Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

...............WTF is happening to that thing called "freedom"?

Speeding: News

corradoboy

Great, I can imagine it now. Driving along, suddenly a big sign displays your number and you stare at it chuckling, as you plough into the car in front, veer into the next lane or embed yourself in a bridge What's worse, a few mph over or deliberate distraction of the driver

DYK

I think it would encourage me to actually speed..I mean i don't really speed i usually just sit back and chill..but if these speed signs actually flashed up my number plate..i would stick my head out the window and shout yeahhhhhh its me..same as smoking ban..Im not a smoker,but the times i have thought of going into town and lighting up a smoke in a so called public place...

corradoboy

I agree. About 2 years ago on some fun bends near me the rubber pipes went down to monitor vehicle speeds, a challenge which I duly accepted, peaking at about 120, which was very nearly too much. A year later we got a sign which flashes some orange lights and says 'SLOW DOWN', which sends me straight to the loud pedal every time Since the sign went up I've seen 4 new holes in the stone walls, several floral tributes at the roadside and the sign itself was taken out after about 6 months Probably upped the accident rate 3-4x at least

greenonedave

the next thing will be cameras in toilets, so if you shake the old chap to much,after a wee, it will be put up on a display and the sign w anker will appear. What is this place coming to ?

richs2891

Waste of time and money in my eyes - when you can re invest in what we used to have on the road that did more than just deter / fine speeders by either taking pictures or displaying speed / number plate, but also monitored bad driving, such as tail gating, not indicating etc - and those for the ones that cant remember are called traffic police !

Richard

Major_Sarcasm

iTrader: (27)

I'm constantly astonished by how much of our money is wasted on these schemes. The reactive speed signs (the ones that flash up your current speed) that have gone up round my way are like a red rag to a bull for me. I can't help myself.

The Dogs B******s

Was thinking the same thing

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

You guys are having these problems in your backyard, here they want to "chip" your car so they (coppers) can "check" if your car has it's MOT up to date, and insurance!
It was supposed to be embedded in our plates, but it seems like it is gonna be this huge box in your windscreen!
You can see where this is going right?

So much for this fooking POS called the European Union!

fast bloke

They tried this a few years ago on roadworks on the A1. It showed your number plate and speed through the roadworks, but wasn't recorded. We had a crate of beer on the winner. I was third - I baulked at 95, just in case it was recorded

Lee247

The British Motorist - The most heinous criminal of all time

Leslie

If you want to live in a well ordered society, you have to accept that there will be rules which have to be adhered to and also that you may expect some kind of punishment if you don't. If you prefer to live in a completely lawless non society, well that is your choice, but that does not give you the right to break all the laws in sight in this country.

The signs that flash up to remind you that you should be following a speed limit work very well most of the time and you cant go whining that they give you a fine or points. It is after all giving you a chance to adjust your speed to what the law says it should be before you get done for it.

Most speed limits or warning signs are there for a good purpose and the safety of others is pretty important even if you are prepared to push your own luck. To tell us all that those signs either for speed or of danger on the road ahead only encourage you to do the opposite is so unfair on the others you may involve in an accident, and is also stupid and extremely selfish.

If you don't agree with that, please tell us how you would feel if your idiocy caused an accident and death or serious injury to some innocent party!

I personally think that the automatic signs do a good job and I would certainly prefer them to more speedcams. The business of adding the registration number is unnecessary and I reckon is a scheme thought up by some smartarse to make his name!

Les

Lee247

Fair comment, Les. But there seems to be more and more laws every day.

Abdabz

We're the same here... There is one about 200 yards off a roundabout coming into our village and me and my bro have a competition going to see who can get the highest speed

Thing is though, something has to give... Drivers moan at being fined when caught banged to rights by speed cameras, they moan when a bobby jumps out from behind a bush with a hand held device, and now they moan when a sign flashes up telling them that they are speeding
Somethings gotta give and this is a happy compromise surely?

