Pulaski

Speed cameras are a pain the butt, but I would happily vote to have jerks who jump traffic lights summarily shot.

Most drivers both here, and in the UK habitually break the speed limit. In this part of NC the interstate speed limit is 65mph, but most cars are cruising at 75mph, and many will do 80mph. In the immediate Charlotte area the speed limit, and the speeds, are 10mph less.

There are not fatal accidents every day on the interstates, however every time somebody jumps a light they risk killing themselves and the occupants of any car they collide with. :scared:

bubbadog

He can't if he's in Dallas. Texas recently changed the law so that you can be ticketed for anything which obscures the licence plate. The camera may not get him for it, but the officer on the road will. He can be pulled over just for that.

NC Penguin

Er, what if you and your family had been the vehicle sideswiped by a vehicle that drove through that very same light?

I saw some TV show quite recently where the fuzz are in disguise (hitchhiker/broken down motorist on the side of the road/utilities person in a cherry picker fixing a street light, etc.) and have a colleague somewhere up the road. Via walkie talkies, the colleague forewarns of a speeder heading the way of the fuzz in disguise and he (the ones shown were all men) whip out the speed gun to catch Mr. Speedy Driver in the act.

I think the footage and interviews were from Florida or Texas. It might catch on (if there's enough manpower).




NC Penguin

Taffyles

I almost got caught by one of those side of the road speed catchers here in FL. I've only ever seen one...so far, but the camera on lights are everywhere now. I haven't been done for speeding for years but yes you can take a course at driving school to stop points on your licence- at least here in FL you can. Not long after you get your ticket, you should get a bunch of postcards in the mail offering defensive driving courses.

Yosser

Thanks for the info...

I only got 1 speeding ticket the whole time I drove in England (10 years)....since I've been in the U.S....this is er...my third in less than 4 years

must be that huge 2.5 4 clyinder mitsibushi that I drive

robclews

Irrespective of the engine size, do you think you might just be driving too fast ? I have a 2.8 litre bi turbo Audi S4 and I haven’t been caught for speeding, so I don’t think it’s the engine size, ever thought of anger management ?

Rob

Posted by a man who collected over 36 points in driving in the UK, ok call me a hypocrite see if I care.

jaytee

where do you typically get speeding tickets in England? I have seen the photo boxes in cities. On the rural roads I thought it was pretty much a free-for all.

ladyofthelake

A new set of lights on a 4 way junction have just been installed near me. It was previously a stop junction for the smaller road and a striaght through for the main road. Even though there are huge flashing signs warning of the new lights, people are constantly going straight through on red with out even noticing! This morning, the car in front of me came to a full stop when the lights turned amber, but then had a change of heart and went through on the red! :scared: Straight after that, a car on the other road went straight through on the red at full speed without even a hint of slowing down. :scared: If it had been a few seconds earlier it would have been carnage. And to think they put the lights in to make the junction safer.

Yosser

Its not that I drive too fast, I just seem very unlucky

robclews

To adapt an old saying......'The slower you are, the luckier you become'

Rob

nathan barley

I'm only just learning to drive here, so I still suffer from the "Lead-foot induced by Peer pressure" syndrome due to the fact everyone wants to go over 30 and yellow signals mean "Speed up dammit! I'm going to be inconveinienced by 30 seconds and my latte is getting cold you jerk!"

But seriously, if you want to avoid tickets, the sure fire way, and I swear I could make millions if I wrote a book on this, is to stick to the speed limit.

Damn, my cash-money secrets out. :P

robclews

I can see the infomercial now !!!!

Rob

JerseyBoy

You're joking! There's cameras everywhere back home. There's even a Sun campaign against them, and they've had to stop hiding them and have them painted in flourescent yellow (no, I'm serious). I thought I was getting away from it coming here but instead there's police everywhere catching you. They just constantly let me off when I had an international license and was driving someone else's car ("when are you leaving the country?" "On Friday Officer...") but now I have my own insurance, albeit on an international license they fine me - $191 the other day for doing 45 on an empty road which apparently had a 25 limit. I'd actually given up doing over 70 on 65 roads, now I'm even having to slow down around town!

What's the world coming to?

Taffyles

The police are getting really crafty here - the unmarked cars used to be fairly easy to spot, they were like cop cars without the sirens and markings. Now the police are driving round in beaten up old bangers- there are all sorts of speed traps everywhere. Hubby got caught a few months ago, he was about the 4th car back in a line of 8 or so cars all doing about 80 on the freeway- he spotted the overhead plane and thought he was safe as he wasn't the lead car (it used to be they would only stop the car up front) - got a few miles down the road there were 4 State trooper cars waiting and nabbed the lot of them.
At least in FLorida they raised the speed limit to 70 on the freeways though, which is more realistic- when we lived in PA the limit was 50.

scotch03

If you read the death statistics for driving it is a wonder that anyone drives - let alone speeds.

The faster you go the longer it takes to stop - an extra 5 mph can be the differance between life and death - so those who say "I was only doing an extra 5" are accidents waiting to happen.

Another thing is that a sign that says 20, 30, 70 or any other speed does not mean drive at that speed. It means that is the MAXIMUM permitted speed and once you take into account condition of road, obstacles, parked vehicles, traffic flow, visibility, pedestrians, schools, road surface, bends, limit points to name just a few it should be rare to actually be driving at the maximum just food for thought.

Safe driving!