Wales road trip - the Bad

[waynne]

This is part 2 of the Good the bad and Ugly thread of my road trip to Wales.

The "bad" has to be the speed enforcment criterior used by the North Wales Police.

From talking with Locals I've heard of people convicted of speeding at 31 mph. There seems to be a zero tolerance policy which in reality means if you have fitted different size wheels or have a slightly inaccurate speedo you will fall foul of the law.

There are also speed camera signs everywhere and I've noticed some rubber strips across the road similar to those used at traffic lights. It is a double rectangle of tarmac. These are speed sensors and being installed all over the country to "monitor traffic flow".

This could actually become a much wider problem....

Now with a standard road camera it is possible for them to isolate the car travelling over the "speed monitor" and issue a fixed penalty notice. I am not aware of this being used for this purpose - yet.

But with number plate recognition and the road side speed (sorry traffic flow) monitors we are looking at a network of speed cameras capable of covering most of our motorway network and operating at all times

Please note that I do not condone speeding and agree that speeding is a contrubuting factor in road deaths and injuries. BUT when enforcement comes on a zero tolerance basis drivers are forced to concentrate not only on the road but now divide their attention to their Speedo!

[pgarner]

31mph how many of them appealed against that ?
dont give them ideas with the traffic flow

this is just some cleaver **** just trying to look good

[Prince]

Everyone of us is guilty of speeding. I'm not saying that we want to speed, but it would be nice to have a little bit of tolerance if we go over the limit by 1mph! We pay all this money for the freedom of driving and we don't seem to get that freedom!

[HDi fun]

This is such a regular hobbyhorse for all drivers. In general traffic police detest excessive enforcement, especially when it's carried out by CIVILIANS in camera vans painted in POLICE LIVERY! It givea the police a very bad name.

Zero tolerance is stupid - even the ACPO guidelines are ten percent plus another 2mph. Unofficial information suggests that a lot of forces pay little interest on 60mph roads until you're well over 70.

Clearly if they have, or think they have, reasons to stop you then they might well do so at a lower speed, but these should be declared at the roadside as it would seriously weaken the Police' prosecutions case if they choose to rely upon something in court that they don't mention at the time of apprehension.

Speed cameras don't afford you that luxury, you get the ticket and either pay or go to court and plead. If we all took the court option things would grind to a halt in days, postal service overwhelmed, not to mention the courts being full to bursting.

[waynne]

Its worth notice that most speedos under read by 10% so when you are caught doing 31 the actual speedo reading will be around 34/35.

[HDi fun]

I think you mean over-read. And most do, yes. It's worthwhile getting it calibrated electronically, or at least, measuring its accuracy using motorway marker posts.

[waynne]

Yup - over read! Whoops. In my defence I hadn't had my coffee yet.

[HDi fun]

But would Uncle Dick's boys in blue accept that as mitigating circumstances when you plead against the 60.000001mph ticket on the Nantlle valley road B4418?

[waynne]

The lack of caffine or the over reading of the speedo? I doubt either would carry much weight although a faulty speedo might be taken into account.

[HDi fun]

Did you get clobbered then?

[waynne]

Nope - thankfully. I spotted some road speed sensors and cameras and I'm not sure how good I was being at the time. So I was pretty worried for a while. Not heard anything yet.

So far I have had a clean licence and intend to keep it that way!

The only time I got stopped by the police was when I got lost in London and went through a secured area 4 times - they thought It was suspicious. The policeman was due to go off duty and escorted me to the road I needed So they are not all bad!