General Chat

On the M4 today a police car was parked in the "for police only" bay, there was a policeman/woman in drivers seat pointing a speed gun down the road, now what I would like to know is, is it legal cos I think they have to be outside the car and warnings put up so you get a chance to slow down.

people shouldnt need warning, they shouldnt be speeding in the first place

as speeding is against the law :-D

Yes Stray, I don't speed either :-D

It is legal but open to be challanged in court,

because if the device is not supported it can give a false reading

slight movement by the user would not give an acurate reading,

Roy

Sadly as Porkie Pie says, you do not actually need to be speeding for the readings on hand held devices to be inaccurate.

I try not to speed but on a clear road it is easy to slip over without realising, and I am sure that many of us have done that in the past.

But the ones I object to are not those being used by the police but the ones which are used by members of the public.

Ive seen em parked up on motorway bridges pointing it down the road through the side window........

Dont know if the law to the use has changed, BUT it used to be in the sequence of,

the officer had to spot and assess a vehicles speed by eye , and then view the vehicle though the speed camera device, obtaing a speed reading.

they were NOT allowed to point the device down the road and wait for a car to come into its range first

they had to be on a straight part of the road, and not hiding round a bend,

as I said I dont know if the rules HAVE changed but it seems to be a case of THEIR word is more believeable than the motorists..

after all the speedo in MY car tells me what my car is doing, i cant see the speedo in theirs.......the speedo in private cars is not part of a MOT test, so its accuracy cant be guaranteed , although a working sat navs speed readout,(I was assured by Tom Tom)is 100% accurate, in a straight linemy speedo is about 1 1/2 Mph optimistic at indicated 40Mph, and gets more so the faster i go

depends so much on tyre pressures and tyre wear. (smaller by maybe 1/4 inch diameter) makes the car think its going faster than it actually is........

I suspect that car makers design them this way, so that they cant be sued for supplying an innaccurate speedo ,causing motorists to drive to into a speeding charge


Bob

I think ( I maybe wrong) Different rules for mobile and fixed cameras.

Fixed ones have to have a warning but not mobile ones

I dont believe Stray, or ZZzz

Every body MUST have exceeded a speed limit at one point in their driving lives..........

If you keep your eyes on the speedo all of the time..........then, to MY mind.......you are dangerous........

Bob ;-)

We all know the speed restrictions on motorways, but when we travel south eastwards on the M20 towards ports, you feel you must be going backwards at times, as vehicles race for Tunnel trains or Channel ferries.

Could do with a few detectors there of whatever sort.

Gwyn

are you all aware that unmarked private cars are used by City Councils to catch motorists who drop cigarette ends out of their cars incurring a fine of £75 which could rise to £2,500 if not paid within fourteen days!!!

now that is wht I call sneaky and underhand!!! - pity they don't do it for mobile phone users and people who spit chewing gum out instead

i dont drive, so therefore i dont speed! :-)

AnnCardiff.
I agree whole heartedly about mobile phone users , imho there is no excuse for that.
Stray.
I don't drive on motorways so don't speed on them. most of my driving is early morning and early evening, not much traffic about so no need to speed. however I have been caught speeding when we had a Skyline, now we have a Smart car.

Safety cameras in England and Wales are run by local partnerships. These partnerships are usually made up of the local authority, the police and the courts.

The police may use cameras to enforce speed limits. In this case the rules about cameras being visible do not apply

Roy

Agree with Stray.

What exactly is speeding?

merely going faster than someone has decreed...

we once were stopped by the police for .......... going below the speed limit!

:-D :-D :-D


It was a lovely afternoon, on a very windy road, out in the country, and we were second car in a convoy of about 10 cars.


The local RCMP car appeared, pulled the first 4 cars over onto a nearby gravelled pull off ................. then let the other 3 go, including the guy who had been leader of the pack


............ and gave OH a warning about driving below the speed limit because it was dangerous


he'd been driving about 5 mph below the limit (it was THAT long ago!).



He didn't get a ticket though :-D




sylvia

When ever their is an accident because the authorities want to justify speed camera's they campaign about "Speed kills"
I note, they never say "Speeding Kills"

The Question,

What is speed?

I have researched this several times over the years to find that Speeding has only ever been one of several factors involved in a minority of accidents and at no time has speeding been the sole cause of an accident,

The majority of accidents do not involve speeding,

The majority are down to "driver error or reaction"

"exceeded speed limit" was only one of several factors in 13.9 % of accidents in 2011

Governments use Speed as an excuse because they don't want to put the blame where it should lie through fear of the loss of revenue,

Speed camera's are a cheap way of make it look like they are doing some thing about the number of accidents and fatalities on our roads whilst maintaining a lucrative revenue stream through the tax collected from car and fuel duty

Roy

So surely if "driver error or reaction" is the cause of most accidents, driving at a speed over that stated for that road is likely to increase the likelihood/severity of an accident?

I live in a rural are where roads tend to be narrow & winding & we have lots of country lanes linking these.There are speed limits through the villages but not on these lanes or roads. I have often had to take to verges or in a couple of instances actually into a ditch to avoid cars speeding towards me!

Just because there is no speed limit does not mean you HAVE to drive at 60mph! In the highway code it states you should drive at a speed concurrent with road & weather.

What ever the type of road, if you get caught speeding it is an offence!

Speed in itself is not that dangerous, inappropriate speed is.

dangerous roads is another stupid phrase !!!!!

the speed restrictions are in place for a reason,


there is lots of laws of this country that seem silly but they are there for a reason also, and no matter of how you word it, its not going to change,

speeding does kill

and anyone who thinks otherwise, should maybe come sit with my friend who lost a young child due to someone speeding!