Speeding Yet Again - They're Having A Laugh!

[Mooseyb 10]

Originally posted by NatalieSheff

yes if they make exceptions for old people, then what about new drivers, disabled, etc... the law not perfect but we have to abide by it - whether we like it or loathe it

 

Precisely. Couldnt have put it better.

[chri5 10]

I'd let it go to court, then spread the payments out over a year.

Waste there time!

[cruella 10]

Originally posted by chri5

I'd let it go to court, then spread the payments out over a year.

Waste there time!

The trouble with doing that means that he will end up with a record..CCJ or something. If people dont pay the littering fines i give out they get a Criminal record.

[chri5 10]

True but if those matters arn't to important to that senior citizen it may be worth dragging a 4mph through the sytem and see what happens!

 

disclaimer "This topic gets me sooooo mad!!!"

[Whelk 11]

Originally posted by Snook

There are alot of things you can do to try and get a law like this changed, rather than just breaking it, which helps nobody.

 

That was a quote from Dickens not my own words.

 

Who are you kidding - get the law changed when the authorities are raking in cash on this scale ! more chance of getting them to give us an adequate public transport system.

 

Let's put this into context - it is NOTHING to do with safety, children, accidents, lives, NOTHING AT ALL! it is EVERYTHING to do with collecting money.

 

Nobody is asking for exceptions for old people or people with long driving histories. In a lot of other countries fines are levied for speeding but no points this is one of the few countries where if you drive for a living you run a very real chance of losing your livelihood over really minor inconsequential transgressions.

 

I also have kids and I don't feel any safer now that some poor old sod has been hounded and robbed of £60 over a poxy 4mph.

[InvalidUser 10]

Originally posted by Whelk

I feel for your Dad, I really do, he is just the latest victim of the outrageous tax collection scam currently in force. Anybody who says that they always obey the traffic laws is being dishonest with themselves as it is impossible to rigorously stick to every single traffic law over a journey. However well-meaning and diligent you are it is not possible to drive 100 miles without transgressing some law even if you try your utmost.

If that's the case then the gentleman in question must have been very lucky indeed.

 

If, as you claim, you can't help committing an offence every hundred miles and the driver in question drove an average 10,000 miles per year he must have comitted 5,000 motoring offences! In view of this a single speeding ticket is extremely fortunate. I'll take those odds any day!

 

I am not so fortunate. I drive 13-15,000 miles a year and get a speeding ticket on average every 3 or 4 years. I pay the fine without complaining. I do so because I'm responsible for the speed of my car. If I speed I run the risk of getting caught.

[Whelk 11]

Originally posted by InvalidUser

If that's the case then the gentleman in question must have been very lucky indeed.

 

If, as you claim, you can't help committing an offence every hundred miles and the driver in question drove an average 10,000 miles per year he must have comitted 5,000 motoring offences! In view of this a single speeding ticket is extremely fortunate. I'll take those odds any day!

 

I am not so fortunate. I drive 13-15,000 miles a year and get a speeding ticket on average every 3 or 4 years. I pay the fine without complaining. I do so because I'm responsible for the speed of my car. If I speed I run the risk of getting caught.

 

Actually I think the odds are probably even higher. I would love to monitor your car on one simple journey across town, noting every single time you transgressed a minor rule such as right of way, amber/red light, sitting on a the edge of a yellow box etc. etc. Be honest with yourself, you are not whiter than snow. How many times have you driven at 34mph (or quicker) in a 30mph limit? If you were 3 pointed on EVERY occasion you would be out of work within a month or probably even less.

 

Now I am not saying that these are 'acts of God' of course you are responsible for your own behavior but luck shouldn't be a part of it. Now if your 15K miles are year are mainly motorway driving you will accept that the odds on getting a camera trap is a lot less that town or city driving. If you were to be doing 45K miles a year urban driving (as a lot of delivery drivers do) then by your own record and a little bad luck you would be in danger of losing your license.

I stand by what I said.

[InvalidUser 10]

Originally posted by Whelk

Actually I think the odds are probably even higher. I would love to monitor your car on one simple journey across town, noting every single time you transgressed a minor rule such as right of way, amber/red light, sitting on a the edge of a yellow box etc. etc. Be honest with yourself, you are not whiter than snow. How many times have you driven at 34mph (or quicker) in a 30mph limit? If you were 3 pointed on EVERY occasion you would be out of work within a month or probably even less.

 

Now I am not saying that these are 'acts of God' of course you are responsible for your own behavior but luck shouldn't be a part of it. Now if your 15K miles are year are mainly motorway driving you will accept that the odds on getting a camera trap is a lot less that town or city driving. If you were to be doing 45K miles a year urban driving (as a lot of delivery drivers do) then by your own record and a little bad luck you would be in danger of losing your license.

