Zero tolerance on UK motorways

[BMbler]

Speed, speed, speed...
Since occasionally driving in Germany and learning culture of safe (faster), but responsible driving, arguments of speed restrictions indicate blind ignorance to the fact of not speed being the cause of accidents or safety aspect. Saying that, kids and other driving skill'less flying about at silly, above sensible ability speed would become issue....
Never the less, 70+ OAP's ( or 17 year olds) - "lane hoggers" in their 17 year old Fiestas at night, in rain doing exacactly 69 mph is surely bigger cause of accidents, than sensible drivers doing 90 in appropriate conditions.

 

[2000rpm]

On flat, straight roads with good GPS signal, GPS seems to be very accurate. It's less accurate - sometimes very inaccurate - when going up/down any inclines, or round long bends, or where there are nearby tall buildings or overhanging trees blocking the GPS signal.
Even the position of the GPS unit within the vehicle can affect the quality of GPS reception due to the metallic and certain other parts of the vehicle interfering with the signal.

With my cars, I use several GPS tests in ideal conditions to verify the speedo calibration at various speeds, especially 30mph and 70mph.

The +10% +2mph was, I am told, due to giving motorists a fair margin for driver error or momentary speed fluctuation (10%), plus 2mph to allow for the possible calibration error of the police equipment measuring your speed.
So I would expect under the new proposals that if you were travelling at a genuine 71mph and the police tried to ticket you, the courts would question possible equipment error and cast some 'reasonable doubt' on the charges.
However, if the police equipment said you were doing 73mph, even allowing for calibration errors they could still be confident enough that you were doing at least 71mph and therefore indisputably speeding.

 

[Rajagra]

I don't think it's the speed limit that they are applying the 10%+-2mph

It is applied to the detection device, not the driver's speedo. This comes from ACPO guidelines, you can still find them online if you search.
http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/roadsafety/docs/201305-uoba-joining-forces-safer-roads.pdf

 

[2000rpm]

Speed, speed, speed...
Since occasionally driving in Germany and learning culture of safe (faster), but responsible driving, arguments of speed restrictions indicate blind ignorance to the fact of not speed being the cause of accidents or safety aspect. Saying that, kids and other driving skill'less flying about at silly, above sensible ability speed would become issue....
Never the less, 70+ OAP's ( or 17 year olds) - "lane hoggers" in their 17 year old Fiestas at night, in rain doing exacactly 69 mph is surely bigger cause of accidents, than sensible drivers doing 90 in appropriate conditions.

Drivers, not speed, causes accidents and fatalities. In fact, most 'accidents' are not accidental at all; nearly always there is clear driver, misjudgement error or lack of attention. An genuine accident is something I might expect to occur if my car suffered a sudden significant malfunction such as a tyre blowout when in the middle lane of a busy motorway at 70mph.
But the law is the law and those of us who value keeping a clean licence - or even need a clean licence for our employment - need to be careful about speeding.

 

[Edward M. Grant]

The limit speed is a limit not a "mandatory" speed to drive.

British motorway speed limits haven't changed in nearly fifty years. Cars have... changed quite a bit in that time. They're also among the safest roads in the world, and have been for many years.

Restricting modern cars to 70mph on motorways is crazy. Ruthlessly enforcing that speed limit is simply insane. It will literally kill people as drivers move off the motorways onto the A-roads which are significantly more dangerous.

I'm so glad I left that place years ago.

 

[sludgeguts]

British motorway speed limits haven't changed in nearly fifty years. Cars have... changed quite a bit in that time. They're also among the safest roads in the world, and have been for many years.

Restricting modern cars to 70mph on motorways is crazy. Ruthlessly enforcing that speed limit is simply insane. It will literally kill people as drivers move off the motorways onto the A-roads which are significantly more dangerous.

I'm so glad I left that place years ago.

Speed limits remain, cars improve - but standards of driving have plummeted.
Without fail, every time I go on a motorway it's always the same scenario - lane 1, almost empty. Lane 2, busy. Lane 3, chock-a-block with drivers nose to tail.
From my last journey...

This was on a Saturday, so relatively quiet - but still, lane 3 seemed busier than 1 or 2 and the muppet was determined to force his way in - despite the huge space behind the last car!

 

[sludgeguts]

I'm the only one at home or work without a speeding ticket. Wife was done at 31mph, went on speed awareness course & other drivers said similar, 31, 32, 33mph.
Colleague recently clocked at 32mph in a local village.
My boss was clocked at 32mph & went on the course. He said another two guys there were caught by the same cam at similar speeds.
Seems this margin no longer exists.
And whilst there's loads of documentation showing that the money collected from all these speedsters doesn't go into police XMAS party, there must be someone making a mint out of all these zero tolerance tickets?

 

[Edward M. Grant]

Without fail, every time I go on a motorway it's always the same scenario - lane 1, almost empty. Lane 2, busy. Lane 3, chock-a-block with drivers nose to tail.

That's because no-one wants to get stuck behind speed-limited trucks in the slow lane, and the middle lane is full of people falling asleep trying to drive at only 70mph in a car that could easily be driven at 100+ on the same roads. So anyone who wants to drive at a sane speed is left with only one lane.

 

[2000rpm]

I'm the only one at home or work without a speeding ticket. Wife was done at 31mph, went on speed awareness course & other drivers said similar, 31, 32, 33mph.
Colleague recently clocked at 32mph in a local village.
My boss was clocked at 32mph & went on the course. He said another two guys there were caught by the same cam at similar speeds.
Seems this margin no longer exists.
And whilst there's loads of documentation showing that the money collected from all these speedsters doesn't go into police XMAS party, there must be someone making a mint out of all these zero tolerance tickets?

On another forum, someone had been on a speed awareness course. Several people there loudly complained they had been done for '31/32/33mph' and when asked by the people hosting the course to show their paperwork, they all declined and went quiet. The course leaders said it is extremely unusual to be done for a couple of mph over.

The only SP30 real person I know whose paperwork I got to see, was sent on a course for 36mph in a 30mph limit.

People complaining of being done for 31-33mph tend to mostly be under-stating how naughty they've been, although a few might be telling the truth if the police happen to be enforcing harshly in a particular spot because more than 30mph is hazardous - such as outside a school at opening or closing time. If the tickets really said 31-33mph it might include a 2mph understatement for the equipment calibration, so in reality they were probably doing 33-35mph and their car speedo showing a few mph more than that.

As probably mentioned in an earlier post, my cruising speed tended to be around or up to several percent above the limit. But in 30mph zones (so I might be doing 32mph and speedo a little more) I often found the car behind was point-blank tailgating trying to push me along. However, as soon as the 60mph zone arrived they would settle at 50mph - 10mph below the limit - and gradually fall behind.
If they wanted to make up time, maintaining the limit (as long as it's safe) on faster roads is a much better way to make progress than trying to speed on slower, congested roads with lots of stoppages.

And that seems to be how a large proportion of people drive: wanting to do 10mph less than the limit out of town and 10mph more in town (where the risk of an accident is highest, and at a speed too high for good outcomes with pedestrians, especially children).

Yesterday, the A11 Westbound near Newmarket had a temporary 50mph limit in force (possibly damaged road surface and workmen in the road) so I moved to the inside 'slow' lane and let my speed tail off from 70-72mph to 50-52mph.
Cars which I had earlier passed continued at 60-65mph and most overtook me, completely ignoring the large and numerous speed limit signs. Several minutes later, once out of the temporary 50mph limit, I'm back up to 70-72mph and going past them again.