Lots of scamerati idiots on the A11 today..
Discussion
Nice dry sunny weather.
Very light traffic.
On the A11 in Norfolk.
Multiple speed scamera vans...
WTF??
I passed many speed camera vans on good, safe, straight bits of road today, it was just plain weird. One was shooting across the dual carraigeway NSL - surely against APCO code of practice, another was just west of the Mildenhall roundabout. There is an inexplicable 50 limit there, so you can do 60 round the roundabout but can only do 50 on the dual carraigeway exit. I was wondering why it was 50 until I saw the van, and then I knew: 20mph better nicking potential there then.
Luckily I had the GPS speed on the RoadAngel (which incidentally did not warn about the vans) and was just wafting along below or at the limit (in fact for the whole journey) so if their machines work properly I'm fine. Did annoy me though, so see these idiots out to make money and misery on a nice sunday afternoon, when they could have been serving the public instead.
Very light traffic.
On the A11 in Norfolk.
Multiple speed scamera vans...
WTF??
I passed many speed camera vans on good, safe, straight bits of road today, it was just plain weird. One was shooting across the dual carraigeway NSL - surely against APCO code of practice, another was just west of the Mildenhall roundabout. There is an inexplicable 50 limit there, so you can do 60 round the roundabout but can only do 50 on the dual carraigeway exit. I was wondering why it was 50 until I saw the van, and then I knew: 20mph better nicking potential there then.
Luckily I had the GPS speed on the RoadAngel (which incidentally did not warn about the vans) and was just wafting along below or at the limit (in fact for the whole journey) so if their machines work properly I'm fine. Did annoy me though, so see these idiots out to make money and misery on a nice sunday afternoon, when they could have been serving the public instead.
I went out that way a few weeks back from the Midlands to Norwich.
Very odd as for most of the A14/A11 there are lots of signs advertising the number of fatalities/injuries/crashes in the last last X years, whilst from a "Nice straight smooth road" POV you find yourself scratching your head a bit and thinking "How did those happen then?".
Very odd as for most of the A14/A11 there are lots of signs advertising the number of fatalities/injuries/crashes in the last last X years, whilst from a "Nice straight smooth road" POV you find yourself scratching your head a bit and thinking "How did those happen then?".
hutchingsp said:
I went out that way a few weeks back from the Midlands to Norwich.
Very odd as for most of the A14/A11 there are lots of signs advertising the number of fatalities/injuries/crashes in the last last X years, whilst from a "Nice straight smooth road" POV you find yourself scratching your head a bit and thinking "How did those happen then?".
Very odd as for most of the A14/A11 there are lots of signs advertising the number of fatalities/injuries/crashes in the last last X years, whilst from a "Nice straight smooth road" POV you find yourself scratching your head a bit and thinking "How did those happen then?".
I passed by a couple of accidents there myself at new years eve, one each way.
The one on my side of the road must have been caused by a sleepy driver as they'd simply driven into one of the big posts holding up the giant signs. I expect a few pounds spent on armco would have saved their life, rather than a pointless scamera van on a dual carraigeway after a roundabout.
I wonder how many fatalities were 'speeding', how many caused by sleepiness, and how many lives would have been saved by improving road safety, instead of crime statistics and revenue. FOI act required to find out I suspect...
BTW bikes would be fine as the scameras were fishing for cars going toward the camera.
Globulator said:
I wonder how many fatalities were 'speeding', how many caused by sleepiness, and how many lives would have been saved by improving road safety, instead of crime statistics and revenue. FOI act required to find out I suspect...
Public knowledge.
The Department of Transport has it that speeding
is the seventh most common cause of car crashes.
Speed cameras do *nothing* for the top six most
common causes.
The #1 killer on UK motorways is boredom
leading to lack of attention.
It's a standard piece of human pyhsiology that
we humans aren't very good at monitoring non-varying
situations.
Like sitting in lane two for hours and hours,
listening mostly to Radio 4.
ukwill said:
If you don't speed you have nothing to worry about. I sleep better at night knowing that millions of children are being saved by the scamerati.
Absolutely, without the Scumerati there would be tons of dead children everywhere, and we'd have to slow down some more due to the 'speed bump' effect.
cpn jack spanner said:
ukwill said:
If you don't speed you have nothing to worry about. I sleep better at night knowing that millions of children are being saved by the scamerati.
Absolutely, without the Scumerati there would be tons of dead children everywhere, and we'd have to slow down some more due to the 'speed bump' effect.
I am sure they would soften up pretty quick though.
They very often shoot across the dual carriageway -- they sit over the westbound carriageway collecting from motorists travelling east.
I've often wondered about the cosine effect here, but since the road is curving to the left (for the targets) they have a pretty much straight on shot.
