RE: Average speed cameras not the end as we know it

[silverfoxcc]

andrewparker said:

I’ve not spent too much time thinking about it tbh. I did a speed awareness course and the room was full of people who were angry that they’d been caught doing something against the law. My approach is more pragmatic, it’s a fair cop as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps I hit 70mph overtaking the other car and it took longer to get back down to the speed limit. If that’s the case it was certainly carelessness on my behalf and I’ve got nothing to complain about. I do think the limit on that road is ridiculously low though.

Andrew

Assuming that your av speed before the overtake was 35 ( lets give the old duffer some credit) you must have been going a fair distance to get the average up to 47. Someone on here will come up with the maths ,but i have a feeling that miles instead of furlongs at an increased speed has come into play.
However sorry to hear you got done. I am still waiting for a 60+ letter along the M3 to pop through the door, was keeping up with all the traffic as well!!!. Still Mea Culpa should have seen the gantry earlier. Hopefully it just popped up a few seconds before i went under it

[anonymous-user]

TTmonkey said:

More than 90% of average speed cameras aren’t even functioning. Have yet to receive a penalty notice from these in years of driving, and only when traffic is heavy have I ever been at or under the average on roads with these. You’d have to be driving like a complete maniac to lose your license to these.

Far more dangerous is the camera van on the side of the road. They are only deployed for one reason, which is active enforcement . Whereas fixed average speed cameras are more a psychological threat. Passive enforcement. Comply or else.... just in case... You think we are watching you....

So an unmanned automated scamera is turned off, why?

[nonsequitur]

On the A1 yesterday in an ASC zone, NSL, cars were whizzing past me and then slowing right down as they passed by the cameras. Surely they have been around long enough for drivers to understand 'average'.

[av185]

I reckon he's confusing ASCs with Gatso/Truvelos and the like.

We await evidence.

[geo1905]

Let's face it....the kill joys have won. No matter what you're driving, driving, of itself, is no fun any more. And it can only get worse. Once we've got used to it, there will be calls from the usual "experts" and "Safety Partners" to reduce all speed limits because …….."speed kills" Yes, it does, in only 5% of accidents where fatalities resulted from excessive speed alone. These were the official figures not that long ago but, of course, they're completely ignored now in all the reports. How will it end ? I think we know !

[nonsequitur]

av185 said:

I reckon he's confusing ASCs with Gatso/Truvelos and the like.

No. 'Average Speed Cameras' signs and the familiar yellow poles with two cameras atop, one for each lane.

[av185]

nonsequitur said:

av185 said:

I reckon he's confusing ASCs with Gatso/Truvelos and the like.

No. 'Average Speed Cameras' signs and the familiar yellow poles with two cameras atop, one for each lane.

What I am saying is TTmonkey claims 90% of ASCs are inoperative.

I am saying this is incorrect and he is confusing ASCs with Gatsos etc and non average speed cameras.

Proof needed.

[jimPH]

So is there a device you can use, that tells you if the camera is actually working?

[Bonefish Blues]

I'm not fussed tbh, mainly because I can understand averages

[Jex]

nonsequitur said:

On the A1 yesterday in an ASC zone, NSL, cars were whizzing past me and then slowing right down as they passed by the cameras. Surely they have been around long enough for drivers to understand 'average'.

And then there are those who brake suddenly to 60 on dual carriageways because they don't know what the speed limit as well as not understanding averages.

[silentbrown]

jimPH said:

So is there a device you can use, that tells you if the camera is actually working?

Golf R, apparently.

However it can take several weeks to get the results verified.

[silentbrown]

silverfoxcc said:

Assuming that your av speed before the overtake was 35 ( lets give the old duffer some credit) you must have been going a fair distance to get the average up to 47. Someone on here will come up with the maths ,but i have a feeling that miles instead of furlongs at an increased speed has come into play.
However sorry to hear you got done. I am still waiting for a 60+ letter along the M3 to pop through the door, was keeping up with all the traffic as well!!!. Still Mea Culpa should have seen the gantry earlier. Hopefully it just popped up a few seconds before i went under it

Most of that road is 50 limit anyway! 40 section is just the last mile to the motorway ,unless streetview is out of date...

Edited by silentbrown on Monday 6th May 11:51

[nunpuncher]

BarcelonaLewis said:

The A9! I've felt your pain many a time, my in-laws live at the other end of it.

We had our annual trip up the A9 last month. I tend to avoid it if at all possible. It's an utterly horrendous journey mainly due to the ASCs. Even in a Hyundai IX35 fully laden with people and luggage for a weeks holiday I could easily and safely have done that journey an hour quicker at least. The road was dead yet you're forced to crawl along at a speed where the average 2l diesel is labouring in 6th.

[Burgerbob]

SOL111 said:

Someone will develop a Google maps based map before long where it works out the start/end of an average speed cam route and tells you when you're on the wrong side of the limit.

Tomtom satnavs do this

[anonymous-user]

macky17 said:

Isn’t the fundamental issue here not the enforcement of speed limits, or even that speed limits should exist, but what those limits should be? Even us lot aren’t going to advocate speeding in built up areas or suggest our crap motorways should be mistaken for unlimited autobahns. Similarly, the most ardent, car-hating, safety obsessive wouldn’t suggest 30mph on a motorway or 20mph on A roads. The issue is how high/low the limits should be. Average speed cameras on B roads suck but if they were set to 60mph rather than 40 would we complain as much? (Ok, maybe 70).

