Thank you:
I can now sleep tonight!
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Its worth noting that with the increased terrorist awareness at the moment, the police are everywhere. Here in wild west yorkshire, everyone in the police force with a pulse is out and about in a high visibility jacket, so perhaps there may also be more speed traps around.
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If it was a hand held gun then you would have been stopped immediately.
Is that universal? See guys/gals with hair dryers fairly often on my visits to North Wales - less evidence of the infrastructure to stop those thrashing the limit.
OTOH Leicestershire's BIB were monitoring the 40 from Narborough towards the Foxhunter r/b a few months ago and pulling the (many) offenders off into a sideroad to book 'em.
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If it was a hand held gun then you would have been stopped immediately.
Not so! Dependent on the type of equipment it's not unusual to park up and record the offences, process later, so assume nothing.
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D'Oh!
I preferred Bill Payer's reply!
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>>Dependent on the type of equipment it's not unusual to park up andrecord the offences process later so assume nothing.
Not with hand held equipment.
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Talk about emotional rollercoasters, poor DrS. !!!
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DrS is safe.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Are you positive it was the police, and not one of the residents with a speed gun (we have then in our county!)?
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Are you positive it was the police and not one of the residents with a speed gun (we have then in our county!)?
Meant 'them' not 'then'.
Also to add if it was a resident then you get a warning letter, no fine or points.
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>> Not with hand held equipment.
OK, if a purely hand-held device, then yes, but set on a tripod hidden or not, then it's a mini Gatso and racking up the hits.
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Whilst it is usual practice to stop at the time an offender detected by handheld radar it is not mandatory. VRM can be recorded and action commenced through written NOIP/S 172 RTA form to name driver. problem with this is that there is no photo to ID driver which is why they usually stop on such fishing expeditions.
If poster was not stopped then wait 14 days plus one and after this there is no letter in the post with a first class stamp, THEN start to rest easily.
If it is on any comfort then speedos usually overread and ACPO Guidelines kick in for ac tion 35mph and above in a 30 zone.
dvd
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All these replies and not one questioning the wisdom of 37mph in a 30 zone.
Its fortunate "DrS" didn't kill a child with his stupidity, as for is the policeman allowed to hide behind the bush then I hope the answer is a big YES
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Now now, speeders have feelings too :-)
Tis very true that only law breakers are worried about getting caught though and in this case, obviously premiditated as OP knew how fast they were going at the time so no real excuses.
Should be safe on this one unless the speedo is very accuarate.
For future reference OP, take ur time in 20 and 30 zones and relax in others as the higher the limit, the bigger margin for breaking it you are given.
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>Indicated 37 means your real speed was probably 35 or even less...
Not sure about this. We're pretty sure speedos generally over-read at motorway speeds (my Volvo shows 75 at a true 70, for example.) But at lower speeds, the error seems much less, and not in a linear way. I trundled past a portable speed check board a few weeks ago with the needle dead on 30, and the board flickered between 29 and 30.
You can check this by checking the tachometer reading in third at an indicated 30mph. Now, still in third (and in a safe place, of course) take it up to an indicated 60mph. If the speedo error is linear (a constant percentage of the actual speed), engine speed will exactly double with the indicated road speed. In my Volvo it doesn't, which tells me, in combination with the previous observations, that the speedo is more accurate at 30mph than at 60mph.
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You can check it by sat nav, which is what most of us do. My speedo is about 10% fast, across the board
so at 30 I can do 37mph indicated and still be safe.
(real speed 34 - guidlines not to nick at anything under speed limit +10% +2mph.)
For that same reason I happily trundle past police cars on the motorway with my speedo doing an indicated 80mph. (you need to look them in the eye tho, so they know you have seen them)
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Wouldn't looking a police driver in the eye as you overtake him constitute Driving Without Due Care and Attention?
}:---)
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www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200001/ldhansr...9
Speedometer Accuracy
Lord Allen of Abbeydale asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in the light of the increasing importance of speed limits, they have any plans to make it easier for the private motorist to have his speedometer tested for accuracy.[HL839]
Lord Whitty: The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, as amended, allows the use of speedometers that meet the requirements of EC Community Directive 75/443(97/39) or ECE Regulation 39. Both the EC Directive and the ECE Regulation lay down accuracy requirements to be applied at the time of vehicle approval for speedometers. These requirements are that the indicated speed must not be more than 10 per cent of the true speed plus 4 km/h. In production, however, a slightly different tolerance of 5 per cent plus 10 km/h is applied. The requirements are also that the indicated speed must never be less than the true speed.
