Prepared for a speed ban?

[Racer]

One day soon we’ll all get a speed ban
IT IS a formula to infuriate. A leading statistician has warned there are now enough speed cameras to ensure the average driver can expect to face three driving bans in their motoring career, writes Jonathan Leake.

The study found that a typical driver — someone who normally obeys the rules but occasionally lapses — should now see occasional bans as almost inevitable.

Rest of article
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1399995,00.html

 

[Salty Gibbon]

I can honestly say that in 35 years of driving I have only ever been caught speeding 12 times.

10 of these were overseas and the most in any one country was 4 in Bahrain.

There they drag you off to court and keep you waiting all day just to teach you a lesson and then give you a paltry fine.

I also got done for jay walking in Manila once, can you believe it ?

 

[Salty Gibbon]

I am in the process of inventing rotating number plates.

They have a sensor which detects speed cameras and when the sensor detects an imminent camera, it causes the number plates on the car - front and back - to start spinning at high velocity.

You just have to make sure the Old Bill are not in the car immediately behind you.

The technology is almost ready but I am a little worried about what the Patents Office might say when I go there to have the thing patented.

 

[Trader333]

There are two ways to address this issue:

1) Get a radar detector (although this is going to be made illegal soon)

2) Use a Sat Nav with speed camera database which is what I use. This is not as expensive as you may think. I was able to get a HP1710 PDA with TomTom Sat Nav all in for about £250.

I cannot over emphasise just how good the Sat Nav is as it takes me right to the door of my destination and also has the facility to avoid roadblocks as well as many other highly useful functions.

The Speed Camera database is FOC and can be downloaded here and again it has been a fantastic tool for me and covers all types of camera including SPECS and Temps.

www.pocketgps.co.uk/uksafetycameras.php


Paul

 

[RogerM]

Ah yes - sat nav. One of my colleagues went to see a client in Fowey. He faithfully followed the instructions down the Roseland peninsula until the Sat Nave tol himn he was 400 metres from his destination. Absolutely correctly - but the other side of the river - and it was a 30 mile drive to the nearest bridgeto get to see the client!

 

[peto]

There are two ways to address this issue:
www.pocketgps.co.uk/uksafetycameras.php

Paul

Not going to help with mobile devices

No, there's a third way (aka blair?)

A certain method of avoiding any penalties from any device. At no cost................. Drive within the speed limits.............

You might save a kid's life, or your own
You might save polluting the planet, use fewer unrenewable resources, and save a bob or two on gas, and make the roads a more pleasant environment for other users and residents.
You'll probably arrive about a minute or two later than before....
less stressed.

Driving within speed limits can become a matter of habit, effortless and automatic. It might help to buy a new highway code...how many drivers brake to 60 or even less passing cameras on dual carageways for no reason? (pet hate 2).

Final thought now that I'm on everyones hate/ignore list as a selfrightous prat...Why do drivers always seem too fast on the road your kids use?

pete

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Driving within speed limits can become a matter of habit,

Difficult if you're driving a friggin Maserati m8y !!

 

[ivorm]

A certain method of avoiding any penalties from any device. At no cost................. Drive within the speed limits.............

pete

Quite right !!

Speed cameras have made me much more concious of keeping within the speed limits - and I think it's a good thing.

Some drivers drive along urban streets at rediculous speeds and would have no chance of stopping if a child were to step onto the road. If speed cameras help to make these drivers slow down, (or keep them off the road if they refuse to) , then I'm all in favour of them.

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Speed cameras are nothing more than an additional tax on the already long-suffering population of the UK.

I have no problem with the general concept and it is good to have them in selected spots where they may directly protect children, old people etc., but to have them in the middle of the countryside with no houses in sight is bullsh1t quite frankly.

Who are they trying to protect there - the cows and occasional deer that leaps over the hedge ?

No, there are far too many of these things in unnecessary places with the sole purpose of fleecing the population and lining the pockets of the police who are too lazy to go out and catch real criminals.

Yo !!

 

[Bigbusiness]

There are not that many speed cameras in the countryside but there are a lot of idiots in big cars that they can't control at high speeds. My mother used to work in a small hospital and was regularly seeing the outcome of pointless accidents caused by people just driving too fast.

I have had several near misses. A few times I have gone around a corner or over the brow of a hill to find I am facing a car on my side of the road trying to overtake. One time I thought I was going to have a head on collision but luckily the driver lost it completely and went in to a tree. That tree probably saved my life.

I have nothing against driving fast and I often break the speed limit but there are some people who have no knowledge of the local roads and just drive like they have a death wish. Anything that makes these people slow down or takes away their license has to be a good thing.

 

[Salty Gibbon]

All things in moderation, including speed cameras !

