Safe Speed Forums

i got flashed last week & know i was doing 34 mph in a 30 i recieved a letter today charging me - saying that i was doing 36mph which is a load of bull & harsh i think - wither way have they got my by the balls?? should i pay or should i fight ??

Were you doing exceeding the limit? Were you doing 34?

You could always do 'your bit' by needlessly taking it to court hence contributing to clogging them up - but you'll end up paying court costs too.


Note, I don’t necessarily agree with the tactic of needlessly clogging up courts

I was speaking with a very good friend of mine who used to be a Chief Superintendant in the Met yesterday. He's now retired.
His view is that it's now gone too far entirely and the best way to deal with the cash-camera generated NiP's is to shread them and to keep on shreading all follow-ups until they either arrest you on a bench warrant or just give up.
Someone quite close to me is following that advice now in respect of an NiP from N. Wales. So far there has been one NiP, followed by a 'chase-up' letter, followed by another NiP which makes no mention of the earlier correspondence. As my friend is moving to live in France in about February next year, it seems unlikely that they'll get around to doing anything before then. Anyway, he spends a lot of his time in France already and when here he lives in a rented house whilst his French property is completed. He is never home when the postman calls as he leaves early in the mornings to go to his office, so a registered letter won't reach him.
It will be interesting to see whether Brainstorm's lot actually send officers to arrest him as he lives near London, bearing-in-mind that he'll probably not be home if they call and they could have several wasted journeys. The 'crime' - 36 in a 30 early on a Sunday morning. What a waste of police resources.

It's the low tolerances that I am against too. In the future such an offence should be just 2 points instead of 3 but I would make 36 in a 30 a "fine-only" offence, no points at all. Onus would be on the owner of the car to pay the fine so no NIPs. Would be a bit like a bus-lane fine.

Might have the effect of getting drivers to slow down to avoid the fine so would probably have the effect.

I would also like to see speed limit zones of 25mph and 35mph. They have them in the USA. And everywhere else uses km/hr so they also have smaller gradients.

What should the speed limit be where it is considered safe to do 37mph say but not 40mph? Can't be 40 so it has to be 30. Then someone who is doing a "safe" 37mph gets caught. If the speed limit were set at 35mph then 37 would be outside of fine territory. In fact if 40mph is the top safe speed but not 45mph they have to set the limit at 30mph because 45 is still outside of prosecutable territory.

And yes, of course the safe speed at the moment is not necessarily the speed limit because it depends on conditions. Can vary at different points of the road, different times of day, different weather conditions etc. One day maybe there will be the technology for better variable speed limits because I do think that too many drivers are unable to judge correctly for themselves. The fact that so many accidents happen due to excessive speed yet the posted limit (often 60 on an NSL) is not being exceeded proves the point.