DYK

IT is a good point,and i have got nothing against the automatic speed signs,it's better than speed cameras everywhere and i don't generally speed in built up areas,if I'm a couple miles over the speed i will just bring it back down..But to have your number plate flashing so everyone can see who is speeding,well i would just shove two fingers up at that and may as well go out in Blaze of glory,and fully embarrass myself,by sticking my head out the window and shouting,yessss everybody thats me,I'm the one speeding see my number plate flashing..I think sometimes all these signs and cameras that are all over our roads watching every think we do when driving,can have a reverse effect with certain drivers..What about that guy who was fined last week for smoking in his own van.I mean it wasn't a company van or anything.It's just all Bullsh1t,I'm not a smoker,but i think that even this smoking ban has got ridiculous.you can't have a smoke in your own vehicle.Rant over im enjoying the sun ...

Chelspeed

Would also be useful for testing out whether your illegally small number plate is actually unreadable for the ANPR as they claim. Then if it isn't you can get a smaller one...... sorry then if it is then you can get a full size one.

For mr smug, holier than thou, Leslie then I quite agree with the point about not putting lives in danger. But how often is it a new 50mph speed limit on a dual carriageway that has been nsl for 20 years. Is that for sefety, is it bollocks, thats for making money. Or a 50mph limit through road works on the motorway at 03:00 in the morning or a weekend when there's not been a worker around since they knocked off at 15:00 on the Friday afternoon. Is that for sefety, is it bollocks, thats lazyness for not bothering to suspend safety speed limits when there's no safety concerns (oh and they can continue to make money as a bonus).

Leslie

Yes you are quite right Lesley, but I was only talking about road signs and existing laws. We have more than enough laws as such, and in many cases they are ridiculous. Bad laws only mean that they will get broken and who can be surprised at that.

Les

Leslie

I really would like to see you justify your remarks about my post and more importantly my character.

You actually say you agree with my point about not endangering others on the road, and that was after all the major point of my post. The other bits about a civilised society requiring rules which should be followed are just straight facts which can't be denied. If you read the post about extra speed limits you will also see my own points about unnecessary speed limits which shows that I would not necessarily agree with regard to councils imposing extra speed limits off their own bat and that would also apply to what you say.

Do you personally think it is right to go belting past a danger or cautionary sign at increased speed just because it is there? Is it wrong to mention that?

Before you start shooting your mouth off and insulting people, probably in an effort to add weight to your own post, I advise you to be a bit more careful that what you are saying is correct. I don't hold with infractions, but going by SN rules your post would certainly deserve one.

Les

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Fair enough, but when your every move can be controlled by the state because it basically has a tracking device in your car, things might be getting out of hand, no?

corradoboy

The real question here is the proportion of investment of time and money into the crime being committed and the effectiveness and benefit of the outcome. Just last night I watched a documentary about car crime which stated that many forces are greatly reducing the resources dedicated to this at a time when car crime is rapidly increasing in both quantity and severity.

Our roads have never been safer, and are quoted as being the safest in the world. A good thing too, one of the few successes Britain can be proud of. However, the over-zealous and draconian enforcement of traffic law for profit, and the manipulation of the law and related regulations to facilitate even higher conviction rates and turnover is an abuse of power which is no longer helping. It has created a bad attitude in the public which may never be reversed as we almost all oppose the actions of the enforcement bodies, and take pleasure and pride in beating the system in our own little ways.

The desired by-product of achieving such brilliant safety results is to criminalise a great many ordinary, decent, generally law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying people. The sort of people whom when challenged over an alleged infraction simply roll over and die, admitting without question and accepting the penalty. This kind of criminal gives much better results than the sort whom is hard to detect, denies everything, costs us a fortune to catch, even more to prosecute, won't pay the fine and may even cost us an extraordinary amount more to lock up in a cell with Sky TV, Playstation, internet, mobile phone and unlocked doors.

This not only generates enough income to make the system either self-financing or even profitable, but it gives some amazing statistics for crime conviction rates, which can be used to mask severe inadequacies in a great many other areas. In 2004 (IIRC) there were some 10,000 burglars sent to prison, yet there was also over 15,000 motorists banged up, and over 1,000,000 prosecuted under the fixed penalty system.

