Speed awareness courses now increase premiums ...

[original guvnor]

Surely if you have a speeding conviction you should pay less insurance not more!! Because statistical research suggests people caught speeding once are far less likely to get caught again than those who haven't been caught.

Now there's fuel added to the fire......

 

[GregZ4]

It isn't speeding that is the issue per se. It is speeding inappropriately that causes the crashes. Bad weather, heavy traffic, inattention, poor vehicle condition and type of vehicle will all contribute to the severity of the outcome.
We should have variable speed limits. I'm fine with 20mph in an urban area. I'm fine with 30mph on the M6 in heavy rain.
I got pinged some years back by a mobile unit in a sports car that would stop on a sixpence going at an incredible 72mph on a dual carriageway signed at 60.
Yes I was speeding, yes I paid my fine and took my points. Yes it was a fair cop.
BUT.
The road was warm and dry.There was no other traffic and I was driving a high performance car clearly designed to travel (and stop) safely at much much higher speeds.
Had I been doing 50mph in the same car in snow, ice, fog, heavy rain and heavy traffic the law says I'd have been fine, despite the fact that I would have been an idiot.
Oh and the insurance company rep just said "Sir, if we increased the premium for all of our customers with a fixed penalty then we'd have no customers, but thank you for telling us as we do need to add the endorsement to the policy"

It's the way the "offences" are handled, as a revenue gathering exercise carried out with no leeway and application of common sense that causes the friction with motorists.
Bring back the good old days when a copper would pull you over, have a quiet word if necessary whilst complimenting you on your lovely car, then if necessary issuing a ticket.

 

[Jembo]

...statistical research suggests people caught speeding once are far less likely to get caught again than those who haven't been caught.

More likely that once you've been caught, you're checking every slip road; every car with extra ariels; very careful round residential areas; watchful of any vehicle that appears out of nowhere; every bridge with a car, van or bus with blacked out windows and take more notice of the TOMTOM speed camera alerts... but still enjoy heavy use of the loud pedal

 

[Anonymous]

That still happens in the right place and right time. If you get pulled by a traffic unit the discretion is still there and those conversations still go on. It's the camera units which are placed to do a job regardless of circumstances or speeds that are the problem to most people.

Like you, I got clocked in a sports car doing 36 in a 30. It's illegal and I was caught and I can have no complaints on that front. The circumstances were that the camera was placed where the 30 opened up to 60, it was 9am on a sunny dry Sunday morning in the middle of nowhere, no other road users at all, no pedestrians nearby, no significant risk factors at play at all. The SAC I attended perversely reinforced this point as they went through the risk factors at play in speed related accidents and none were present where I was caught.

The reason for the camera being in that location at that time was in my opinion....

1 nothing better to do with police time - handheld camera on a bike
2 the camera operator and vehicle could be hidden from oncoming traffic
3 nobody would expect it to be there as there was no good reason for it to be

None of these are valid in a policing context as far as I am concerned. I don't drive at 36 past school gates as the children are emerging. I don't do 90 in fog on the motorway. I don't drive at speed in winter or on wet roads in autumn. There are plenty of people who do do these things though but they don't get caught for it as it is simply too difficult to catch them.

That's no way to improve safety which can be the only motive where speed is involved. Prosecute the people you can catch and allow the biggest offenders to get away with it because it's too costly to deploy traffic units in difficult situations.