Any police officers on here? (Speeding question)

[Pole Star]

One word (again) "autobahn"

 

And if the government raises the speed limit to 80 mph does that mean all the reckless bad driving law breakers who were naughtily speeding at 78 mph one week are suddenly law abiding citizens the next.

 

It's all about the revenue.

 

Come to think about it Mugler if they raise it to 80mph what will the empty heads & a ***** holes do then ? do 120 plus in fog banks & rain ? I remember going down the western avenue into London & hitting really dense fog banks now & then which I slowed for only to notice some empty head behind me in a small truck move into lane 2 & under take me & just to plough into the fog like it did not even exist , had there been a car slowing for the fog bank in front of him ? what would have happened ? another example of what happened in Kent the other day perhaps

Edited September 7, 2013 by Pole Star

[Mungler]

It's all about appropriate speed.

 

95 mph in good weather on a clear motorway - where's the problem? And the Germans agree with me.

 

40 mph outside a school at 4 pm with double parked cars - absolute no no. Indeed, as has been said, 30 mph would be a no no.

 

This blanket 'speed kills' rhetoric is plain nonsense. It's "inappropriate" speed that kills.

[Pole Star]

It's all about appropriate speed.

 

95 mph in good weather on a clear motorway - where's the problem? And the Germans agree with me.

 

40 mph outside a school at 4 pm with double parked cars - absolute no no. Indeed, as has been said, 30 mph would be a no no.

 

This blanket 'speed kills' rhetoric is plain nonsense. It's "inappropriate" speed that kills.

 

Yes I sort of agree Mungler but for every 10 or so drivers that have most of the brain still in some sort of order there seem to be those few that don't ! .

With all the cameras on the motorways these days you would think the speed limits could be controlled via the monitor for the road conditions appropriate for the road & weather conditions at the time ? not that it would not make much difference to the goons though & note we all are human & some times we make mistakes even police men . ATB Pole Star ps in Scotland outside schools it 20mph in entering & leaving in school hours .

[welsh1]

It's all about appropriate speed.

 

95 mph in good weather on a clear motorway - where's the problem? And the Germans agree with me.

 

40 mph outside a school at 4 pm with double parked cars - absolute no no. Indeed, as has been said, 30 mph would be a no no.

 

This blanket 'speed kills' rhetoric is plain nonsense. It's "inappropriate" speed that kills.

I have to agree, i lived in Germany for 8 years and their road discipline is by far better than the uk average driver,in Germany they have a respect for speed and their autobahns are built for speed,not all motorways in Germany have unlimited speeds, 33% are speed limited for various reasons ranging from poor road surface to tight bends.

 

I have been cruising at 145mph and had a flash of lights,i got out of the way as soon as possible and a car has gone past me like i was standing still,you learn to pre-empt what is happening ahead and you concentrate absolutely on your driving,a mile disappears very quickly and you need to brake a lot sooner than normal.

 

Autobahns or uk motorways, given the choice autobahn every time.

[spanj]

Any time I've been involved in speed enforcement, it's been as a result of residents of an area complaining to the police about speeding. Community policing= listening to what the community wants and responding. Personally, I'd rather not do the speed enforcement as I'm not keen on targeting motorists and generally don't like traffic stuff. But hey-ho, the law's the law and we are all expected to stick to it.

 

Edit- It annoys me a bit when people claim that the police do it to make money, when in fact its been done in response to complaints from the public, or because of a high accident rate on a stretch of road.

sorry you get annoyed but its a shame the police dont tackle other issues communities complain about as effectively / enthusiastically

[ack-ack]

A proportion of the uks mway users are occasional users. You can spot them a mile off, they are not used to mway speeds. Regardless off the fact that most people with half a brain can safely operate a car at autobahn speeds, theres a minority of derby& joan **** wits that will cause pile ups with their typical self righteous ' knight of the road' stance if traffic is steaming past them ton up.

 

I find it interesting how a road has a different feel depending on the time of day. The pre rush hour crowd is switched on, courteous and likes to get a wriggle on. Past eight and the nine to fivers that are bumbling two junctions up the road appear and theres a high proportion that have few driving skills. These people are normally gas bagging to passengers / eating crisps / texting etc and are oblivious to whats going on in the lane either side of them. Unfortunately the limiting factor to an increase in the speed limit is drivers who are utter, utter **** at driving.

[Pole Star]

Some of the worst offenders ( some ) is the white van man ! during rush hour .

[kdubya]

sorry you get annoyed but its a shame the police dont tackle other issues communities complain about as effectively / enthusiastically

you cant make money tackling burglars!

 

KW

[old rooster]

Speed on it's own does not kill, or I'd have been dead years ago.

 

Inappropriate speed CAN kill, as can inattention, distraction, aggression, defective vehicles, etc, etc.

 

Having spent 7 years as a Traffic Sgt supervising and investigating serious & fatal crashes I have a fairly good insight into the subject.

 

The fact remains that poor driving standards in general are more difficult to quantify, evidence and prosecute so do not give the Government and other vested interests good soundbites.

 

Speed is easy to measure and therefore deal with, to a large degree by automation and it makes a snappy slogan.

 

Look at the crash in the fog on the Sheppey Crossing this morning - I bet that not many of those vans & cars were speeding but they still managed to crash into each other through not being careful.

 

As for the comment about skill, if everyone actually used skill when driving, at whatever speed, I can categorically guarantee that crashes would reduce massively.

 

Spot on!!! I reckon most people who witter on about speed being the overriding factor are those who don't feel very confident driving in the first place. I can't recall ever having felt threatened by fast moving traffic but the morons who drive while texting/putting on makeup/shaving etc really worry me! Best left well behind as quickly as possible.

[gibspoon]

sorry you get annoyed but its a shame the police dont tackle other issues communities complain about as effectively / enthusiastically

 

I'd hardly call it effective, after all, who DOESN'T ever speed?! And as I implied, I'd rather do something else than target Mr and Mrs Normal.

[Lord O War]

Chaps,

 

Coming home this evening from Wales and concerned I may have been caught by a speed camera van placed on a bridge over a dual carriageway. Let me explain :

 

I was coming off of a roundabout about to head down a slip road onto the A34 (road I am not familiar with) when I spotted a speed camera van on the bridge which I pointed out to my wife. As we left the roundabout and headed down the slip road heading away from the speed camera van as it was positioned sideways on the bridge I brought my speed up to 60-65mph to merge onto the dual carriageway. Making sure there was plenty of space to move into the slow lane I merged at this speed. It was about 200 yards further on I saw a sign that said 50mph!!

Needless to say I stepped on the brakes as this was the first of any signs I had seen! I checked the Tom Tom and that was reading a 70mph limit and as I was merging onto a dual carriageway I assumed the speed limit would be 70mph as in most normal cases.

 

My question is, would the van have caught me? I was heading away from the van and by the time I had merged I was a good 2-300 yards from the van heading towards what I thought was the speed limit! I would assume they were however monitoring the speed of the traffic in the opposite lane heading towards the van?

 

Concerned as it was of course unintentional, there was no sign to show the dual carriageway was a 50mph before I merged.

 

Would appreciate any input.

 

Thanks

Is that a confession of speeding?

 

I bet the crashes on the unrestricted bits of the autobahn are proper crashes when they have them!

 

All professional means is that you get paid to do that task it does not mean you a suddenly any good at that task. Taxi drivers, for example, are professional drives as is anyone else that gets paid to drive. Don't confuse professional with expert, the average Police driver would be professional but the officers that have had the extra training would be expert drivers.