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[Diamond Black Geezer]

Just heard on t'radio the possibility of introducing a new speeding flat rate of £100 for drivers doing 71mph on a stretch of the M1.... and they've openly stated this is not for road safety, but as a means of raising revenue for the Police.

Sorry, but makes me sick.

Here's a link to the story I found in full

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11975971/Motorists-face-zero-tolerance-approach-to-speeding-on-the-motorways.html

[tigers_gonads]

Car speedos are not that accurate and are not calibrated or tested once the car leaves the factory.

They can dream all they want but it will never stick

[Bigron]

GREED cameras have never been about safety, but police and governments of any colour have denied any intention of using them for revenue generation: we all knew the truth, of course, and now at last it has been admitted.
That nice Mr. Cameron promised to "end the war on motorists", but that promise is as hollow as any other politician's promises.
If that cynical attitude on the part of Mr. Martins, who sees it as fair game to trade an unspeakable policy against 25 police jobs is representative of his thinking on policing and se=afety generally, it is to be hoped that he will be one of the 25 to become unemployed.

"If motorists do not like it then they can always stick to the speed limit”  - weasel-words to justify himself - are unrealistic and naive. Hands up anyone who has NEVER accidentally (or deliberately) gone over the limit on a motorway? I cannot see a single hand!
What does it mean in practical, everyday terms? Drivers with their noses glued to the speedometer and hardly looking at the road? Drivers travelling at 65mph or slower, just in case? If the latter, the motorways will have ever lower capacity and potential for accidents.....

I'll stop ranting because my blood is boiling and I need my beta-blockers!

Ron.

[Kevin Wood]

Car speedos are not that accurate and are not calibrated or tested once the car leaves the factory.

They can dream all they want but it will never stick

No, but the standard they have to meet ensures that they all over-read.

Another reason not to use the M1, as if I needed one.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Sorry to say after my naughtycourse earlier in the year (34mph in a 30, a few yards from a 40 zone, the child-killer that I am) that I spend much more time watching me speed, and less time watching the road. I have no desire to speed, no desire to cause hurt, however, have I even drifted over the sped limit by 1mph or two? Yes, of course!!! Every has, and will continue to do. But I spend lots of time glancing down at my speedo, literally paranoid that just over my shoulder there's a copper watching me. That's great until you miss things in front of you.

I was taught in my driving lessons to check my rear view mirror once every ten seconds. I remember one incident when a car pulled out from a side turning in front of me, and though not quite accident-causing, the instructor did have to knock 10mph off our speed with the dual controls to avoid a bump. When he said 'don't worry, just eyes on the road' I pointed out 'I was checking my rear view mirror' he didn't have an answer. Sorry, but a moment's distraction, be it checking your stereo, turning to your passenger, checking your change, whatever can be the difference betwen a collision and a near-miss.

All the speed-watching in the world won't alter the reaction times of someone whose attention is elsewhere in the first place. Offer me the driver who is doing 33mph and watching the kid darting out into the road, and applying the brakes sharply, or the 29.9mph driver who idly noticed the kid standing on the pavement, then looks down for half a second, maybe a second, only to look up, to see the kid in front of him, and I'll take the first guy anytime.

You travel 13.5metres/45ft in a single second at 30mph. One second looking down at your speedo, to check you're doing bang on 30, and not drifted over by a fraction. Compared with someone doing 33mph, they've done only 4 1/2 feet more. But Mr 33mph's eyes are on the road... on the road for all those 45feet that your eyes and attention are elsewhere... Just food for thought.

I'm not advocating speeding as a right, just the reasonable, practical and fair method of its determining what is 'unsafe'. Doing someone for doing 71mph in the name of safety is the same as a Hollywood celeb buying a new Prius every year in the name of being 'green'.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

It apparently hasn't occurred to the guy that he is elected by local people, most of whom will be motorists. Not a good career move I would think.
Its just another sign of of what has become of this country state.

[YZ250]

Sorry to say after my naughty course earlier in the year (34mph in a 30, a few yards from a 40 zone, the child-killer that I am) that I spend much more time watching me speed, and less time watching the road. ......................

