Speeding motorists

[John Holiday]

Apart from my numerous cycle related activities, I am also a member of the local Community Speed Watch.
We regularly record people driving in a 30 zone at 40mph &more. On a rough calculation, approximately 10% of the drivers who passed us are exceeding the limit & this doesn't include those who brake sharply when then see a speed gun pointed in their direction!
We pass the recorded information to the police who then send out a warning letter.
Will we ever get to time when speeding is seen as unacceptable as drink driving?
Incidentally, there are a surprisingly high number of vehicles that when checked, we find have no Mot, insurance or tax/duty.

[gaz]

Will we ever get to time when speeding is seen as unacceptable as drink driving?

No. Our best hope is for autonomous vehicles to take away the option of speeding.

https://trafficwmp.wordpress.com/

We were trusted with the ultimate responsibility, the task of piloting motorised vehicles, all be it to a strict set of laws and guidelines, necessary due to the damage a motorised vehicle of any size or form can do to the frail human form. Yet we have shown as a collective, us drivers and riders of mechanically propelled vehicles, that we are incapable of carrying the burden and shrug continually the social responsibility of being good law abiding road users.

[Mick F]

Excellent!
Not for the law breakers, but for you getting a SpeedWatch system going in your locale.

I've volunteered, and so has someone else, but we need at least six for the police to take us on, and we can't get sufficient enthusiasm for it.

I used to be a member of a local group trying to get the road downgraded and the traffic calmed and decreased. We failed and then disbanded.

What we found, is what the police told us we'd find, that the speeders are all local people, and all the heavy traffic is local too with local drivers.
By setting up a SpeedWatch or a local pressure group, you're unlikely to find volunteers because they are the law breakers!

[thirdcrank]

Apart from my numerous cycle related activities, I am also a member of the local Community Speed Watch.
We regularly record people driving in a 30 zone at 40mph &more. On a rough calculation, approximately 10% of the drivers who passed us are exceeding the limit & this doesn't include those who brake sharply when then see a speed gun pointed in their direction!
We pass the recorded information to the police who then send out a warning letter.
Will we ever get to time when speeding is seen as unacceptable as drink driving?
Incidentally, there are a surprisingly high number of vehicles that when checked, we find have no Mot, insurance or tax/duty.
(My emphasis.)

I think that the question I've highlighted is answered by the rest of your post. This is no longer a police priority so it's delegated to volunteers. This shows that "something is being done" and absorbs the energies of some of the campaigners. Meanwhile the speeders soon realise, either from experience or social media that the outcome is warning letters. The "surprisingly high" numbers of drivers who may be breaking the law in other ways may be a natural result of drivers believing they will not be checked.

Your last sentence implies ( - we find - ) that it's the volunteers who are checking the documents online. What happens if an apparent offence emerges at that point? (That's irrespective of who checks the documents.)

Incidentally, fairly recently, there was an item about this on the local news when it was introduced in North Yorkshire, an area where they seem quite active with mobile speed cameras (ie in the back of vans.) I'd feel a lot more confident if the volunteers' results were analysed and if problem areas persisted in spite of their regular presence then a police enforcement van could be used there, in and among.

[cotswolds]

Here's an article about a new speed camera technology being tested in Gloucestershire. http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/14406828.New_A46_camera_clocks_48_000_speeders_in_just_40_days_____and_WOULD_have_raised___4_8m_in_fines/?ref=mmpg

It's not entirely clear, but it appears to do what volunteers standing by the road do, only 24 hours a day, and with ANPR, the data can be automatically analysed. I take the bit about the driver who broke the limit 44 times in a month not being being prosecuted because the exercise was a trial to mean that the camera produces evidence that could be used for prosecutions if necessary.

Given very limited resources, this looks rather more effective than people standing at the side of the road with speed guns.

[thirdcrank]

Here's an illustrated post from mjr about the speed camera with ANPR technology

viewtopic.php?p=1066786#p1066786

[gaz]

Given very limited resources, this looks rather more effective than people standing at the side of the road with speed guns.

AIUI current procedures mean speed cameras can only be sited at locations where there is a significant history of KSIs with the aim of reducing them. All to do with not using the poor oppressed law breaking motorists as some kind of cash cow.

[reohn2]

Apart from my numerous cycle related activities, I am also a member of the local Community Speed Watch.
We regularly record people driving in a 30 zone at 40mph &more. On a rough calculation, approximately 10% of the drivers who passed us are exceeding the limit & this doesn't include those who brake sharply when then see a speed gun pointed in their direction!
We pass the recorded information to the police who then send out a warning letter.
Will we ever get to time when speeding is seen as unacceptable as drink driving?

Persoanally I don't see as much speeding in 30mph zones as I used to,though it's far from cured entirely.

Incidentally, there are a surprisingly high number of vehicles that when checked, we find have no Mot, insurance or tax/duty.

Do you report them and do them get prosecuted?

[Cyril Haearn]

I was driving along a road into town, Saturday morning, lots of traffic, not much chance to go too fast. Pleased to see a police vehicle at the roadside doing speed checks. Unfortunately it was large and conspicuous. Then the driver behind me started flashing his lights repeatedly. I figured something was wrong with my vehicle so I stopped and asked him why he was trying to get my attention. "I am not trying to get your attention you idiot, I am warning drivers going the other way"

I noted his number and drove back to the police vehicle. The officer explained that he could not (would not?) do anything. Seems a good chance was lost to stop these "warners" and put the fear of God into them

[The utility cyclist]

I still don't understand why the location of mobile speed units are advertised, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

[Barks]

Can't be seen catching the criminals out can we, that would not be fair.

[Mick F]

Here's an illustrated post from mjr about the speed camera with ANPR technology

viewtopic.php?p=1066786#p1066786

We have similar in St Mellion not far from here.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.46971 ... 312!8i6656

[reohn2]

Here's an illustrated post from mjr about the speed camera with ANPR technology

viewtopic.php?p=1066786#p1066786

We have similar in St Mellion not far from here.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.46971 ... 312!8i6656

If I see a picture of your Fiat 500 with the reg plate clearly displayed,I can pay some dodgy dealer to make me up a pair of plates,stick them on my Fiat 500 and drive about with impunity as you get all the speeding tickets.
It's that simple,unfortunately.

[Tizme]

I have lost count of the number of times I have been driving at, or just below, the speed limit for a particular location and been either tail-gated or overtaken, especially when it is very early in the morning - obviously speed limits do not apply before 6am! But come to think of it they do not seem to apply at any time!
I think most people just don't think they will get caught and so drive at a speed that they think is "safe" regardless of the limit, in many places (especially some of the narrow streets without pavements where I live) 30mph is too fast. If they are ever caught they invariably seem to think that they have been victimised! I was at a party one evening when a lady was complaining that her husband had been caught speeding, which she thought was unfair as he had "only" been doing 45mph, we assumed in a 40mph zone, when asked she said "oh no, a 30!" It is that mentality we have to change.

[thirdcrank]

I've not much idea how many people are penalised for speeding offences detected by camera, so I searched on "annual total of speeding fines."

The first couple of relevant hits were for 2014 and suggest that the national (England and Wales?) total for fines imposed by magistrates for this was 115,000 ie just under 10,000 pcm. Remember, that's cases which went to court ie for some reason eg number of points already on licence or alleged speed or defendant declined opportunity to pay fixed penalty. The number paying the ticket and getting points on their licence or attending a speed awareness course will have been considerably more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30612570
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... meras.html

(The Daily T link has a bit more detail but also has all the cash-cow stuff.)