OT speed camera vans.

The speed limits vary depending on your vehicle size and class (and potentially if you are in England or Scotland) - https://www.gov.uk/speed-limits

And the "10% + 2mph" is a guideline from the Association of Chief Police Officers. Many forces follow it, but not all - https://www.roadlawbarristers.co.uk/speeding-what-is-the-10-plus-2-rule-and-what-does-it-mean/

 

That’s basically what the guy taking l the speed awareness course said, which makes perfect sense.

 

Which bit?
If you mean +10% , I know from a previous role dealing with the fines incurred to the fleet that most Police Forces operate this policy.
If you mean the 50 in a 60 again dealt with in previous life.

 

My thoughts on the matter are that I don't have an issue with vans being parked up in the right places, or cameras, especially around schools and built up areas. If you get caught, so be it, it'll make you think twice.

What sticks in the craw though, and what makes motorists feels 'targeted' is that I would be much more accepting if there were vans parked up in burglary hotspots too, or cameras in known areas of anti-social behaviour. If all this new, and very functional, technology is good for motoring crimes, then it should be a resource in other areas of crime too. ('Proper' crimes, as motorists with a victim mentality call them).

Come to think of it, I can only think of football crowds or political demos where any sort of monitoring goes on to the extent of traffic crime.

 

It wouldn't work though as they site their vans on places report speeding or if accidents have been caused due to speed etc... road safety should be separate from burglary and other theft etc.

The people in the vans are civilians also, and have no more powers of arrest than you or I.

I'm sure they generate a lot of income and I'm also sure it is a big driver for them but they wouldn't be effective in burglary hotspots.

 

Is that 60 seconds from when it first switches on though? So if you're driving along and it lights up just as you are about to go under you are fine but once it has been lit up for 60 seconds or longer, anyone approaching after that point must be doing the exact limit once they pass under. It can't mean everyone always has 60 seconds from passing it as there isn't a camera 60 seconds away, they are all on the gantries.

 

60 seconds from when a new speed is displayed.
60 seconds grace, if you will.

If it has been showing 50MPH for more than 60 seconds, then if you go under at 55 you are goosed.

 

There's a rough country lane, top of our estate, Sheriff Lane, connected by a couple of snickets. It is a getaway route for 90% of all villains (robbers) on our estate. The example I give (yes, I know it is pie in the sky) would mean a covert van parks up (think speed camera van), a couple of nights a week, with cameras, maybe even a proper copper or two. It would help the area short term as word gets around. Of course the wrong'uns would move on, I get that, but once word gets around they are being targeted, it might make a few think again.

 

Wait until you get 20mph speed limits like we have. Problem is it’s a blanket limit imposed by the borough on every road. It’s fine in the town centre but on the outskirts on more open roads you spend most of your time having to watch the speedo.

One a mile long stretch, the 20 limit is just bizarre. The road looks like Sheffield Road – from Worsborough to Birdwell - open countryside no pedestrians, clear unobstructed views of everything. Next time you’re on that stretch try driving at 20mph and you’ll see what I mean. I'm not against 20 limits but they have to be applied with common sense

 

This is exactly the case - a few years ago I was done doing 78 on the m180 near Scunthorpe. I make no excuse, that’s more than the limit. Though I was surprised to be prosecuted as I thought, erroneously, I’d be ‘ok’ at anything up to 80. That was the speed I was sitting at according to my cruise control setting. It wasn’t a temporary lapse on my part, I’d actively chosen to sit at ‘80’ (actual speed apparently 78).

A little bit of a Google search showed me freedom of information requests suggested that at that time the only territorial police forces that prosecuted under 80mph on a 70 limit motorway or dual carriageway were Humberside Police plus Devon and Cornwall. This of course may have changed - but on the speed awareness course I did off the back of that prosecution, the tutors did confirm that cameras are generally set at or just above the limit, but that intention to prosecute letters are issued at the discretion of the local police force and 99% of the time they apply a 10% + 2mph rule of thumb. I can’t remember exactly when this was, maybe five or six years ago.

The application of the law may have altered since then - but I find it incredibly hard to believe anybody was prosecuted for ‘61 exceed 60’. As pointed out, maybe the van was registered as heavy goods so legally restricted to 50. Mate of mine fell foul of this on a rental - moving house, he saved £11 for the day on the advertised rental by renting the exact same van only one registered heavy goods, and then got done for speeding on a national limit single carriageway as he had no idea he wasn’t allowed to do 60.

If people are being prosecuted at 34 in a 30 then that is a change in tack. I suppose technology improvement could explain the fairness of this (it was never the law, they could prosecute at 1mph over at any point in theory) - though the 10% + 2 ‘guideline’ was to allow a bit of gauge error and driver allowance, as otherwise some people would drive around looking more at the dials than the road.

 

There's a hill down into Grantham not far from the A1, where it used to go straight from a 60 into a 30 with a speed camera immediately in the 30. Clearly nothing but a money making scheme, which actually caused a fair few accidents with people braking sharply to avoid being flashed and people going into the back of them.

 

Do horses regularly use the route? I’m guessing there will be a good excuse.

 

I’ll also point out that I have a full clean licence - the speed awareness course was most certainly not a waste of time though I was never one to exceed the limit in built up areas having been ran over as a kid - luckily by someone not speeding.

Doesn’t excuse my speeding on a motorway - but I doubt there’s many that haven’t hit 78 on a motorway at some point.

 

Top and bottom driving over the limit is unnecessary, dangerous and pointless however 99% of us are guilty of it, I can’t particularly preach as I’ve got points on my license, have I slowed down, yes by and by, there’s still occasions where I probably exceed the limit, it can happen sometimes without realising as we all sometimes drift when going down the motorway, a think like others have alluded to is that as motorists were real easy pickings at times, there’s Christ knows how many crimes going off in Broad day light yet there’s never a bobby to be seen, the money that must be made from motorists must be frightening, why not pump it back into recruiting more officers and making the streets safer again???

 

No. Well I've lived here 35 years and never seen one. Seen some in the fields like. It's just a limit imposed across the Brough, irrespective of road.

 

Immediately to the left of the speed camera at the top of Harborough Hills Road is a 30 mph sign which I think applies to drivers going left down the slip road towards Queens Road. Confusing as many drivers heading for the Alhambra roundabout may think it is the speed limit on the dual carriageway.

My student daughter (Leeds) - very careful new driver (black-box) - sticks to speed limits etc has on a number of occasions been tail-gated when she is sticking to 30 mph in a 30 mph zone. Found it very intimidating!

 

Not the point so you put the brakes on when going from 40-30 zone middle of nowhere no traffic on road ? Do you brake to keep to 30 when going down a steep hill ? Bonkers

 

And what qualifies you to come to that assumption? I’ve been driving 32 years and never had a point on my licence!