Those new speed cameras

jonnyburgo

One near us, virtually invisible at night, I drive past it to work, the old type you could spot a mile off with its big yellow box, this one is a yellow pole which is easy to see in the day but at night not at all. Watch out! I bet they've caught loads of non locals. From what I've read they have sensors which will pick you up braking before it or speeding up afterwards up to a kilometre away. 

Stratavarious

Series of them can work out average speeds across large distances.  Lots being installed in sticks around here.  Mainly because of high biker deaths.

Got caught by one on way back from a late festival gig recently.

axisus

People moan about speed cameras but at the end of the day it is about safety and the law. I think we need to educate the whole nation about sensible driving and the fact that it is not a God given right to speed around. In my old age I drive much more sensibly than I did in my youth, my mantra these days is 'why the rush'. 

NothingOnTheTele

When people complain about speed cameras I just think: 'Imagine if speed limits weren't enforced?'

Winny_Pooh

I dont have an issue with speed cameras aside from putting them on bloody 20mph roads that are not vaguely suburban. London is full of those roads and they're a bit pointless. 

Eg, one of the speed cameras nearby where I live

euan

I love average speed cameras. Especially on roads like the A90 where you’d get idiots happily doing over 100mph. It’s much more saner their days

Tannin

NothingOnTheTele said:

When people complain about speed cameras I just think: 'Imagine if speed limits weren't enforced?'

They aren't. Not to speak of. Not in the UK. Try living somewhere else and see how you go doing 20 and 40k over the limit.

jonnyburgo

I agree with you guys about the importance and have never had a ticket, but have found myself unknowingly over the limit from time to time, I'm talking maybe up to 10mph over,  not doing 60 in a 30. I do think that in some cases cameras are tactically positioned to be a money spinner rather than a safety device. 

ICBM

euan said:

I love average speed cameras. Especially on roads like the A90 where you’d get idiots happily doing over 100mph. It’s much more saner their days

I first discovered the advantage of average speed cameras when they had them in the long-running roadworks on the roughly eight miles of the M8 which was being upgraded - technically it was still the A8 dual carriageway at that point - a few years ago... basically, everyone set their cruise control to 50 and just sat back and relaxed. I once spent the whole distance almost parallel to the same car in the other lane.

The remarkable thing is that it didn't actually increase the journey time at all - but it did remove the dickish behaviour of people constantly speeding up and then braking to try to force their way past slower traffic that had been the normal characteristic on that stretch previously, resulting in you having to keep a hair-trigger reaction to brake lights ahead, massively increasing stress levels as well as fuel consumption. I was genuinely disappointed when the roadworks finished and the cameras were removed.

BillDL

One of the issues I see is that they dig holes in pavements and further restrict the width of those already narrow pavements for people using electric mobility scooters.  Councils tend not to think about that aspect when they embed new poles, signs, etc in pavements.

euan

Yeah similarly when the M8 has had works recently and it’s been great everyone doing 40. 

It also shows how everyone doing the same and lower speed increases the capacity of the road network and reduces congestion. 

euan

BillDL said:

One of the issues I see is that they dig holes in pavements and further restrict the width of those already narrow pavements for people using electric mobility scooters.  Councils tend not to think about that aspect when they embed new poles, signs, etc in pavements.

While I agree, it’s rather moot with how rampant pavement parking is 

p90fool

The constant threat from speed cameras has actually made driving more relaxing for me, even as a sportsbike rider. Years ago you used to have to make a decision as to how much over 30 mph you were prepared to go in order to stay with traffic flow, but for a good few years now I've been able to travel at a genuine 30 with no pressure from other drivers or caring where cameras or the police are. 

Of course in Wales that's all been ruined as we now have to make that law breaking decision again, as sticking to 20mph can turn you into a rolling obstruction to traffic flow. Every single vehicle for the last ten minutes or so has passed my window at between 30 and 40 mph, anyone sticking to 20 would have a queue of tailgaters. 

skunkwerx

All of my recent cars have speed limiters as part of cruise control.. I find it is the most used feature for me! I've built it into my driving, every new road I adjust it to the limit. 

Really takes the 'some' of the stress out of driving especially around here with so many cameras. I dont speed normally,  but like everyone sometimes you creep over the limit because with SO much going on in the road I want my eyes out front majority of the time!


Can sit on the road pedal to the floor and its capped at 30 or whatever I set it to. Just got to watch it on downhill roads. 

The downside is... SO many tailgaters.. really aggressive ones, flashing, honking swearing, pulling up beside giving it large.. I have a front and also a rear facing dashcam that has taken some of that anxiety away at least. 

