Martin Home

Seeing as the speedo's on the right and I'm left eyed (being right handed) does that mean I see 73 when i'm only doing 70? So I can go faster?

Methinks I'll stick to the bigger dial in the middle - the 3 and the 7 are much clearer on that - bound to be more accurate speed


Martin STi5 (equally pi55ed off at this cr@p about speed alone)

whizzer

well hopefully every ones speedometers are correct and very very accurate because it seems ministers have got their way with zero tolerance on British roads .

All I ask is what the hell that innocent driver is going to do when the cops pull him over and nick him for doing 1mph over the limit when his speedometer says he was doing the 30mph or what ever on the nose . I'm very surprised nobody else (media & the government) except Top Gear have pointed this out that the majority of vehicles speedometers are either a few mph faster or slower than the actual road speed .

What are we supposed to do now ! Are there any places we can go to have our speedos calibrated so that it gives out accurate speed readings that will conform to police radar guns and cameras ?
You bet we don't ! Screwed again !

Tell you what I'll laugh my *** off if one of those transport 200 guys get nicked and they have inacurate speedo !




[This message has been edited by whizzer (edited 24-07-2000).]

HunterB

Wasn't aware of this. Has there been an official announcement to this effect? If so, where can I view it?

Thanks,
Brian

DavidRB

Not sure about older cars, but I believe that the British Standard regulations for speedometers allows them to over-read by up to 10%, but they cannot under-read at all. In other words the tolerance is -0%/+10%. This means that when your speedo says 30, your speed is anywhere between 28mph & 30mph, but never 31mph or more.

dholmes

If my memory serves me correctly, most of the cars in the Top Gear test were doing more than 30 ( e.g. 32 ) when their speedo's read 30 and 57 when they read 60.

robski

David,

thats what the legislation says, but a number of tests have proven that cars do not comply.

I think rolling roads can check speedo calibaration, but im not 100% about that.

robski

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

Watch out all you P1 owners - According to Autocar when your speedo reads 30 the actual speed is 33.
When you are doing 100mph the actual speed is 108!!

Ro.

Raz

It's front page news on the Daily express today .

"Drivers facing speed limits purge , zero tolerence plans to get a go-ahead"

DavidRB

Oh dear. I wonder if anyone's done any research on the accuracy of the human eye when judging a speedo needle? Can a human driver judge 30mph exactly, or is there a +/- tolerance for that too? What about the effects of parallax if the speedo is not dead-centre in the dashboard?

We all know this is unworkable (and I bet the police do too), I wonder how long it will take the politicians to realise it.

Chris L

What is also ridiculous is that this assumes that doing 29MPH is safe whereas doing 31MPH is unsafe. This is plainly not the case as your speed should relate to the conditions.

It really is about time the government stopped the rubbish about speed being the major cause of accidents - Inappropriate speed for the prevailing conditions is a whole lot different to just 'speeding'

Rant mode off

Chris

Steven Breen

Another factor to concider is that not all tyre & wheel combinations will give exactly the same rolling circumference. So even if the manufacturers guaranteed the car was accurate, as soon as the tyre was changed for a different manufacturer or worse a different wheel was fitted you have an uncalibrated set up.

Steve

CharlieWhiskey

Whizzer: Trust it was a typo with Transport 200(0)
However, with their support of lower speed limits, push-bikes etc. perhaps it should be Transport 1200 (Back to the Dark Ages)!

ChrisL: I couldn't agree more!

Chris

blubs

I'm sticking to just one digit as far as the government is concerned.

This one:

scoobysnacks

Hi all,
Yes, this zero tolerance could be quite annoying to say the least. People will probably crash more because they're looking at their speedo all the time, instead of the road!
We all know crashing into something at a higher speed will result in more carnage, but I bet most accidents are not caused by the speed itself, but by the driver not paying full attention to what's around him, or driving to close to someone etc etc etc. Maybe the message should be 'pay more attention!'. It's a lot more important than sticking to exactly 30 instead of 31.....

harryh

has anyone read the Assoiciation of British Drivers (www.abd.org.uk) web site? Apparently the governments own transport research lab has statistics that prove that excessive speed on only even a FACTOR in less than 1/4 of all accidents so why is the government not doing something about the factors that cause 3 times the number of accidents (can we all say "cash cow"?). As stated in the previous post I am more worried about all the feckless d**kheads who currently drive around totally f**king oblivious to everything and everyone around them as it is never mind when their eyes will be glued to the speedo and they only look out the windscreen every 10 minutes to make sure they haven't missed their turning. This is a truely frightening prospect, one which I fully believe will at least double the accident rate. Wait and see if I'm wrong (if I am it's because the rate has trippled )

[This message has been edited by harryh (edited 24-07-2000).]

