35MPH in a 30MPH zone

cyclonebri1

alastairq wrote: »

Your impressions as to the reasons for the existence of speed limits, and their value, is a commonly-held one.....but,IMHO, is misguided.


When viewing the purpose behind a speed limit, it is well to remember that, as a casual observer, one simply travels a particular stretch of road fora brief moment in time. The situation that exists seconds in front, or behind..or, even hours or days away, may well be vastly different.

..Variable speed limits have been suggested..and are in use on major highways....but, to be honest, they involve huge expense, and are, for regular users, very confusing.

This country has a very simple system of speed limits...and very generous one's too. Keeping things simple allows better compliance.

In reply to your 1st point, if they are so wrong why are they so widely held, I must admit I also disagree with just about every opinion you have, but we are all entitled to them, doesn't make them rtight tho'

Which is exactly why I suggest variable speed limits being the way to go. It will happen, maybe not today. And also there will be a system of automatic speed enforcement that takes the option of max speed away from the driver, some chip in the car will be directed by roadside electronics to limit the car to the prevailing limit. That's one for the time capsule:eek:


What planet do you come from Alister, if its so simple and effective, why does no one comply.

Sorry but we differ greatly in our views, I stand up for mine, you please yourself;);)

property.advert

Why do people think speedos always aver estimate your speed ? Apart from their personal desire ?

If that was truly the case, then surely in 2010 someone would be dragging manufacturers through the courts arguing that they could not even make a simple mechanical device accurate to such broad limits. I think it is nonsense.

We have laser mice on our PCs, sat nav equipment good to a couple of metres and that is bouncing signals into space and back ! And we cannot calibrate a speedo to a known wheel circumference and work out the speed ?

Hintza

property.advert wrote: »

Why do people think speedos always aver estimate your speed ? Apart from their personal desire ?

Because that is how they are made. It is illegal for the to under read the true speed and most will over read.

You could purchase your own very accurate (or calibrated) speedo easily enough. But to get the accauracy you desire woulds be expensive for production cars.

property.advert

Hintza wrote: »

Because that is how they are made. It is illegal for the to under read the true speed and most will over read.

You could purchase your own very accurate (or calibrated) speedo easily enough. But to get the accauracy you desire woulds be expensive for production cars.

We are not talking about a new invention by Bob the Builder in his garden shed here are we ! They have been making them for decades and they make tens of millions every year.

It might very well be illegal for them to read lower than the true speed but that is not the point. It has to be a concious decision to make them anything other than accurate and are you saying that all manufacturers deliberately make them to read over the true speed ?

Strider590

Speedo's over read because if they under read the speed, we'd all have a get out of jail free card and the MFRs would have to pay our fines for us.....

KillerWatt

property.advert wrote: »

It has to be a concious decision to make them anything other than accurate and are you saying that all manufacturers deliberately make them to read over the true speed ?

As already pointed out, it comes down to cost.
If you want an extra £1000 slapped on the asking price of the vehicle you intend to buy, then you can have a speedo that is calibrated to tolerances that are less than a knats earhole (although that calibration will still be out when something as simple as tyre wear comes in to the equation).

As for making speedometers "deliberately" over-read, I seriously doubt that for one minute. If anything, I strongly suspect the manufacturer simply gets as close as possible with the materials & budget they have to work to when the vehicle is at the R&D stage.

Coveredinbees!!!!

if (mobile) speed cameras aren't about money raising why are they only about during day time hours nicking people on there way to and from work, not out catching the nob heads who belt thru villages at 2 am knowing full well they won't get caught?

pendulum

property.advert wrote: »

It has to be a concious decision to make them anything other than accurate

The speedo reading will change based on tyre pressures, tyre wear, or the type of tyres that are fitted, which all change as the vehicle gets older. To ensure the speedo never tells a driver he's going slower than he actually is (a bad thing!), they build the speedos to overread a little, which is a well known and allowed practice. It really does make sense.

Moving on. As any advanced driving book will tell you, driving at a suitable speed for the conditions is vital. A suitable speed for the conditions can be above or below the posted speed limit. A safe speed is best judged by the driver rather than a number on a stick.

Justification for new speed cameras is a scam anyway. They wait until a road, due to chance, experiences a higher number of accidents than usual in a given time period, and use that to justify a camera. When the accident rates return to normal the year after, they claim the speed camera reduced the accidents!

Sometimes the accident rates rise after a camera has been erected. They keep quiet then. Or they use it as an excuse to build another camera!

Where they site them is another scam. A road near me has a hill with a bend and it's a little bit dodgy. A few people crash there. An "accident blackspot", if you will. Of course, the authorities used the fact the road had a high number of crashes to justify a speed camera on it. Where did they put the speed camera? About a mile away from where the dodgy bend was, on a nice, safe, straight bit of road where I've never seen an accident. It was placed to maximise profits, as most cameras are. They are rarely placed at actual accident blackspots at all. They are sited further along on a profitable part of the road as a rule.

ariba10

If you do drive over the speed limit and get caught, why whinge?.

If you put your finger in a chip pan you would expect to get burnt.

cyclonebri1

property.advert wrote: »

We are not talking about a new invention by Bob the Builder in his garden shed here are we ! They have been making them for decades and they make tens of millions every year.

It might very well be illegal for them to read lower than the true speed but that is not the point. It has to be a concious decision to make them anything other than accurate and are you saying that all manufacturers deliberately make them to read over the true speed ?

Thats exactly what he's saying, it's done to prevent litigation in the case of a driver unknowingly speeding, a kind of insurance. And why would they need to be any more accurate? You also have to allow for the fact that min tread/maxtread/over inflation and under inflation, will all have a bearing on the speedo reading, so some tolerance is needed and it is given on the plus side rather than below. :beer: