http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8632440.stm
Think itâs time for a proper protest about this sort of thing. Itâs only going to be so long before theyâre dotted all over the place like traffic-monitoring cameras (thew ones on the blue poles, or at motorway flyovers).
Get a TALEX and join Driver Protect. I have both. Driver Protect still has a 100% acquittal rate!
In English please 
 They generate so much revenue from motorists already, but they still want more, and they think by penalising people they will get votes. Get real!
Â
TALEX is a very small 2"x 3" speed camera detector. It works by downloading the camera locations that MUST be published well in advance of use. As you are driving, it will tell you that there is a speed camera ahead and what the speed limit is and whether you need to slow down or not. It really is a smashing bit of kit, only works in the direction that you are travelling, so you donât get warnings of cameras facing the wrong way like TOM TOM does. Driver Protect is a scheme run by BTST (Beat The Speed Trap), I can highly reccomend both of these. Justv type BTST in GOOGLE.
I am not in any way connected with any of the above other than being a very happy customer!.
Â
Speed limits are the law, itâs a very easy law to avoid breaking, just drive within the speed limits.
We donât have some kind of âright to speedâ. Just because some of us enjoy breaking this particular law doesnât make us right.
Speed cameras arenât sneaky - before being allowed on the road we have to pass a test which includes keeping within the limits, and the limits are clearly signposted (indeed where they are not you can successfully avoid prosecution) so this is entirely fair policing of a simple law. Maybe itâs a stupidity tax, certainly had I been less stupid I wouldnât have got my points or paid my fine.
In a lot of cases, speed limits are not clearly signposted. Just because they are not clearly signposted does not mean they are not legal. Not everybody has vast amounts of money to spend on a lawyer to argue their case in court.
There are loads of poorly marked zones - not just when the limit decreases, but also when it increases again. If you leave a 30mph built up area, but see no national speed limit signs, would you risk your license by increasing your speed, even if youâre 99% sure youâve just missed a sign (possibly because you were actually paying attention to the road ahead)
If speed limits were sensible and clearly marked, Iâd have no problem - I have no gripe against them putting in built up areas, or next to schools. - But they donât.
Are you really this naive?
Unfortunately the number of mobile, fixed and average speed cameras on nearly every road nowadays has failed to reduce the accident rate (fatality figures dropping are more to do with improved impact survivability), which means they are no more than an easy income for the government. Put more Police cars on the road and maybe drivers will start looking out of the windscreen for longer rather than glancing down at the speedo every few moments when trying not to marginally overrun the limit for even a couple of seconds. Made even worse by the shear number of speed limits being used. do we really need a 40mph sign 200yds from a roundabout followed by a 30 mph sign 100yds later and then in reverse order after leaving the roundabout. before being allowed up to the heady speed of 50mph on a rural A road with no buildings/pavements near the road. Rant over, I feel much better now 
Â
 I have to agree that speed limits tend to make you focus more on your speedo than the road ahead - and yes - limit signs are proliferating.
We too have 50/40/30 then 30/40/50 signs appearing before and after roundabouts.
 Excuse the flippancy but as Jeremy Clarkson once said âItâs not the speed that kills but the stopping from speedâ 
I guess some of it depends upon how sensible the speed limits are⌠in towns, built up areas and especially near schools I always TRY not to speed though can anybody say they have never exceeded the speed limit inadvertently?
Then again, how realistic is a speed limit of 70 mph on Motorways these days given the increased braking power and acceleration of modern day cars - these limits were established when automotive-technology was comparatively in the âdark agesâ. If you travel at 70 on the M-Way you are likely to be on the inside lane - yes, there is one for the information of all those who hog the middle lane - watching the world go by.
Then you have the clowns who give rise to the saying "there are more people who THINK the national speed limit on a dual-carriageway is 60 mph than KNOW itâs actually 70 mph.
Spped cameras in built up areas I have no problem with, nor the SPECS that restrict speeds through roadworks on the M-ways to 50, but camera vans parked over motorway bridges - very common on the M4 here in Wiltshire - and fixed cameras stuck behind road signs or bridge parapets are just not acceptable.
When driving in unfamilar territory I always have the sat-nav on, not so much to tell me where to go but because itâs loaded with all the speed camera locations.
After 38 years of driving I have only managed 1 speeding ticket to date and that was in Germany of all places!!! - and I am recognised as someone who doesnât âhang aroundâ when driving.