Is accuracy an issue here? Obviously not to them provided the money rolls in, but to their victims?
SM
I've often wondered about the cosine effect here, but since the road is curving to the left (for the targets) they have a pretty much straight on shot.
Is accuracy an issue here? Obviously not to them provided the money rolls in, but to their victims?
SM
Globulator said:
I was wondering why it was 50 until I saw the van, and then I knew: 20mph better nicking potential there then.
I saw them parked there a couple of weeks ago as I was travelling west, away from them. I was amused and sickened in equal measures when I spotted the new style camera icon on the side of their van. It's changed from the chilling "we're going to ruin your livelihood and cause random braking accidents" original camera picture to a cartoon style happy, merry, jolly, amusing "we're going to ruin your livelihood and cause random braking accidents" camera picture.
They've obviously reinvested some of their profits into marketing, thinking we're imbecillic enough to think they're happy, friendly and worthwhile because they have a cartoon camera. Scum.
I'll try and get a picture of it for everyone's amusement...
SM
on the way home from snetterton yesterday plod managed to relieve me of 30 quid due to the number plate spacing.Couldnt help but laugh at him with his little ruler out - crime reported/solved in a few minutes-at the same time dozens of bikes deliberatly thrashing past well over 100 mph.They wernt so good at the job 2 weeks earlier sat watching moto gp at 5.45 am when someone climbed through my window!
Has anyone noticed that these main roads that have been reduced to 50 often have narrow side roads into the country with a NSL sign - making the narrow, bumpy, hedged and generally far more dangerous side road a 60 when the open road is deemed to be safe only at 50? These speed policy people are madmen.
v800mph said:
They wernt so good at the job 2 weeks earlier sat watching moto gp at 5.45 am when someone climbed through my window!
And that is why many people are losing interest in what the police have to say. I reckon it's time we all took out the police charge out of our Council Tax and use the money on our own CCTV and baseball bats because there appears to be no reason to pay for them any more.
Globulator said:
Nice dry sunny weather.
Very light traffic.
On the A11 in Norfolk.
Multiple speed scamera vans...
WTF??
I passed many speed camera vans on good, safe, straight bits of road today, it was just plain weird. One was shooting across the dual carraigeway NSL - surely against APCO code of practice, another was just west of the Mildenhall roundabout. There is an inexplicable 50 limit there, so you can do 60 round the roundabout but can only do 50 on the dual carraigeway exit. I was wondering why it was 50 until I saw the van, and then I knew: 20mph better nicking potential there then.
Luckily I had the GPS speed on the RoadAngel (which incidentally did not warn about the vans) and was just wafting along below or at the limit (in fact for the whole journey) so if their machines work properly I'm fine. Did annoy me though, so see these idiots out to make money and misery on a nice sunday afternoon, when they could have been serving the public instead.
Very light traffic.
On the A11 in Norfolk.
Multiple speed scamera vans...
WTF??
I passed many speed camera vans on good, safe, straight bits of road today, it was just plain weird. One was shooting across the dual carraigeway NSL - surely against APCO code of practice, another was just west of the Mildenhall roundabout. There is an inexplicable 50 limit there, so you can do 60 round the roundabout but can only do 50 on the dual carraigeway exit. I was wondering why it was 50 until I saw the van, and then I knew: 20mph better nicking potential there then.
Luckily I had the GPS speed on the RoadAngel (which incidentally did not warn about the vans) and was just wafting along below or at the limit (in fact for the whole journey) so if their machines work properly I'm fine. Did annoy me though, so see these idiots out to make money and misery on a nice sunday afternoon, when they could have been serving the public instead.
its 50mph for a very good reason! you obviously didn't see the junctions that cross the road there, and due to the number of accidents that have happened there over the years, the limit was dropped to 50mph, and seems to have worked.
i don't have any figures, but driving that bit of road twice a day for the last 16 years, i've been held up a lot less due to people getting T-boned and blocking the road.
so i'd say this is one of the very few occasions where dropping the limit has worked.
eccles said:
its 50mph for a very good reason! you obviously didn't see the junctions that cross the road there, and due to the number of accidents that have happened there over the years, the limit was dropped to 50mph, and seems to have worked.
i don't have any figures, but driving that bit of road twice a day for the last 16 years, i've been held up a lot less due to people getting T-boned and blocking the road.
so i'd say this is one of the very few occasions where dropping the limit has worked.
i don't have any figures, but driving that bit of road twice a day for the last 16 years, i've been held up a lot less due to people getting T-boned and blocking the road.
so i'd say this is one of the very few occasions where dropping the limit has worked.
Going west on the A11 out of the mildenhall roundabout?
Lots of junctions on the (60mph) roundabout, didn't notice any on the exit (50mph) dual carraigeway, but I was on the outside lane so I may not have noticed.
