speeders database

[Maaarrghk]

mach0.000001rob.
All your local Police van proved was that there were a lot of drivers exceeding the 30mph limit - this does not "prove" that their driving was in any way dangerous. You fail to mention what time of day this took place.

I will not argue that the crossing patrol is not a good thing because they are, especially if the alternative is a speed camera.

And exactly WHERE did I say that I would be "quite happy" to have my child run over? Could you just point that bit out to me.

As for baying for someones blood, this is just the sort of thing that those wicked vultures from bogus charities like brake just love to hear. Why are you baying for someones blood when it may well turn out that they were not at fault? What is so wrong with establishing the facts first?

Whilst I agree that cars travelloing at higher speeds have greater stopping distances (I've always been a great believer in Physics) I would counter that the driver doing 40 would probably be paying more attention to his driving than the one gazing at his speedo to make sure that it always remains under some "magic" number. Therefore, he is more likely to spot any dangerous situation emerging and react accordingly. Your 30mph driver would hit the child at 30mph, whereas my 40mph driver may well have managed to slow to under 20 or even stop completely.

My point here is that attention is more important than speed. Most accidents occur due to lack of attention, only around 6% have excesssive speed among the causes - those are the governments own figures.

As for your sick little comment rergarding my capacity as a parent, I treat that with the contempt it deserves. Shameful.

[bnicho]

This started out as a simple thread about a bogus speed camera site. Lets keep it on this topic please and avoid the borderline personal attacks.

Thanks,

[tractorman]

Perhaps my experience some years ago may be of interest. I'd taken my father to town to see an organ (for one of his churches) in a shop on a main road and, rather than park outside, I went "round the block" - of back streets with terraced houses - to park at on a side road. As I didn't know the area too well and some road markings and priorities had changed ( the streets were part of my driving test's route some years earlier), I approached what I thought was a main road which I wanted to cross and, as I was unsure of rights of way, had slowed to a crawl. There were two women on the RH pavement, one with a small child (about three or four), I saw them as I came up to the road and was just about to pull away when I saw the top of the child's head above the bonnet - and less than a yard away!

I was lucky, I was doing less than walking pace, but how the child, who I'd seen just a few seconds before, managed to get in front and so close to the car, I will never know. We don't know if I hit him or not - he didn't even fall over, but it just shows how quickly something can happen when children are involved. The mother didn't blame me, but the child got a real telling off. I was so shocked, I didn't even say anything to the mother about her lack of attention! I did inform the Police, but heard no more about it - I dare say the mother was still in a state of shock and feeling rather guilty!

To be honest, having worked at two schools, doing thirty when kids are about is too fast. I would think speed limits are irrelevant when lots of children are about - going slowly and paying full attention to what is happening around you is probably more appropriate.

[OneCarefulOwner]

All your local Police van proved was that there were a lot of drivers exceeding the 30mph limit - this does not "prove" that their driving was in any way dangerous. You fail to mention what time of day this took place.

If there's a legal time of day to break the speed limit, please post it for us all to enjoy... Speeding = dangerous; yes, there's a seperate offence for "dangerous driving" but that doesn't negate the fact that any time you exceed the limit you are (no matter how safe you feel) putting yourself & others in greater danger.

I choose to accept this whenever I think bending the rules will be to my greater benefit, and while I try to ensure I only misbehave when there's no-one else around to suffer for my arrogance, that doesn't lessen my culpability should the worst happen.

[hobby]

Speeding = dangerous

I hate that phrase as its simply not true... Inappropriate speed is dangerous, I accept that, but speed alone is not. There are plenty of times when a 30 limit is just not approriate, I can think of many places where this is true and a higher limit would be quite acceptable, in fact in many cases it was until recently and there were no accidents. However there are also plenty of times when even a 30 limit is too high... I don't tend to go far above the limit these days, like most people just shading the limit much of the time (like everyone on here I suspect if they are totally honest with themselves), but I'd agree with the earlier poster that it matters not if you are well within the limit if you are not paying attention to what's going on around you, and in that case exceeding the limit just makes matters worse.The stats prove that more accidents are caused by inattention rather than breaking an (arbitrary) speed limit which may or may not be appropriate.

(OCA I have removed your name from the quote as I'm talking generally, not at your comments in particular!).

[OneCarefulOwner]

No, I accept the removal of my name & also the expansion on the reasoning; it is more accurate to say what you said, I was simply trying to get the thought out in limited time.

For the situation under discussion, i.e. outside a school during open hours, I think exceeding the limit at all is likely to be inappropriate; obviously others disagreed or they wouldn't have gotten pinched, but the hope is that getting hit by a ticket today is better than a child tomorrow...

[hobby]

Entirely agree and I support the temporary 20 limits for such situations... The problem is that people tend to think that just because they stay within the limit they are somehow driving "safely", quite frankly that's a load of b*****ks!

[mach1rob]

There are so many variables this is the problem, 85mph on a motorway at 1am is hardly dangerous, 40 outside a school at 3:15 is. I don't agree with scameras being used on motorways, it should be down to traffic police to well police that, moreso now they're on about introducing an 80 limit, if it's that heinous to do 80 now, then why won't it be if the limit is increased at some point?

What I also don't agree with is limits out of town being dropped, why are more and more NSL roads suddenly being hit with a 50mph limit? Many with no evidence of being a high accident rate site. The cynic in me thinks its just an ideal plan to catch more motorists that may be doing a speed that is appropriate on a long, straight, wide A road but 10mph over the speed limit.

And Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark I shall treat you dig with the contempt it deserves

[Maaarrghk]

Now you seem to be coming round to my way of thinking

Hobby seems to expand on my own view a little.

To expand further, there are a couple of skools that I pass on my way to work. The first is in a 20 limit and I tend to pass it at around 35mph. The second is in a 30 limit and I tend to pass that one at around 40/45.

At 4:45am.

On the way home at 3:15pm I will be passing them both at anything from about 15mph down to a walking pace - I say "about 15mph" as I will not be looking at my speedometer at all, I will be driving at a speed appropriate to the conditions.

Meanwhile, the muppet I mentioned in my first post (who will have been doing his best to glue himself to my front bumper for the past mile of clear roads) will be disappearing into the distance (past all those kids and parked cars) at a couple of mph below the limit, "safe" in the knowledge that they are not speeeeeeeeeeeding.

I mentioned this originally as I see it so often.

And this is where I came in.............

[Mitsuru]

Oh god what have I done????????

I've created a monster, this thread was supposed to be a link to a joke to brighten someone's day.

On a note relating to temporary traffic changes by some councils, these are used bring in measures
that later become permanent wither the locals want them or not(in most cases it's usually not!)

I will give an example using Hartlepool which is just down the road from me and across the county
border. For the Tall Ships Race, temporary traffic measures were brought in. These included reduced
speed limits in certain areas, and more restrictive parking for locals with resident permits and more
yellow lines than needed.

The parking restrictions in Hartlepool, ment that people not from the locality could not park within
Hartlepool nor could anybody wishing to attend the Tall Ships Race, so they parked in the villages a
few miles away and caused problems there as well!

The people in Hartlepool, they still have these parking restrictions as the Council decided to keep
these restrictions. Why? Because they now have a parking fine car which goes around Hartlepool
fining people and raking it in!

I can't say anything on speeding in Hartlepool at the moment as a major artery into and out of the
town is having new drains to help with flash floods installed and the whole town is in travel chaos
and nobody can do the speed limit in rush hour .