 

[schoe]

Just read this story, Motorways used to be speed camera free except contraflows.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13327651,00.html

 

[Racer]

I agree with keeping to the speed limits completely, it is the stupid speed cameras I disagree with because I do not believe they have cut down the number of accidents at all.
Locally, they have introduced a new 40mph limit zone on each side of a small town.
On one side of the town the 40 limit zone has one lay-by, and no houses, the other side has two houses.
The limits on both sides stop just before places where I have come across vehicles that have been in serious collision and there have been fatalities. There have been several accidents at these places and this is prior to the new 40 limits being put up, so why did they put them where they did?

This is a perfect example of idiotic speed management.

Also for most drivers who are not so speed conscious, they have to keep taking their eye off the road or looking at their speedos

 

[JEC]

I have had several near misses. A few times I have gone around a corner or over the brow of a hill to find I am facing a car on my side of the road trying to overtake. One time I thought I was going to have a head on collision but luckily the driver lost it completely and went in to a tree. That tree probably saved my life.

And a speed camera would stop that how?
Thats nothing to do with speeding, thats just sheer stupidity.

It would be nice if we actually had realistic speed limits for a start. Then it might be easier to keep within them ... and safer. Less time spent concentrating on the speedo and more on watching the road.

 

[Salty Gibbon]

It would be nice if we actually had realistic speed limits for a start.

Please explain in what way our speed limits are not realistic.

 

[SOCRATES]

In my view there are several problems with regard to driving in this country:~

The road system is patched and mended here and there as and when necessary and there is no cohesive road planning to cope with increased flow, regardless of what we are told.

There are too many roundabouts everywhere, these serve to slow down traffic flows. Roundabouts provided a solution in the days when trafffic was not so heavy, but in this day and age they are a nuisance.

The cost of doing away with the majority of roundabouts would be absolutely prohibitve as new flyovers and underpasses would have to be built practically everywhere to solve this.

Therefore, we are stuck with these roundabouts that act like commas in the middle of sentences.

Also there are too many cars on the road. This is as a result of several contributing factors outside car ownership growth. One of the most significant but completely overlooked is the amount of freight being carried by road. The industrial railway infrastructure of this country is totally derelict and practically non existent. The commuter is expected to fund the railway network. In France, for example the railway network is primarily funded by industry. Every factory has its own siding. therefore the bulk of commercial freight is carried by rail, the commuter gets the benefit of lower fares and better trains as a consequence, also the roads are less congested.

Modern cars are much more powerful than hereintobefore, therefore it is very easy to speed in a powerful car. People get frustrated at owning a powerful car that cannot be put through its paces because of road restrictions. Perhaps it is that speeding is not altogether deliberate, but the consequence additionally of the ready availability of excess power and rapid acceleration.

There are many people who are not fit to drive, yet are allowed to have licences. These include the old and infirm, the slow witted, the careless, the impatient, and the incompetent with regard to the road conditions as they are today.

Finally if everyone could be entrusted to behave correctly and considerately and responsibly there would be no need for restrictions, in order to protect the safety of the majority because of the conduct of others.
There would be no need for speed limits (within reason) bumps on the road, stripes, and other mandatory restrictions.

 

[Salty Gibbon]

If you have lived in as many and as varied countries as I have, you would realise that driving in the UK is actually a dream and a paradise for drivers.

The courtesy displayed by drivers is unbelievable for someone like me who has spent around 25 years of his life in many different countries and continents.

Drivers here tend to be passive, defensive and slow compared to the exceedingly aggressive, fast and dangerous drivers I could mention in certain countries.

If you think the UK has a real problem, then you aint seen nuttin.

If there is a real problem here then it is people driving a tad too slowly and reacting too slowly.

 

[Salty Gibbon]

There are many people who are not fit to drive, yet are allowed to have licences. These include the old and infirm, the slow witted, the careless, the impatient, and the incompetent with regard to the road conditions as they are today.

Soc, this could also read :-

There are many people who are not fit to trade, yet are allowed to have trading accounts. These include the old and infirm, the slow witted, the careless, the impatient, and the incompetent with regard to the market conditions as they are today.

 

[rossored]

There are two ways to address this issue:

1) Get a radar detector (although this is going to be made illegal soon)

2) Use a Sat Nav with speed camera database which is what I use. This is not as expensive as you may think. I was able to get a HP1710 PDA with TomTom Sat Nav all in for about £250.

[/url]


Paul

What about the third way? (be going quick enough so that the camera doesn't get the plate)?
.

About two years ago a me and a bunch of my mates were out on our bikes one Sunday morning (quite early, when there's no traffic), when one of us went through a camera at well (and I do mean well) into three figures (naturally, the rest of the group was all doing spot-on 60mph). The camera went off (flashed twice), but the bike was literally too fast for it - the individual in question never got a ticket, anyway.

I've also been passenger in a car on the A1 that went through about three successive cameras at breakneck speed - and no ticket ever arrived for that, either.

Not that I would advocate speeding at all, of course, occifer.

 

[TWI]

The problem in this country is that there is no instant death penalty for people who get in my way or for all those with "Baby on Board" signs.