30MPH Flashing warning signs

alleycat`

jbainbridge wrote: »

There's one near us. It has a memory ... occasionally one of the parish councillors publishes the stats. I get the impression it records the speed of every car that passes it. They then take this to the county council / police.

Hopefully it's not like the one i drive past regularly.

It flashes the 20 "slow down" when you are 300 feet away from the 20 zone.

If you're correctly down to 20 by the time you get to the actual speed change, which most people are, the data on it would be a load of rubbish as it's complaining about your speed when you're still in a 30.

jase1

konark wrote: »

I can remember one on a 50mph limit road that would light up and tell you to slow down if you were driving at 40mph.

They're quite common when the road layout is such that travelling at 50mph is a bad idea.

There's one on the A695 between Blaydon and Prudhoe in Northumberland like that. A fairly complicated crossroads junction on a bend in the road (NSL though) where cars stop in the middle between the two lanes; when joining the main road it's not possible to see too far down the road so folks on the main carriageway have to be aware of coming around the corner to find a car still only doing 20mph.

Eventually I'm sure the speed limit will be reduced, and that's one road where I'd see it as a sensible step, but for now common sense seems to prevail.

These flashing light warnings are a good thing when placed appropriately. Personally I think speed cameras should be placed in every small village where A-roads pass through them and the limit goes from NSL to 30, as drivers are forever ignoring these limits. Instead they place them in the NSL bits where there is far less danger.

Mercdriver

jase1 wrote: »

They're quite common when the road layout is such that travelling at 50mph is a bad idea.

There's one on the A695 between Blaydon and Prudhoe in Northumberland like that. A fairly complicated crossroads junction on a bend in the road (NSL though) where cars stop in the middle between the two lanes; when joining the main road it's not possible to see too far down the road so folks on the main carriageway have to be aware of coming around the corner to find a car still only doing 20mph.

Eventually I'm sure the speed limit will be reduced, and that's one road where I'd see it as a sensible step, but for now common sense seems to prevail.

These flashing light warnings are a good thing when placed appropriately. Personally I think speed cameras should be placed in every small village where A-roads pass through them and the limit goes from NSL to 30, as drivers are forever ignoring these limits. Instead they place them in the NSL bits where there is far less danger.

Especially to catch those that do 40 regardless of the limit or conditions

giraffe69

The problem is that English speed limits are rarely set for the conditions. If you go on a French A road or some N roads the speed limit reduces in wet, icy or foggy conditions. Really sensible.

Sometimes in England there are 20mph speed limits near schools which are fine when school is open but not at 11p.m. or in the holidays. Its not that hard to make them time flexible or others weather sensitive. It's just easier to make them a blanket limit rather than think and even then we have a local road which is narrow and there are no signs but probably the limit is 60mph but you would have to be certifiable to go anything like that speed yet in the local village at midnight the theoretical limit is 30mph as backed up with silly signs with a straight road and reasonable visibility.

There are those on here who wish to lecture road users on their speed but more people would be co-operative if the limits were sensible and well designed thus giving the authorities more time to deal with the real lunatics.

I quite like the signs that smile at you when you do 18mph, have a neutral expression when you do 28mph, frown at 38mph. What do they do at 78mph?

BeenThroughItAll

giraffe69 wrote: »

The problem is that English speed limits are rarely set for the conditions. If you go on a French A road or some N roads the speed limit reduces in wet, icy or foggy conditions. Really sensible.

Sometimes in England there are 20mph speed limits near schools which are fine when school is open but not at 11p.m. or in the holidays. Its not that hard to make them time flexible or others weather sensitive. It's just easier to make them a blanket limit rather than think and even then we have a local road which is narrow and there are no signs but probably the limit is 60mph but you would have to be certifiable to go anything like that speed yet in the local village at midnight the theoretical limit is 30mph as backed up with silly signs with a straight road and reasonable visibility.

There are those on here who wish to lecture road users on their speed but more people would be co-operative if the limits were sensible and well designed thus giving the authorities more time to deal with the real lunatics.

I quite like the signs that smile at you when you do 18mph, have a neutral expression when you do 28mph, frown at 38mph. What do they do at 78mph?

Two words:

"Moon Lasers"

Strider590

giraffe69 wrote: »

There are those on here who wish to lecture road users on their speed but more people would be co-operative if the limits were sensible and well designed thus giving the authorities more time to deal with the real lunatics.

People who who lecture others on speed, they've simply bought into the common rhetoric.
It basically gives bad drivers a soap box to stand on, it give them the ability to throw out a broad statement, which is obviously just a flawed and statistically incorrect one liner, to which it is impossible to construct a suitable retort in the sort of time span in which the statement is made. They leave feeling they have "won", the other party leaves feeling they could not have responded without standing there for 20 minutes constructing an accurate response.

benten69

To answer the OP's question, no they cannot be used to persue a conviction of speeding on a public road. Methods of capturing people speeding MUST be approved by the Home Office.

A good example is the classic GATSO. While they can (and are in Europe) be used to capture and prosecute drivers while facing them head on, they are not approved for that purpose here in the UK. All driver facing cameras which are approved in the UK are the infra-red ones, not the standard GATSO's that flash you.

As such, if you ever got caught by a normal GATSO facing you head on, it's inadmissable evidence should the case go to court, simply because it's is not an approved method by the Home Office.

As for these flashing signs, not only are they not approved for this purpose by the home office, but they will not be calibrated (as is required) and have no means of capturing your registration plate.

Some of them are so far out that they flash at me saying I'm doing 40 when my speedo reads 30, and the next one says I'm doing 28 when the speedo in the same car says I'm doing 30.

Car_54

benten69 wrote: »

To answer the OP's question, no they cannot be used to persue a conviction of speeding on a public road. Methods of capturing people speeding MUST be approved by the Home Office.

A good example is the classic GATSO. While they can (and are in Europe) be used to capture and prosecute drivers while facing them head on, they are not approved for that purpose here in the UK. All driver facing cameras which are approved in the UK are the infra-red ones, not the standard GATSO's that flash you.

The Truvelo is approved for use forward-facing. It uses a conventional flash (not infra-red) with a magenta filter.

Fat_Walt

benten69 wrote: »

To answer the OP's question, no they cannot be used to persue a conviction of speeding on a public road. Methods of capturing people speeding MUST be approved by the Home Office.

A good example is the classic GATSO. While they can (and are in Europe) be used to capture and prosecute drivers while facing them head on, they are not approved for that purpose here in the UK. All driver facing cameras which are approved in the UK are the infra-red ones, not the standard GATSO's that flash you.

As such, if you ever got caught by a normal GATSO facing you head on, it's inadmissable evidence should the case go to court, simply because it's is not an approved method by the Home Office.

As for these flashing signs, not only are they not approved for this purpose by the home office, but they will not be calibrated (as is required) and have no means of capturing your registration plate.

Some of them are so far out that they flash at me saying I'm doing 40 when my speedo reads 30, and the next one says I'm doing 28 when the speedo in the same car says I'm doing 30.

So, how do the ones work that display your reg, magic?

benten69

Fat_Walt wrote: »

So, how do the ones work that display your reg, magic?

We don't have those round here and I never saw any when I was in Bristol or London a few weeks ago. Those will obviously have additional ANPR equipment on them which allows them to read registrations opposed to the bog standard ones which just flash at you when you go over their set speed or display your speed as you go past.