NeilR

If Mr Plod manages to keep a straight face whilst bringing me down for doing 31 in a 30 i shall have to citizens arrest him for obviously doing over 30 himself catching me up.

Seriously though, sitting on 30 is really very tricky. Most people would be forced to do 25 or so just in case they sneezed.

I agree with Steve about the tyres/Wheel sizes and have to add that having loads of tread or bearly legal tyres will make a difference to actual speed.

NeilR

xyzpaul

To answer the original post, if you are worried that your speedo is inaccurate, then drive 10% slower than the limit.

harryh

Yes, that's what everyone on this board bought a Subaru for. To drive it at LESS than the speed limit. Hmmmm.

boomer

Just who the f**k are these Transport 2000 people anyway???

They simply phone up the ACPO and say "if you let drivers go more than 30mph in a 30mph zone then we will sue", and lo and behold, the whole of the UK Police force changes its policy within five minutes!!!

Are T2000 a higher authority that the British (English or whatever) judicial system?

mb

xyzpaul

As always, the speeding topic that regularly appears on this board can be neatly summarised:

"I drive a good car and I'm a good driver, therefore I should be above the law."

boomer

xyzpaul,

It is a well know and oft repeated "fact" that _most_ drivers think that they are "above average", which is clearly a nonsense (by simple maths and logic), however ...

The current argument is that "they", in this case, Transport 2000, seem to think that speed is the _only_ cause of "accidents", and that by forcing everyone to abide by the speed limits (regardless of the suitability or appropriateness of those limits) will mean that death and carnage on her majesties highways will be totally eliminated.

Maybe if the authorities truly clamped down on people "breaking the law" - children cycling on the pavement, drivers with their rear fog-lamps on in bright sunlight (or worst still, a clear or rainy night), members of the Centre Lane Owners Group (CLOG) on motorways, parking on zig-zags outside a school to pick up Natasha and Tarquin (names taken from Viz, and any resemblence to real kids is co-incidental!), drunken pedestrians blindly walking into the road at night, etc. etc. - they maybe, just maybe, we could feel that society is a better and safer place to live in.

mb

whizzer

xyzpaul I think your zimmer frame is parked on double yellow lines .

You wouldn't be a member of transport 2000 ?

Neil Smalley

I think all it means is that the semi-offical guidelines have been dropped and that it's now down to the traffic policeman to judge.

scooby1

We are going to have to be carefull pumping up the tyres too much as this will cause a slight difference in speed accuracy.

At 3000 RPM in 2nd gear don't cough, sneeze or whatever. Don't drive downhill. In fact, don't drive at all. If we all swapped our cars for push bikes, they would enforce speed limits on these too.

I suppose we could all make out a standing order to the government for a couple of grand a year and have done with it.

johnfelstead

It's all political bull$hit again.

The cops know the score, thay aint stupid enough to book people below 35 in a 30 limit.

It was just the police wanting to put there practices into writing.

Transport 2000 or whoever they are may think they have won a battle but they haven't! Its just more spin, the police will cary on doing what they do now, if they didnt you can bet there would be thousands of contested speeding tickets going through the courts and law suits galore against the manufacturers and government.

Most cars when the speedo reads 30 are actually doing 33 MPH, that contravenes the BS, if the government were serious about this they would have trading standards sueing the car makers.

Its all bull.

Blubs, ROFLAMO

ChrisB

Anyone got any URLS or links for the stats which prove that speed isn't a big factor in accidents?

Cheers,

Chris.

DAVE-W

We have a motorway police officer in our RS owners club local group (west wales) who has told us time and time again that unless you are doing over about 85mph or driving stupidly, 99% of officers will not even look at you.

If they booked everyone for doing over 70mph then almost everyone on the motorways would be prosecuted, which, as said earlier would result in uproar and an awful lot of paperwork for the law-and they don't want that!

If you're speeding through a heavily built up area you deserve what you get, but I wouldn't worry TOO much on the motorway.

David

boomer

ChrisB,

amongst many items about speed(ing), check out

tiggers

Have these Transport 2000 t055ers got a web site and if so what is the URL. If not how else can I get in touch and hear what they've got to say direct from the horse's mouth (horse's **** more like).

And another thing - how are they funded? If I find that one penny of my income tax goes within spitting distance of them I shall stop paying it until someone shows me where we, the public, agreed to fund these blinkered morons.

Yours seriously pi55ed at all this speed kills nonsense,

Regards,

tiggers

Bright Kar

Funny people mentioned about police not bothering with the new 0 tolerance business. Thats what a lot of police forces said.

So some bright spark is threatening to sue the police for not enforcing the law if/when the 0 tolerance stuff comes into play.

bkar