Safe Speed Forums

"Drivers will have no escape from average-speed camera network"

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/li ... 508185.ece

"Cameras that detect average speed will be deployed on hundreds of miles of motorway under a Government plan to force all drivers to comply with variable limits.

Drivers will no longer be able to exceed the limit knowing that police rarely prosecute anyone driving at less than 85mph on motorways. They will also no longer be able to slow down when they spot a camera."

Discuss.

Eyelikeit!

It'll force me to drive on interesting twisty roads, rather than motorways!

Job's a good 'un

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Simon

So the government is getting rid of the fiction that speed cameras are placed at accident blackspots, then?

Anyone in favour of these average speed cameras care to comment on that, please?

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www.thatsnews.org.uk / www.thatsnews.blogspot.com / http://thatsmotoring.blogspot.com/

Me too. Wonderful challenging roads where you actually have to think about the rate of your progress and apply COAST at all times - the driving equivalent of CAMRA!

Get rid of the SatNav and have a REAL adventure!

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

Hmm, then they will have justification for road pricing, when vast numbers of drivers opt for the a-roads over the motorways!

I saw some great things on Canadian freeways this past week, and some not so great ones, but all learning points, I intend to post on them all in due course.

PS. I like the sig Aquila, if only all men could find an eagle of enlightenment!

Under current type approvals SPECS cameras cannot be used to enforce variable limits. Also they would make the system much slower to react, as you would have to make sure the last vehicle had cleared the section that had entered before a downward limit change before reducing the camera threshold.

Arguably if cameras are being used purely for flow reasons rather than safety any offences thus detected should be decriminalised.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Folks,

The English are an extraordinarily rule bound people. Whenever we want to solve a perceived problem we think up a new set of rules. As a retired teacher I know this only too well.

When I was in my late teens I could:

Legally ride my motorcycle without a helmet.

Drink and drive as long as I could walk in a straight line if the police caught me.

Drive to my own speed preferences in most places.

Smoke in a pub, or anywhere else.

Buy a shotgun licence in a post office and ammunition in the sports shop.

Drive a car without wearing a seat belt.

Park my car wherever there was free space.

As an example of these freedoms I once drove down to London on Easter day, parked my car just off Piccadilly Circus (no meters) had four pints of beer and then asked a policeman directions back to the A1. No problem.

Our world has changed.

C.

revolving number plates...

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Or somebody else's numberplates!
300 pairs in Sussex alone in 2006 were stolen off cars outside the owners houses.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

For the better or worse?

Or a bit of both?

I would say most of the items in Cooler's post had valid cause to become subject to legislation.


It's the truck load of rules being made for the sake of it which are unwelcome - such as the politically correct brigade preventing games such as "chase and tag" in the playgrounds lest the child trips up - and then wonder why they are getting a bit chubby - so they police the lunch boxes . So they tell off the parents for placing a choc biscuit inside it. Tell someone it's "naughty forbidden fruits" - and we are genetically programmed through "Eve" to crave it.

It's this nonsense - along with making excuses for "perceived less privileged" (which is more patronising and discriminating perhaps than calling a "spade a spade" ) which undermines and stints society's developments towards the better.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Hmm, I think this has more to do with not having to deal with parents who get angry and charge down the school if their child comes home with a scrape on its knee... don';t forget it's most liekly the parents acting as the PTA that enforces this type of attitude.

I saw two kids out the other day, and they were wearing cycle helmets, and they didn't have cycles; when one got near some (very shallow) water with a tree across it (she wanted to cross the tree) the father was getting quite distressed and asking her to come away.

I spent my youth doing some ridiculously dangerous things, including jumping off the highest thing we dare (which ended up with running jumps off the "garages"), following rivers and brooks to the sea and doing some ridiculous high jumps on the cycle. Strangly I never did manage to break anything, but I do carry marks.

weepej and ingear,

OK, the items on my list were examples of a different and lost world, and some people may prefer the constraints we have today, but the point is that our rule bound culture has been going in one direction for 50 years, and that is - more rules!

We might start off at the heavy end, ie banning shotguns and then end up putting safety helmets on kids when they walk to the playground or going through their lunchboxes for signs of jam.

However, there is a strong counter culture, which may have something to do with our prohibition mentality. Drugs are plentiful among the young, including hard drugs, graffiti and small crime is everywhere, kids in our town drive rodded cars and don't give a toss about speedcams.

My thesis is that over prohibiting has an effect on group consciousness in the long term, and it's never a good effect. Dionysus reemerges.

Getting back to speed limits. Why are there more powerful cars and bikes on the roads than ever before? Because people like the feeling of power and release. They want the dance.

C.

PS - Street running (free running) is all the rage now. Last Xmas two young guys ran the length of our lane, never touching the ground. They dented every single car bonnet and roof, including ours. Why did they do it? - because they could.

I do believe there is a general tendency to overbalance and go a bit too much the other way, absolutely, but you don't know you've gone too far until it's obvious.

More NuLab social engineering. I'm not going to worry too much. We'll have a change of government soon enough.

And will they really do anything very different with respect to traffic enforcement?

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

We live in hope. I certainly believe that a different govt would have a more positive attitude to road transport - a govt that understands that a thriving economy needs good transport infrastructure, free from obstacles. Not that our economy will be thriving, when NuLab's days come to an end.

Is it April 1st? Surely these can't be serious suggestions?

Firstly, if "speed kills" then why have one lane with a faster speed limit than the others? Surely this will increase the speed difference for cars passing slower vehicles in the inside lanes and increase the danger. Especially when cars traveling, say 70mph move into the faster lane and then have to accelerate up to speed because they couldn't do it before due to the average speed cameras zapping them. The complexity of the system to not make a mistake with the average speed of a vehicle moving from the "fast" lane to the rest of the motorway seems to be asking for trouble. I fear it will increase aggressive driving too - "GET OUT OF THE FAST LANE!" BMW drivers will shout, "I'm paying to go fast!"

As for the movable barrier idea...surely not. Please NO!

How do I emigrate?

Diesel,

Haha! I seem to be a libertarian socialist, no wonder that I'm suffering from cognitive dissonance (whatever that is). I want a good NHS to look after me when I crash on my speeding Kwaki.

Only joking (about the second sentence).

e.

Why? The Aston expressway in Birmingham is seven lanes. Six lanes are used at anyone time. The seventh acts as a buffer between the two lanes. Depending on the traffic follow the number of lanes for each direction is changed. For example traffic going into Burm in the morning gets 4 of the lanes. Traffic Going out of burm at the same time gets 2 of the lanes. It is the reverse in the evening.

Why oh why do they need a F+£k off huge mechanical barrier, when it is clear you can operate this system with out one?

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor