You got a clean licence?

[The Groke]

You don't get points here!!!

Some of you may have heard me waxing lyrical about the "joys" of driving in Dubai previously.

One of the major contributing factors of the universal speeding and bad driving (and one of the reasons my license is still clean!) is that you don't get any points here!

Although if you look at the police website "tariff" of offences, it does show you what points you should get for various misdemeanours, no-one ever, ever gets any.

Basically if you get clocked by camera or radar, you get a fine which goes on to your "account".

It is then up to you to check online or at the police station as to whether you have any fines as they will not inform you of them.

If you don't do this, you only find out that you owe X amount when you renew your registration at the end of every year and have to clear of your fines before you can complete it.

Now the obvious upshot of all this is that those who are well off (and probably therefore have a ludicrously high-powered car as well) can speed with impunity as they don't give a hoot about a paying an extra couple of 30 quid fines every month. (remember - no road tax here and it costs me 10 quid to fill up my 60 litre petrol tank) so driving here becomes.........interesting and the road fatility rate is - I think - third in the world.

 

[detective-boy]

on the m1 at the moment there is an "average speed limit" upto Luton-ish (i get on at m25 j). there are no "normal" speed cameras that i've seen, i.e the yellow boxes on the road side followed by the little lines on the road surface, but there are some quite serious looking overhead cameras. how does the average speed work?

Edited as explanation already given, but introduced to get round the fact that static cameras only cause people to slow to the limit for a couple of hundred yards and then speed up again until the next camera.

 

[detective-boy]

They still tend to be obvious as they still have to have the aerials for the police communications systems in view. They also seem to use a very narrow range of colours.

Only the ones you've noticed! Different forces have all sorts of types and colours.

 

[Amanita Virosa]

Only the ones you've noticed! Different forces have all sorts of types and colours.

Taking a look in the traffic cops car park helps.

 

[hektik]

The other type of temporary speed limit on a motorway is that imposed immediately following an accident or some other incident. These are signed ONLY by the use of the electronic signs alongside or above the carriage ways, with the number spelt out in white lights and amber flashing lights. These are ADVISORY only. Ignoring them cannot be prosecuted as a speeding offence because they are not a properly signed speed limit. Ignoring them COULD, however, be prosecuted as the more serious offence of driving without due care and attention or reasoonable consideration for others. This is unlikely unless an accident is caused or it comes to notice for some other reason (e.g. there is an accident and most traffic has slowed but someone is seen by the officers at the scene racing through regardless).

These advisory limits are only usually used for incidents lasting an hour or two (accidents, etc) or short term roadworks at quieter times (e.g. slow moving verge cleaning operations or overnight works which set up and clear every night). Unfortunately the use of them has fallen a bit into disrepute - with signs left on for hours when there is nothing there, or the wrong ones used. This has changed recently, with the Highways Agency Traffic Patrols being introduced and they should now be far better.

You should always treat the advisory speed limit signs as that - advice to slow down and be more alert. The problem may not be very obvious (e.g. an unlit vehicle which has just had an accident and is stranded in an unlit area of carriageway or some other debris in the carriageway).

cheers for that info - the type i was talking about where exactly these ones - just at the side of the road in the way that you describe - i went down to below 50 and everyone else jsut seemed to continue with their speed...

 

[Rohen]

Clean since I passed in June 1988....

I keep a beady eye out for cameras.. and for police cars and stick religiously to speed limits in towns and in roadworks. Motorways well Im not that holy but then again I always keep my eyes peeled for the first sign of cameras and police cars and tend to be paranoid about cars that come down slip roads and come very fast behind you......... and I make sure I keep lane discipline.

I remember being followed by a police car on the motorway when i was belting it down to get back to the flat after it had been burgled and I was in the " quote unquote slow lane doing well a pretty high number" first lane

I had to over take and looked in the mirror as I crossed into the 2nd overtaking lane and there was a big Fuckoff police car... behind me Foot off the accelerator over took the cars moved over and dropped to 75...

The car ignored me and took off You have no idea how thankful I was

Edit following the post by Smin You also have to watch out for the nutters on the road front back and sideways.... and almost predict what they are going to do to drive safely these days....

 

[Mr Smin]

Detective Boy is for real

He writes exactly how my ambulance driving instructor talks.

And all the people who posted how they keep a look out for cameras and cop cars - please also keep an eye on all the drivers to your front, rear and sides - that way you can take evasive action when they do something bad.

 

[pembrokestephen]

Nope. 3 points, with 6 more pending.

I can't believe that I've had a clean licence for 20 years, come to Wales and within 6 months I've been talivanned 3 times.

Bastards.

 

[pembrokestephen]

riding a motorcyles means i am all in favour of the head on cameras.



agree with you about the safety aspect as opposed to the blind following of speed limits no matter what.

e.g. there is a school by us in a 30 zone, i will normally do 20. however on an open motorway with good road conditions 70 is just a waypoint to my final speed.

I'm with you here. There are many roads around my old stomping grounds in London which are 30 limit, but generally parked up on both sides. I don't think you could go down those at 20 safely, especially if you spotted kids around - you just never know when one's going to suddenly emerge from between a couple of parked cars.