****** INTERMISSION ******



On a personal level the gross misappropriation of enforcement was highlighted when I was a victim of vandalism and criminal damage and required Police assistance and they were unable to attend. I suffered in excess of £1k of personal loss, as well as the trauma and ill-feeling, and disappointment in the lack of response from the protectors appointed by our alleged 'democratic government of the people' and paid for out of my own back pocket. The very next day they did however have the resources to use 7 patrol cars, 4 motorcycles and 2 vans, accounting for maybe 20 officers, to make sure that cars with less than 2 people inside didn't use a lane on a main road ! I know which I think is the most important, as our society crumbles under a wave of anti-social behaviour with lawless youths doing as they please, safe in the knowledge that the chance of capture is slim, and the punishment non-existent or trivial.

Whilst people in vans cough up their lungs along with £30+ for the pleasure having been spotted by teams of roving health & safety ****'s, stabbings, assaults, gun crime and many other serious problems seem to increase daily. Are we getting the sums wrong, deliberately, probably ? Those in power, whom often are also in a position to profit, whether financially or politically like to tell us that speed is the biggest cause of accidents. It's funny how it never used to be before all this automated enforcement facilitated such vast revenue streams.

Speed will always be a factor, and generally it will make a bad situation worse, but the causes are many. 200 die as a result of tire failure alone; 200 more are cyclists whom are still untrained, unregulated, uninsured and not required to protect themselves to any sensible level by law; 700 are pedestrians, 95% are proven to be within 100m of a controlled crossing but have chosen not to use it, and 85% of which are proven to have voluntarily stepped into the path of flowing traffic; a great many more are simply victims of what used to be considered as an 'accident', you know, situation which for a plethora of reasons combined to an unexpected and undesirable outcome, possibly weather related, or bad judgement, or mechanical failure or..... whatever.

With 11,000,000 reported crimes a year, 2.5m of them involving violence of varying degrees I feel we need to rest on our laurels with road safety, put it into a maintenance cycle and keep it under control, but apportion funds and manpower to tackling the greater ills in our society before the morality of our nation crumbles.

Wow, that's quite a rant

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Anyone else noticed how many signs seem to be going up on a weekly basis There are that many signs now that I propose it's impossible for the human mind to compute them on the move ergo what a waste of time & my hard earned £'s. Bonkers.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...4_road_203.jpg

TX.

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Corradoboy, did you actually write all of that without blinking or breathing?

Fuzz

Christ.. put a few paragraphs in for gawds sake I can't read it like that

DYK

Damn the sun has got obstructed by clouds,Damn clouds Shiva me Timbers corradoboy,that is quite a rant.I had to stop for a shot of vodka quarter of the way through..I think one of the worst roads Ive drove along is the A34 up by stone,trentham gardens/stoke on Trent,that is one confusing road that can easily catch you out..Every few meters the speed limit constantly changes,starts from 40 MPH,then to 50,to 60,back to 50,then to 40,back to 50,to 60.with speed cameras all along it...absolute crazy road.

corradoboy

Better

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

LMAO! Class!

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

.....I also agree with what you said.

NotoriousREV

The last NIP I got was on that road I was being very careful the whole way along and I don't remember being flashed but got a letter anyway. In those days not signing the form worked nicely

Leslie

I dont see much to argue with there Corradoboy, must be a record rant there! Liked the organ too-we had one like that at the Regal near us!

i have to say though that the extreme amount of traffic that we have now coupled with the poor state of our roads and also the lack of better roads which are so rare these days mean that driving can still be very dangerous in places. Good driving can get around this of course.

The point I made in my first post was that it is really stupid and unfair on others to deliberately flout a warning or cautionary sign. We have seen too many dreadful major accidents and deaths in recent times, caused by people driving too fast for the capabilities of themselves, the car and the road concerned.

I cant see how making that point gave Chelspeed the right to insult me in the way he did.

I can at least claim a long experience of driving bikes and cars, usually quite fast by the way, both in earlier times when there was much less traffic and driving was a pleasure, and in these days where road conditions being as they are-when it so rarely is.


Incidentally, I was certainly not supporting even more laws nor advocating even more devices to track us or to see where we have been and how fast we did it. I have had enough of this kind of thing that we are seeing increasingly these days.

I cannot see how my first post gave the impression that I did want more control or signs etc. either. Maybe someone could explain!

Les