Camera Detectors

[Talksthetorque]

Notts is terrible for it. Especially the A614/A6097

Up until a couple of years ago this was, quite rightly, a NSL Dual Carriageway.
This is now a 50mph and has SPECS cameras all the way along it.
So, how is this not just a money making scheme again?

I say choose your weapons Ladies and Gents.

But whether you have something that bleeps or not choose the correct speed for the situation.

TTT

 

[original guvnor]

Notts is terrible for it. Especially the A614/A6097

Up until a couple of years ago this was, quite rightly, a NSL Dual Carriageway.
This is now a 50mph and has SPECS cameras all the way along it.
So, how is this not just a money making scheme again?

I say choose your weapons Ladies and Gents.

But whether you have something that bleeps or not choose the correct speed for the situation.

TTT

Oh that stretch of road is quite local to me and you are absolutely right. I don't think I've ever seen more than half a dozen cars on it at any one time either. I'd love to know how they fixed the accident casualties to justify that! Maybe elsewhere, further up on the A614, but that is a classic example of an appalling road that should be redesigned rather than just bunging SPECS up. A blunt instrument rather than a progressive one.

 

[GregZ4]

We should just all have GPS based speed limiters fitted to cars which simply don't allow you to break the limit

I mean why make it 155mph. Let's see that technology used to save lives

Personally I say drive hard and enjoy where you can and be sensible where you can't (schools, towns etc). Cars are faster and safer than ever but every day I seem to catch people who pootle at 50 on a dual carriageway and then carry on through the next village with a 30 limit still going the same speed. What's that about?

I think detectors are a great idea as cameras are not there to make the roads safer, they are just to collect revenue and oppress the masses. In fact I'd argue that they make the roads more dangerous as drivers judge how far the camera and brake whilst looking at their dash rather then the road.....

I could go on and on and on but The Stones are the beeb at Hyde Park!

 

[Citation 650]

When I actually get consulted by government (be it central or local) on a speed limit change (always downwards) then I'll have a bit more time for those who take a puritanical approach to "speeding".

Try designing out unsafe road junctions, poor road design. Spend a bit of money to make roads safe. Oh no that's too difficult - it's much easier to stick a mobile van somewhere.

Roads would be a lot safer if they actually repaired all of the potholes!

For those with insomnia, there's a book that explains some of the things different countries have come up with to improve roads.

 

[alastairb25]

Thanks for all the responses, never seen so many nerves touched ..

On a serious note I went over the Cat and Fiddle last year to find only front facing cameras, going the speed limit I was flew passed left right and centre by bikers who have no front plates.

I also had the rather crap experience of seeing what happens first hand when a biker away (News paper quotes coroners reports) on drugs crashes into a stone sign on the A591, trust me seeing first hand two broken legs, two broken arms and a crushed crash helmet is not fun..

Its amazing how triangulation does`nt work so well in the real world when you ring 999, screaming your trying to protect your friends in the middle of a a dual carriageway who are trying to revive a biker who got it wrong, only to find they can`t find you because they don`t know where you are..

For those who are on there high horses, I stood in the middle of a road screaming at an operator I knew where I was (Dunmail Raise) it was them who did not.. and could I do anything, no I can`t if you listen the sound you can hear is a car screaming toward me on a unlit dual carriageway and all that's in its way between it and my friends is me waving a phone and part of the guys broken bike ..

 

[alastairb25]

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/maryport-biker-died-on-way-home-from-sister-s-50th-birthday-1.1040823?referrerPath=news

 

[NeilP]

We should just all have GPS based speed limiters fitted to cars which simply don't allow you to break the limit

I mean why make it 155mph. Let's see that technology used to save lives

Personally I say drive hard and enjoy where you can and be sensible where you can't (schools, towns etc). Cars are faster and safer than ever but every day I seem to catch people who pootle at 50 on a dual carriageway and then carry on through the next village with a 30 limit still going the same speed. What's that about?

I think detectors are a great idea as cameras are not there to make the roads safer, they are just to collect revenue and oppress the masses. In fact I'd argue that they make the roads more dangerous as drivers judge how far the camera and brake whilst looking at their dash rather then the road.....

I could go on and on and on but The Stones are the beeb at Hyde Park!

I am in 100% agreement with you good sir! Very well worded. The only issue is there will be (a minority at that) who won't have the self control to maintain limits where they are crucial.

 

[BrianD]

I should also be worth a mention that the pedestrian’s lives which we are trying to save by reducing speed limits, have to take some responsibility for their own road safety.

How many times do you see people of all ages;

a) Walk straight out onto the road without looking?
b) Unable to hear what is going on around them because they are listening to loud music through ear phones.
c) Glance and continue to saunter across a road seeing oncoming traffic approaching as if they owned the road and assuming that the cars will have time to stop for them!

Perhaps we should send repeat offenders to pedestrian traffic awareness courses

 

[Nondizzyblonde]

Pedestrians drive me ( geddit ) bonkers. Every afternoon I negotiate literally hundreds of teenagers heading down the college drive at the same time as me. Headphones in and totally oblivious, or simply walking in the road 'coz they all want to walk together and the pavement is not big enough. They really jump even with headphones in though when I rev the engine :evil:. Interestingly enough, it is the Chinese students, of which Leicester Uni has a lot. that seem to have no road sense at all, and literally just step out in front of cars and so on - I have no explanation for this.
On a different note, I think cyclists should all have to have insurance too, and pulled up more often about breaking the law, e.g. going across red lights, riding without any lights on at night, etc. .

 

[original guvnor]

Ooohhh that last para will upset the cycling Nazi's on here NDB!

 

[jimbo1958]

Ooohhh that last para will upset the cycling Nazi's on here NDB!

Well I have to agree with Dizzy on that. On my commute home through North London at 20.00,4 nights aweek, I'd suggest that 9 out of 10 cyclists have no lights or HI Viz.

 

[Carsonking]

Insurance for push bikes? Don't get me wrong, I'd like to put a stick in many a cyclists spokes but would kids have to have it, where do you draw the line 16, how would this be implemented? It was decision the other evening between me and a mate.

 

[Tommy_hf]

OK, I speed. I admit it. I didn't have a camera detector, just a set of eyes and Alcon/PFC brakes. Yes I sometimes get a ticket, usually on the highway where it's "safe", in the cities the tickets are in the category of 2-3 km/h over the limit. Those suck. Now I have a camera database loaded in the garmin, it helps. It keeps my eyes on the road instead of the bushes and we all know we tend to steer towards where we are looking

No really, speeding itself isn't the killer, actually, why are we buying sporty cars with the nice big engine anyway? I do a lot of driving, also joined petrolhead nirvana tour, basic rule is to follow the speed limits in built areas, go faster on the country lanes. It does work. Having fun with the car without endangering others. I slow down when I see traffic or oncoming cars as well. I do the same on the Autobahn, I slow down so that I don't overtake people with a huge speed difference.

And yes, a lot of cameras are indeed hidden on spots where it's virtually impossible to have an accident. On true black spots, where it's virtually insanity to speed, there are no cameras. The roads are too twisty or there's no way you end up accidentally speeding and getting caught. Speeding itself doesn't mean the speeders are 20 y/o idiots trying to gather points by running over "your" children. As said, it's actually the locals and women with city cars speeding and NOT slowing down for speed humps. We can't go over any speed humps at anything above crawling speed without bottoming out anyway with the Zeds.

 

[domsz4]

i don think there is anything wrong with having a camera alert function as part of a sat nav... ive been caught out sometimes where ive been driving faster than the speed limit due to being in an area i didnt know and not seeing a sign indicating the change or thinking i was out of the 30 but wasn't. i think i borrowed a friends road angel once when i calibrating the westy speedo and that changed to red when i was faster than the speed limit. its helpful to know.

its one of my pet peeves when your on a road where the limit is not clearly posted. I especially dislike the ambiguity of 30 zones in rural areas that rely on the old thing of "if there are lamp posts and no signs then its 30" shite. f**k that right off paint a 30 on the road or put a sign up indicating it like you do with 40, 50, or 60 zones.

also i agree with the posts about the 30/40 changes. where my parents live in bawtry s.yorks they are notorious for zapping people who are in the 40 and slowing to 30 but not quite there by the sign.