Speeding

[njee20]

Reply #45 for a bigger Swiss fine. It does seem a fairer way of doing things - a £100 fine or whatever you get here is absolutely nothing to some, and pretty devastating to others.

[PaulCheffus]

Reply #45 for a bigger Swiss fine. It does seem a fairer way of doing things - a £100 fine or whatever you get here is absolutely nothing to some, and pretty devastating to others.

Hi

Its no longer £100 in the UK although the government website states it is.

Since April 2017 its based on the excess speed you were doing which is banded A, B and C and a percentage of your weekly income 50% Band A, 100% Band B and 150% band C.

Cheers

Paul

[PaulCheffus]

Reply #45 for a bigger Swiss fine. It does seem a fairer way of doing things - a £100 fine or whatever you get here is absolutely nothing to some, and pretty devastating to others.

Hi

Its no longer £100 in the UK although the government website states it is.

Since April 2017 its based on the excess speed you were doing which is banded A, B and C and a percentage of your weekly income 50% Band A, 100% Band B and 150% band C.

Cheers

Paul

Yes it is, unless you are prosecuted in court for speeding. It was the only the sentencing structure for speeding that was changed.

The fixed penalty notice is still £100 and 3 points on your license unless you are eligible to attend a speed awareness course.

Hi

Are you saying that there has been no change to the speeding fine?
What about the new fine structure that was reported to exist after April 2017?

https://www.confused.com/on-the-road/driving-law/speeding-fine-calculator

Cheers

Paul

[njee20]

Even using the new fine structure we're still nothing like the Swiss structure, which is effectively unlimited.

[nobby]

i have already posted a reply to this so i will only add my granddad used to say the reason you have politicians is because they are no bloody good at anything else and it doesn't matter however they cut it , with the government its either ban it or tax it ,and if you look at it purely as that ,then speeding is a tax otherwise they would ban it so no cars could do over 70mph period  why have cars limited to 155mph when the uk speed limit is 70mph.because every time you go over you pay more tax (and regarding the baker that got caught 30 times doing 30mph instead of 18.5 mph at 3 in the morning how did that improve road safety , it didnt but it swell the coffers of the government . hence above .i wont even go down the road tax route (sorry vehicle excise duty)

[daffy]

..... it swell the coffers of the government ....

And long may money flow into those coffers - from whatever source - for out of those coffers come all the things that make a country run.

[njee20]

then speeding is a tax

NO! It's a fine for breaking the law. Totally optional, if you don't speed then you don't get fined.

Agreed, even by Nobby's post where everything is either taxed or banned then surely speeding is banned, by law... just because it's not done by manufacturers. That's like saying murder isn't banned, they don't make people invincible. 

[Cutter]

I haven't lived in the UK for 20 years now and am out of touch with how things are on the roads. When I visit I simply try to go with the flow of the traffic and not be conspicuous driving faster or slower than the bulk of the traffic.
Here in Massachusetts enforcement seems to be patchy and the limits often make no sense--55 mph on a four lane highway for example.
I've been driving for 45 years without a speeding ticket so far.

[daffy]

Enforcement in the UK is equally patchy, and we have our share of odd sections with seemingly unreasonable limits @Cutter , but knowing which 'patch' is unmonitored is harder than learning to use a crystal ball.

Going with the flow of traffic here would be fraught with danger of being caught for speeding. Even in 'average speed camera' zones many drivers here will exceed the limit, and it is all too easy to find yourself following the crowd into a speed trap.

My advice would be stick to the limits, not the ambient road speed, to avoid unnecessary pain and the sudden inability to afford new N Gauge trains.

From recent personal experience - no, I didn't get caught for speeding - this advice is especially important should you visit the beautiful county of Cornwall, where limits, fixed cameras, and unmarked police camera cars, are ubiquitous.

[Skyline2uk]

Oh go on then, I will get involved...

Never been caught speeding. Emphasis on "caught".

I don't consider myself an "active speeder" (I don't look to speed because I can), but I am 100% certain I have exceeded the limit.

I don't consider myself the perfect driver at all, and every time my work notice board has an advert from the IAM I ponder doing a course, especially as I will shortly be responsible for a tiny person in my car (and when Mrs Skyline is in the passenger seat so is baby already of course).

I don't believe 75mph is inherently dangerous on a motorway. I do believe 65 is inherently dangerous when the heavens have opened and what you actually need is a boat. Add warn tyers, warn brake discs, gaps between cars less than they should be etc and my farther in law is right; "drive to the conditions".

I have seen the aftermath of two crashes recently, one obviously speed related, the other not.

My pet peeves:

1) The motoway message boards. In the last few years I have seen; "Slow Pedestrians in roadway", "Slow Fog patches" (In June at 14:00 without a cloud in the sky) and my personal favourite "20mph, oncoming traffic". NOT ONE of those signs were in any way related to the truth.

What is a driver supposed to do with that last example? I immediately stopped overtaking, made my way to the left hand lane and slowed, whilst scanning the horizon intenty for danger. I was the only car to do so, and of course it was utter rubbish. The message just stopped after three signs. If that isn't crying wolf I don't know what is.


2) Inappropriate use of lanes on a motorway. Yes, the middle lane hogging but also, the "sitting in the third lane when traffic starts to build because that's the fast lane and therefore I will get through traffic faster" mob. This causes tailgating, which causes people to jump on their brakes, which makes traffic worse and in extremes causes the five car shunt I witnessed the aftermath of on the way to TINGS this year.

I can't tell you what cars or the extent of damage as I refuse to be a "rubber necker" (see 3). I know there were 5 stationary vehicles in lane three.

3) Rubber necks. Why? You are in charge of a vehicle, stop looking anywhere other than the required place to drive it safely. Even more so when you have a passenger, if you must know what is going on, they can tell you! This is why I know the second crash I saw recently was obviously the result of speed; Mrs Skyline described a white Merc with most of its panels missing "at the end of a long skid mark, wrapped around a set of traffic lights" at the roundabout.

Skyline2uk

[woodbury22uk]

3) Rubber necks. Why? You are in charge of a vehicle, stop looking anywhere other than the required place to drive it safely. Even more so when you have a passenger, if you must know what is going on, they can tell you!
Skyline2uk

I used to be a regular visitor to Philadelphia where the local radio traffic reports always emphasised the delays on the opposite carriageway to where the collision/breakdown etc had occurred. I always liked the expression they used;-  "watch out for the "gawpers" tailback near........."

[Bealman]

This is always going to be a contentious issue. Just watched a thing on the news here about a police car in a chase travelling at 140km/hr hitting a Mercedes and killing a woman at an intersection.

No matter where you are in the world, you drive on the road, you takes your chances.

Likewise, get on a plane, you takes your chances. 

[acko22]

Ahh well here it goes,

I have every licence apart from A (Motorbike) and can driver pretty much anything in addition I am an instructor in CAT C and H vehicles including blue lights qualified so I am more than capable of driving and ensuring I am safe.
But I will admit I am no angel but as I say that I will never do anything that is unsafe so while I may at times be a little to fast I will never tailgate, be aggressive or anything of the sort if the car in front of me is travelling slowly and its not safe to pass I will happily wait until its safe to do so.
All that been said I have noticed the gradual decline in driving standards even people I am teaching are trying to to push the limits when been taught and I have to rein them in, including on numerous occasions kicking them off the driving course as they are unsafe.

But the big question you have to ask is why as driving standards slipping so badly?

1) Driving is no longer seen as a privilege which you have to earn, it is seen as a right because of this standards are slipping as people.

2) The growing use of cars, the more people that driver the higher proportion of dangerous driving.

3) The seemingly reduced presence of traffic cops to catch dangerous drivers, this to me is a bit of a myth having worked with the police a lot. The number of traffic cops has actually hour on hour risen from 20 years ago but with the pure volumes of traffic on the roads there is simply not enough to go around and catch the majority.

4) Life style of the most regular users of the roads - People who rely of using the roads for theirs jobs (salesmen, couriers 2 examples) These jobs like many are becoming more time pressured so they have less time to get from A to B so they do push their luck. (PLEASE NOTE THE EMPLOYMENTS WERE EXAMPLES AND NOT SAYING EVERY SALESMAN OR COURIER IS A LUNATIC)

5) People thinking the laws need to catch up with modern cars - Its true a car made now is safer than a car made in 1975. But the brakes on that 1975 pride and joy someone owns will not brake as well and while the shiny new car will brake from 70 very fast the 45 ton truck behind never will!

All in all standards are slipping as people become arrogant about driving and complacent thinking if their car can do x,y,z then learning the hard way that other cant.

SO how do we prevent dangerous driving? There is no simple answers, putting cameras up on every mile is not realistic and honestly is will only be useful for speed.
What we can do is put the learning points from speed awareness courses into part of classroom learning for new drivers in addition to the theory and practical aspects currently done.

And now the unpopular one I honestly feel that every 5 or tens years every driver should be re accessed may it be by an examiner or a better one would be by using the telematics as people will drive more naturally and if they fail that its back to the drawing board and time to learn again. While people will disagree I have a simple thought to this!

Like driving you have to have a licence to have a gun - If the police think you are unsafe they take the gun licence away and every 5 years they are entitled to review you gun licence and if they think you are unsafe its taken away.

In my eyes a gun and a car are both lethal weapons in the wrong hands, if you don't use a car properly then it only takes a second to kill!

[njee20]

Yet you can take a test once as a teenager and then never be retested for the rest of your life, which frankly is terrifying. I think over 65s (comparatively arbitrary choice) should have mandatory retests every 5 years. Not because they're inherently dangerous, but because the likelihood of the emergence of a condition which could be detrimental to their ability is far greater.

In fact I don't think it would be a bad thing for everyone to have 'refreshers' every so often, say every 10 years. Maybe a 3-strike approach whereby you can't lose your licence by failing a single refresher, but you'd have to re-take within a month or something.

But then all that costs money and time to implement and run.

People definitely see driving as a right though, just look at the comments section of any cycling related article on your chosen news outlet, they're full of mouth breathers talking about "road tax" and how the roads are for cars. Both concepts obviously being total fallacies.

On a related note I got a letter from Surrey Constabulary's finest a couple of weeks ago telling me I'd been caught being a bit naughty by their community speedwatch people on the Roman road I mentioned in post #45! They were just behind the 30 and I was still slowing down, oops. 

[Dalek]

I once saw a motorway sign that said.. wait for it...

"How can you reduce your carbon footprint"

My first thought was you could reduce yours be turning that message off   

Pet peeve... we generally only have 2 lanes on a motorway in Scotland, biggest issue i have is mobile cranes, those big giant yellow things doing 50mph, the problem isn't that its doing 50mph, the problem is it's covered in yellow flashing lights so all the dimwits see this a mile or so off and then all sit in the right lane, remember there are only 2 lanes, for over a mile waiting to get past, leaving the left lane empty. They of course all drive too close and end up having to brake which nearly causes or does cause an accident. I'm convinced if they would just turn those blooming flashing lights off would cure the problem, they don't behave anywhere near that when there is anything else doing 50mph in the left lane