I hate mobile speed cameras!!

[Dave-2912]

the local authority will often claim they have consulted on lowering speed limits...

anyone ever been consulted? Nobody I know has...

#justsayin

My parents local council installed speedbumps along the main street in their town about a year ago... When questioned the councillor claimed a period of consultation had happened and was very proud when saying "not a single pedestrian has been involved in a traffic accident since the bumps were installed." Fair enough but no pedestrian had been involved in a traffic accident in that area in the 15 years before the speedbumps either... What a waste of money!

 

[moonshine]

You can get car parking sensors that double up as Radar Jammers now. I looked in to it!

They are next to redundant due to the widespread use of lasers. All they need is a spot & you are nicked. You need a laser Diffuser, but these are borderline legal & you could risk a charge of Perverting the course of Justice.

 

[Adamski]

When I was 19 I got caught speeding. Its the only time I have been caught. I bought "UK Driving Secrets" - a book written by a former Senior Traffic Cop.

The book states that the margin for error allowed by Police forces is 10% of the applicable speed limit +2mph.

This effectively means the speed limit in a 70mph zone is 79mph.

I always stick within the 'speed limit' on public roads, bearing in mind my statement above. This will keep you out of trouble.

It's also good to verify your vehicles true speed via sat nav on a flat road. My E46 gave a speed reading 4mph above the real speed. The Z4 is nearly spot on. My Polo by contrast reads c.8/9mph above the real speed when doing 70mph

So, if the speedo on my Polo says I'm doing 80mph, in reality I'm only doing 71mph....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[M@r]{]

You know I've always considered the Sat nav to be giving the true reading. But something occured to me the other day.

Do Sat Navs take into account gradient? Ie is their calculation of speed 3 dimensional? If its just 2 dimentional then an indicated speed along a 100m stretch would be under reading if this 100m stretch is going up or down hill?

 

[cj_eds]

To be honest what annoys me more about them is the fact the traffic almost grinds to a halt in their presence.
There's often one on a motorway bridge by us, looking down at the motorway traffic. The road over the bridge is a 60 zone, but is close to a 40 zone. Because of that everyone goes at 30mph just to be on the safe side, and just in case the NSL signs are somehow cancelled out by the camera van.

 

[Anonymous]

This effectively means the speed limit in a 70mph zone is 79mph.

No, the speed limit in a 70mph zone is 70mph...otherwise the sign would say 79mph.

What you are saying, is that due to allowances for error in equipment and speedo innacuracy etc, then the so called 10% rule, you could get away with 79mph.

In reality, this might be true and I'm not dissing it, but technically if you are over 70 then you are at risk. I guess you have to get a real jobsworth etc.

 

[pvr]

You can get car parking sensors that double up as Radar Jammers now. I looked in to it!

They are next to redundant due to the widespread use of lasers. All they need is a spot & you are nicked. You need a laser Diffuser, but these are borderline legal & you could risk a charge of Perverting the course of Justice.

Not radar jammers, they happen to interfere with lasers.

They will become illegal when / if ever, the road traffic act is retified which states "a device whose function, or one of the functions, to interfere with speed reading equipment" or words to that effect. Up till then, they are not illegal.

Use with caution and don't take the p*ss and you will be fine. Bit like a tax loophole, if there are not enough people using it they are not doing anything about it.

 

[envy]

speaking of which does anyone know any good tax loopholes??

 

[pvr]

Yes - create a charity and donate all your income to yourself

 

[dhplachy]

Your speedo has a built in error factor and I'd guess at an indicated 80 you were doing less than 75.

A "friend" of mine sets his cruise control so that his actual speed via GPS is 79mph, indicating 85mph on his Alpina D3BT, Silver number #22 iirc

This does raise a question regarding the E89 (maybe specifically the 35i or 35is) as my 750iL registers about 10% faster on the speedometer than my actual speed (per a mobile GPS device) up to about 6 MPH. Do these cars do the same? I haven't collected mine yet so am wondering.

I'm told by the service adviser that BMW does this because too many folks complained about speeding tickets.

 

[Andrew*Debbie]

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Do Sat Navs take into account gradient? Ie is their calculation of speed 3 dimensional?

I don't know. A typical GPS receiver is less accurate in altitude than lat. and lon. What a sat nav does with that, I don't know. Our 3 year old Tom Tom XL appears to stick us on the nearest road to the 2D fix and more or less ignore altitude.

The newer and more expensive BMW/Nuvi 2790 has 3D maps. Not sure what it is doing, but it could do better with speed.

It would be interesting to set up both in the Z and compare speed indications.

 

[Allattar]

It seems as I travel the country that there are more and more mobile cameras, gatso's and average speed cameras, dual carriageways that were the national speed limit now down to 40 or 50 mph

Oh god I hate that.
The mass blanket drop of limits on roads. Why dont they just come right out and tell us we need the bloke with the red flag walking in front of us.

Itll increase employment.

 

[envy]

Yes - create a charity and donate all your income to yourself

cheers

i'll call it the midlife crisis awareness fund..... im having a midlife crisis and am well aware of it

 

[KeithJ]

You can get car parking sensors that double up as Radar Jammers now. I looked in to it!

They are next to redundant due to the widespread use of lasers. All they need is a spot & you are nicked. You need a laser Diffuser, but these are borderline legal & you could risk a charge of Perverting the course of Justice.

Of course they can put you up for perverting the course of justice however you can argue the case the the feature has been built in to the car for other reasons and not to evade capture.

Here is a link as requested.

http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/laserpropark.htm

 

[Bing]

You do have to be careful with GPS indicated speed - it is accurate in a straight, reasonably level line, but if you're on winding / curving roads I think that starts to throw it out :?

 

[ZedFourM]

The book states that the margin for error allowed by Police forces is 10% of the applicable speed limit +2mph.

That's actually the ACPO (Association Of Chief Police Officers) guideline, below which they do not recommend prosecution unless other factors (e.g., tailgating, excessive lane changing) are also present.

However, it is only a guideline - police forces do not need to comply with it - and there have been reported cases of "zero tolerence" policing, with people getting tickets at 31mph in a 30mph zone.

Be careful out there.

 

[Z_Victor1]

I guess we should count ourselves lucky.
Apparently, we have one of, if not THE, safest track (!) records when it comes to road safety, in the world.

Take the USA.....fabulous country, more open roads than anywhere in the world.......BUT...after the (70's) oil crisis the feds dumped a 55mph speed limit on the whole country.
After this was lifted in 1987 each state could (theoretically) choose it's own limit.
A few states went for broke with no limit...I think Montana (?) was one.
Soon they discovered however, a massive increase in serious accidents. Inexperienced drivers going completely barmy - especially at night (!).
I think they've 'topped-out' now at 80mph (Montana again?).
What's the point of this tale (which all of you know anyway)?
Well........they now have to solve the problem of feckless Yankees hooning around at 70-80 on their fabulous highways....with the same gap between cars that they had when cruising at 55mph.
IT IS SCARY STUFF.....

 

[Stuart Truman]

there have been reported cases of "zero tolerence" policing, with people getting tickets at 31mph in a 30mph zone.

At which point you use your legal expenses insurance and lawyer up. The DoT guidelines allow for a 10% error in a speedometer, hence the ACPO guidelines of 10% + 2mph. If the DoT limit were lower, so would the guidelines be.

 

[ralphfcooke]

I don't think that will work. Here are what I believe are the current regs:-

"The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, as amended, allows the use of speedometers that meet the requirements of EC Community Directive 75/443(97/39) or ECE Regulations 39. Both the EC Directive and the ECE Regulation lay down accuracy requirements to be applied at the time of vehicle approval for speedometers. These requirements are that the indicated speed must not be more than 10 per cent of the true speed plus 4km/h (2.5 mph)." "In production, however, a slightly different tolerance of 5 per cent plus 10 km/h (6 mph) is applied" "The requirements are also that the indicated speed must never be less than the true speed. A vehicle meeting these requirements would not be able to travel at a greater speed than that shown on the speedometer and a driver could not, therefore, inadvertently exceed speed restrictions. Her Majesty's Government have no plans to introduce instrument tests"

 

[Jembo]

there have been reported cases of "zero tolerence" policing, with people getting tickets at 31mph in a 30mph zone.

At which point you use your legal expenses insurance and lawyer up. The DoT guidelines allow for a 10% error in a speedometer, hence the ACPO guidelines of 10% + 2mph. If the DoT limit were lower, so would the guidelines be.

Agreed, it's only f you admit exceeding the speed limit marginally they can book you on he spot, otherwise if not stopped by the roadside you wait 14 days & if nothing appears in the post, you are in the clear.

Best of luck over the next 14 days