I hope this is a wind up!
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What colour is the budgie?
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I was not always a good boy though regarding speed!
Sometimes a misspent youth can come in handy. About 4 years ago I was driving the X-Trail solo with OH going to meet up with friends at a hotel when satnav said there was a possible left turn shortcut off the dual carriageway. Obviously I was not paying attention to satnav! Pulled onto turn off slip at 70 and hit the brakes hard. Trouble was that the bitmac surface had deteriorated and was tearing up under heavy breaking instead of slowing me down as expected. There was no way that at the speed that I still had I was going to make the turn and would plough into the splitter island. Instinct took over and to loose speed I put the X-Trail into reverse lock and slewed around he turning.
I reported the state of the road to the local Road Construction Unit and was amazed to see on our return home only 5 days later that the exit was being resurfaced.
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Certainly I would think there is scope for reducing the leeway on those average speed limits. We have several on local roads. Mainly 50mph, but a few 30mph. Given that you are monitored over a mile or more, it should not be that difficult to keep within the limit.
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How many people use the leeway as an excuse to break the limit? So 70 on a motorway becomes 75 or 77 as they know they will not get caught?
I think it is more important to strictly keep to the lower limits, certainly at 20 and/or 30, as these are always in built up areas where those extra few mph could cause more injuries.
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Just a note of caution for those of us, like me who tend to use the sat nav speed as an indicator rather than the vehicle speedometer...
I did read somewhere, that the sat nav of course, relies on GPS and therefore gives a birds eye view and the horizontal speed across the ground. If you are going down ( or indeed up) a steep hill your actual speed on the road may well, as a result, be higher than that indicated by the sat nav...
It makes sense to me, but "O" level geometry was a very long time ago.
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May I suggest that we do not panic until it is reported in a news-rag of repute?
Perhaps the Times?
Overall I seem to remember that my driving instructor, many years ago, saying "drive to the extent that you can see" meaning adjust your speed according to conditions, be they foggy, crowded, passing a school or on a motorway etc.,
That is how I drive today with the safety of everyone around in mind.
Shame is I got caught doing a ton+ on an empty M25 at 04.00 in the morning in my early motorcycling days. Oh well!
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Having pulled out of my drive, on a bend, with a speed limit of 20mph, for the very good reason that 30+ is dangerous, how delighted was I to be hooted at? I gave my own, by now familiar, long hoot in reply., a response which the miscreant was doubtless confused over. I acknowledge that car speedometers are calibrated to under read, and that the majority of us exceed published limits on occasions. But it takes real ignorance to hoot at others when the driver’s offence rests with exceeding a published limit on a semi blind bend.
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Redface, Actually it was reported in the Times! The Chief Officer concerned was the traffic lead to the ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) committee on traffic matters. It was reported that he was indeed recommending that the 10% plus 2 MPH leeway that has existed for many years be abandoned and that Chief Officers of their respective forces be enabled to undertake prosecutions from 1 mph over the various speed limits that exist.
I understand that his ACPO colleagues did not consider that the recommendations of that committee should be adopted. It is important to realise anyway that ACPO recommendations are not law but merely provide advice to the member Chief Officers which in turn brings uniformity across the Country, In all aspects of Police enforcement and good practise.
It is also important to understand that UK roads are in any case some of the safest in Europe, and across the World in General. Had that not been the case it is likely that ACPO would have taken a different view.
Other matters such as Violent Crime and in Particular Knife crime are seen as more pressing.
TF
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