A vehicle meeting these requirements would not be able to travel at a greater speed than that shown on the speedometer and a driver could not, therefore, inadvertently exceed speed restrictions. Her Majesty's Government have no plans to introduce instrument tests.
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Am I right in thinking that handheld radars can't be just randomly pointed at everyone who passes, they need to suspect visually that you're speeding before checking it with the device?
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Would there have been a smiley at the end of the post if they were available in this forum?
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>In production, however, a slightly different tolerance of 5 per cent plus 10 km/h...
This difference isn't slight - at low speeds anyway. At 30 mph, 10% + 4 gives a maximum reading of 35 mph; 5% + 10 gives 38 mph. And the statement BP quotes above seems to indicate that one tolerance is applied at the approval stage, while the slacker one, which makes speedos less accurate around the crucial urban speed limit, is applied to production instruments. (Which makes me wonder what the approval stage is for!)
So this means that it would be possible to drive along a residential street while children were walking home from school, at a speed within the notional 10%+2mph tolerance applied by the police - i.e. 35 mph - with a perfectly road-legal speedometer reading 43 mph! (While if DrS had one of these instruments, his indicated 37 was a true 29.) Can someone please show me why this tolerance build-up isn't insane!
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with a perfectly road-legal speedometer reading 43 mph!
That's true (although there's nothing in law about being allowed 10% +2MPH) but I think the idea is that most people would have no idea about the accuracy or otherwise of their speedo. So they're supposed to drive at an indicated 30, which of course means they could be going a good deal slower.
The 20MPH limits become almost ridiculous.
I've always assumed speedo over-reading is why you get stuck behind people in lane 3 on the motorway going at a rock steady 60 something MPH.
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Am I right in thinking that handheld radars can't be just randomly pointed at everyone who passes they need to suspect visually that you're speeding before checking it with the device?
In principle yes. In practice, no.
A policeman is supposed to use 'prior opinion' to decide if a car is speeding, then use the speed checking device to confirm that. However since many cars are pinged for speeding at long distances, it's difficult to believe that even a trained policeman could form the opinion that a car is speeding in those circumstances.
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Wouldn't looking a police driver in the eye as you overtake him constitute Driving Without Due Care and Attention? }:---)
As does crusin past at an indicated 80, getting a tug and saying " sorry mate - I didnt see you"
The old bill love beening seen and noticed. I am sure its got nothing to do with uniforms and trying on sisters dress as a youngster........
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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"You can check it by sat nav, which is what most of us do."
I think a poll is needed. I still regard central locking as a novelty... :-)
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"It's fortunate "DrS" didn't kill a child with his stupidity"
If you're unlucky enough to have a child run out in front of you, the main problem is that you are piloting a ton of metal (at whatever speed) and will take the best part of a second to react to the situation. Getting all tabloid about the exact velocity isn't helpful - an alert driver going faster will avoid more than a dozy one at half the speed, but I wouldn't wish the above scenario on anyone, anyway.
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What about a dozy driver going fast and an alert driver at half the speed, which is safer I ask myself?
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"What about a dozy driver going fast and an alert driver at half the speed"
I take your point, but in my experience, it's the dozy ones who go slowly (and rarely check their mirrors).
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All these replies and not one questioning the wisdom of 37mph in a 30 zone. Its fortunate "DrS" didn't kill a child with his stupidity as for is the policeman allowed to hide behind the bush then I hope the answer is a big YES
what a ridiculously simplistic statement.....no idea whatsoever on the prevailing conditions
......and the poster is automatically about to kill a child??.. on a Sunday evening??
I do not advocate general speeding in built up areas, but neither do i think it reasonable to come out with sweeping uneducated statements like the above. 37mph on my speedo is about 34mph in reality (checked with satnav). For 90% plus of 30 limits that is a perfectly acceptable speed to travel at... and you would not be prosecuted for it.There are times when that speed, however, is not acceptable and for those you'd need to adjust the speed downwards.
In other words USE YOUR JUDGEMENT..... if you have any.
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