With all due respects, you must have had a speedometer reading of more than 40mph to be clocked at a genuine 37mph.
Why not ask to see the photographic evidence?
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Big wide B Road, 40 on the clock? Good Lord string him up!
It's just another form of taxation, persecution of the law abiding average John. Just easy pickings. Those who don't bother to register their cars get away with it (about half the population around here).
Why bother getting a photo? I am done and that's that.
Questions:
1. What will the fine be?
2. Do I have to tell my Insurance Co?
3. Will my premiums go up?
4. How many points on my licence?
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1. £60.00
2. Yes
3. Probably not if you only have one offense
4. 3
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Thanks for the swift replies.
Absolutely gutted to be honest and angry beyond belief. I tootle around in a modest hatch back, with aggressive dtivers stuck up my ar*e more often than not and I get done for speeding.
Gutted.
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but for you goes me mate and i feel for your anger and frustration 100%
--
\"a little man in a big world/\"
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OK but you knew, or should have known, what the limit was? If you're over the limit the "law abiding" bit falls by the wayside. No doubt I shall also be gutted when caught (as eventually I will be) but I'm afraid it's just one of life's lessons.
1) £60
2) Yes
3) Probably no
4) 3 points
ANPR will get the unregistered sooner or later.
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Hi,
People in Northumberland have started getting a lesson in careful driving instead of the fine and points on there licence.
Not sure is this is up and running in other areas. People I know have so far got this option were driving 35MPH in a 30MPH outside a school.
Best Regards
Baz
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Baz,
With respect, I consider driving at 37 mph on a big wide B road in dry sunny conditions to be careful.
Daily I contend with idiot tailgaters, white van man permanently with phone glued to ear, the complete lack of indicator use at roundabouts and junctions, idiot overtaking in built up areas, people blocking junctions rather than stopping and letting people out, complete lack of common sense, manners and sympathy, drugged up drivers, boozed up drivers and just plain useless drivers and at the end of all that some plod who should be out catching criminals (and believe me Croydon is crawling with 'em) wants to lecture me on careful driving?
I give up.
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woody where i live they have changed the road from 40 to 30 and everyday i struggle to remember this as this road has been a 40 for the last 30 years i know 2 friends that now have 6 points for getting flashed so i understand where you are coming from.
--
\"a little man in a big world/\"
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"must have had a speedometer reading of more than 40mph to be clocked at a genuine 37mph."
Not on mine - corresponds within 1 mph of satnav at that speed and 72 on speedo is 70 on satnav.
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Phil
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Woody, total commiserations with you. Agree with everything you say. So far, I have kept a clean licence and would like to think that the day I get done for speeding, I will be rational and accept it as punishment for the last 19 years of driving , sometimes over the limit.
However, I know I won't - I will react just as you have.
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I think its the old story. You broke the law and so shouldn't complain about being caught. If you don't agree with the speed limit then that's a different matter - complain about the law, not about being caught for breaking it.
BTW, I have been caught too (and had unblemished record), so I know its annoying, but I DID break the law.
I agree about lack of police on roads, but as we see on this forum, if they do nick someone for a minor infringement then another wail goes out that they are 'over zealous'. Basically it seems everyone is happy so long as jack-the-lad with baseball cap in an old Corsa is nicked, but if Mr Middle-Class is caught then its 'not fair'.
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Hi Woody,
I didnot mean anything. I was saying hopefully you will get offered this course instead of the points.
www.uknetguide.co.uk/Motoring/Article/Speed_Awaren...l
regards
Barry
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Can't help but wonder that this thread will end up in the Scamera thread - but
Woody,
I agree wholeheartedly with what you say - I think (part of)your frustration is that general driving standards are appaling today - but if you so much as drift slightly over the limit, even if driving carefully there is a device that will Kodak you and then fit this into a neat system that dishes out fines, frustration and a diminishing respect for the forces of law & order.
What Barry suggests is a far preferable alternative for all involved if you ask me - education and no long term consequence for the speeding incident. A bit more palatable and thoughtful than a robotic fine.
IMHO, there should be more police on the roads policing driving standards - the chances of running into the local constabulary are next to zero these days, and if you do, they're so overstretched that they can't address the wholesale flouting of basic driving standards that is going on.
I'm not saying 37 in a 30 is acceptable. What I am saying is that the system in place to catch people doing this breeds nothing but resentment and I think in the long term will do more to sour relationships with the boys in blue than improve road safety.
--Lee .. Welcome to Anytown USA
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Hard luck, but just part of the game. If you did it you did it, and if they caught you they caught you. I have no doubt at all that you were driving safely from your account. But that isn't the point with that sort of enforcement of speed limits, which by the way dates from the very earliest days of motoring in the 19th century.
There's nothing new under the sun. It isn't a badge of shame young man. It's a badge of honour.
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>>It isn't a badge of shame young man. It's a badge of honour.>>
Would you feel that that also applies to the police officer checked doing 159mph in an unmarked police car?
