I don't mind the limits in urban areas, it's when you leave them and the limit stays at either 30/40mph when all there is around you is bloody potato fields! Some of the limits do definately need to be reassessed! At the end of the day, speeding is all well and good until you hit a kid... I don't think you'd feel so matcho then when driving past a school when doing 94mph if you did!
I think we should srap all road laws and introcuce idot rule. if your doin 30 going pat a school at nine in teh moring you should get points for that. if you doing 80/90 going down the motor way in the dry at 12pm then thats ok.
The following may or may not be true : I've had a few close calls. One was on my way to work at the Airbus Broughton a380 plant, on one of those typical lanes you get leading to industrial estates, its a 30, but everyone does a good 50+ usually, there are no houses or anything on it. I rounded the bend at 45 in slight traffic, saw the jackets, slammed the anchors on and got down to about 25, as i drove past the guy with the gun, he was cursing at me for slamming on . My other one was on the Mold-Wrexham road, heading to Wrexham, between Pontblyddyn and Caegwrle (anyone from the area will know exactly which stretch of road i mean). It's what used to be a farily windy A-road, converted to a dual carriageway, they laid another road parrallel to it and one became each carriageway, the speed limit on it used to be 70, which I always thought to be safe, even when it was a little wet, so in the dry, I used to push the speed limit a bit because it was a fun road. Then they changed the limit to 50 . I was going along at about 70ish and decided to overtake at the point where the road straightens up, just as I pull out, I see the police van and its too late and I was doing 80-something. I thought that was it. Nothing came through in the post though, I can only assume that the camera was off, they were only checking tax discs, or that my numberplate was obscured by the car I was going to overtake.
Exactly. The one time I was busted it wasnt as bad as it could have been, it was 25 over in a 65. Clear sunny day on the interstate with almost no other cars (except a state trooper) and I was having a blast, was going up a hill when I noticed the guy next to me who also must have had his spedo pegged too slammed on his brakes, so I let off the pedal and crested the hill. I didnt even have a chance. So $500 later ($300 ticket, the rest went to my lawyer)here I sit, but I still have my licence. edit: Funny thing, mine was shortly after mine.
I think they have some procedure for this although I can't remember where I read/heard it. Probably worth getting up there asap and explaining the situation (ie not late on Friday). Might be worth taking some alternative ID when you go maybe they can use that and look it up on DVLAs records and send you a new license complete with shiney new points.
Got clocked doing 50 over in a 35 zone by a motor cop.... 2 months after i got my license. I was wearing my boy scouting uniform and got off with a ticket for 5 over. In Nevada i should have gone to jail, for doing double the posted limit. I was one lucky sob. The other day i was pulled over by LVPD for running a red light, making an illegal lane change in the middle of an intersection, driving with out valid proof of insurance, driving with out of state plates( had nevada license but Missouri plates, kind of a no no) and having my plate obscured (bs I had a tarp on my truck and it hung over) The cop took a long time running my plate and social. (I thought i was going to jail) then he came over and started chatting, ( I thought he was waiting for back up to tke me in) Eventualy he felt sorry for me because i had just pulled a 19 hour shift and he let me go.
Here the cops make all the money off of lost tourists, or bad drivers from california. But god help you if they get you for driving drunk. 1st offense is expensive 2nd is revoke of license and 3rd is jail... Durring the holidays and big drinking weekends the set up road blocks all over the town and give sobrity tests to every driver.
Only ticket (9 years ago) -- exited an interstate (speed limit 70), continued 1/8th mile on the highway (speed limit 55, wide open, straight two lanes each way, zero traffic), had yet to slow down from 76 and got tagged going 21mph over... at least it wasn't a speed trap, just genuinely bad luck with a cop coming the opposite direction with nothing better to do than paint me with radar.
At the beginning of last year I got caught by a couple of cops sort of hiding by a lamp post, well I didn't notice them, aiming their laser gun at a point on a bend where the limit changes from a 40 to a 30. Its kinda a sneaky place to be. Fair enough, 3 points and 60 quid fine. Few days later, travelling down the same road, through the same area I got caught before (being very careful to keep to speed limit)..no cops. Then this black focus drives right up behind me, full beam, fogs on etc...blatently trying to get me to go faster. Keep to the speed limit regardless, round a bend, focus suddenly turns off into side street. Go round next bend... guess what, cops standing there with a laser gun. Couldn't prove anything of course, but I swear they were deliberately trying to get people to speed through the trap. I do in excess of 40k miles a year, and its getting increasingly difficult to stay one step ahead of the cops! I only really speed on motorways, just because its safe to do so, but the undercover cops are getting craftier. Local motoway police (M1 Notts area) have an X reg black Honda Accord type R thing...big rudeboy spoiler and everything... gits. Still...at least we don't have forward facing radar in cop cars in this country like the USA... that cost me £120 in fines! (75 in a 55)
This happened to me, sorta... DVLA had my licence as address was being changed... then it got lost in the post...and I got a producer with my speeding ticket. It went to court, but you don't have to show up, just submit your licence then. Nothing came of it, got the same points and fine i'd have got anyway and no extra costs.
Here our speed limit is 55, and everybody breaks it with impunity. Are radar detectors legal in the UK? They are in every state except Virginia, and my father gets a lot of use out of his. Aside from my map reading and sign locating duties, I also need to watch the radar and look for 'The Man'. What really pisses me off, though, are the traffic light cams. Haven't gotten busted by one yet, because I make sure to know which intersections have them, but they're annoying as ****. There were some statistics, they actually increased accident rates, from people stopping on yellow lights. The statistics also said that 90% of accidents occured more than three seconds after light turns red, yet 90% of tickets were given in the first second of the red light. Seriously, I see people see the yellow lights, not have enough room to stop, so they hit the gas to make the yellow light, but when they're in the intersection, it turns red. Completely fine, since opposing traffic doesn't start for another two seconds, and it's safer than flooring the brakes and getting hit by the guy behind you, or hitting the brakes but not having enough room and hitting the cars which are now moving, because instead of taking 2 seconds to cover the distance to the light at 50mph, you took four to decelerate to 25mph, and now the cars are in the intersection, and you broadside them. Personally, I find the speed limit of 55mph in the United States to be completely unacceptable. It may save gas, but there isn't an oil embargo like there was in '74, they should kick it back up to 65mph or 75mph. It's not like anyone goes below 65mph on it anyway. On a clear day with light traffic, the traffic flow is usually at 75-80mph. On a nice afternoon when the traffic is going 85mph, and you see a mile of empty highway ahead, hitting 100mph is very realistic. Cops just sit behind overpasses, waiting to clock you and give you a ticket so that they have cash for the next Dunkin Donuts run. Shouldn't they be fighting crime, not arresting people for going the same speed as everyone else?
