Random annoying things

99% of the time you won't be proscecuted on British plates.

 

That's the bit. It actually wasn't too bad going up, but coming back my Wife was following in the car behind, (long story), and we had to turn off at Hatfied to avoid the M25. It was going OK until some **** decided to try and cut infront of da Missus just before the exit. He didn't manage to get into the 1 foot gap in the end.

I heard over the weekend that nobody has ever been prosecuted from the average speed cameras, at any roadworks. True?

 

I believe so, but then someone always tells me about someone they know or their gran or something has had it, I've never actually spoken to anyone who has.

Here's why:

Average Speed cameras aren't up to prosecute, they're there as a deterrent for the safety of the roadside workers and recovery workers.

Also, the Highways Agency don't own the road when it's being worked on, and the police don't enforce it when it's being worked on, when the contract is given out to whoever does the work, LaFarge/Balfour Beatty/Skanska etc, they technically have a hold on that stretch of the motorway and put the cameras in themselves.

The cameras themselves don't work with a speed test, they're just simple old video cameras going to some sort of receiver in a building somewhere, and I doubt they have people sitting there working out speeds.

When I went up to Leeds for our Carling Cup game (last season??) I was late and flew through the cameras at Beeston, Nottingham and just south of Leeds at quite high speeds (not up anyones arse, and I know speeding, ********, don't do it now etc etc, save the highground) and I haven't ever heard anything.

Pretty sure when I was younger I'd always broken 50mph on the M25/M1 at average speed cameras too. The only ones I think do actually have any weight in court, are the ones on sliproads/entries or motorway link roads that are permanently there.

 

Also, I've admitted to it I hold my hands up, but think twice when flying through work zones at speed please, I've helped out a mate at Saunders garage (who have the M25 recovery contract) fixing roadside vehicles at the weekend and it's not fun lying underneath a car on the side of the road with people flying past at 70mph just by your head/feet.

 

I'm afraid you're wrong on several counts Prentice...

Certainly you're right in spirit on that one and I'm not going to argue with it.

This is illogical. Of course the HA own the road when it's being worked on. They're the people who hire the contractors, that's all. Sure they're not responsible for it's upkeep but it's still a HA road with all the relevant laws still applying. If SPECS cameras are put in it's because the HA have agreed to pay for them. In fact in some areas SPECS cameras put up during roadworks have been left in place after they're done.

Wrong I'm afraid. It's all done by a computer programme, 24/7. You can convert any normal CCTV camera into an ANPR (number plate reading) camera by buying a piece of software. That's it. No hardware upgrade needed.

I can think of several reasons why it's difficult to get prosecuted by SPECS cameras:

(1) The cameras work in pairs even over large distances. Needless to say if you enter/exit the motorway before a pair is complete you won't be prosecuted, even if you're doing 120mph.
(2) Often the camera gantries above a three lane motorway in roadworks only has a pair of cameras on it. That's to say not all three lanes are covered. So if you're in the unmonitored lane you're not going to be getting a ticket.
(3) Certainly up until last year SPECS cameras only had type approval to issue tickets for drivers who broke the average speed limit and stayed in the same lane the whole way. I understand this has now changed.
(4) You need to take into account the prosecution threshold. It's widely believed that the 10% + 2/3mph formula is still in use. In which case you'd need to be doing 57mph as an average speed over quite a fair distance to get a ticket. That's actually quite difficult to do during the day when 95% of drivers around you are sticking to the limit, the lanes are narrower and their may be breakdowns/traffic building up.
(5) I'm sure you're fully aware that speedos don't display actual speed but show something around 3/4mph under. So if everyone is sticking to 50mph by their speedos they're probably doing 47mph. That means you need to probably do 60mph by your speedo to be prosecuted.

Finally, to deal with Admin's point a simple google search proves that to be an urban myth...

Here's a post of another forum from someone who got such a ticket:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2679781

 

I was caught on the way to Cardiff in '06 at 7am (we left early) in the works that were quite close to Cardiff as I recall. Average speed cameras. Points have gone from the licence now of course.

 

You can't always trust the posts on MSE. Many times private car park ticketing firms have posted as end users trying to scare people into paying illegally given tickets. It wouldn't surprise me if certain Government depts. did the same to dispel rumours such as this. Still not worth the risk of running these cameras anyway.

Any decent sat nav soon proves how far out the modern speedo is from reality.

 

You have much too much faith in the ability of the state to think that cunningly. They're much too busy debating what biscuits to buy for meetings with their reduced budgets.

 

Fair enough UEA, as I said, had never met anyone who had really got caught, only people who knew people, who were probably told by other people etc.

I must have just been incredibly lucky also

 

I once spoke to a subcontractor for the RAC who was recovering me on the M42. Apparently the rate of deaths for people on motorways is so massive that RAC and AA won't send their own staff to recover on motorways, hence their use of contractors.

It's incredibly dangerous, with many fatalaties each year.

 

Hope you're not including my new Girlfriend in this group.

 

Cher Lloyd

 

Wolverhampton

 

Clowns, Midgets and Dolls annoy me and spook me.

 

They scare me too. And ventrilloquist dummies. Its called Automanotonophobia.

 

Word of the day, I shall use it tomorrow, somehow.

 

I thought I set my profile pictures to hidden?

 

Terms and conditions.

 

Average people.

 

Rear foglights on when it's heavy rain. FFS.

 

Monday Mornings when it is wet and windy.

 

Why is it when you want to buy just one stamp (or fewer than the number you get in a book) the cashier ALWAYS slides the bloody stamp to you face up so you have to lick the side that's been in contact with the counter which probably hasn't been cleaned for 3 years?

Always bloody annoys me that does; how many germs are on the side you have to lick ffs?!?

 

Put the stamp into an Autoclave then.

 

I didn't think you had to lick stamps anymore? Thought they came pre sticky?

 

He forgot to say he paid half a penny for it.

 

Attention seekers really annoy me.

 

Yeah I hate you as well.

 

Believe me i'm not an attention seeker I hate them so much! :rant:

 

Hello, just dropping in to chill out from the comings and goings of General Football , too heavy for me .

Anyway , people who say Scotch instead of Scot . Scotch is a tape or drink.

 

Never heard anyone say that.

 

Mainly used by people of low intelligence or just plain ignorant.

 

The fact that we haven't had our bins collected since Wednesday last week, yet my neighbours are too stupid to not put their rubbish out. This means I have to clear my drive of blown about bags of wrapping paper before I can get the car in the garage.