Woody's minor blemish pales into insignificance alongside that episode.
As a crumb of comfort to Woody, Lancashire police have speed cameras in some area that nab motorists from 32mph upwards.
If ever there was a case to prove that most speed cameras are merely an incentive to raise money that's it.
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There's a blemish in a way, but it isn't something I personally would wish Woody to take to heart. Everyone gets a few scars on their body and blots on their escutcheon. But no one should feel in any way ashamed of a piffling speeding fine, just mildly irritated at being caught. Jobsworths hiding behind hedges have been trying to catch motorists out, for money, since the 19th century. Sometimes they succeed. As I said, it's just the luck of the game.
The policeman is a bit different because he probably reckoned he wouldn't be caught. Is there any suggestion that the speed was dangerous in the conditions - crests, water on the road, blind turnings in high hedges, that sort of thing? Or was he a professional pursuit driver stretching a very able car to its limit? Absolutely flat feels slightly dodgy in quite a lot of cars. But I wasn't there.
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Lancashire Police (or rather the supposed Safety Camera Pratnership) also like hiding in an unmarked van in a layby on a deserted road by Uni with no recent accidents as it happens. There's been a rape, and countless muggings but no accidents. (As far as I know anyway)
The fact that every house on the road has an S Class or equivalent in the drive and the residents are anti students I suppose has nothing to do with it.
(They were there on the first day back of term)
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Sorry to hear about the demise of your unblemished record, Woody.
With reference to your last sentence, if you were thinking about emigrating to New Zealand to get away from excessive traffic policing, think again.
I lived in the UK for over five years and drove many miles for business and pleasure. In that time I received no NIPs, was never stopped by police and was generally left alone.
Since I returned to New Zealand, about three years ago, I have been stopped three times, and had a speed camera fine. All of these were momentary small excursions over the 50km/h urban or 100km/h rural limit. This is enforced with a 10km/h, or sometimes 5km/h margin for error. It's pointless telling them that I used to drive all around the UK with much greater traffic volumes at 70mph (112km/h). My wife was fined NZ$150 for going 116km/h. So here we engage the cruise control, if we have one, or watch the speedometer very closely.
Not many people here can maintain an unblemished record!
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Thanks for some kind words and sympathy.
I have been driving around the familiar patch today, extremely concious of my speed.
It seems to me my 1.6 Seat Leon has a 'natural' speed in 4th gear between 35 and 40, so I am now using 3rd gear. The queues behind me are quite ridiculous, but there you go.
As regards speed limits, there are very few signs around and the normal traffic flow seems to be 40-45 mph, but they are in fact 30 MPH zones.
Isn't it something to do with lamp posts?
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Lee,
Wise words.
As regards my respect for the Police (and that utter idiot Ian Blair in particular), as the old saying nearly goes:
I wouldn't help one if they were on fire.
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"I wouldn't help one if they were on fire"
That's the trouble, isn't it? The Police need all the help they can get dealing with genuine crime, but making them the agents of alternative taxation is the worst sort of PR.
I believe that in Germany, tailgating is considered a far more serious offence than speeding (which just happens to be easy to measure), which is as it should be, IMHO.
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{tailgating}
My drive home goes 40-30-40-30-40-30 on roads that would easily handle 60 in the 40 bits. I'm so loathe to find myself at the wrong end of this farce that I use the cruise control in the Fabia to keep to 30/40 - it's a bit of a guess but I think an indicated 32/43 is about right. Queues, tailgating and much annoyance behind me ensue. Given the Fabia is gold, I'd wondered that they had me down as a TOG; however, the C4 allows digitally setting the speed to exactly 30/40 and the same happens. This is a black, shiny brand new sporty looking Coupe. Same thing happens.
There's no simple device that will catch those pink fluffy dice behind me, but their driving (and the line of pink fluffy dice behind them doing the same thing) is a far more dangerous proposition than simple speeding.
If they're now nicking people for 32mph then I give up. They've finally gone nuts.
--Lee .. Welcome to Anytown USA
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Having just completed a Speed Awareness Course...
TVP/Northumbria/Manchester & other forces are piloting the courses
but generally only at 35/36 in a 30
Keynote for 30mph limits (simplified) was:
if there is street lighting - there is a 30 limit
if there is no street lighting but the area is "built-up"- 30mph signs + repeaters must be visible
this advice saved me yet another ticket in the Reading area last week, where road signage is frequently absent - different from anywhere else I know in the country - and constantly changing
50-32-20 in villages...
20mph limits exist but are not legally enforced, except on one road near Windsor ( camera + act of parliament enacted ?)
30mph limits enforced at 35/36 depending on force area
34mph NIP not generally issued
Observation suggest fixed cameras are triggered at speeds of 35+ or else cameras would run out of film
mobile cameras - up to the operator...then reviwed at processing unit
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"20mph limits exist"
Has anyone seen the '20 is plenty' signs that are designed to look like official limits, but aren't? Highly illegal, I should have thought, and probably counterproductive...
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