Motorway madness

[GreenV8S]

As luck would have it the Llandow sprint left me trying to get home from Cardiff just as the footy fans piled out of the FA cup final. I expected the journey home would be a complete nightmare, in fact it was quite a remarkable journey. Obviously all the locals, truckers and so on stayed well away from the M4 and left us tourists to get on with it. The first couple of miles were quite congested. Then the pace started to pick up. After about ten miles all three lanes were pounding along at between 80 and about 120. I guess this is what happens when you get tens of thousands of people who all want to be two hundred miles away by tea-time, and no ditherers to hold things up. Lane discipline was excellent and everybody seemed to be in good spirits, most people I saw seemed to be maintaining sensible gaps, it all seemed quite safe to me. I guess the police thought so too because there was a very noticeable police presence, I passed dozens of police bikes and patrol cars on the hard shoulder but they seemed content to watch three lanes of heavy traffic hammering past well in excess of the limit. (Obviously I stuck to 69.9 mph because it would have been dangerous to go any faster. ;-) Which brings me back to a recurring question: why is speeding an offense? Sure, excess speed can make you dangerous and I''m all in favour of throwing the book at people who are dangerous, whether above or below the speed limit. But why is it that people are charged with speeding and not with dangerous driving or some such? Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

[apache]

it would not be cost effective, it's easy to let a camera bring in the dosh but to return a profit from a couple of guys in a car, ....well they would have to book a hell of a lot of people

[john robson]

Speeding is realatively easy to prove, it is so to speak an exact science, dangerous driving/careless driving is not it is based on a persons perception and observation, obviously speed can be a factor in it, but could you imagine all the problems in enforcing it. (I can see this is going to get a few comments flying around)

[nmilton]

So in effect the law (and the enforcement thereof) seems to suggest that someone driving safely at 90mph on a motorway is more likely to be successfully prosecuted than a total wombat driving at 60 on the same road, simply because the evidence is easier to collect ??? Gee, that's reassuring......

[apache]

I think the penny just dropped

[RobM]

You can make a machine, that you point at a car, & it says, '90mph' Unfortunately, you cant make one thats says 'twat'

[Marshy]

Technically speaking... you can. Indeed, I think my old BBC B with speech synthesiser could manage it.

[Nightmare]

Marshy

[RobM]

Oh the picture you've just put in my mind