Itâs a device to catch people who are breaking the law. Itâs not a device to con the innocent, or something that reads your dreams while you sleep, or takes money from the back of your sofa. Donât speed and you donât pay. It is that simple. I do a lot of driving, and in cars that are plenty quick enough. When I get caught I am to blame. Iâve been caught doing 54 in a 50, on a nice long straight with no houses or junctions or any other hazzard apart from a camera van parked on the verge. Arguably a stupid law/limit, but definitely my fault for breaking it.
Sure, it makes little or no difference to road deaths, but so what? The arguments for them are flawed, but again, so what? The arguments for road tax, and mandatory insurance, and MOTs are flawed, yet we all have tax, insurance and MOTs.
Speed cameras donât catch the observant, law abiding drivers. Itâs a predictable evil we all have to avoid, just by not travelling faster than the limit. If you have to hate something hate the limits, not the enforcement.
If you were âactually paying attention to the road aheadâ you would have seen the signs (because they are on the road ahead) or the cameras (on the road ahead, or in a layby behind a bush on the road ahead - never actually invisible). If you donât have time to observe everything going on then you are going too fast to observe properly, regardless of the limit and your speed in relation to it.
As for signage - if they put a speed limit sign on all static cameras we:
1 - would always know what the limit is.
2 - would check our speed at each limit sign incase it was a camera.
Tada, no more speeding.
In your case I would probably bimble along at 30 until I got the all-clear. I live near several spread-out villages with silly speed limits and sometimes you just have to drive a bit slowly (or speed and risk the fine/points, but at least you know the risk when you take it). The risk to your licence of doing 30 in a poorly signposted 60 limit is zero.
No one* objects to those cameras that catch people with no tax, or insurance, or MOT. Breaking the speed law is no less illegal for being fun. Fortunately we have cars that are fun to drive slowly. I pity anyone with an M3 CSL on public roads.
*apart from people who get caught, despite the offences being so easy to avoid.
 IF we all drove within the speed limits, we wouldnât use so much fuel that the goverment get so much tax from and they wouldnât get the millions of pound in fines which would soon hit THEM where it hurts. If only we could.
I think itâs a bit more complicated than that.
Safe driving is (obviously) not just a matter of observing a particular number of miles per hour and speed limits are not a definition of safety, theyâre a very much simplified approximation of driving thatâs likely to be safe. We use speed limits because theyâre easy to define and measure, not because theyâre a particularly accurate guide. In the real world, human drivers always have to use their judgement to determine whatâs a safe speed, as the posted limit may be too fast for the particular conditions.
So we used to have a situation where human drivers used their judgement, while paying heed to simple posted limits, and if there was a bit of give and take on the precise limit versus what was safe at the time and place, then that worked OK because the enforcement was also provided by humans, using their own judgement as to what was responsible driving and what was not.
Now, however, the game has changed. Now we have machines providing enforcement; machines which can only enforce simple numbers and not complex, hard-to-measure safety. Constant, merciless Big Brother surveillance of our obedience to simplistic rules may eventually make driving such a joyless experience that we welcome cars which drive themselves. The last generation who are permitted to drive their own vehicles may already have been born.
I donât know where you live, but itâs clearly a different world to me (& a lot of other people).
There are loads of situations when you could be paying your upmost attention to the road ahead, and still miss signs (for a whole host of reasons). I know locations (plural) where (legally) parked vehicles (notably HGVs) regularly block signs on both sides of the road. Most common occurance is when a school bus is parked at the flashing 20mph limit sign (but then I donât think theyâre enforcable - but thatâs not the point (and nobody hold me to that!))
By your logic, I should stop, get out of the car, and examine the roadside at every parked vehicle that I pass, on the off-chance there is a sign there (failing that, Iâm travelling too quickly). You cannot possibly claim that youâve never missed a speed limit sign, even when paying your upmost attention - if so, youâre local police & roads department are doing an excellent job.
What about when signs are damaged, or covered up, vandalised etc. - I know a couple of signs which have been spray-painted (vandalised) incredibly well. One is a 30 made to look like an 80 (and itâs a damn good job, but obviously you donât get 80mph limits, but Iâm sure you could win in court if you had a good lawyer) the other is a 40 made to look like a 60 (which isnât as good, but if it was, youâd easily believe it).
There are loads of situations where signs are missing, or donât meet regulation.
While the principal there is correct, itâs still wrong in the real-world. When driving, youâre (very) basically doing 2 things - Looking where you want to go, and looking out for hazards that will impact you in doing so. Hazards being other vehicles, pedestrians, pot-holes, and so on.
