Reply to: Speed Awareness course or 3 points?

[SueEllen]

his is a scrape of the guidelines that I was not following. You can find the whole document if you are interested its worth the read.

Speed Enforcement Policy Guidelines for UK Police Forces

I was thankfully well under a court summons but at the same time still liable for the fine. Ironically the Officer chasing me would have been in for a total banning due to the speed he needed to reach in order to make up the ground to catch me. That was before he had even identified that I was being a prat.

That's life.

I have two things that I like to adhere to when I drive on the motorway.

I don't like to be near big clumps of other cars. If i see a bunch of traffic ahead I will reduce my speed to 60 to make sure I don't get near them. Being in those clumps is dangerous. Every bad accident I have seen involved the cars to the side of the victim. Its normally a serve into the blind spot. At that speed you are going to spin and then its a lottery of death as to what hits you next. No thanks Im only going to work.

I do this at school holiday time. In working hours I'm not so bothered.

I have also noticed that people cannot filter in school holiday time. Some people get visibly distressed because you haven't stopped to let them in when in fact if they were more competent drivers they would have worked out your speed is so slow they can easily get in front of you. Some of the roads I drive on regularly end up with longer queues during school holiday time due to these useless people who are unable to filter and they aren't all women either.

But I will not put up with people in old or sub standard cars trying to tailgate me. I am likely to be using Distronic cruise control and I know that it will react more aggressively if another car pulls into my radar zone. Most normal cars would not enjoy being behind me in that situation. The other problem with tailgaters is that most people get along side take a look at the car then pull across me (again pissing off the radar systems) and slow down.

I don't cope with people tailgating me I don't care what car they have had as I've seen a pile up on the M3 of more expensive cars.

Though I commonly have people tailgating me on the M4 rather than any other motorway either because I'm going fast so they think they won't get done by a cop with a camera or because they are stupid idiots.

They get really confused when I change lanes and go well under the speed limit to get rid of them, or with the latter because there is are random queues of slow moving traffic I keep putting on my hazards to tell them I'm slowing down. They eventually get the message and f*** off.

I've seen vehicles tailgate another vehicle right in front of the police. Did the police pull them over? No bloody way. And this was after they changed their guidelines.

So my general rule is get out the way and don't be near stuff.

That doesn't work on busy motorways.

Also having narrowly missed a Badger on the m4 late at night. Use the central lane exclusively at night as it gives you two directions to avoid animals with no road sense.

Oddly enough I've missed horses on the M4 at sunrise. Driving on the middle lane wouldn't have helped as the silly creatures kept changing lanes.

[SueEllen]

IIRC, UK motorways are built for 120mph in 60's cars, and there was no speed limit on one time (the AC Cars tale is urban legend) so why 70?

Most likely because there are just too many vehicles on them now, last time a drove regularly on the M1 on the way home it was 50/stop/50/stop/50 all the way home....

Oil crisis in 1970s. They worked out going at 70mph reduced fuel consumption in cars.

Now the reason they won't rise it is due to people like BRAKE, who like some posters here think it's speed alone that kills not the fact that someone driving at the speed limit in inappropriate conditions is more dangerous if other vehicles around.

[Old Greg]

I raise you....

CBRD » Motorway Database

I'll play the Dim Prawn joker:

Roundabouting

Dear DMC,

At the risk of making our overseas correspondents nervous about visiting
Swindon - although it would be a classic dullman destination - I attach a
photograph of the famous roundabout 'in action'.

I apologise in advance if you have seen this photograph previously, but
there is safety in repetition.

Sincerely

Vernon

Also:

Stafford (North) services - Motorway Services Online | motorway service stations)

I once stopped there solely because:

It is possibly the only service area to double-up a dog walking field with an overflow car park, changing as necessary.

Plenty of useful info on other service stations.

Nowadays, when visiitng the in-laws I prefer:

[stek]

Oh jesus what have you done I'm going to be on that site the rest of the day now

Coventry Ring Road and Leeds Inner City Loop are the best!

And C roads! C roads!

[vetran]

Thanks for this, good to know.

Agreed, isn't General supposed to be knob jokes and insulting everybody indiscriminately?

only if you are FLC or the CretinFinderGeneral.

[bobspud]

I raise you....

CBRD » Motorway Database

Oh jesus what have you done I'm going to be on that site the rest of the day now

[stek]

Slightly interesting in an avoiding doing any work way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_s...ingdom#History

I raise you....

CBRD » Motorway Database

[MrMarkyMark]

If it starts raining while I'm driving on the motorway, I just Google it on my phone.

