Don't speed anywhere but especially not in Brecon! Before Easter a motorist was caught doing 51 in a 30 and was fined £500 with £35 costs and this took into account "His early guilty plea and co-operation with the police". Phew!
No mention of any 'points' though so perhaps it was a bargain, of sorts
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Whilst I admit I disagree with speeding traps and the like set up on motorways or big carriageways late at night or when there is little value to be added safetywise I think anyone caught speeding in a 30 zone deserves to have their license removed. 30 zones are 9.5 times out of ten built up town/housing areas where children could be playing and people are likely to be crossing the road etc.
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this made sense in the old days when 30 zones were where they were really needed, i could show you some wide open clear dual carriageway with no schools or population near by with 30 limits imposed by anti-car councils
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Should be fined once;repeat offence,driving license should be taken away for the rest of their life.
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So why does everybody speed in a 30 limit then?
I'll tell you why - a small proportion (thank god) think the speed limits are for other people - not them.
MOST people do not think at all - If it's OK for Deidre, it's OK for me. Sheep.
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Trevor,
You may have heard that highways engineers say that the safest speed of travel is the 85th percentile speed.
Sticking to limits is dangerous. Anti-car hysterics alway ask, "How many times do you break the speed limit?" but never ask " How many times do you travel way below the posted limit because that is the correct speed for the conditions?" That is the 85th percentile speed.
I have become a complete pain on the roads because of the obsession with speed limit offences. I travel at no more than 30 in a 30 limit even if the more approriate speed would be 40 or higher. As a result, I usually have a queue of cars behind me, wondering why I am travlling so slowly on the open road and getting more and more frustrated. Then start to overtake, tapping their temples.
The police tell us that excessive speed for the conditions is a minor cause of accidents and yet if a dumb pedetrian steps in front of a car, they always blame the driver. "If she had been goin more slowly, she could have stopped"
How do they know. The first lady to die by walking in front of a car was Bridgit Driscoll; the car was travelling at 4 mph.
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Very good.
However "wondering why I am travlling so slowly on the open road"
does not apply in my case - perhaps because of where I live.
There are no 30 limits on open roads in my county.
If any of the dumbos attempting to intimidate me at 30 stick around when we get to the (much roundabouted) dual carriageway, they are then totally confused.
I get to 70 quickly (in my Audi TT), then overtake 4-5 cars on the exit of every roundabout.
I have had MANY pupils say "but you are going fast now, why were you gong so slow back there?"
You mean maybe I should drive like a donkey?
40 in a 30 and 50 on dual carriageway?
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You should see a psychiatrist
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Was that a conviction for speeding or for careless driving? Speeding as an offence is an artifact of the existence of speed limits and speedometers. Driving without dure care and attention to the road conditions, whether at a speed above or below the posted limit, is not acceptable and is what ought to be concentrated on to make roads safer.
GJD
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Dan J
I agree completely with you on the adhereance to limits in town or other hazardous areas at appropriate times.
However, it would be nice to think that "9.5 times out of ten" 30 zones are in such places.
I go along a stretch of dual carriageway every day which has a 30 limit with fenced in fields either side.
Totally inappropriate limit.
Absolutely everybody ignores the limit and the usual speeds are around 50.
Occasionally, though, it is used as a happy hunting ground for a camera squad.
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>>Don't speed anywhere but especially not in Brecon! Before Easter a motorist was caught doing 51 in a 30
Two possibilities;
1) The limit was totally inappropriate and unjustifiable
2) He should have been hung, drawn and quartered.
Either way the punishment was inappropriate. It either should have been much less, or much much more.
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Q. How can you say that the authorities have 'abused' Speed Cameras?
Instead of being located in blackspots, the majority of cameras have been placed in open road locations where they serve no purpose other than to catch out drivers who are travelling at an appropriate speed for the conditions. A particularly worrying trend is the recent placement of cameras on the motorway network, currently Britain's safest roads despite almost universal disregard for the 70mph speed limit.