I don't let anyone push me into speeding or to keep up, I have the mentality of 'I'm driving within the law, I am the traffic flow'. But it gives me anxiety still.

thebreeze

p90fool said:

The constant threat from speed cameras has actually made driving more relaxing for me, even as a sportsbike rider. Years ago you used to have to make a decision as to how much over 30 mph you were prepared to go in order to stay with traffic flow, but for a good few years now I've been able to travel at a genuine 30 with no pressure from other drivers or caring where cameras or the police are. 

Of course in Wales that's all been ruined as we now have to make that law breaking decision again, as sticking to 20mph can turn you into a rolling obstruction to traffic flow. Every single vehicle for the last ten minutes or so has passed my window at between 30 and 40 mph, anyone sticking to 20 would have a queue of tailgaters. 

I'm ambivalent about it all.  It depends what you mean about "years ago".  Years ago the roads were much emptier and driving was more relaxed and even fun sometimes.  Hardly any of our roads are built for the volume of traffic and use that they seem to have nowadays.  In towns too sometimes it's hard to get down the road because of all the extra cars parked on both sides of the road or on the pavement (I used to do van deliveries) and outside towns massive lorries use the smallest roads either to avoid boring motorway driving and congestion or because technology has sent them that way (along with everyone else).

Whichever way you look at it there's no pleasure in driving any more.  I'm a big believer in driving to the road conditions rather just following zombie-like a pre-established set of rules which may have no bearing on conditions or circumstances.  So I object to being heavily fined for travelling over a speed limit on a completely empty road at 3 a.m., for example.  I'm sure that'll shock a lot of people.  I'm also not comfortable with surveillance and cameras at the best of times, used for everything from entering a building, walking or driving, anywhere really - I even saw cameras in a church the other day.  Having more of them just depresses me a bit.  Like the chap above, the result of it all has meant we've all started having to film each other in order to feel safe (although it probably does the opposite in reality).  I guess I'm just nostalgic for freedom!!

kaypeejay

p90fool said:

The constant threat from speed cameras has actually made driving more relaxing for me, even as a sportsbike rider. Years ago you used to have to make a decision as to how much over 30 mph you were prepared to go in order to stay with traffic flow, but for a good few years now I've been able to travel at a genuine 30 with no pressure from other drivers or caring where cameras or the police are. 

Of course in Wales that's all been ruined as we now have to make that law breaking decision again, as sticking to 20mph can turn you into a rolling obstruction to traffic flow. Every single vehicle for the last ten minutes or so has passed my window at between 30 and 40 mph, anyone sticking to 20 would have a queue of twats. 

FTFY

Sporky

thebreeze said:

Whichever way you look at it there's no pleasure in driving any more.

Driving is still ace. Have you tried going "wheeeeeee!" and "vroooom!" and making screeching noises st appropriate moments? 

fretmeister

ICBM said:

euan said:

I love average speed cameras. Especially on roads like the A90 where you’d get idiots happily doing over 100mph. It’s much more saner their days

I first discovered the advantage of average speed cameras when they had them in the long-running roadworks on the roughly eight miles of the M8 which was being upgraded - technically it was still the A8 dual carriageway at that point - a few years ago... basically, everyone set their cruise control to 50 and just sat back and relaxed. I once spent the whole distance almost parallel to the same car in the other lane.

The remarkable thing is that it didn't actually increase the journey time at all - but it did remove the dickish behaviour of people constantly speeding up and then braking to try to force their way past slower traffic that had been the normal characteristic on that stretch previously, resulting in you having to keep a hair-trigger reaction to brake lights ahead, massively increasing stress levels as well as fuel consumption. I was genuinely disappointed when the roadworks finished and the cameras were removed.

I really like them. Before I went self-employed I used to commute the A428 into Bedford. When they installed the average speed cameras for a long chunk of my route it became much more relaxed with the lack of knobheads treating the curvy bits like the Maggots / Beckets complex at Silverstone.

It was still the sodding Thunderdome at either end though.

DefaultM

I get an average speed of 9mph driving round here on my usual journeys, but still people being dicks speeding when they get any stretch of road. You only catch up to them 15 seconds later I don't get what they think they're achieving.

crunchman

DefaultM said:

I get an average speed of 9mph driving round here on my usual journeys, but still people being dicks speeding when they get any stretch of road. You only catch up to them 15 seconds later I don't get what they think they're achieving.

Get a bike.  Easy to average more than 9 mph.

Teyeplayer

What I always find strange about average speed cameras, is the lorries pounding through on the second lane who seem completely oblivious or impervious to the reduced limit. Maybe said limits are not enforced on hauliers, though that seems utterly ridiculous und unlikely.