Speeding ticket

General Discussion Forums Car Talk
21

 Ah, but you see here’s the tricky thing. Firstly, where did I say I reached 100mph? I think you’ll find I said it was to an indicated 100mph - now I know exactly what the real speed is, and it is nowhere near 100 and will therefore be unlikely to incur a ban.

Secondly you say that I think the bike is going at an excessive speed. Now I know that it was well over the 70 limit but in reality excessive implies dangerous or inappropriate for the conditions but this was far from the case. In my opinion he (could have been a WPC of course!) was riding extremely well, wasn’t causing any other traffic to have to react to his presence - just happened to be going quite fast.

I was just interested to see if my judgement of his speed was accurate, hence I had a good look round (although I already knew exactly where everyone else was, and what speeds they were doing), stayed back about 1/4 mile and speeded up to a rate that was closer to his, yet was still very much within my and my car’s abilities. In doing so it made me the faster of the other vehicles around me, but not by much as with the exception of a few commercials most other drivers were cruising at the usual 80ish.

So I’m sorry to disappoint you Bungle but no, I don’t think that is irresponsible. I think it is an element of advanced driving that also incorporates taking into consideration the possibility of strange actions by the (statistically inevitable) odd wally in the area, and the possibility of other police too. Now what would have irresponsible would be if I’d been carving in and out of heavy traffic, in rain, under cameras, braking heavily and erratically and causing other road users to take evasive or startled actions - I think we would both agree on that.

In my book, speed limits, white lines, motorway matrix signs, other people’s indicating and braking etc are not finite or specific - they are merely guidlines or warnings of changing circumstances to be factored into the ever-changing scenario that is the fascinating activity of driving on today’s roads.

I am so glad to read what you said about your reactions and concentration - I wish there were more like you that take things like that into consideration and I applaud you. Please don’t think that I am particularly egotistical or have an overblown opinion of my abilities - I too know that I’m not as sharp as I once was, but I do have a lot more experience to draw upon now. Of course most of the time I follow the regulated line. It makes sense to do so, but there are times when it isn’t necessary and I know I’m not a bad judge of that.

In summary, I am not a number, I am a free man!

Cheers!

22

 

Just because he wasn’t using his blues 'n two’s doesn’t mean he wasn’t on a shout, just means he (or she!) didn’t need 'em, or perhaps didn’t want to alert someone of his presence.

That might explain why he (or she!) didn’t do anything about your blue-light-chasing on the spot   …

23

“Sure, we could ALL stick to the speed limits but millions of people would be late” - The wisdom of Homer Simpson

24

My hero!  Wink

25

I found it interesting to read other peoples’ views on this, clearly a very emotive subject.  Since my original posting, I’ve been offered the speed awareness course, which I’ll accept, so that I at least preserve my clean licence.  I find it slightly amusing they describe it as education, not punishment (or words to that effect) when it actually costs more than the alternative punishment, other than the 3 penalty points.

Anyway, as a reformed character, I shall stick rigidly to the prescribed speed limits from now on.  I tried this yesterday on the Skipton bypass.  The road, normally with a 60mph limit, has recently been resurfaced and has a 20mph speed limit due to “risk of skidding”.  As I trundled along at 20, I could see a long procession of irate motorists behind me, some of whom overtook and sped off into the distance.  Common sense told me that 20mph was actually a more dangerous speed than, say, 30 or 40, but I didn’t want to risk being on the wrong side of the law again.  Luckily this is only a short stretch of road, so I was soon able to proceed at a far more sensible speed.

26
[quote user="AA1961"] Common sense told me that 20mph was actually a more dangerous speed than, say, 30 or 40 [/quote]

Ah yes, We’ve all done the “Motorway fog driving balancing act”.

It’s when it’s only really safe to be doing 30, But we drive at 45 because the risk posed by the people behind us who are still doing 70 scares us ridged.

We’re worried about suddenly finding stationary traffic looming up out of the mist, But we’re just as scared about the lorry drivers who are romping along at 56 so they can still hit their deadlines / Ferry crossing / overnight parking spot.

I love the feeling I get in the base of my stomach while weighing up the pro’s and con’s of being the shunter or shuntee.

Confused

Scotty B.

27

 

Some years ago my employer sent all the company car users (inc me!) on a defensive driving course run by a police driving instructor. This was because, believe it or not, 50% of our vehicles every year were involved in own-fault collisions! (I’d never had one in 3 years of company car usage, so someone was being a bit careless!

First up, in the lecture room, we were all asked what we thought defensive driving was.

My light hearted comment was “make sure that in a shunt, I had rear-end damage but no front-end damage - not being the ■■■■ who runs into the ■■■■ in front.”. Spot on, I was told, if everybody took that view there’d be no shunts. At least if you leave room in front and you have your handbrake on when stationaery in a queue, there is less risk of a double shunt - where you get hit from behind and hit the car in front as a result, with a consequent much higher risk of personal injury for you and your passengers.

Does not help though in the case of the lorry driver on the m-way near birmingham airport a few years ago that ignored fog and carried on at high speed, and quite literally drove over a number of cars queing at the junction to leave the motorway before his vehicle stopped. Deaths did result.

28

 

 

Here Here! And my licence is as clean as the day I got it!

29

 You need to beware though of mobile cameras, you’ll see them, but usually too late!

Look out for parked vans with/without things on tripods on bridges over the road you are travelling on, or just around a bend, or just over the brow of a hill! Not always that easy to spot.

30

 And while we’re on the subject … Here’s a spot of interesting info the Govt clearly would prefer we did not have:

 

http://www.carbibles.com/speeding_facts.html

31

 

Yes, the government are clearly trying to hide this information that they comissioned and published.

We all know that excess speed is a direct cause in a tiny number of accidents, like 6%. The link you posted proves it with numbers and everything.
Which means that excees speed is also proven as the direct cause in some accidents.
Which means enforcing speed limits is the morally correct thing to do.

Feel free to argue that the benefits of speeding are worth the 6% of accidents. I like going quickly, but it’s hard to justify it, even if it was a direct cause of no accidents.
Reasons to speed - it’s fun, I get bored, I am poor at time management. Feel free to add more reasons if you can think of any.

Yes it’s unfair: I’d much rather they refitted all speed-cameras to become murder-cameras instead, unfortunately the more important crimes aren’t as easy to detect.