Safe Speed Forums

Yes, it finally happened. My grandma, aged 82, has just received a ticket for speeding on her way to the shops (35 in a 30 as it turns out). She started driving in World War 2, and has never had any convictions of any kind, but as of today she's a criminal.

Now there are probably a multitude of reasons why she shouldn't be driving, but speeding certainly isn't one of them.

When Clarkson did his Top Gear sketch about the old granny being caught, while the boy racer and Osama Bin Laden got away, I thought it was rather amusing; but it seems that the truest words really are said in jest.

Anyway, her main response to the ticket was "well, I won't be voting for this lot again". She lives in North Wales, so I did tell her about Brunstrom and suggest that she meet him face to face and get him to call her a yob, but sadly she didn't seem to interested

Anyway, sorry if this post is a bit off-topic, it has just amused me in a very dry sort of way.

Any chance of a photo of her holding her ticket?

I'd just use it on the web site. It'd be important that she gave permission, but I can't imagine any realistic downside.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

The local scameraship have recently built a layby for a Talivan on a road that my father (who is a similar age) regularly uses.

He's by no means a fast driver, but he does tend to drift up above the limit in 30s (not that I don't, but I'm very aware of speed enforcement). I've told him about it, but I wonder whether it might catch him out.

This is the nonsense of the current policy - it catches cautious people a few mph above the limit, but it doesn't catch either the knowing (like me ) or those who deliberately flout the law with cloned or unregistered cars.

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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

My stepfather has always been one for ranting about hooligan motorists speeding around everywhere, should be more speed cameras etc.

But then his 70 year old mate he goes fishing with got nabbed for 48 in a 40 (one that used to be NSL and really still ought to be), and now the pair of them are staunch and vocal anti-camera! I suspect they'll have converted a few more of their "posse" too...

I've thought for a long while that one thing the scamerati have perhaps never properly considered is that their tactics tend to incrementally destroy any support they do currently have. If they continue to employ their current "random" tactics then it is virtually a statistical certainty that in time every driver will have received a ticket they see as unfair, and will thus withdraw their support for the system.

It's the opposite of "keeping the customer satisfied", isn't it?

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Hehe, that'd be great; unfortunately she lives about 200 miles away from me so it's not something I can do with ease. I'll ask her to keep the ticket with her (or whatever bit of it you don't have to send back) and try and get a pic next time I visit



To an extent I think that's true; but on the other hand, a fair few people I've spoken to who got a ticket say things like "well I probably deserved it, I was doing a bit over the limit" and such like. They don't necessarily see it as unfair; but as you say, it's only a matter of time until people do receive a ticket they think is unfair.