Speeding Ticket

Car_54

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Not quite a myth, you can be over the speed limit because:

a) speedos by law are supposed to be accurate within 10%

They may over-read by 10% (plus 2.4 mph.) but must not under-read at all.

Johno100

brat wrote: »

He's right. Every year about 1.25 million are killed in RTCs. That's about 3,500 per day.

You're restricting your figures to the UK.

Of course he is! Are you suggesting that roads policy in the UK should be influenced by say a yak farmer driving his tractor off a cliff in northern India?

It's like suggesting (and I have seen this on a forum) that you should switch the tap off when cleaning your teeth to help struggling farmers in sub-Saharan Africa who are struggling for water!

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Car_54 wrote: »

They may over-read by 10% (plus 2.4 mph.) but must not under-read at all.

Yep.

The speedo on my Vito van over-reads horribly, at a true 30, speedo shows about 34. I therefore ignore my own advice and drive that to what I have calibrated a number of times, as driving around at about 26 in a 30 does not make you popular (much less popular than driving at 30).

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

RS2000. wrote: »

Will that be IAM?

Yes, though to be fair, there is what you are told to do (same with RoSPA), and then what people actually do. Tests are with independent (usually police or ex-police) examiners who will fail you if you exceed the speed limit though a short temporary excess will be tolerated as long as it is immediately corrected.

Having said that, I set my cruise control at 72 on the motorway, having calibrated the speedo on some clear, treeless roads with a couple of satnavs and checked with various speed visors around the place so I get fairly consistent results that I can trust. I also slow down before speed limit reductions and accelerate after, so I do not give a fig about speed cameras, and life is good!

Journey times not significantly different to trying to bat around at speed - you soon realise that although you want to drive faster you spend a lot of time stuck behind other traffic.

brat

Johno100 wrote: »

brat wrote:

You're restricting your figures to the UK.

Of course he is!

And in doing so, he failed to recognise that fred246 was using the global daily fatality figures, which fitted the context of his post, and which he's perfectly entitled to do.

Johno100 wrote: »

Are you suggesting that roads policy in the UK should be influenced by say a yak farmer driving his tractor off a cliff in northern India?

No. What a strange thought.
Although it would be foolish to ignore the effects of good and bad policy from other countries.

It's like suggesting (and I have seen this on a forum) that you should switch the tap off when cleaning your teeth to help struggling farmers in sub-Saharan Africa who are struggling for water!

Were it true, I'd tend to agree with you, but as it's not...

brat

IanMSpencer wrote: »

Actually though, what you learn on advanced driving is that sticking to the speed limit as indicated on your speedo is the correct thing to do then you never ever worry about having to look for speed cameras and hidden cars and vans - all the nonsense about speed cameras being a dangerous distraction then disappears and you drive along blissfully relaxed - especially as you pass the lunatic that has overtaken you dangerously in a 40mph limit, gets caught behind the queue of traffic ahead and then makes a poor lane choice (sometimes I cannot suppress a cheery wave though that is definitely not in RoadCraft).

There is so much more to the speed camera effect than simple distraction, although that does play some part. Many motorists spend a significant number of seconds instinctively looking either at the speed camera or their speedo while approaching a speed camera. I did read that elderly drivers and drivers who have difficulty refocussing can spend up to seven seconds distracted from their primary view during their approach to the speed camera, whether above or below the limit.

That's not good, especially if (as they say) the cameras are sited at accident hotspots!