Use of mobile speed cameras getting silly on motorways

[219]

Exactly....I'd just add that if I do 70, to overtake people doing 60 without holding up people in the middle lane I need to put my foot down....EATING fuel.

Hmmm , but how can you be 'holding up' anyone if you are already travelling at the MAXIMUM permitted speed - following traffic is just NOT ALLOWED to go any faster .

I just recently drove the road under discussion en route from Glasgow to Kent and had no difficulty in maintaining a steady 70 most of the way ( achieving over 60 mpg in a Diesel Golf , averaged over the round trip ) . Most of the time I remained in lane 1 , moving into lane 2 as required and only occasionally needing to use lane 3 . I don't see the problem .

 

[st4]

Hmmm , but how can you be 'holding up' anyone if you are already travelling at the MAXIMUM permitted speed - following traffic is just NOT ALLOWED to go any faster .

Probably because a significant amount (from experience) a majority, travel at speeds above the posted limit.

I just recently drove the road under discussion en route from Glasgow to Kent and had no difficulty in maintaining a steady 70 most of the way ( achieving over 60 mpg in a Diesel Golf , averaged over the round trip ) . Most of the time I remained in lane 1 , moving into lane 2 as required and only occasionally needing to use lane 3 . I don't see the problem .

You were lucky, on the trip to a GTG in Gaydon last xmas I has BMWs flashing me when passing lorries in L2 when I was doing 70mph. People even towing caravans were passing me. I find it a road that high speed seems to prevail, despite limits being clearly advertised. Although with me its now a case of "pot, kettle, black"

 

[tlbham]

Hmmm , but how can you be 'holding up' anyone if you are already travelling at the MAXIMUM permitted speed - following traffic is just NOT ALLOWED to go any faster .

I just recently drove the road under discussion en route from Glasgow to Kent and had no difficulty in maintaining a steady 70 most of the way ( achieving over 60 mpg in a Diesel Golf , averaged over the round trip ) . Most of the time I remained in lane 1 , moving into lane 2 as required and only occasionally needing to use lane 3 . I don't see the problem .

Nothing sums up my feelings about the above better than this...
YTMND - WRONG!

Whilst I cannot claim to have friends and family that are entirely representative of the population, I'd say 90% of them regularly exceed 80. If you have a law which the majority of people disagree with, should it be there?

 

[andy_k]

One of the highest accident rates, not the highest Andy-whats the motorway with the highest level of road traffic incident rate?

without looking at any stats, my guess is the M25

The M40 has always been a shocker for crap driving, speeding and far too many accidents.

Sticking a camera up on a bridge to catch speeding motorists must be like shooting fish in a barrel

 

[timskemp]

For goodness sake, I reckon 90% of those who read this will travel at an indicated 75-80 on a free flowing motorway, and at least 50% faster on an empty one. Shooting fish in a barrel is how I'd describe sticking a cop with a laser on a bridge over a motorway.

They really do need to find something better to do and start catching criminals that have victims.

 

[franey]

For goodness sake, I reckon 90% of those who read this will travel at an indicated 75-80 on a free flowing motorway, and at least 50% faster on an empty one. Shooting fish in a barrel is how I'd describe sticking a cop with a laser on a bridge over a motorway.

They really do need to find something better to do and start catching criminals that have victims.

Perhaps those who speed are not really criminals!!

As for catching criminals who have victims?

Who will catch the one who is called Brown?

 

[G-Force]

Perhaps those who speed are not really criminals!!

As for catching criminals who have victims?

Who will catch the one who is called Brown?

Hey Franey....that could be a hole new thread!!!!! in any other walk of life what Brown and his members of "the gentlemens club" did was FRAUD

But hey-ho.......where's the duster for under the carpet???

 

[Mactech]

Exactly....I'd just add that if I do 70, to overtake people doing 60 without holding up people in the middle lane I need to put my foot down....EATING fuel. I get much better economy doing 85 on cruise than trying to stick to 70. So speeding saves the environment .

So, not content with being able to cherry pick the particular laws of the land you will choose to obey (but mummy! everybody else does!) you can also defy the laws of physics at will!

Why not live the dream! I just hope niether the law or physics catches up with you

 

[raymont]

So, not content with being able to cherry pick the particular laws of the land you will choose to obey

There is something wrong when many (most?) drivers exceed the speed limit on motorways and even the police usually look the other way up to about 85mph.

Laws only work when they are consented to by the majority. It' pretty clear that the 70 limit isn't appropriate, many people break it and the police consciously ignore drivers breaking it.