Don't you find that detracts you when you are playing Pokemon

[Old Greg]

IIRC, UK motorways are built for 120mph in 60's cars, and there was no speed limit on one time (the AC Cars tale is urban legend) so why 70?

Most likely because there are just too many vehicles on them now, last time a drove regularly on the M1 on the way home it was 50/stop/50/stop/50 all the way home....

Slightly interesting in an avoiding doing any work way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_s...ingdom#History

[stek]

IIRC, UK motorways are built for 120mph in 60's cars, and there was no speed limit on one time (the AC Cars tale is urban legend) so why 70?

Most likely because there are just too many vehicles on them now, last time a drove regularly on the M1 on the way home it was 50/stop/50/stop/50 all the way home....

[NigelJK]

Germany is a sovereign country like the UK, so their road laws are different.

Indeed they are and their test is very different also. IIRC it HAS to contain a section on driving the Autobahns as it's not safe to allow untrained drivers on it. They have specific laws for the fast sections and woe betide you if you break them.

[bobspud]

Germany is a sovereign country like the UK, so their road laws are different.

In the UK parliament decided that the maximum speed limit must be left at 70mph for ordinary citizens. They were going to raise it to 80mph on motorways but then realised that people would drive at 90mph. The police don't pull you over on motorways if you drive at 80mph (as per your speedometer) but if you try it on any other road you will get points etc.

This is a scrape of the guidelines that I was not following. You can find the whole document if you are interested its worth the read.

Speed Enforcement Policy Guidelines for UK Police Forces

I was thankfully well under a court summons but at the same time still liable for the fine. Ironically the Officer chasing me would have been in for a total banning due to the speed he needed to reach in order to make up the ground to catch me. That was before he had even identified that I was being a prat.

I have two things that I like to adhere to when I drive on the motorway.

I don't like to be near big clumps of other cars. If i see a bunch of traffic ahead I will reduce my speed to 60 to make sure I don't get near them. Being in those clumps is dangerous. Every bad accident I have seen involved the cars to the side of the victim. Its normally a serve into the blind spot. At that speed you are going to spin and then its a lottery of death as to what hits you next. No thanks Im only going to work.

But I will not put up with people in old or sub standard cars trying to tailgate me. I am likely to be using Distronic cruise control and I know that it will react more aggressively if another car pulls into my radar zone. Most normal cars would not enjoy being behind me in that situation. The other problem with tailgaters is that most people get along side take a look at the car then pull across me (again pissing off the radar systems) and slow down.

So my general rule is get out the way and don't be near stuff.

Also having narrowly missed a Badger on the m4 late at night. Use the central lane exclusively at night as it gives you two directions to avoid animals with no road sense.

[Burns]

Rodya Raskolnikov, hero (or anti-hero) of Dostoyevskiy's Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i Nakazaniye) the root of his surname is from the Russian word for 'schism' or is it 'schizm' (paging ATW) which alludes towards his self-assertion that he considers himself above the law, because he is not thick in his own opinion, but when he does commit 'the crime' he thinks he is superior enough to be allowed to commit he is wracked with guilt and paranoia that eats him up - 'the punishment'.

Hence the schism. I am a better driver so I should be allowed to speed, but what if I kill someone doing it, can I cope with it and am I therefore not a better a driver?

This is deep for general.....

Thanks for this, good to know.

Agreed, isn't General supposed to be knob jokes and insulting everybody indiscriminately?

[stek]

Absolutely, it should be a rule for everyone, it definitely shouldn't be selective.

Just a couple of notes.



and in a police car (while on duty) police aren't exempt from the speed limits while in their own cars as far as I am aware.



In the UK according to the law.



Similar to the first point. I don't think police and soldiers (and hangmen, lol) are given carte blanche to kill anyone whenever they want.




Yeah, sorry, me too.



Not even google helped me out here

Rodya Raskolnikov, hero (or anti-hero) of Dostoyevskiy's Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i Nakazaniye) the root of his surname is from the Russian word for 'schism' or is it 'schizm' (paging ATW) which alludes towards his self-assertion that he considers himself above the law, because he is not thick in his own opinion, but when he does commit 'the crime' he thinks he is superior enough to be allowed to commit he is wracked with guilt and paranoia that eats him up - 'the punishment'.

Hence the schism. I am a better driver so I should be allowed to speed, but what if I kill someone doing it, can I cope with it and am I therefore not a better a driver?

This is deep for general.....

[Burns]

Here is a great explanation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0FgFUcS4n0

That was very interesting, thank you.