I stand by what I said.

But luck is a part of it. When I'm on the Parkway I'll always do more than 50 (unless the volume of traffic slows me down). One day a copper pulled out behind me and I got 3 points and £60 fine. Luck of the draw.

 

It's not the coppers fault, it's not the Department of Transport's fault, it's my fault. I knew the risks and took a chance. Most of the time it pays off, sometimes I get a ticket. I think it's unfair to complain about speeding tickets if they've caught you bang to rights.

 

The people I know who drive for living, including a couple of taxi drivers, manage to do their job and hold on to their licences.

[BoroughGal 10]

Originally posted by InvalidUser

But luck is a part of it. When I'm on the Parkway I'll always do more than 50 (unless the volume of traffic slows me down). One day a copper pulled out behind me and I got 3 points and £60 fine. Luck of the draw.

 

It's not the coppers fault, it's not the Department of Transport's fault, it's my fault. I knew the risks and took a chance. Most of the time it pays off, sometimes I get a ticket. I think it's unfair to complain about speeding tickets if they've caught you bang to rights.

 

The people I know who drive for living, including a couple of taxi drivers, manage to do their job and hold on to their licences.

 

Yeah, I agree. I've just had a parking ticket, but I'm going to pay it with no complaints. The top and bottom of it is that I parked where I shouldn't have, took a chance (for my convenience) and got caught. Fair cop.

 

Just two other things though. Your dad HASN'T got a criminal record, it's a traffic offence not a crime. It doesn't go on his "record", although of course he'll have to declare it to the insurance company.

 

And another thing. The older we are, the more our reactions slow down. So someone in their 70's speeding, can be more dangerous - although I accept it was Boxing Day. But laws are laws, and they aren't laws for certain days of the year, or for certain speeds above the limit.

 

I'd want to stick up for my family too, but he does just have to accept that he has been caught speeding and pay the fine.

[Whelk 11]

Some of this is fair enough. A law is a law and that's that.

If I knowingly park on double yellows then I'll take my fine - I don't get 3 points. If I have bald tyres I'll take my fine and 3 points no argument. If I am drunk whilst driving I wouldn't complain if someone wanted me hanged - I am not disputing any of this.

 

What I am saying is that the speeding laws are impossible to stick to all of the time, parking on double yellows is a deliberate act drifting your speed up to 34mph isn't and therefore there should be more flexibility.

 

Nothing whatsoever has been gained by this punishment, an old man has been mugged out of £60 and a record he was proud of has been spoilt upsetting him needlessly. The roads are not safer as a result. This could have been dealt with quite adequately with a warning letter but that wouldn't achieve the objective of stripping him of his cash would it? And getting his cash is the ONLY objective here.

[Ravenger 10]

The thing with speed cameras is that they are so inflexible, arbitary, and impersonal, plus they have a built in time delay to notify you of your offence.

 

A police officer can use his discretion. Probably your father would at worst have been pulled over and warned, but unless your father was driving dangerously he would probably have been ignored by a traffic cop.

 

Cameras have no discretion. They can't tell the difference between someone driving at 35mph on an empty road on a bank holiday at 4am and someone driving at the same speed on the same road when it's crowded with school children at 3:30pm.

 

That's why they're fundamentally unfair.

 

The time delay angle also gets me. If you get caught by a camera in an unfamiliar area by the time you get the ticket you'll not be sure if you actually were speeding or not.

 

At least with a policeman pulling you over you'll know if you've been speeding right there and then.

 

I'll believe speed cameras are used for safety purposes when they start putting them outside schools rather than on safe dual carriageways purposely reduced to 30 or 40mph.

[Whelk 11]

Originally posted by Ravenger

The thing with speed cameras is that they are so inflexible, arbitary, and impersonal, plus they have a built in time delay to notify you of your offence.

 

 

I'll believe speed cameras are used for safety purposes when they start putting them outside schools rather than on safe dual carriageways purposely reduced to 30 or 40mph.

 

Exactly, safety is the brainwashing technique they are using to get everyone to accept their taxes/fines without challenge.

 

They are set by humans and are getting increasingly tighter, a few years back it would have been unheard of to get a fine for 34mph. The camera would have been set to go off at a higher speed. Since the authorities have discovered what a lovely little earner this is then the tolerances are being set tighter and tighter. If they can tighten it down just 1 mph they will earn millions extra, all they need to do is to convince everyone that they are doing it for our own good.

The same way that terrorism or the fear of terrorism is being used to bring in ID cards.

 

Well the murder rate is going through the roof, muggings and violent crime are soaring, gun crime is now an everyday reality but what the hey lets trap 70 year old 'Albert Tatlocks' nick £60 out of their pension, make them feel like sh++ and con everyone into thinking that we care aboutt peoples safety.