A van parked in a layby 1000m away, is not a hazard to be concerned of when travelling at low speeds.
Speeding is an âabsoluteâ offence - youâre guilty, or youâre not - but without common sense, laws donât work, which is the underlying issue with limits & their enforcement.
Itâs that ludicrous common-sense-less way of thinking that has home owners in prison when they attack burglars.
I really donât know whether youâre trying to play devilâs advocate, or if you genuinely think that each and every speeding offence issued in the UK has been fair!
Iâm with Captain Muppet on this, I drive within the speed limit and reep the benefits of better fuel consumption. I can still accelerate quickly should I wish and enjoy the corners within the speed limit - fit budget tyres then youâre always on the limit of grip anyway! If you want to drive quickly and get your adrenaline pumping, try a trackday.
Is it not the case that the public at large need to be protected from the minority who are not capable of using their own judgement? Iâm not sure I would like to live in a society where the same âgive and takeâ was applied to driving under the influence of alcohol or firearm ownership.
I live in rural Norfolk, where parked traffic is in towns (30 limits, 20âs near schools and in traffic calmed areas) and isnât really an issue on other roads because the limits signs are mostly on both sides of the road when a new limit starts. A huge proportion of my journies are on roads Iâve driven before, and I am familiar with them. I suspect this is the case for everyone else who commutes to work or lives at a single address.
By my logic you would have seen the parked school bus in your example, and would already have slowed down to an appropriate speed for that hazard. You say the signs are often blocked from view, yet you know they are there. It is unfortunate for those people who happen across a particular speed camera for the first time while speeding as a result of the signs being obscured, who also donât have access to legal aid and quick wits. Life isnât fair.
Iâm not claiming to be a perfect driver, or even a particularly attentive one, or indeed any good at this stuff at all. I think my speeding conviction proves this, and my willingness to admit it is entirely based on my acceptance that I am responsible for my actions. I could, with legal help, have mounted a defence against it, but I broke the limit, and I broke it because I wasnât paying attention. So I paid up.
Fortunately of course low speeds are exactly what you should be doing to avoid getting caught speeding. You donât need to see the van, ever, you just need to mentally align yourself with the idea that speeding carries with it the risk of being caught. If you donât speed you donât need to see the van. If you do speed you need to be able to observe well enough to see all the hazzards and still see the van. One of these approaches isnât illegal or stressful.
Although on your street littered with potholes and pedestrians youâll be doing well to get above 30mph.
All offenses are absolute, itâs just speeding is so easy to prove. There are an infinite number of speeds below the limit that you can drive at to avoid prosecution, and drivers are entirely responsible to pick a speed which has their favoured combination of economy, safety and speed. I hate the slow drivers who do 40 in a 60, and my sympathies are definitely with the people who speed, but they must accept that there is a law to put an upper limit on their speeding. Just as there is an upper limit on the damage you can reasonably inflict on someone who invades your home. The difference in the limits is that speed is easier to measure than violence.
I donât think that every speeding offence in the UK has been fair. Iâm sure justice for that offence is as variable as for the others. I just think that anyone who knowingly speeds and then complains about being prosecuted for it is shirking their own responsibiliy for their actions. And that anyone who unknowingly speeds yet claims to be paying attention is at best unfamiliar with what those words actually mean.
I speed. Iâm sure most people do. But if I let my speed creep up beyond the limit either I am being inattentive, or Iâm willingly breaking the law. I am, so far, massively ahead of the game for getting away with it. It is a game with high stakes, but very little reward, so I avoid it when I have the self control to do so.
â>
I am also with Captain Muppet on this. Speed cameras are there
to enforce a law. Should I choose to speed, then I am the one
responsible for breaking that law. Ignorance of the law is no
defence, that is extended to not knowing what the speed limit is.
Having said that there are things that
do wind me up about speed limits cameras and general law enforcement
such as the lowering of speed limits. Just because some, often
inexperienced, driver had a crash whilst exceeding the speed limit,
why can that be used as justification for lowering the limit. That
driver would still have broken the new lower limit and still had the
crash with the same consequences. Lowering the limit just penalises
the law abiding motorist and encourages more to break the law.
Another other is the
reaction of so many drivers when they see a speed camera. Despite
being within the speed limit a large proportion of people will slow
down just because there is a camera there.
And finally the lack of
traffic cops. A speed camera can only enforce the speed limit. A
human can look out for so much more, and identifying one offence can
often lead to other offences coming to light.
Anyway I have ranted
enough for the time being.
Â