Why do so many people still speed when driving?

[Cyclone]

Within a 1000 metres of course allows more than enough time for someone to slow down, stop, speed up, get lost, get back on track and then speed into the actual blackspot and crash.

[biotechpete]

I once read and was told verbally that the French had made the ordinary TomTom illegal if it has a Speed Camera location service turned on.

Anecdotally, I was told that one such driver was stopped and given the option of a 400 Euro fine or "drive over the TomTom" - peculiarly French, I thought.

The French TomToms, I was told, identified the cameras as "accident black spots" to get around it.

I haven't been through France since so haven't checked this out.

 

But just have and more info' here: http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5560/~/tomtom-speed-camera-service-and-the-law

 

I wonder how this works with apps like Waze, where you can live report mobile speed camera locations to other users.

[geared]

I'd bet the majority of fines handed out are to cars with foreign plates anyway, the French love setting up stupid rules to dish out a few more tickets.

 

People like to moan about things over here, but things were loads worse in France.

[RonJeremy]

they speed because they consider they know better than the road planners as to what speed is the correct one to drive at.

 

its arrogance

 

The road planners who reduced the speed of the A57 from Rivelin Valley to the Ladybower to 50mph from NSL against the conclusion of the report they'd commissioned? Those planners?

And the ones who 'always meant' to make Penistone Road a 40mph zone, but 'ran out of funding' to pass the necessary order. And then put up a speed camera to enforce the 30 zone... Those planners?

 

Those very same planners, who perhaps don't have a very nice car, with awesome brakes. Who are not aware drivers who perhaps know the road like the back of their hands. Those very same planners who are not particularly experienced drivers.

Yep they're the ones.

Arrogance? More like knowledge.

[Justin Smith]

Those very same planners, who perhaps don't have a very nice car, with awesome brakes. Who are not aware drivers who perhaps know the road like the back of their hands. Those very same planners who are not particularly experienced drivers.

Yep they're the ones.

Arrogance? More like knowledge.

 

No, I`d say arrogance.

Neither you, nor anyone else, has any right to put me and my family at any increased risk of death or injury. If your car, or anyone else`s, has brakes which enable your car to circumvent the rules of motion (impossible, but we`ll argue just for the sake of it) you should be using them to make the driving safer, not "just" the same level of risk to other users but you driving faster.

[L00b]

I'd bet the majority of fines handed out are to cars with foreign plates anyway, the French love setting up stupid rules to dish out a few more tickets.

I'm happy to confirm that the majority of fines handed out in France are to cars with French plates and that, just like in the UK, tickets are handed out only to people stupid enough to get caught breaking the rules

 

One such rule which frequently sticks in my mind however, when I happen to observe cars in UK car parks, is the French legal requirement for both tyres on a same axle to have an identical tread design/pattern. It's held by many foreigners who run into it as 'stupid'. Until the consequences of asymmetrical grip on slippery surfaces are explained to them. Then they tend to regard that rule as perhaps not so stupid after all.

People like to moan about things over here, but things were loads worse in France.

Things are no different, really. Roads have speed limits, rules of the road exist that request compliance to limits, breaking the rules invites a sanction.

 

One major difference I'll readily concede however, is the French system does not force speed cameras to announce their presence with fixed positions (there are only very few of these) and/or a day-glo yellow housing. So they remain a proper deterrent ("is a smurf hiding in the next bush with a radar?" ), rather than the glorified speed bump they are over here.

 

Just balancing the thread, no offense meant or taken. After all, I've done my fair share of speeding-related fine-paying and driving-suspension over there

[geared]

The policeman hiding in the bush with a speed camera was exactly what I was thinking about.

 

Although isn't also law to have a high-vis jacket, not just in the car but within reach of the driver?

The law about breathalysers amuses me as well, it's a legal requirement to have one, but there's no punishment for people who don't have one??

 

Are they more stringent on enforcing speed limits as well?

I know we don't actually have a set rule for enforcement, but it's usually 10% + a few mph.

[L00b]

The policeman hiding in the bush with a speed camera was exactly what I was thinking about.

Well, that isn't a law or rule. And it's actually pretty commonsensical, if speed enforcement is meant to act as a deterrent more than a punishment.

 

Though there are laws and rules about which bushes (e.g. not under high-tension wires or catenaries due to potential interference; not in sharp bends due to angular refraction, etc.)

Although isn't also law to have a high-vis jacket, not just in the car but within reach of the driver?

No. Just in the car. In the boot is fine.

The law about breathalysers amuses me as well, it's a legal requirement to have one, but there's no punishment for people who don't have one??

That one was repealed a while back.

Are they more stringent on enforcing speed limits as well?

I know we don't actually have a set rule for enforcement, but it's usually 10% + a few mph.

No real difference (edit: with the UK) now.

 

They had been lagging a fair way back behind the UK for an awful long time before. Short of drink driving (bad drink driving, not just 0.1 over the limit drink driving) or anything involving damage/casualty, there wasn't much that couldn't be 'sorted' with, in the more extreme cases (think 100 mph instead of 60 on an A-road), a nice restaurant diner for the local commandant and Mrs and a crate of bubbly for the squad. Civilised times. Not a myth, I've done it myself 3 or 4 times in my misspent youth. Though that (early in my driving career-) time at 163 km/h i/of of 90 was 'too much to help'. Fair do's.

 

Sarkozy changed that.

 

Same-ish discretion, though if it's an automatic radar (fixed camera), if it takes you you're done, even if it's 1km/h above. If you're on French or trackable plates, that is (I've been flashed on UK plates at 155 i/of 110 km/h years ago, never heard owt since, and I've been back same place with same cars time and again since).

 

Look, it's simple. If you don't want to get done for speeding by the smurfs hiding in the bushes, don't speed. If you speed and get caught, only yourself to blame. And better hope that you're fully legal for everything else about the car, paperwork, etc. Same difference with the UK, and most anywhere else with speed limits and traffic enforcement.

Edited October 18, 2016 by L00b

[RonJeremy]

No, I`d say arrogance.

Neither you, nor anyone else, has any right to put me and my family at any increased risk of death or injury. If your car, or anyone else`s, has brakes which enable your car to circumvent the rules of motion (impossible, but we`ll argue just for the sake of it) you should be using them to make the driving safer, not "just" the same level of risk to other users but you driving faster.

 

How dare you buy a cheaper older car that puts me and my family at risk?

You should buy a car with the latest technology with radar braking, heads up display and massive Bembo brakes. You shouldn't drive more than 1hour a day:roll:

Tell you what. You do your thing and I'll do mine pal.

[Cyclone]

Those very same planners, who perhaps don't have a very nice car, with awesome brakes. Who are not aware drivers who perhaps know the road like the back of their hands. Those very same planners who are not particularly experienced drivers.

Yep they're the ones.

Arrogance? More like knowledge.

 

It's clearly not "knowledge". They commissioned a report into the speed limit on the A57. The report was not written by an individual who knew the road and had massive brakes, it was a professional report. It was the "knowledge". They ignored it and lowered the limit anyway, one can only assume for political reasons.

And the 30 limit on Penistone Rd, well, we all know just how well respected that is and exactly how many accidents driving at 40mph has caused on that road.