Speeding Courses

TooManyPoints

Hi what was the outcome of this please

Yes you can do the two different types of course. Taking part in one does not make you ineligible to take part in the other. The restriction is that you cannot do the same course again within three years (with the dates of the offences being used to calculate that period).

There is one other anomaly that some drivers may be able to use to their advantage. At present, although they offer them, Dorset police do not take part in the national speed awareness course scheme. This means that drivers cannot take part in a course in Dorset for an offence committed elsewhere and they cannot take part in a course elsewhere for an offence committed in Dorset. But it also means that if a course is done in Dorset he can still commit a qualifying offence elsewhere and be offered a course. In reverse, he can do a course elsewhere, commit a qualifying offence in Dorset and be offered a course. Effectively he has an extra "life". Soo if you are going to commit two offences, make sure one of them is in Dorset :rotfl:

Courses are usually offered for speeds up to (Limit + 10% + 9mph).

Supersonos

bjbyorkshire wrote: »

National Motorway Awareness Course (NMAC)

What's a NMAC? Is that for people who lane-hog and completely ignore variable speed limits and red X signs? If so, it must be massively over-subscribed.

jimbo6977

What's a NMAC? Is that for people who lane-hog and completely ignore variable speed limits and red X signs? If so, it must be massively over-subscribed.

nah it's for the REALLY dangerous people doing 85 on the M50 at 2am on a bright clear Wednesday night.

or hopefully its for the numpties at the Highways Agency who control the "smart" signage but seem blissfilly UNaware of the purpose of a motorway.

Nearly_Old

jimbo6977 wrote: »

nah it's for the REALLY dangerous people doing 85 on the M50 at 2am on a bright clear Wednesday night.

or hopefully its for the numpties at the Highways Agency who control the "smart" signage but seem blissfilly UNaware of the purpose of a motorway.

Just for information:
1. The Highways Agency ceased to exist on 31/03/2015.


2. The signs on a smart motorway are operated by MIDAS - Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling. The clue is "Automatic" no humans involved.

jimbo6977

1. So I am not up to date with the government's wasteful re-branding exercises. So what? What I do know is there'll be another one along soon, and I'll be paying for it.

2. MIDAS is not, despite the name, 100% automated in its day-to-day operation, and even if it were, I doubt Highways (Insert This Week's Brand Here) or their contractors have developed self-learning AI to the point where MIDAS designed and wrote itself, so human input will have been vital in setting the system's operational framework and programming it, as well as in ongoing maintenance and development.

When I'm on a dry, lightly-used, unobstructed motorway with miles of good visibility, and am restricted to 60mph, excuse me for thinking that someone somewhere has priorities that don't chime with those of the MOTORist on that (as far as I am aware) is still called a MOTORway (although of course they are technically "Special Roads"....)

Nearly_Old

jimbo6977 wrote: »

1. So I am not up to date with the government's wasteful re-branding exercises. So what? What I do know is there'll be another one along soon, and I'll be paying for it.
Not a re-branding. The Highways Agency was a government agency whist Traffic England is a private company with the shares (currently) held by the government. It also has a different remit as it is responsible for new roads and major improvements that are non-operational aspects. Motorway Management has been privatised since the mid 90s.


2. MIDAS is not, despite the name, 100% automated in its day-to-day operation, and even if it were, I doubt Highways (Insert This Week's Brand Here) or their contractors have developed self-learning AI to the point where MIDAS designed and wrote itself, so human input will have been vital in setting the system's operational framework and programming it, as well as in ongoing maintenance and development. No AI involved as there is years of historic data. Also the algothorims were developed in the 90s as it is based on avoiding disruptive flow for which there was already a lot of information available. It is 100% automated but in exceptional circumstances one of the control rooms can manually set signals.

When I'm on a dry, lightly-used, unobstructed motorway with miles of good visibility, and am restricted to 60mph, excuse me for thinking that someone somewhere has priorities that don't chime with those of the MOTORist on that (as far as I am aware) is still called a MOTORway (although of course they are technically "Special Roads"....) Very few motorways have "miles" of visibility and in some circumstances the event triggering the signals could be 5 to 10 miles ahead

Before its introduction you used to get the situation where approaching vehicles started to brake heavily and eventually the motorway came to a standstill; i.e. there was disruptive flow with longer delays.


The system has dual loops in all lanes at set intervals the loops measure the speed and size of all vehicles. LIDAR can also be used to verify the information from the loops. When the loops detect a slowing down of traffic in one section it uses the data to determine how likely it is that traffic approaching at speed will cause severe congestion and disruptive flow. To avoid severe congestion signals are set to slow approaching vehicles to keep a smooth flow albeit at a slower speed.

jimbo6977

And now you get the situation where a lowered speed limit is set for no appreciable reason. But never mind, because you know the correct name on the headed notepaper, and that’s the main thing.... :wall:

Nearly_Old

jimbo6977 wrote: »

And now you get the situation where a lowered speed limit is set for no appreciable reason. But never mind, because you know the correct name on the headed notepaper, and that’s the main thing.... :wall:

Previously the motorway would just judder to a complete standstill for no obvious reason at all and then gradually start moving again. This situation still occurs regularly on old sections of the A1(M) in Yorkshire. On a managed motorway the flow is now slowed in advance so at least it keeps moving and because of this you generally don't see the reason as it has been resolved before you reach where it occurred.