Q. How can you accuse the authorities of irresponsibility when they are just doing their job?
Even those cameras sited correctly are often not clearly labelled, thus denying the target group of drivers the opportunity to be educated into slowing down for hazards. This clearly demonstrates an irresponsible attitude on the part of the authorities - prosecutions are more important than road safety.
Q. But surely a safe driver never exceeds the speed limit?
A. The speed limit is supposed to be the maximum safe speed on that road and it is up to the driver to use his skill and judgement to set his speed appropriately to the conditions within it. On country lanes, shopping streets and housing estates this is usually the case, but on the open road and on many clear urban through roads, limits exist which bring this statement into disrepute. There are several reasons for this:
Open road limits have not been adjusted to take account of the modern car's vastly superior brakes, tyres and suspensions which have reduced stopping distances by up to 50% from those stated in the Highway Code.
Similar stretches of urban dual carriageway have limits varying from 30mph to 70mph, sometimes without logic at all but often because the limit is set for the worst rush hour conditions rather than light traffic.
Semi-urban clear road limits are reduced to or maintained at unrealistic levels for political reasons to allow decision makers to cover themselves against any blame for potential accidents.
Safe drivers who give the road conditions their full attention will inevitably break such arbitrary and inconsistent limits.
Q. We hear that 'speed kills', and so why isn't a general slowdown a good thing?
A. The authorities state that 'excessive speed is a contributory factor in a third of accidents'. But what about the other two thirds, and what is the main factor in this minority if speed is only 'contributory'? This missing factor, the real cause of most accidents, is failure by drivers to respond to hazards:
They fail to see them because they aren't looking.
They see the hazard but do not recognise it as such, and so fail to act.
They recognise the hazard but do not know how to respond in line with their own and their vehicle's ability.
Driving at an inappropriate speed for the conditions is simply one consequence of these fundamental failings. To separate it out as a root cause in its own right is meaningless and dangerous.
Q How does this alleged camera abuse translate into more dangerous roads?
A1. Most obviously by distracting drivers' attention from the road. Since a driver cannot rely on keeping her licence by driving sensibly and appropriately, the first use of her senses must always be to locate the camera and then to ensure she passes it at the correct speed. Whilst doing this, she cannot give her full attention to other potential hazards, and may take unpredictable evasive action such as braking which creates a hazard for other road users.
A2 Perhaps more importantly by undermining his skills. A safe driver is one able to judge road conditions for himself. But sensible and necessary speed limits are rarely enforced, presumably because it is more cost effective to collect tickets from safe drivers on roads where the limit is inappropriately low. Such circumstances reward drivers for travelling at the speed they can get away with rather than what is safe, and even the most skilled driver will find himself losing his ability to judge road conditions properly. New drivers stand little chance of developing their skills to a level where they can cope with normal day to day hazards safely and intelligently.
Q. Isn't it wrong to break the law, and shouldn't those who do so be punished?
A. The ABD believes that laws are necessary but that they should be fair to all and serve a clear purpose. Enforcement to the letter of regulations which large numbers of responsible citizens regard as unreasonable and pointless can only lead to widespread disregard for the whole system of law and is a significant factor in the breakdown in standards of honesty in the Western world.
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As someone who lives in Brecon on a main road with a 30 mph limit and a father of a small boy, I welcome any measures to deter drivers from speeding through built-up areas. The person who was fined £500+ was unlucky to be caught, judging by the speed of the majority of vehicles,( especially motorcyclists who seem to think mid-Wales is their own personal race track), passing my front door who don't get stopped by the police. But as Trevor say's people are sheep and believe that speed limits are for other people. A £500 fine and the possibility of a few points can be regarded as getting of light compared with the possibility of facing a manslaughter charge for running over and killing of a child.
