Speeding offences just changed

[LobbyLudd]

Doing just one mile an hour over 30 now becomes an offence in a 30 mile an hour zone and is just one example of the extensive tightening of speeding offences (I wonder how accurate my original Morris Minor speedo is ! ) No more of the old 'within 10%' as the speeding guideline tolerance allowance quoted by many as a discretionary factor apparently .

Out driving today in a 'modern' it was incredible that a huge number of drivers either don't know or if they don't care about the consequences of a much larger fine that could be based their earnings (and a hefty chunk) if caught substantially speeding. There is an active police project at the moment in our area with a noticeable increase in the number and hours on duty, of their mobile speed cameras .
I lost count how many speeding idiots just still continued to overtake me and even undertake. roaring past in any restricted speed limit areas today that I decided to adhere to the legal speed in.

[les]

What next, increasing the sentence for murder, theft and acts of cruelty? Oh silly me, what am I thinking.

[Sleeper]

If people undertake surely that's a sign you're in the wrong lane,remember the old saying," keep to the left,except when overtaking" ?
I have done it frequently because some people seem to think they own lanes 2 or 3...

John
( not really Officer )

[kennatt]

[quote]]Doing just one mile an hour over 30 now becomes an offence in a 30 mile an hour zone[quote]
always was,but every force sets a prosecution limit. because its a statutory defence to claim 10% speedo error. but that doesn't mean you can drive at an indicated 3 3 . 55 . 77 etc because you don't really know what speed you are doing since the 10% obviously alters as the speed increases , So unless you are doing over 10% of the speed limit you are unlikely to be prosecuted. Not seen any legislation to change this,Don't think even moderns are accurate,once read that this is deliberate to prevent ,claims against the makers .
if you have seen something to change this would be glad to read it myself.

[liammonty]

]Doing just one mile an hour over 30 now becomes an offence in a 30 mile an hour zone

always was,but every force sets a prosecution limit. because its a statutory defence to claim 10% speedo error. but that doesn't mean you can drive at an indicated 3 3 . 55 . 77 etc because you don't really know what speed you are doing since the 10% obviously alters as the speed increases , So unless you are doing over 10% of the speed limit you are unlikely to be prosecuted. Not seen any legislation to change this,Don't think even moderns are accurate,once read that this is deliberate to prevent ,claims against the makers .
if you have seen something to change this would be glad to read it myself.

From what I've read on it, totally agree with Kennatt. The offence is no different, it's the fines that have changed. Enforcement is still discretionary (within limits - no pun intended) as it always has been.

[morris van]

They were doing a speed check in my road yesterday which is a 30mph and a Range Rover went passed and was caught doing 55mph.

[SteveClem]

Well,I hope they take him to the cleaners.
Lets just hope that common sense prevails here. I bet that every one of us(including the retired bobbies) has exceeded speed limits by a tadge once in a while. When the robot cars come in will we all be safer?

[firedrake1942]

Moi.? speed? Only on duty !!!

[TDV102]

Sadly another example of our inexorable march towards a surveillance state. You know, the sort of thing 'free' countries campaigned against.

I do not condone speeding, but the way it is enforced totally fails to consider context. 80 mph on a deserted dry motorway - well why not? 25 mph past a school at hometime? Deserved ticket. If you do 60mph on a snow covered road it is legal, though utterly reckless and dangerous.

Instead of using cameras all the time to catch people out, they should be used to get the dangerous drivers off the road. The ones who undertake, go wrong way up one ways, fail to signal, drive too close etc.

Rant over

[firedrake1942]

But that would take human beings i.e. plods and they have downsized traffic as it is not important until some MP's daughter gets run over by a speeding driver........

[irmscher]

I think they base fines according to your monthly income also

[olderisbetter]

I hear they can fine you 1.5 times what you earn a week, So if i have no money coming in i can speed on the cheap..

[Sleeper]

And if one is on Benefits,then they'll give YOU money...

John

[LouiseM]

I came across some useful advice on Facebook recently:

A motorist from Southend has revealed the one simple trick that she has been using for the last 10 years that she claims has helped her to avoid speeding tickets and penalty points on her driving licence.