Yet I have found myself doing the maximum speed I considered reasonable on such roads, and STILL had some idiot trying to drive up my exhaust pipe because he clearly though I wasn't going fast enough

 

[pembrokestephen]

Clean licence since the age of 17 here.

Anyone that moans about speed cameras is a twat IMHO - don't want points or a fine? Then don't fucking speed, 'tis really quite simple.

Yes, I can remember when I had that attitude.

 

[pembrokestephen]

3 points for doing 43 in a 30 in 2002, so that should be deleted soon, is it 4 years?

but just got a letter about another similar speeding incident, 48 in a 40, but it was on the motorway, but there were some roadworks so in a few weeks there'll be another 3 points

mrs21 is not happy

Then I'm a lucky lad: Ms Pembrokestephen is offering to take my 3rd batch of points. I've written to the camerabastards asking for photographic evidence, just to make sure I'm not identifiable in the photo, but they seem to be taking their time replying *sob* *wail* *gnash of teeth*

 

[pembrokestephen]

It really amazes me to see the twats who sail along at 69mph in the second lane (or even offside) of an empty motorway (and who no doubt think they are holier than thou) continue at exactly the same speed through the temporary 50mph limit. Did they just not see it?

They see it, but they're much better drivers than the rest of us (ISTR some statistic that 90% of drivers think they're "above average"), so normal speed limits don't apply to them.

Of my 3 pending offences, 2 were on clear (and non-roadworks) dual carriageways with 70 limits. (the other one was leaving a 30mph zone to enter a 40mph one - I'm alleged to have been doing 40 when they caught me, though I do have very, very grave reservations that that was the case. The laser devices ARE apparently capable of inaccuracy, but the legal process is such that it is apparently pretty pointless challenging them on this basis )

But - and I'm not excusing those offences, as I WAS breaking the speed limit, I knew it, and I got caught - there is, to me, a significant difference between galloping along at somewhat in excess of the NSL on clear roads in optimum conditions and breaking limits at hazards such as roadworks or built-up areas. I think that the increasing emphasis on cameras as opposed to real live police officers who can make a judgement as to whether the speeding is part of an act of dangerous driving, someone driving-too-fast-but-safely, or just a transient excursion over the limit, has meant that this distinction is now lost, and I predict that the end result, over time, is going to be an increasing alienation between motorists and the authorities, as, incidentally, does the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Fortunately, by the time that happens, all motoring offences will be being enforced via camera, so there won't be any real live coppers on the roads any more to reap the wrath of the motorist

 

[pembrokestephen]

You're probably right. I know my concentration is far better when I am travelling faster (on two or four wheels) and thats even without the constant distraction of checking speedometer.

I got a Road Angel. My driving is DEFINITELY poorer now, as I obsessively check my speed at every opportunity, and scour the roadsides for speed limit signs just in case I miss one (because you rarely get a second one).

What used to be a joy - driving swiftly, yet smoothly and competently - has now become a misery. I hate driving: it's stressful, tiring, and uncomfortable. If I lived in a city now, I'd bin the car. As it is, that isn't an option.

 

[marty21]

They're called SPECS cameras and have been around for about five years. Because they're very expensive compared to Gatsos, they're relatively rare, but you're more likely to encounter them where major roadworks are occurring.

http://www.abd.org.uk/specs.htm

There are also average speed cameras on the Limehouse Link tunnel and on Tower Bridge.

i think they're the ones the got me in suffolk

 

[pembrokestephen]

I wonder if you could tell me what the proper position is where the speed limit on a motorway is 50 but there are no roadworks and no other reason that i could see for them being 50 (ie it starts at one junction and then finishes in two junctions time) - its just that i slow down but it doesn't seem that anyone else does at all, or if they do, not as much as i seem to do.

and then of course, i feel that i am being more dangerous because i am driving 20 mph slower than anyone else on the road...

Yes, you are probably putting yourself in more danger that way.

But driving is less about judgement: your argument about safety would carry no weight in a court, and would be seen simply as an excuse. The rules now are simple - see a 50 sign, drive at 50, maximum. Regardless of the safety, risk, convenience or any other consideration. Because, if you don't, some apparatchik in a little van with no authority, desire, or - probably - competence to make any kind of judgement about the safety or reasonableness of your driving will press his little button, and you'll be contributing to this year's effort to try and beat last year's £130m revenues from speeding enforcement, regardless of how dangerous or otherwise your driving actually was.

As the halfwit earlier on in this thread said - "if you don't want a ticket, don't speed". It's just a shame that an activity as highly skilled as driving a motor vehicle has to be enforced in this dead-handed, prescriptive way, which completely fails to deal with the myriad other ways in which people manage to drive dangerously, selfishly, or just plain badly. It's also a shame that the year-on-year reductions in road fatalities which we had been achieving through the 1980's and 1990's seems to have suddely stalled coincident with the arrival of automated enforcement (and consequent sudden decrease in on-the-road traffic police patrols)...

 

[Farmer Giles]

Had my license 20 years and it's always been as clean as a whistle......

 

[Skim]

I've had a clean licence for 17 years... might be a different story if I owned a car, though.