The biggest issue as far as i see it, is that by clumsily limiting drivers speeds in such a dumb manner, all you do is re-enforce the "i'm going to ignore that limit" attitude. Today you can drive for miles on wide open, empty dual carriage ways that have a 40 mph limit, and guess what, no one is doing 40. Or on a motorway, where the gantry says "50" and yet there are 3 lanes of open carriage way in front of you, where again, no one is doing 50. Large areas of blanket 20 mph are the same. The driver can see that the limit is inappropriate, so they ignore it. And as a result, that negative re=enforcement gradually erodes pretty much all speed limit signs, because the average driver is not actually skilled (or trained) enough to be able to correctly identify the (usually-blatantly-obvious-if-you-look) tell tales.

And as a result, the authorities put up average speed cameras to try to force people to do (a completely arbitrary) limit, and all that does is annoy the majority of broadly "safe" drivers who get a ticket handed out by machine justice, and pretty much ignores (thanks to the lack of actual traffic officers) any other much more dangerous driving (tailgating, aggression, etc) or deliberate avoidance tactics (cloned plates etc)

[Macski]

geo1905 said:

Let's face it....the kill joys have won. No matter what you're driving, driving, of itself, is no fun any more. And it can only get worse. Once we've got used to it, there will be calls from the usual "experts" and "Safety Partners" to reduce all speed limits because …….."speed kills" Yes, it does, in only 5% of accidents where fatalities resulted from excessive speed alone. These were the official figures not that long ago but, of course, they're completely ignored now in all the reports. How will it end ? I think we know !

Speed limits seem to be forever being reduced, where it was 70 a few years ago it is now 60 or 50, other roads have gone down from 60 to 40. Lines painted in the middle of the road so it is now illegal to overtake.

[MGirl]

nunpuncher said:

BarcelonaLewis said:

The A9! I've felt your pain many a time, my in-laws live at the other end of it.

We had our annual trip up the A9 last month. I tend to avoid it if at all possible. It's an utterly horrendous journey mainly due to the ASCs. Even in a Hyundai IX35 fully laden with people and luggage for a weeks holiday I could easily and safely have done that journey an hour quicker at least. The road was dead yet you're forced to crawl along at a speed where the average 2l diesel is labouring in 6th.

We can only hope that once the A9 has been fully upgraded to dual carriageway then these ASC are removed. Let’s also not forget that the reason for these cameras is to stop some idiot making a dodgy overtake (usually well above the speed limit) which before these cameras were installed resulted in frequent deaths of usually some local minding their own business on the other side of the road.

If they allow HGVs to go at 60, it would make for a slightly better driving experience. Nothing worse than knowing they’ll only be going 50mph, even my uncle who drives HGVs can’t stand that road.

ASC are a pain but in some areas there has been a valid reason for them but then you could argue that some idiot who doesn’t know how to handle their car, make informed decisions or it’s handle the power and caused fatalities has royally screwed it up for everyone. Guy killed by a stolen car in Edinburgh at speed and the local councillor wants speed cameras? That won’t solve anything and it won’t deter Someone in a stolen car it just impact the rest of us.

I’m quite happy to go at the limit because I know that I have other times and places to enjoy my car. So sucking it up and getting on with it is just part of life. If I had to deal with them everyday......I’d probably feel like slitting my wrists. Although after my trip to Silverstone this weekend.......I may reconsider

[IanJ9375]

It was no brainer that the EVO triangle was going to be covered by ASC - living not too far away the minute it was in the local press about this "unofficial racetrack" then it didn't take much to figure this was on the cards, the local press seized on the RTA's caused by drivers out to "enjoy" the EVO triangle, we had some deaths, we also had the usually nobber who filmed his high speed run and dumped it on youtube (from memory his username and numberplate were very similar) and it didn't take long for North Wales Police to figure it out.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/...

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/100mph-evo-triang...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45143831

And here where there was a fatality from an organised run to the triangle, siting runs even mentioned in court was always going to end in conviction for what was probably just a normal kid who was a bit of a car enthusiast, who ended the 2 lives he hit and put himself in prison! No winners here unfortunately.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4562656/D...

[Durzel]

andrewparker said:

I got done by the average speed cameras on the Grane Road between Haslingden and Blackburn over Christmas. It’s a wide free flowing road with a 40mph in place. I followed a old chap in an Escort doing 30-35mph, breaking for every corner, no matter how slight. On a straight section I overtook then coasted back down to 40mph, which was enough to push my average to 47mph. I don’t think you could have fun on that road in any car. I was in my Golf (the infamous PH favourite one), but even in my Up, which always feels like it’s going faster than it is, you feel like you’re standing still.

You were stuck behind someone doing 30-35, overtook them and your average ended up being 47? Was this road really short or did you overtake them at about 300mph?

EDIT: aw beaten

[Terminator X]

People really need to start setting fire to these average speed camera's before they do become a permanent feature and get erected everywhere. Used for roadworks yes, generally no.

TX.