32-year-old Melanie Molridge told our Chief Reporter that she has managed to drive since passing her test in 2006 without being caught for a single motoring offence.

She said: ‘It’s all down to one simple trick really. I don’t break the speed limit.’

‘If I am on a particular stretch of road, a combination of my knowledge of the Highway Code and local signage will usually tell me the maximum speed at which I can take my vehicle in a forward direction without setting off any speed cameras.’

‘By applying this one life hack to my everyday driving habits, I also manage to not kill anyone or run off whinging to the local press when a pothole ruins my wheel tracking.’

We asked Melanie how it is possible to apply this simple trick all the time.

She said: ‘I have a device fitted in my vehicle that gives me a constant readout of the speed at which I am driving forwards.’

‘It even updates itself in real time when I slow down or speed up.’

Legal expert Giles Schnuck of the law practice Schnuck and Chokem told our Chief Reporter that police are not currently investigating ways to close this loophole.

He said: ‘There is a similar quirk of the law when it comes to legislation involving murder in the United Kingdom.’

‘There have been a number of cases in the last twenty years or so where members of the public have managed to wriggle out of life sentences by not bludgeoning anyone to death with a brick.’

‘If more and more motorists apply this one simple trick to their driving habits, it will also remove the need for middle-aged men holding radar guns in villages under the impression that they are some kind of Speed Rambo or something.’

[les]

The one downside to this unique plan is the danger of constantly taking ones eye of the road to study this device for measuring speed. -------but can't fault the theory!

[LobbyLudd]

If people undertake surely that's a sign you're in the wrong lane,remember the old saying," keep to the left,except when overtaking" ?
I have done it frequently because some people seem to think they own lanes 2 or 3...

John
( not really Officer )

Many thanks for that advice, but I am certainly not one of those drivers that habitually 'hog' the centre lanes (as it possibly appears you may have for some reason automatically assumed to be the case )
There have in fact been a good number of instances that I have been 'undertaken' by other drivers (obviously fed up and extremely impatient that I choose to somehow annoy them by adhering to the legal speed limit in a particular given stretch of road in the way that I prefer to do as the norm when I am driving )
As an example one instance was being 'undertaken' by a speeding driver using the exit left arrowed filter left lane on my inside left and then cutting back in front of me whilst I was 'correctly; positioned on the straight ahead arrowed lane. The second instance was another 'undertaking' by an impatient driver actually using the hard shoulder several hundred yards before the official exit lane was reached and also cutting back in front of me,
I started my driving back in the 1960's when I do remember that there seemed to be a very different and much more tolerant mental attitude in direct comparison with todays much more crowded roads that has a huge amount of selfish,impatient and inconsiderate driving habits.

[kennatt]

whilst agreeing that its dangerous to 'undertake' sec 268 of highway code doesn't state that you should not. On a multi lane high way it allows overtaking on the left where other lanes are travelling slower. Conversely on a multi lane highway the advice is to move back to the nearside as soon as possible ,so one is as bad as the other.

[Sleeper]

Mr Ludd
No slur intended...

John

[TDV102]

The only ticket I have had in 30 years was for doing 40mph. There was no visible signage and I was not in a built up area. I genuinely thought is was a 40 limit. (North Wales, land of the speed vigilante). I think that when roads have the white lines replaced the limit should also be stenciled on every 100yds so there is no confusion. It would also stop the practice of the repeatedly changing limits of the same stretch of road (A certain midlands authority is good at that one)

[LobbyLudd]

whilst agreeing that its dangerous to 'undertake' sec 268 of highway code doesn't state that you should not. On a multi lane high way it allows overtaking on the left where other lanes are travelling slower. Conversely on a multi lane highway the advice is to move back to the nearside as soon as possible ,so one is as bad as the other.

Even when the 'undertaker' in question clearly exceeded the 40mph that I was driving at, at the time ( the road stretch I originally referred to in one of the incidents was in a 40mph limit) with the added fact that the hard shoulder was used to 'undertake' followed then with an immediate and what I considered an aggresive and close cutting back in front of me ???
I feel that to be very inconsiderate driving behavior to another driver (me )