Tell us your speed awareness course experiences

obi_waynne

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What did you think of the speed awareness course?

What tips did you pick up? Was it a good credible alternative to getting points and a penalty or was it a complete waste of your time?
 
I found it a waste of time to be honest. There was nothing said that i didn't really know already.

Plus for me, i wasn't even speeding. I was getting upto speed and crept over 30. 34mph to be exact. A roadside camera van got me. It must have been just as i'd come off the accelerator because when i looked down i was under 30 as i wanted to turn down a street just after the van.

Common sense would have been used if it was an officer stood there with a radar gun. The automatic ticket system doesn't use common sense though.
 
To be sent a NIP for 34mph is very harsh. ACPO guidelines (and they are only guidelines) suggest 10% plus another 2mph before any action is considered. Speeding is an absolute offence though. Technically you could be 'done' for 30.001mph. Not that there's any equipment accurate enough to enforce in this way. Thankfully.

I agree that an officer with a roadside LiDAR would have done nothing at all for 34mph.

There's a regular place in Buckingham (Tingewick Road MK18 1EE to be precise) where TVP run spot checks from time to time. Their policy at that site is below 35 no action at all. Up to 41mph is a roadside informal 'caution' ie. slow down in future. 42 and up they are issue FPNs.

I remember standing about and chatting with them for a couple of hours back in 2012. The worst one was 57mph in the 30 zone and the driver was furious with the police!!! Given that the previous section of road before the 30 zone is a 50 zone she could technically have been given an FPN for 57 in a 50 and a court summons for 57 in the 30 zone!!!
 
There was at least 3 of us there that got caught by the same van on the same day. None of us was excessive, the highest being 37 in a 30. They must of just been down on numbers that week!

I've been past traffic police on the motorway at 80mph, they don't even blink half the time.
That's the problem with automated systems. They just don't do common sense.
 
I've done the same on motorways. Many times. Never so much as a glance. They really have got better things to do than go dishing out petty tickets for what is a petty and non-indictable offence.

I, too, have concerns about automated enforcement. Similar to your own.
 
I was caught speeding coming home, going around Cambridge.

It was a right laugh actually. All the guys/girls there and the staff giving the course were really funny and good fun. I'm certainly more careful now though and I now tend to attempt to get my fuel economy back up.
 
IMO one needs to remember /realize that if you double the speed the stopping distance is 4 times longer not double.:eek:
 
IMO one needs to remember /realize that if you double the speed the stopping distance is 4 times longer not double.:eek:

Totally correct. Momentum is a function of the square of velocity.

Going further, if we approach C then mass approaches infinity therefore infinite momentum.

Looking far far ahead is the thing that seems to not happen. Or far far behind even. Mirrors and all that jazz.
 
I don't know yet mines booked for the 2nd of February.
I've got caught doing 69 on a 60 dual carriage. I hold my hands up I knew the posted limit I exceeded it and have been caught in the process so no one to blame but myself!
 
I've been on one. It was better than getting points - the cost is about the same as fine, or a bit more, but at least you dont get the 3 points.

It served no purpose for me. I knew I was doing 58 in a 50, what I needed was a "rozzer in the bushes" awareness course. And it wasn't long after we'd been rammed by the 3 druggies and I couldn't get a policeman to come help us so frankly I really wasn't impressed, to my mind they should have been out catching criminals and keeping my family safe. I don't condone speeding, especially in residential or built up areas but I got caught on a quiet country road you could have safely done 60 on.

I think they're aimed more at the old people who just sail everywhere at 40mph, be it on a deserted country road or past a school and have no real idea what speed they're doing. My father in law racked up 12 points doing this.

The only way to get through them is to turn up, answer the odd question during it, so they know you're paying attention - they can fail you if they think you're not.

And don't try and debate speed limits - they won't listen. You are there to be talked at.
 

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