zero tolerance on speeding !!!!!!!!!!!!!

guitars4you

just heard on the J Vine Radio 2 show a discussion regarding the potential of a zero tolerance on speeding - A view that a senior officer would like to bring into place

My first initial thought plan was this could be dangerous - be it driving at 70 on the motorway or 30 in a built up area - I'd be spending to long looking at my speedo and not outside the window at other cars, pedestrians etc - will this cause more accidents

2nd thought is this is just an extra cash cow 

3rd thought is the accuracy of your speedo - although I'm led to believe they can be calibrated marginally slower, but never higher 

4th thought is apart from more speed cameras then surely the traffic police won't have enough time and man power to control it all

5th thought and to be fair , it is the law and you know what you are doing when you exceed it, regardless of your actual thoughts

Legionreturns

Personally, I'd like to see discretion and judgement brought back into it. That means real police, not cameras. 

Doing 75 on a clear motorway at night is not the same as doing 25 in a 20 zone residential area with kids at play. The latter will kill people. 

Fuengi

If you need to watch your speedo consistently to gauge your speed, you really need some help with your driving! 

Drive slightly below the limit if need be and gauge speed by looking at the road. You will notice if you are accelerating. 

VimFuego

agree with the zero tolerance to speeding, but to compensate, they should remove all other driving rules. That should introduce some fun back into motoring.

Ravenous

I doubt they could defend, in court, clobbering anyone going 1mph over the limit. (1mph being the claimed figure I heard this morning.)

BUT - the motorways are marked 70mph, but people seem to feel safer going at least 80.  I think that's the problem.

Fretwired

The government's broke ... let's rob the motorist. French style motorway tolls will be next in the name of saving the planet. Anyone who disagrees will find their lives are made hell by the militant end of the green lobby which won't happy until we're living in the stone age again, although Theresa May's doing a good job of that ...

Fretwired

VimFuego said:

agree with the zero tolerance to speeding, but to compensate, they should remove all other driving rules. That should introduce some fun back into motoring.

Death raced 2018 Mad Max style .....

FX_Munkee

Is the officer concerned going after a particularly good job? Does he need quick and dirty publicity for something else?

crunchman

I'd be for it of they made the speed limits sensible.  80mph on motorways, and do away with ridiculous 40mph limits on roads that should be national speed limit, but then enforce it properly.

Luminous

I haven't heard the the original article but totally agree...if you speed you are a selfish git, no ones journey is more important than anyone else's. ( bar ambulances etc. )....I would make speeding in residential areas a crime of manslaughter. Running red lights should be instant loss of driving priveleges ( unless you can prove it was unsafe to do stop )

Ravenous

“I do not want the public to be surprised, I want them to be embarrassed when they get caught,” he said. “They need to understand the law is set at the limit for a reason. They should not come whingeing to us about getting caught. If booked at 35 or 34 or 33 [in a 30mph zone] that cannot be unfair because they are breaking the law.”

- Quote taken from the Guardian.  Seems the 1mph figure might be some "overenthusiastic" reporting.

guitars4you

Fuengi said:

If you need to watch your speedo consistently to gauge your speed, you really need some help with your driving! 

Drive slightly below the limit if need be and gauge speed by looking at the road. You will notice if you are accelerating. 

that is likely to be another issue - those that are very concerned about going over the speed limit and picking up a fine, now go 5/10% below to compensate - it already happens with the roads full of incompetence and driving 46mph in a 50mph on an A road between towns

57Deluxe

you can do more than 30 on a bicycle - well I could. I used to chase the Bus from Walton to Addlestone cos was always two top totties sitting on the back seat waving and blowing kisses at me after a night out...

Fretwired

Ravenous said:

I doubt they could defend, in court, clobbering anyone going 1mph over the limit. (1mph being the claimed figure I heard this morning.)

BUT - the motorways are marked 70mph, but people seem to feel safer going at least 80.  I think that's the problem.

I think it has more to do with the fact that modern cars are fast. My first car was an 1000 cc Mini which could barely do 80 mph on the motorway and if you managed it you found it was a hair raising experience. Cars today are bigger and safer and faster - it's easier to speed. The problem is the petrol consumption and pollution rises as speed increases so while 80 mph maybe be safe (70 mph in some of the old bangers I drove in the 1970s was dangerous) it's not good for the environment. Maybe reduce speed to 60 mph.

Sporky

guitars4you said:

3rd thought is the accuracy of your speedo - although I'm led to believe they can be calibrated marginally slower, but never higher 

That's correct. Speedos can over-read by (I think) up to 10% + 2mph, but cannot under-read.

I don't really object to zero tolerance for speeding, but I would also like to see more visible traffic police to catch the bad driving that isn't speeding.

I'd also like to see an end to the crap such as the Lotus boss recently pulled - caught repeatedly doing ridiculous speeds, this time I think it was 103 in a 70, but let off because apparently he can't be the boss of a sports car manufacturer and drive like he's not a complete twat.

ICBM

I know I will be unpopular for saying this, but I would be in favour of it. There's no point in having rules that are constantly broken with impunity. I'm not in favour of raising the motorway limit "to compensate" either - what's so special about 80? Just drive at 70, you'll get there in almost exactly the same time but waste less fuel. I normally drive at around 60, it's noticeably more efficient and only adds about 5 minutes to my 50-mile commute.

And I fully admit to occasionally speeding slightly, like everyone else. If there was a zero-tolerance policy I would just drive at 5mph below the limit rather than at/around it. You don't need to be constantly watching it, you just need to be aware of how fast you're going - even without cruise control/speed limiters as many modern cars have. No car speedo under-reads (unless you've fitted the wrong tyre size), so that's not an excuse either.

TTony

guitars4you said:

 the J Vine Radio 2 show

There's your problem.

How BBC standards have fallen.    That show is  sensationalist, populist radio at its worst.  Maybe expected on a local radio station with 3 listeners, but on the BBC? 

Poor old Jimmy Young must be spinning at 78rpm.

strtdv

57Deluxe said:

you can do more than 30 on a bicycle - well I could. I used to chase the Bus from Walton to Addlestone cos was always two top totties sitting on the back seat waving and blowing kisses at me after a night out...

Speed limits don't apply to bicycles (they only apply to motor vehicles), but you knew that of course..

ESBlonde

Some points that occur to me reading this.
In several counties police have turned off thier fixed speed cameras because they can't fund the follow up proceedures, but not all so beware. If this is the case how are they going to police the huge number of additional cases - at least in the short term.
The speed limit is a limit not a target.
Are ther enough judges/court time for all the extra appeals that will surely spring up.
There are lots of studies that prove that speed kills, but the lack of police traffic cops and the shut down cameras in recent years hasn't lead to a clear rise in road accidents and deaths.

Ravenous

57Deluxe said:

you can do more than 30 on a bicycle - well I could. I used to chase the Bus from Walton to Addlestone cos was always two top totties sitting on the back seat waving and blowing kisses at me after a night out...

Bikes are specifically excluded from most motor vehicle regulations by the way, before the anti-cycling lot start...

(Cycling with a stiffie is a different matter and very much at your own risk.)

p90fool

Fuengi said:

If you need to watch your speedo consistently to gauge your speed, you really need some help with your driving! 

That's easy to say in a shitbox diesel, it's not so easy to tell on a Kawasaki ZZR1400.