A step too far..

[Mar5hall]

Frosty is bang on, the war on the motorist is out of control. It's surely time for the pendulum to swing back.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/14/the-an...

Freeloader edition: https://archive.ph/2cLjj

[timbo999]

I don't buy the confused about speed limits mitigation; when they were doing 24mph, what did they think the speed limit was? If it was 20 then they knew they were breaking the law, if they thought it was 30, why were they going so slowly?

[butchstewie]

I thought I read La Plante had nine points when she managed the one that got her banned?

To me that raises questions about whether she should have been on the road in the first place.

I do find it a bit weird how these days everything is "establishment this" and "blob that".

[Acorn1]

It is out of control, narrower roads, ridiculously sized cycle lanes, no pull in bus stops, ludicrous speed limits.

Camera's everywhere.

[Wills2]

Agree with everything he says on that subject.

[donkmeister]

timbo999 said:

I don't buy the confused about speed limits mitigation; when they were doing 24mph, what did they think the speed limit was? If it was 20 then they knew they were breaking the law, if they thought it was 30, why were they going so slowly?

My thoughts exactly.

The issue for many is they treat a speed limit sign as the point where they start decelerating instead of the start of the speed limit. That's not a new problem. But, combine that with the fact that most modern cars really don't decelate much at 30mph unless you actively do something (press the brake, select a lower gear) and a lot of people are rolling along faster than they should be.

So I think she DID know it was a 20, she just wasn't actively driving.

[gazza285]

A quick Google suggests that three million drivers have some points on their license, and forty seven million drivers have no points. That would suggest the vast majority of us are capable of either driving to a suitable standard to avoid points, or driving with sufficient nous to not get caught while misbehaving.

[Mar5hall]

gazza285 said:

A quick Google suggests that three million drivers have some points on their license, and forty seven million drivers have no points. That would suggest the vast majority of us are capable of either driving to a suitable standard to avoid points, or driving with sufficient nous to not get caught while misbehaving.

Nice try, but that stat is doing a lot of work it can’t support. Lumping in everyone with a licence, including the people doing 200 miles a year, retirees who’ve stopped driving, second licence holders, learners who passed and barely drive, and comparing them to people racking up 20-30,000 miles annually is meaningless. Points accumulate with exposure. A high-mileage driver covering the equivalent of ten low-mileage drivers combined has ten times the chance of getting caught by one of these camera traps for the same standard of driving.

The honest comparison isn’t “47 million clean vs 3 million with points”, it’s points per mile driven. Nobody publishes that because it wouldn’t back up the “most drivers are just badly behaved” narrative nearly as well.

[butchstewie]

At least try to make it look like you haven't just copied and pasted right out of ChatGPT.

[FoolsErrand]

timbo999 said:

I don't buy the confused about speed limits mitigation; when they were doing 24mph, what did they think the speed limit was? If it was 20 then they knew they were breaking the law, if they thought it was 30, why were they going so slowly?

Because it probably said 27 on the speedo which is not unusual in a 30.

Or maybe she's one of those people that drives to the conditions and has a tattoo saying it's a limit, not a target.

[Mar5hall]

butchstewie said:

At least try to make it look like you haven't just copied and pasted right out of ChatGPT.

Not been called ChatGPT before, but if my prose looks that professional I’m pleased to note it. Either way, it doesn’t change the maths. Compare a bloke doing 3,000 miles a year to a rep doing 30,000 and of course the high-mileage one racks up more points. Points per mile is the only stat that means anything here, and funnily enough nobody quoting “47 million clean licences” ever produces that number.

[ARH]

Mar5hall said:

gazza285 said:

A quick Google suggests that three million drivers have some points on their license, and forty seven million drivers have no points. That would suggest the vast majority of us are capable of either driving to a suitable standard to avoid points, or driving with sufficient nous to not get caught while misbehaving.

Nice try, but that stat is doing a lot of work it can t support. Lumping in everyone with a licence, including the people doing 200 miles a year, retirees who ve stopped driving, second licence holders, learners who passed and barely drive, and comparing them to people racking up 20-30,000 miles annually is meaningless. Points accumulate with exposure. A high-mileage driver covering the equivalent of ten low-mileage drivers combined has ten times the chance of getting caught by one of these camera traps for the same standard of driving.

The honest comparison isn t 47 million clean vs 3 million with points , it s points per mile driven. Nobody publishes that because it wouldn t back up the most drivers are just badly behaved narrative nearly as well.

I would probably be a no points driver as I have not had any points since 1986, but I have been on 3 SAC's, read into that what you want.

[geeks]

Awfully long rant to say "old woman banned from driving!"

Wonder what the authors PH username is?

[Robertb]

If people can genuinely be offered alternatives to driving in city centres how can that not be a good thing? Oxford for example has a great park and ride system, I often use the Redbridge one. Its cheap and convenient, £3 per car inc 5 passengers. With an e-bike and a backpack folk can easily do a short journey to get some bits and bobs from the local town.

I do agree though that the proliferation of traffic calming is actually counterproductive to other means of travel; as a cyclist, the traffic jams caused give-way chicanes actually makes cycling more hazardous as you negotiate the queues, plus breathing in more pollution.

[E-bmw]

Mar5hall said:

gazza285 said:

A quick Google suggests that three million drivers have some points on their license, and forty seven million drivers have no points. That would suggest the vast majority of us are capable of either driving to a suitable standard to avoid points, or driving with sufficient nous to not get caught while misbehaving.

The honest comparison isn t 47 million clean vs 3 million with points , it s points per mile driven. Nobody publishes that because it wouldn t back up the most drivers are just badly behaved narrative nearly as well.

Nobody publishes that because that information is impossible to get.

Do you think EVERYONE with a licence would be able to actually reply to a request for the amount of miles they have EVER driven?

[Mar5hall]

E-bmw said:

Nobody publishes that because that information is impossible to get.

Do you think EVERYONE with a licence would be able to actually reply to a request for the amount of miles they have EVER driven?

Nobody's asking anyone to recall their lifetime mileage off the top of their head. MOT mileage records go back years and DVSA/DfT sit on mountains of the stuff already, that's exactly how "average annual mileage by driver" figures get published every year. Annual mileage banded against points would do the job fine without a single phone call to a single driver. The data exists, it's just not flattering, so it doesn't get pulled together and published.

[timbo999]

FoolsErrand said:

timbo999 said:

I don't buy the confused about speed limits mitigation; when they were doing 24mph, what did they think the speed limit was? If it was 20 then they knew they were breaking the law, if they thought it was 30, why were they going so slowly?

Because it probably said 27 on the speedo which is not unusual in a 30.

Or maybe she's one of those people that drives to the conditions and has a tattoo saying it's a limit, not a target.

So what did they think when they were caught at 27mph? By your logic their speedo would read 31 and they thought they were in a 30... so why weren't they doing 24 (27 indicated)? They clearly knew which speed limit they were in. So, as I say, the 'confused' mitigation holds no water.

[CoolHands]

The whole topic is a complete waste of brain energy. It will never change, never get better, and is only going one way.

Think of the children

[FoolsErrand]

timbo999 said:

So what did they think when they were caught at 27mph?

Because it probably said 30 on the speedo which is not unusual in a 30.

[eth2190]

"war on the motorist"