2 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

Waiting on a penalty notice or 2 right now. 

Accelerating out of a market town after the through road rejoins the trunk road, suddenly realised it's still a 30 and there's a camera van a couple of hundred yards up the road. Try to phone SWMBO who's a few minutes behind, but by the time I get through she's passed the van as well. Dammit. 

 

Maybe we'll go to "bad drivers" class together.

 

Got my first Speed Awareness coming up when I get back from Canada, so much looking forward to it.

 

80 in a 70 down a big hill down from the Air Balloon in Gloucester.     Engine in Eco mode and Coasting.  Must make sure I burn some brake pads and burn so fuel to keep within the speed limit from the 1960s in my car with radial tyres, ABS, ESP and radar braking as it is clear so dangerous to travel at such insane speeds on a quite, straight A road in such a vehicle.  Forgive me Father for I have sinned.  At least I was done at the same place Princess Anne was though she was doing over 90 I recall. 

I've just had the speed awareness course and now, even though I've always been like I guess most people. never actually wanting to break the limit but do so when attention lapses, am totally paranoid now. 

 

But it even now, I still edge close to breaking a 30, which is a paradox because I think

its the sheer fatigue of concentrating so hard, almost solely on sticking to 30. 

 

Not surprising given the almost contrived character of some of the speed camera locations. 

 

One was literally feet behind the first 30 sign which in itself was hard to get down to 30 by, given its covert placement, hiding behind uncut verge bushes. 

 

I'm the last person in the world who wants to break a limit but it's nigh on impossible not to at some point or other. 

2 hours ago, camelspyyder said:

 

Maybe we'll go to "bad drivers" class together.

 

Allegedly due to the government really clamping down on speeders, Bad Drivers Class is no longer an option.  They now make you read the EU Referendum/Brexit thread in Roadside Hotel from start to finish. 

 

Eek! 

It could be worse you could be locked in room with Maybot and the Marxist Bearded one..8-)

My sister who drives like Miss Daisy was captured speeding due to a momentarily lapse of not looking at her speedometer. Modern cars have smaller engines and their engine braking capability have been diminished and energy rated low rolling resistant tyres makes it difficult to maintain a steady speed. I continually have to brake to maintain 30mph and that attention may lessen my ability to see potential hazards in my path. A very effective deterrent is the flashing speed limit sign which shows a green smiling face if under 30mph and a warning if faster. This deterrent keeps your attention on the road so you can forget looking down at the instrument panel.

Edited 9 August, 20187 yr by edbostan

45 minutes ago, Fin69 said:

Allegedly due to the government really clamping down on speeders, Bad Drivers Class is no longer an option.  They now make you read the EU Referendum/Brexit thread in Roadside Hotel from start to finish. 

 

Eek! 

FFS. I'll take the 3 points. 

28 minutes ago, Jfhuk said:

It could be worse you could be locked in room with Maybot and the Marxist Bearded one..8-)

Great opportunity for political change. I'll kill both.

31 minutes ago, edbostan said:

My sister who drives like Miss Daisy was captured speeding due to a momentarily lapse of not looking at her speedometer. Modern cars have smaller engines and their engine braking capability have been diminished and energy rated low rolling resistant tyres makes it difficult to maintain a steady speed. I continually have to brake to maintain 30mph and that attention may lessen my ability to see potential hazards in my path. A very effective deterrent is the flashing speed limit sign which shows a green smiling face if under 30mph and a warning if faster. This deterrent keeps your attention on the road so you can forget looking down at the instrument panel.

Totally agree. Cars can coast seemingly forever so why the h""ll don't we have countdown signs instead of the sudden appearance of a 30 sign  whereupon you have to give a healthy dose of brakes. 

 

I saw countdowns in Yorkshire and it was a joy to just coast leisurely down to 30. 

 

I hate dabbing brakes all the time, it just adds to energy wastage and carbon emissions. 

8 hours ago, lol-lol said:

80 in a 70 down a big hill down from the Air Balloon in Gloucester.     

I take it this was on the dual carriage way at the bottom of the hill, because it's a 60 limit down the hill and a 50 limit up the hill. 

Oh ffs

 

Stop Making Excuses.

 

I do about 30,000 Miles per year, have done for the last 20+ years.

Throughout that time I have done 2 awareness courses, but accept it as a fact of life that regularly I will have lapses of concentration and get caught.

 

Statistically for every occasion I’ve been caught there will have been hundreds if not thousands of times when I speeding and didn’t get caught.

 

lol-lol story is a typical case. (I am fully aware of the location as it is only 3 miles from home)

I suspect that given his home location he has travelled the lethal rat-run that is the A417 to the Air Ballon,and down Crickley Hill hundreds of times. You can’t tell me that the first and only he sped down there was the only time there was a camera van waiting.

 

As for why there was a van there in the first place, listen to BBC National radio traffic reports and see how many times this road is closed due to accidents, including fatalities.

 

To conclude, the only person to blame is YOU. You all know the NSLs and should be able to see other limit signs, repeaters and street lights etc. If you don’t perhaps your fitness to drive could be called into question. Or possible instead of a speeding ticket the charge should be driving without due care and attention. After all if you failed to observe the speed limit surely you weren’t paying proper attention.

 

Rant Over

 

 

11 hours ago, edbostan said:

I continually have to brake to maintain 30mph 

 

do you have one of those magic cars which speeds up by itself and you have to use the brake pedal to control the speed ?

It is nice where there are signs to tell people that the NSL is going to be reduced to a lower speed before reaching a lower speed again.

At least where that happens there is no reason for those saying getting slowed from 60 to 30 by lifting off the accelerator is just so difficult.

11 hours ago, edbostan said:

the flashing speed limit sign which shows a green smiling face if under 30mph and a warning if faster

There was one of these on my commute. It was positioned such that you could rock up to it and set it off, then brake and get down to the limit it was "protecting". Most people I know did, which meant that they were slowing later for the reduced limit.

12 hours ago, edbostan said:

the flashing speed limit sign which shows a green smiling face if under 30mph and a warning if faster.

I'm amazed how some of these signs actually trigger when you're doing UNDER 30mph (according to GPS).

 

It seems that some of them are setup to trigger when a typical 5-7% over-reading speedo shows 30mph i.e. around 27-28mph and not actually at 30mph. That's a candidate for the "what annoyed you today" thread

 

Oh, and those which are so close to the 30mph limit so that when you are legally doing 40, 50 or 60mph they trigger when you are still well outside the 30mph zone and can brake easily to 30mph before you reach the zone.

 

I agree they are a useful reminder when sited properly, but can be a PITA when misused.

Edited 10 August, 20187 yr by SWBoy

The ones i go through regularly which is over a dozen are bang on the correct speed according to the GPS i have, one on my wrist, one on the sat nav and the V-Box i use when checking how different tyres on vehicles show compared to a vehicles speedo.

 

They are not all at the entry of 20 or 30 mph limits there are plenty that are in NSL areas where the road is going past lots of junctions or just access to farms etc.

Edited 10 August, 20187 yr by Offski

There’s one portable warning sign that gets attached to lampposts around the Eton area that seems to be set at 25 mph for a 30 mph limit. You regularly see people cursing it.

7 hours ago, moley said:

I take it this was on the dual carriage way at the bottom of the hill, because it's a 60 limit down the hill and a 50 limit up the hill. 

 

Think the whole bottom half of the hill, ie from the air balloon  downwards is posted 60 mph, so one did tends to let it roll to 65-ish down the hill, providing there was not an artic holding it to less than that, and then it would veritably merest wiff of a throttle which seems to have one nudging over an indicated 80 mph.  Crappy skoda speedo over-reads by around 4%, can't anyone make a speedo accurate to 1% or so, is it that difficult?

 

When doing multi-disciplinary road exercises with the police and chatting with them, ie  Social, a couple of departments of transport and us from customs looking for Boot-leggers, the Police mentioned they tended to set their criteria for speeding at Nominal, plus 10% for speedo error, plus 2% for tyre variances, plus either 2,3 or 4 mph so one always wonders if the trap that caught was set at 79,80, 81, in case it must have been 79, or 80 rather than 81.  Not bitter about it and the Speed awareness might have some bright spots in it.  Have done accident investigation with DtP before I went to HMRC it is an subject of interest to me.  Nice to go to France and Germany where 85 or no limit is the norm on motorways.  In France the tolerance is 5% for statics and 10% for mobile I gather so 140 kph ie 87 mph seems OK, similar to Spain.  UK roads are arguable not as goods as continental roads in terms of having generally more junctions and the corner radius.  Oh well, go slower, pay less tax.  

