Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Dangerous driving

I have the Transend Drive Pro, you can get a rubber suction attachment thats allows you to move it from car to car and it plugs into the power socket. Works day and night.

As an camera alternative, you could use this professional set-up?

I passed a small windowed van thing on the M42 last week with a speed camera Icon in the rear window which said "Cameras front & rear".

Most forces use the ACPO guidelines, but the newly elected PCC's have cottoned on to the fact that whilst speeding fines go to central government, those numbers they can divert to a workshop scheme provide a profit for whoever owns the administration.

Back in the day, that was Safety Partnerships who then provided for educational schemes for high risk groups (young drivers, motorcyclists etc). In these cash strapped times, it's usually the police, hence the interest of PCC's..

BedsPol PCC actually quoted on camera that he'd buy as many as he could because it raises revenue for him, so bugger the safe theory, just pay up & expect more.

I would go Not Guilty on anything less than 10% in court, the burden of proof 'beyond all reasonable doubt' on the prosecution. Hopefully I won't have to because of the 10% plus 2mph guide, but..?

They raise the prosecution threshold at times of low cash flow in order to raise revenue, so in hard times it can be as high as limit plus 10mph that gets pinged to workshops.

Going back onto dash cams for a mo, they are an utter waste of money until you crash. There is a web site out there wanting you to use them as a means of retribution for bad drivers, quoting the Police etc but the reality is whilst the facts are on camera, the driver invariably isn't & Forces can't afford to chase simple bad driving to prosecution standard unless there is a public interest (like the guy who phoned to complain on the M1 about the lorry & was stoically ignored until the Beeb picked it up. Oddly enough, he owned a company who sold dash cams..)

Gantry cameras are a real safety terrorist, though. Too small to be spotted at speed & the mere whiff of them turns motorists into rubber necked morons across all lanes..

Lets be careful out there!

Come on folks pleading ignorance is one thing but you all know your cars likelihood to over read etc is no excuse to get done at 80mph on a motorway what would an averagely inaccurate gauge be displaying? 85-90mph no excuse you should be driving to the indicated speed limit if you have sat Nav speed indication then that can be used as a reference but people still get caught even when relying on satnav info.

Generally speeding is bad when others do it none when it's yourself.

My mog is the most accurate of my cars speeds at an indicated speed it is actually doing that speed my smart over reads by 1mph at 70 my Toyota conflicts between its satnav speed and the speedo speed backed up by roadside speed indication signs. So I know in the Toyota I can be a few mph over but I don't take the proverbial in it.

The van on the 303 between Sparkford and Wincanton has become a little more creative and has decided not to use the regular hard standing lay-by areas and has been using the soft verge over the last few days I can only assume it caught a lot of the traffic that passed me at speed as their brake lights looked way to late. Thankfully on cruise at or below the speed limit

Choose where you speed wisely

In average speed camera areas I tend to sit in the slow lane unless excessively slow traffic in front if others wish to get by then it isn't me they are bearing down on in such a rush I don't play the what can I get away with game I just sit at a satnav 50 if that is the limit I do like the racing exit of those zones though but have noticed the occasional police car strategically placed just past the end of those zones.

Trucks and other big vehicles bullying and driving dangerously should have harsher punishments levied at them in line with the potential for harm they can do, watch hgvs at Wilton roundabout on the A30 ploughing their way across with scant regard for those already on said roundabout the only vehicles they give way to are other hgvs.

As for in car cameras if you get one get one that captures usable evidence ie plates are legible and don't assume that because it's on that it hasn't locked up regularly download the footage there is a guy who does great reviews of various technology including quite a dedicated portion to on car cameras
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/category/car-dvr-dashcams

TechMoan - excellent site, thanks for sharing.

Having been booked by traffic cops on 3 occasions for doing something that I was not, (on each occasion I was on a motorcycle - surprise surprise) I used to say that at least the cameras can not lie. I have since discovered that that is not entirely true. Other than the fact that the equipment needs accurate and updated calibration for speed checking we have had a scandal in Italy over red-light cameras.

It seems the company installing them made a deal with the local councils to shorten the time of the orange light. So short, in fact, that if it changed to orange just at the point that it was almost impossible to stop, even if you were doing the speedlimit, and it would change to red, and flash you as you crossed the threshold of the intersection.

The councils involved (and probably the camera company) made millions in revenue. A few of these fines, but not all by any means, were later overturned and refunded, but most people involved in setting up the scam have either escaped prosecution or been acquitted. Goodness only knows how many accidents and injuries, not to mention hardship and loss of licenses, may have been caused by this stupid and money hungry behaviour.

Unfortunately there is no law governing the time of orange lights, only a ministerial directive with recommendations. The minimum permitted (recommended) in a urban context is 3 seconds however the actual recommendation is for 4 seconds. The time set for the maximum income from fines was 3 seconds, sometimes even a fraction less. It is not unreasonable to say that 3 seconds is the minimum possible time to bring an unladen vehicle travelling at 50kph to a stop in a non-emergency, safe and controlled manner. It was using this criteria that most of the tricksters escaped prosecution.

This is further complicated for the poor road user by the fact that most traffic lights in Italy show only on the approach side of the intersection so if your vision is focused on the intersection itself you are looking beyond the position of the traffic light.

I'm sure everyone will realise why I found the topic of tricked up red light cameras interesting

My Morgan has the most inaccurate speedo I've ever had, once the car has covered more than approx. 5 miles each journey. At 70 (per GPS) the speedo can read anywhere between 60 and 80.
What is more worrying is at 30 it can read between 25 and 33 (ish) - not good enough for accurate low speed zones...