Britain Has the most dangerous drivers in Europe ...FACT..

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crockers

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Has to be a fact or why else does Britain have more speed / safety cameras than any other country in Europe ...........or in fact more than the whole of europe put together...:mad:


For anyone who has driven in other parts of EU...............lets get real now..:devil:
 
Actually, comparing bombing along the motorway from Brittany to London recently the quality of driving (and road surface) was pretty markedly different as soon as we rolled off the ferry...

Busy motorways in the UK bring out the worst in human nature in my fairly limited experience..

Ade
 
Has to be a fact or why else does Britain have more speed / safety cameras than any other country in Europe ...........or in fact more than the whole of europe put together...:mad:
You forgot all the other flavours of camera.

The reason for their ubiquity is for 'our safety & protection'. Not surveillance & control of our lives.

RH
 
If we're touching on conspiracy theories...

Tbh consumers have been pushing the Sat Nav market to a crazy extent over the last few years to the point where best-selling smart-phones are being bundled with it.
Hey, you never know - a couple of new directives from the Government could see your in-car Sat Nav formally registered, and monitored.
Forget cameras, old hat compared to what GPS is really capable of.
Why pay for the R&D yourself when you can sit back and watch it be marketed as a luxury labour-saving device?
 
If we're touching on conspiracy theories...

Tbh consumers have been pushing the Sat Nav market to a crazy extent over the last few years to the point where best-selling smart-phones are being bundled with it.
Hey, you never know - a couple of new directives from the Government could see your in-car Sat Nav formally registered, and monitored.
Forget cameras, old hat compared to what GPS is really capable of.
Why pay for the R&D yourself when you can sit back and watch it be marketed as a luxury labour-saving device?

Something I have pondered many times.
Trouble is though, how can something which is still considered a luxury be used for revenue raising?
Who would be responsible for the systems maintenance, upkeep and calibration?
And who would be responsible to ensure that the millions of cars equipped with satnav has it switched on? To disable satnav at any point is not difficult nor illegal. How could it be?

With current technology, the only way to raise revenue in a controlled and regulated environment is to continue with speed cameras either fixed or mobile.
To use a cars satnav for anything other than its original purpose is to open a huge can of worms.
 
To use a cars satnav for anything other than its original purpose is to open a huge can of worms.

What; like using the Prevention of terrorism Act to throw old people out of your party conference who dont like what you are doing in their name?:D
 
For "safety / speed" above, read "fund raising".

Nothing more to say really.

So why do we keep donating our funds to them. We get caught speeding, we get fined. There is an obvious answere.:rolleyes: BTW I have 3 points at present so I am not preaching, just stating the obvious.:D :D
 
If we're touching on conspiracy theories...

Tbh consumers have been pushing the Sat Nav market to a crazy extent over the last few years to the point where best-selling smart-phones are being bundled with it.
Hey, you never know - a couple of new directives from the Government could see your in-car Sat Nav formally registered, and monitored.
Forget cameras, old hat compared to what GPS is really capable of.
Why pay for the R&D yourself when you can sit back and watch it be marketed as a luxury labour-saving device?

tinfoil.jpg


Being serious now... tin foil does work... a piece of tin foil over the government mandated GPS device and your car will never leave the garage ;)
M.
 
So why do we keep donating our funds to them. We get caught speeding, we get fined. There is an obvious answere.:rolleyes: BTW I have 3 points at present so I am not preaching, just stating the obvious.:D :D

True. As you say we all have the answer at the bottom of our right leg.

However, that was not my point.
My point was the reason that there are so many cameras in the UK is totally down to the fact that they are self-funding cash cows and the safety/speed aspect is of a secondary nature.
A simple way to prove this would be to not fine anybody for speeding, just pile on the points big time.
I would then accept the fact they were for their claimed purpose.
 
The point of my OP was ...having driven in many countries I actually think driving in the UK to be on of the safest places...

Therefore ergo the cameras have to be for revenue or all countries in the EU would have masses more..


Nothing will convince me to the contrary
 
You have probably the most congested roads in Europe, but I think us Brits are the best drivers in the world, anticipation of others and reading the road ahead do not exist here on the Costa del Sol. We don't have static cameras though sometimes the local plod will use mobiles in towns and Guardia Trafico use unmarked cars with videos. Tolerance is pretty good on speed on the autopistas (M Ways) limit is 120kph but tolerance allowed up to and beyond 140 sometimes 150 even without penalty provided the conditions are OK. But drink drive levels are almost zero and they will road block Estepona and breath test everyone and if you're over wo betide you to the local gaol. Thing that really rattles me is that if you wave someone through the Spaniards never give a nod or a gesture of thanks, miserable ********. only the Brits, Germans, Swedish etc say "ta".
 