 

On one road exercise we parked the custom car at Swindon police station and they drove us out to M4 check point and Cop car winds up to about 125 mph, no blues and twos, hmmmm.           

 

16 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Crappy skoda speedo over-reads by around 4%, can't anyone make a speedo accurate to 1% or so, is it that difficult?

I think you'll find that all manufacturers speedometers read around 5% higher than the actual speed, so you are not speeding when driving at the indicated speed. 

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

can't anyone make a speedo accurate to 1% or so, is it that difficult?

Let's take a 16" wheel with a 205/50 tyre and ignore squashing under vehicle mass and centripetal growth. That gives us 8" radius, say 203.2 mm for the wheel, and 102.5 for the tyre, for 305.7mm. The tyre has (UK and French law) 6mm of usable tread, or just under 2% of the total radius. So when do you want your speedo to be accurate to 1%?

I'd like to suggest that if you have trouble slowing down to 30 because you can't see the sign then you were probably driving too fast. If it was a horse or child in the road at that point or a car pulling out you might even have to stop, so slowing to 30 should be easy. I'm not perfect either, it's way too easy to motor along in quiet fast modern cars.

 

On a country lane you don't just have to stop in the space you can see either but half that because whoever is coming the other way also needs to stop.

5 hours ago, Offski said:

The ones i go through regularly which is over a dozen are bang on the correct speed according to the GPS i have, one on my wrist, one on the sat nav and the V-Box i use when checking how different tyres on vehicles show compared to a vehicles speedo.

 

They are not all at the entry of 20 or 30 mph limits there are plenty that are in NSL areas where the road is going past lots of junctions or just access to farms etc.

One I go through regularly in Barnstaple - in the middle of a 30mph limit - triggers when doing 27mph.

 

I never said they were all at the entry of a 20 or 30mph limit .

I know you never, i did.  Point being those i go through are all accurate.   Not only in Scotland.

 Must be a location location location thing, procurement and supplier of them difference maybe.

Edited 10 August, 20187 yr by Offski

26 minutes ago, amwphotos said:

I'd like to suggest that if you have trouble slowing down to 30 because you can't see the sign then you were probably driving too fast. If it was a horse or child in the road at that point or a car pulling out you might even have to stop, so slowing to 30 should be easy. I'm not perfect either, it's way too easy to motor along in quiet fast modern cars.

 

On a country lane you don't just have to stop in the space you can see either but half that because whoever is coming the other way also needs to stop.

It depends on whether the 30 mph sign is visible if you’re moving from an higher limit to a lower one in an area with street lights. There’s a road near me that has three different limits covering 20, 40 and 30mph limits in an area of about a half mile, two are well sign posted (20 and 40) , but the third areas 30 mph sign is obscured by overgrowing trees. The camera van usually parks behind the trees.

Edited 10 August, 20187 yr by Jfhuk

^^^ So you know the tree obscures the sign, those that live there do, the Safety Partnership Employees must, and the Road Department should, 

is nobody reporting it or doing anything about it.  Today would be a good day to report it...

2 hours ago, KenONeill said:

Let's take a 16" wheel with a 205/50 tyre and ignore squashing under vehicle mass and centripetal growth. That gives us 8" radius, say 203.2 mm for the wheel, and 102.5 for the tyre, for 305.7mm. The tyre has (UK and French law) 6mm of usable tread, or just under 2% of the total radius. So when do you want your speedo to be accurate to 1%?

 

Well I do not want the speedo to be based on wheel rotation for starters.

 

How about a proper GPS biult in to the car showing GSP speed with a margin of error based on current triagulation ?

Accuracy can be 0.1 kph and sample rate 5 Hz on even basic models.

 

How about  Laser sensor method, also accurate to about 0.1%. 

 

Wheel rotation in to speedo, not a good method of metrology for speed, above two much better and if massed produced would not be expensive.