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emotional tosh and not based on science but rather the understandable reaction of someone taken in by the "speed kills" rubbish
kids get killed cos they are not taught road safety, or good pedestrian skills, because roads are designed badly by the same bunch of consulting engineers who are currently making lots of money "thinning roads" pandering to the anti-car brigade in local authorities, and because bad traffic policing encourages bad behaviour and attitude
open roads having a 30 limit breeds contempt and encourages motorists to disregard the limit in situations where it is valid
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Crazed,
Can you believe that some nutters on my Council are telling kids that they should be able to play in the road and they have the right of way over cars?
"Lets give the roads back to the children"
I have told them they will soon have blood on their hands.
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A few days ago I posted a list of the ACPO guidelines for the siting of cameras, to a mixed reaction from the Back Room I have to say! Suffice to say many cameras are stuck in the middle of nice driving roads, Witney to Burford comes to mind. Their siting bears no relationship to fatal accidents, blind brows, dangerous junctions, collisions or anything else. They sit in a 60 limit, looking for people on clear dry roads, with a modern radial ply tyred, disc braked car doing 70 in complete safety and control.
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yea i like the ones placed at the only safe overtaking place for miles
great common sense that is
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You can always dismantle the Gatso and chuck it in the river, liike Moggs of "Pobol y Cwm" did the other day.
Isn't Cwmderi supposed to be near Brecon? Or Carmarthen anyway.
Royston Vasey (Dyn Lleol)
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I was driving on a country road near my house (which I use very very regularly). It is long and straight on the section I'm thinking of.
Last Sunday, week b4 Easter, I came round the corner onto the straight bit (which is about 0.5 miles long) and accelerated to about 20 (only) because there was a family marauding along the road - kids and dog everywhere - none of them on leads!
The women eventually grabbed the dog and wrestled it onto the verge. I passed them about 15mph.
She shouted and gesticulated at me for no apparent reason.
I got to the man, about 200 yds further away, with the kids on the verge. I slowed down even more (to a stop) to find out why the lunatic woman had shouted and gesticulated.
He tried to get into my car to assault me and said that I could have run over his dog. I pointed out that I had slowed down and that they were on the verge when I passed them. He told me to "get out here and say that". I ignored him and wound the window up (to a tiny crack) before pointing out that this was a road, not a park, at which he started hitting my car (seriously) as I drove away sharpish.
All the time my wife was sitting by me in the car, terrified.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!!
Do parents think that they have no responsibility for their kids/animals? Is it unreasonable to drive along a clear straight road at 15 mph past kids/animals?? Should the dogs not be on a lead anyway???
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Mark,
Is it not at times like these that one vaguely wishes that one could have the South African anti hijack flame thrower device fixed and legally operational.
Would they carry on like that in a country where legally you might have been carrying a weapon, I think not.
S
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Mark
Some professional pedestrians (of the tree hugging type) are beyond help.
My last encounter (sandals, waist length hair) was on a pelican, walking across on a red man. I stopped without drama. Only a few feet away, but he didn't see me. Thinks........this guy needs help........what would a policeman do? Point out the error of his ways, thought I.
Quick pip on the horn for attention........sandals jump in air.......pants fill with used lentils.......two clenched fists........."what yer want?"...........you're on a red............
WELL THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN TRY TO KILL ME, thumping bonnet with aforementioned fists.............led off crossing by two laughing pedestrians.
Not worth trying to help, is it?
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Mark
Put a CB radio into the car, make sure its one with a public address facility.
Put the speaker under the bonnet.
You can then shout abuse at jaywalkers without having to stop or put your window down.
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As a Breconite who feels he knows the local roads pretty well, I can only assume that this guy must have been in a built up area - the only non-national speed limit roads are those at 30 in town or the 40mph efforts on the way in and out. He (she) was probably on the main road (The Watton), a wide straight rd, but with cars parked all down one side many roads coming off it. Most locals all know that the police are stict along there - I'ld do 35 max even at 2 in the morning.
You might be interested to know that ourfriends in blue are also very strict (and like to hide around corners), on the part of the A40 going through Bwlch (yes that is it's real name) about 5 miles out of Brecon, it's a 30 limit. I know of at least 4 people caught there in the last 6 months.
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