the speed limits) I just feel that they should not hide round a blind corner like that. After all by doing that they can't be acting as a deterrant they are only hiding to make as much money as possible. I will take a look at that website and see what it says.

Jane

As said, speed limits take no account of road conditions.
30mph past a school may be legal, but not safe, ditto 70mph in fog.
Sticking to 50mph for miles on a clear road simply creates frustration and a reluctance to slow down when a hazard DOES appear.

If speeding is dangerous then it should be prosecuted as dangerous driving, so logically there should be many times the number of prosecutions for careless and dangerous driving and none for speeding.

According to today's newspaper reports, a new hand-held speed camera can operate in darkness.

I have noticed that my sat nav indicated speed is slower than my speedo indicated speed.
allegedly this is because the manufacturers cant make a speedo that is 100% accurate.
they have to make it so that THEY cant be prosecuted for allowing a vehicle to get done for speeding....so they err on the side of caution

Various things come into play, with brand new tyres your car travels slightly further than with tyres that are 1/4 inch worn down. with worn tyres your speedo reads optimistically..Therefore at an indicated 30, you may only doing 27-28 mph, and the error gets worse the faster you go.

correspondingly your fuel consumption will have the same error, built in......

quote"" MY car does 115"........no it does'nt.. you may be lucky to get just about 105..

I asked Tom Tom about the accuracy of their readout.......

100% accurate was their reply,
but my guess is....only in a straight line....
about 99.5% on bends........curves.

food for thought?

Bob


Harswell.....I trust that you DO get to the Allowed speed and are not a 50mph centre lag hogger?

AH! thats me then.......if someone wants to go quicker than I ,then I'll move over and let them by..........what REALLY gets up MY nose is the middle lane driver that pullsout to overtake something at about 2 mph faster.....when if he looked in his mirror he would see me coming a bit quicker than he is.....and COULD have let me by especially when behind ME the road is empty....
you know, the only accident I have been involved in was when the handbrake "slipped" for want of a better word(methinks the brakes cooled down) and the car rolled back into a dry stone wall..
LOl " Twas a renault.........not a citroen .......LOL

Bob

Jane

Don't know where you live, but if this is your first offense you could be sent on a course that costs £70 instead of paying £60 and getting 3 points.

I got offered this when I was caught doing 34mph in a 30 limit, it was an absolute eye opener for me, thought I was a really careful 30+ year driver (not age but years driving lol), but as I say the course is an eye opener. Drive completely different now

Kim

I believe that part of the problem is that few drivers start off on motorbikes and progress to four wheels - it's straight into a hot hatch.

They therefore don't learn to drive defensively and to read the road like you do on a bike.
On a bike you make a mistake and you are off. You therefore learn to drive within the distance that you can stop or take avoiding action (so wouldn't take a blind bend at 38mph). You read the surface for wetness, loose grit, black ice etc. and slow down.

That doesn't necessarily mean you are slow: just careful.

What bugs me is the inconsistent speed limits. Just been driving in N Wales over the weekend......some straight stretches were only 30mph, then an equally built up part of the same road a few miles on with bends would be 50mph?? We saw one instance of police with speedguns behind a hedge on a bend.

Many years ago, with less safe cars, less street lighting and more dangerous bends, you quickly learned your car's capabilities and developed road sense without so many limits. There is a danger these days with all the restrictions that people believe if it says 50mph they think that is safe whatever the road conditions.

There are other dangers that no-one seems to bother about.......speeding motor cyclists ( I live near the Raleigh factory) yet they have the gall to put signs up 'Think bike'. These bikes are racing each other, doing 90mph+ on local roads!! Mothers watching children and babies in the back through rear view mirrors have nearly run into me when I have had to slow down, similarly with people texting.

Th 4x4 logic escapes me too.....what may well provide protection for your own family is lethal by its size and weight to other families......so why don't they impose speed limits on them?

Ann

the subject of your first statement always puzzled me also, straightish clearish roads with a low speed limit and a much higher one on bendy narrow roads where it would be downright dangerous to reach the limit, let alone exceed!!!......