Safe Speed Forums

The other side of this is that you really don't have an excuse for being caught speeding. If you're caught doing 90mph on the motorway, you may have actually been doing an indicated 100mph so you could say you've got off lightly. Other offences can be be punished for the attempted crime.

I'm not defending cameras, but many people claim there is a safety issue that they have to constantly monitor their speedo when this is not the case. If you sit at an indicated 70mph, your speed can drift +/- 5mph and you'll never break the law.

As an asside, I've driven past many police cars with my GPS reading 70mph whilst all the other traffic crawls past at a true 64mph.

Hi Paul,
Yes before speed cameras the number was pretty insignificant to me for 30 years. It now looms large as we know. You just made me realise how the cameras have distorted real safety issues in many surreptisious ways.

Good point cooperman. It would need different technology to get the accuracy. But surely we can do better than 13 mph out.

Regards

Richard

We don't, but how can those who think it does not call for such a test? This goes to prove that they also don't think that number has any real importance!

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

That’s not correct. Some speedos can also be perfectly accurate (or be tending towards it), the owners of these cars cannot afford to drift at all. My point being: who knows how correct their speedo is?

(that's a hypothetical question BTW)

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

This is why I take the speed from the GPS, and keep half an eye on how it compares to the speedo.

If I ever loose GPS then I know what speed the speedo is actually telling me.

Yet more crap to concentrate on when I'm supposed to be concentrating on driving. Yay!

Hi All,
Very interesting stuff. Two points strike me if two brand new cars can have a top legal speed of 70 mph in one and 58 mph in the other :-

1/ Driving on a motorway at a TOP speed of 58 mph frightens me. It means you are a rolling roadblock and overtaking is more dangerous.

2/ A two hour journey in one car will take 2 hours and 25 minutes in the other. As this extra time has implications on safety - more time exposed to danger and more chance of fatigue ( time and boredom at 58 mph )

I have measured 3 cars they over read at 70 by 5mph, 8mph, and 5 mph

Richard