As a person who spends his entire working life driving around all of Europe I can honestly say I am convinced the British are the best drivers out there, Germans come close, but most of the rest of Europe don't appear to have a clue in comparison.

That said, I still much prefer driving on the continent as the roads are far less congested and generally you can cover more distance in a day.

We may have the most cameras in Europe, but the French and Spanish must have the most traffic enforcement officers, I was stopped 7 times on my last trip into France and Spain yet I have only been stopped twice in the last 20 years in the UK
 
We may have the most cameras in Europe, but the French and Spanish must have the most traffic enforcement officers, I was stopped 7 times on my last trip into France and Spain yet I have only been stopped twice in the last 20 years in the UK

Why were you stopped? What was the outcome? Were you driving a UK registered car?
 
Sorry I should have said, I am a truck driver, 6 of the 7 times were just random stops where they checked my Tacho discs for speeding and driving hours offences and all my documents for any irregularities, the seventh was for crossing a white line which cost me €90 (standard penalty)

It is unusual to get stopped in my truck as it is covered in sign writing etc, but when I drove a plain blue one this would happen nearly every trip
 
They need to reduce road deaths to zero. never mind some are not caused by speeding but anyway cameras will solve all the problems
 
I have to say, I find drivers in LA to be much better than over in the UK. If I could have the roads over there with the drivers and bring that to the UK, i'd probably never leave :D
 
When I drove out here (Skiathos) last January,I was very nervous about the journey.I had never driven on foreign roads before (except for the odd hire car or scooter on holidays).
I experienced the following:

Arriving in France I drove straight from the ferry onto the motorway at 7.00pm,it was dark and raining.I found the motorways to be clear from traffic,the French drivers were curteous,the lorry drivers flashed me when I overtook them,notifying me that it was safe to pull back into their lane.Also there was plenty of rest stops along the way with clean toilet facilities.Speed limits were adhered to by all motorists and we had no trouble with the plod despite a UK plated car and van driving together.

Itlay.Ditto the above.Although Milan was a crazy place but then again so is London at rush hour.

Switzerland.Super motorways despite the snow.The roads were clear and traffic ran at the speed limit.No stories of snow ploughs getting stuck or any of the other excuses you hear in the UK.

Northern Mainland Greece.This is another story!! They are building new motorways here but sadly our route did not use them.We had to put up with the old 1960's motorways that were built when roughly 5% of the population had a motor-vehicle.There is a saying in Greece that the people have gone from a donkey to a car in 2 generations,we say from a donkey to a Diablo,the major roads here are deadly.The speed limit is the same as the UK but there are 2 lane motorways with no central reservation,you will quite often find a tractor on the inside line being overtaken by a Porsche.The roads are plagued with battered old w201's from Albania full up with passengers,half a ton of gear on the roof with a driver probably without a driving lesson in his life!

After this driving experience I have to say that despite all the cameras,road-signs,rules and regs and penalty fines I think UK roads are very safe.
I think the problem lies with the drivers.They have no respect for speed limits,their lane discipline is non-existent and there is the constant threat of verbal abuse or violence if you do not acknowledge them for giving way etc etc (no respect/he dissed me!!)

Just my thoughts.
 
Greece and Portugal would be the worst places I have ever driven in.... madhouse.

French, Dutch and Swedish motorways are the best. Germans comes after that. UK roads are crap and Belgian ever worse. Traffic in Belgium is worse than in London on a Sunday night. Hate the place.

Traffic in Sao Paulo & Bangkok beats all above..... :eek:

Americans have no clue about lane discipline, a bit like the UK were all drivers are either clogging up the middle or are parked in the outside lane. Germans are the best in this department, the move out, overtake, move in. Excellent.

French are just plain funny with their blinking lights when overtaking, but this does seem to ware all over the country. Some does it, some don't.

If you want peace and quiet, try a 40 mile straight road in the middle of nowhere (Minnesota, US). Great, just make sure you are full of gas (!) and have all fluids.
 
But of course the cameras in the UK are there as a revenue earner for speeders, they don't single out dangerous or inconsiderate driving do they?
 

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