I'll have a closer look next time and a passenger with a camera!
The only road on the map:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&
...is Tuddenham Rd, which could well be after that limit.
To improve road safety properly, for 24 hours a day, I'd suggest a slip-road be built. Several are also needed on the A14, although if you use enough speed cameras and skimp on real road safety I guess you can afford to buy more tanks and guns (not body armour, obviously) - so no change expected any time soon then
I used to think road planning and safety wasn't rocket science, but with half our councils run by people below average intelligence I guess to them it is..
Tuddenham road is only just past the 'out' slip from the petrol station on the roundabout and is well inside the 50 limit.. you get a lot of cars turning left into it (and a suprising number of lorries considering the size of the road). you get a lot of cars and lorries coming out of that road, crossing to the fast lane then slowing to turn right through a gap in the central reservation (hence my earlier comments about people being t-boned) towards barton mills.
quite often i've seen lorries pull out to turn right across towards barton mills, but leave the back end of their trailer half blocking the fast lane, leading to accidents.
its quite easy ,even in the short distance from the roundabout to the junction of Tuddenham road to get up to 70 mph, so you can imagine the severity of the crashes that used to occur.
on the other side of the road (where the camera vans usually hide) you have quite a lot of cars pulling out from the Barton mills junction onto the dual carriage way, also the cars that are turning right from Tuddenham road (they have to cross into the barton mills road and do a u-turn, then come back onto the dual carriage way.
again, this junction is far enough from the roundabout for cars to be going as quick as any dual carriage way, so the 50 limit seems to reduced the number people genting shunted up the back .
as i said before, when you drive that bit of road daily, it was suprising just how many accidents used to happen there, having the 50 limit has greatly reduced the number (well i assume it has, as i don't get held up nearly so often!) of accidents there.
quite often i've seen lorries pull out to turn right across towards barton mills, but leave the back end of their trailer half blocking the fast lane, leading to accidents.
its quite easy ,even in the short distance from the roundabout to the junction of Tuddenham road to get up to 70 mph, so you can imagine the severity of the crashes that used to occur.
on the other side of the road (where the camera vans usually hide) you have quite a lot of cars pulling out from the Barton mills junction onto the dual carriage way, also the cars that are turning right from Tuddenham road (they have to cross into the barton mills road and do a u-turn, then come back onto the dual carriage way.
again, this junction is far enough from the roundabout for cars to be going as quick as any dual carriage way, so the 50 limit seems to reduced the number people genting shunted up the back .
as i said before, when you drive that bit of road daily, it was suprising just how many accidents used to happen there, having the 50 limit has greatly reduced the number (well i assume it has, as i don't get held up nearly so often!) of accidents there.
At busy times people get really frustrated trying to get out of the tuddenham road and end up taking silly risks, i remember when i was at school, our teacher trying to cross there with a minibus full of us and a trailler on the back, scary stuff.
You've given me the fear now, I was out on the a11 (snetterton to norwich section) later on that day, didn't see any of them though.
You've given me the fear now, I was out on the a11 (snetterton to norwich section) later on that day, didn't see any of them though.
Edited by threesixty on Monday 21st May 11:57
The van I saw was parked on the side of the dual carriageway with the front facing the traffic, so they could video the bikes from the rear and record the number plates as they went past.
However, I couldnt see anyone in the front of the van so it would be interesting to find out how they formed prior opinion of anyone's speed. I assume there must have been someone doing this, after all the SCPs would never break the rules would they ...
(Edited to say that if the operator was forming his opinion after the bike went past he'd have to have some very quick reflexes to then refocus on his scamgun, look through the gunsight and target the bike before it disappeared out of view)
All the traffic I saw was going very steadily so I rather hope the SCP had a wasted day and spent loads of overtime with no return on their investment to swell the coffers. On the way back (we'd been to Thetford Forest), when you'd expect loads of fired-up bikers to be giving it large down the A11, I didnt see a single van or police patrol which was a bit surprising.
However, I couldnt see anyone in the front of the van so it would be interesting to find out how they formed prior opinion of anyone's speed. I assume there must have been someone doing this, after all the SCPs would never break the rules would they ...
(Edited to say that if the operator was forming his opinion after the bike went past he'd have to have some very quick reflexes to then refocus on his scamgun, look through the gunsight and target the bike before it disappeared out of view)
All the traffic I saw was going very steadily so I rather hope the SCP had a wasted day and spent loads of overtime with no return on their investment to swell the coffers. On the way back (we'd been to Thetford Forest), when you'd expect loads of fired-up bikers to be giving it large down the A11, I didnt see a single van or police patrol which was a bit surprising.
Edited by njwc on Monday 21st May 12:38
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