A new use for speed cameras (motoring link) has been devised, to control excessive speed of skiers in Italy.
tinyurl.com/28pzk7
With 26,000 accidents, 16 fatal, last year in Italy you can understand how speed on skis can kill or injure.
It is interesting to note that the age group for excess speed is 19 to 25 years old - a very similar age group to young drivers who do silly things in cars without regard to other road users.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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Quick, install on Primrose Hill (or any other suitable hillside in the south or midlands) as it will snow tomorrow night or Thursday and we don't want accidents for people enjoying the wintery weather.
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You could check the accuracy of your speedometer by deliberately driving past every camera above the speed limit until one caught you. You could then compare the indicated speed with the speed the authorities claimed you were doing! ;-)
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L\'escargot.
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I did something a little like this this afternoon. The council (presumably) had set up one of those temporary 'Speedcheck' boards on a straight stretch of 30mph residential road on the edge of town. Having spotted it when I walked that way earlier, I decided to do a little test and drove past with the needle as exactly as I could get it on 30. I was quite surprised to see the display flickering between 29 and 30, so either the board was over-reading too (not impossible, I suppose) or the error that I know my speedometer shows at higher speeds (a true 70 reads about 75) is much smaller at 30.
Anyone know anything useful about the technicalities and operation of these boards? I imagine they're not as precisely calibrated as cameras.
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You would have thought that for what these things cost, I think they are much more use than cameras BTW, they could be made accurate. My speedo over reads by 3 mph right across the range, when compared with GPS. I pass one of these boards every time I go to work and, set at 40 mph, it flashes me at a GPS 38 mph. Still, better then £60 and 3 points!
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There's one of those near me, that flashes "slowdown" if you go over about 30.
It's in a 40 limit...
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I am always disappointed if I don't manage to light these things up, except on the very rare occasions when I am trying to check their accuracy (don't care really).
I am always especially pleased when I flash past at well over the posted limit and they turn out to be broken.
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These may well be accurate, but it depends upon the trigger setting, and these seem to vary greatly. On a recent trip we managed to get several units in one area (yes, there were several very close together) flashing 30 despite being at or below 30. On the return trip we found at least two were triggered at <25 as confirmed by GPS. All that does is annoy people - either the limit's 30 or it's not.
JS
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I was quite surprised to see the display flickering between 29 and 30 so either the board was over-reading too (not impossible I suppose) or the error that I know my speedometer shows at higher speeds (a true 70 reads about 75) is much smaller at 30.
Mine is the same as yours WdB, accurate at 30 but progressively less accurate as you go faster.
Old mechanical speedos often used to over-read by a percentage so they got more inaccurate the faster you went. IIRC the road tests in Autocar & Motor magazine used to give a list of speedo accuracy at different speeds.
Judging by Armitages post, with modern electronic speedos they can overread by a fixed amount throughout the range?
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Another victory for the driving by numbers brigade.
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"IIRC the road tests in Autocar & Motor magazine used to give a list of speedo accuracy at different speeds. "
You've probably been reading Saga magazine as long as me.
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I read in a mag a few years ago that in one South American country if you passed a police patrol whilst speeding, they shoot at you!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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