What a ridiculous situation.

 

[Mactech]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against speed.

My bike speedo is still showing a logged maximum of 161mph from a few weeks ago.
But that was on the back straight at Snetterton and not on the A11 or M40.

The fact that a law may be seen as clearly wrong gives us the right to disobey?

 

[raymont]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against speed.

My bike speedo is still showing a logged maximum of 161mph from a few weeks ago.
But that was on the back straight at Snetterton and not on the A11 or M40.

The fact that a law may be seen as clearly wrong gives us the right to disobey?

Sometimes it's the only way progress is made.

If th law hadn't been broken the lady contributors to this forum wouldn't have the vote!


I think this is part of a much bigger picture to do with a democratic deficit which lets laws be enacted that are not consented to and a generally supine population lets that happen. Howver, I suspect we're now moving into the political realm..............

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I'm not sure the majority exceed the limit by much - M40 excepted of course.

The reason that the police often turn a blind eye at drivers driving at an indicated 80mph is because that's pretty close to an actual 70mph, and a small allowance is applied.

I suspect that a minority of drivers go much more than 80mph (indicated).

 

[Mactech]

I'm not sure the majority exceed the limit by much - M40 excepted of course.

.

Unless of course you pay for the right to break the speed limit as most appear to think on the Birmingham M6 toll road

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

As soon as the M6 Toll first opened I went on just to try it - it was about 23.30 at night. No traffic, and the banks that shield the outside world from the noise hide any reference points. It would have been very easy to drive very fast.

I think some drivers see the toll booths as a pit stop based on the speed that they accelerate away!!

 

[andy_k]

Fair point. I'd argue 70 made sense on motorways in the years before widespread use of what we have today:
-radial tyres
-ABS
-disc brakes
-centre brake lights
-modern asphalt
-central reservation barriers
-good drainage
-improved driver training

still being operated by mk 1 human

no improvement in eyesight, reaction times or resistance to falling apart on heavy impacts.

More in car distractions, more cars on the road and the assumption that because modern cars are safer it's OK to push that limit a little too far

 

[Baron_Samedi]

I think tlbham is making a good case for reducing speed limits, not raising them!

Taking each one...

radial tyres - been around for at least 30 years...
-ABS - been around for around 25 years
-disc brakes - been around for at least 40 years
-centre brake lights - hmmm most are fitted too low to do any good
-modern asphalt - when did it change?
-central reservation barriers - updated recently but around for at least 30 years
-good drainage - debatable that road maintenance has improved this
-improved driver training - this is better off in the jokes section

By this logic we should be allowed speed limits of 125mph!

But as stated already, the essential component, the human has not been upgraded and reaction times are the same, perhaps even blunted by the modern technology that insulates the sensibility from the potential of harm...

 

[JumboBeef]

With the ever increasing pressure to reduce CO2 then speed limits will, at best, remain the same. However, I wouldn't be suprised if they were reduced at some point in the future as this would be a very easy way of forcing cars to return better MPG and lower CO2.

I can't see speed limits ever being increased.

 

[Baron_Samedi]

The whole CO2 thing is rubbish aimed at getting the population to sit for taxes that won't be used to make the environment better.

Cars back in the seventies were something like 10 times worse for "pollution". We don't have ten times as many vehicles on the road in the intervening period so... pollution from vehicles must have reduced...

 

[Ted]

Sometimes it's the only way progress is made.

If th law hadn't been broken the lady contributors to this forum wouldn't have the vote!

QUOTE]

Slightly OT, but used by my my old friend (now deceased) Fred Hill at one of his many court appearances.

While Fred’s personal campaign was passive, it was absolute, in that Fred never wore a helmet and never paid a fine. In consequence, huge number of summonses began falling through his letter box, when a journalist from the motorcycle press went to interview him in his home in Hayes, Middlesex, Fred produced a sizeable suitcase packed with summonses that he kept as souvenirs, all unpaid. It was his refusal to pay the fines, rather than the helmetless riding offence, that led the courts to imprison Fred, the charge being the more serious one of "Contempt of Court". Although he was always polite to the authorities that pursued and imprisoned him, Fred was totally unimpressed by people in high positions, and was never intimidated by them. On one occasion a woman magistrate was endeavouring to chastise Fred for breaking the law, to which criticism, Fred, implicitly referring to Emily Pankhurst and the female emancipation movement, replied, "if it hadn’t been for a woman breaking the law, you wouldn’t be sitting there now madam".

 

[jaymanek]

Long live the M40! thats all i have to say