I agree with that,  especially when I'm approaching a speed camera or where a camera van is likely to be. Not an ideal outcome is it. 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Glancing down, away from the road, when the guy in front of may start to decelerate quickly? Yup! 

It's all relative, the speed of a vehicle is irrelevant, it's the closing/relative speed of everything around of it. So 10 vehicles travelling at 90mph is far safer than 10 vehicles at a variety of speeds, from 45-70. Upon vehicle a travelling at 90mph, when vehicle b pulls out, causing vehicle a to crash into them, on the face of it, vehicle a is the evil person who has caused the crash...however, in reality the relative closing speeds is the only issue which needs to be looked at.

Take my recent smash - two vehicles on a dual carriageway, approach a roundabout, both decelerate to about 30mph, whereupon the non-Omega owner decides that he wants to just turn, and go right at the roundabout, but in the left hand lane. Nothing to do with speed, we could have been going at 12mph and he'd have still done that. Give me an attentive driver in his RS6 doing 100mph vs a dizzy moron in a Kia Picanto in the middle lane of the motorway wandering over the lines any day of the week. 

[zirk]

So what happened to the 10% allowance for each speed limit up to 76.9 mph.

[Bigron]

As any thinking driver knows, speed per se is not an issue; but INAPPROPRIATE speed definitely is.
In most areas we are allowed to travel at 30 mph on local roads, but do YOU go at that speed past a school in term time, especially at critical times like morning, lunchtime and leaving times? No, and neither do I.
Before they kindly looked after my licence for me for 6 months, I used to use the capabilities of my 2.6 V6 enthusiastically on the M3 at sparrow-fart in the morning on the clear, dry and virtually empty Motorway on my way to Dorset and felt as safe as houses, not inconveniencing or compromising anybody.
BMW drivers aside, most drivers are sensible (yes, really!) and drive according to the conditions and their comfort zone/capabilities. Please treat we who fit that description like sentient beings and go after those who are unsafe at any speed......

Ron.

Ron.

[Varche]

I drove from Scarborough to Leicester and back yesterday.

The M1 was ghastly so came back via A46 to newark. Marvellous . When was that built!

I kept wondering for the whole journey though how many tickets I would get.

In twenty years time we will all be driving automatically via speed detecting and controlling devices. The same devices will bill us automatically for viscious acceleration and braking and miles completed. In a hundred years time folk will look back and say the decade 2030 to 2040 was the golden age before driverless cars were the norm and old cars with manual controls were relegated to museums.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

oh, that's the other thing, Bigron,  I quite agree... how many deaths would occur as a result of derestricting the motorways to, for example, 110mph betweent he hours of 11pm and 5am? I reckon the number would be between 0 and 1. 

Maybe I should have sped up to ask the Police van which I saw getting further and further away from me as we both travelled through a 20 zone the other week. Now, we were both doing a shade over 20 as we entered. Somehow, and I can't think how - perhaps my speedo is faulty and over-reads by maybe 5-8mph - the van started to get further and further away from me. With little kiddies running around, too.  How did that happen, do we think?? I'm more than happy to respect the zones, given pedestrians are always ready to push their prams in the road as a way of slowing traffic, but when driving past a school at 2am, or when on a motorway with no visible traffic for or aft, only an idiot would suggest that safety is being compromised by going over the limit by 1mph - which is the factor of speeding which is at the heart of the issue, here. 1 mile an hour.

Sigh...

[05omegav6]

So what happened to the 10% allowance for each speed limit up to 76.9 mph.

I expect it would be unenforcable from a practical point of view... unless they issue automatic speed awareness courses... at £50 a pop

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Varche, I suspect you are very close to the truth...

Also the A46 is a great driving road, just beware Lincs constabulary are sneaky as hell long that stretch. You'd be behind a tractor for 19 miles, overtake on the only clear, straight bit you've seen for what feels like half a day, and guess what - camera van. This 19foot long length of road is a 50, you're doing 56, you're the scum of the earth.

[TheBoy]

The M1 thing is for Beds to raise £1m. They are selling on using it as a cash machine or losing 20 officers (is a police officer £50k pa ).


Once again, line up the tree hugging do-gooders for their appointment with bullets.