Speed camera information for drivers on M6, M56, M60 and M62

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So you agree that the law needs to change regarding motorways and good dual carriageways?

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Not really, until people learn the other aspects of motorway driving properly - lane discipline, distance between the car in front and you etc. And how would you determine a speed limit on motorways depending on time of day/traffic flow? People have enough problems recognising what the limits are now nevermind introducing more restrictions/variations.

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The problem is that drink drivers tend to drive by the book (apart wandering across the road a bit and over-compensating for obstacles). They are annoyingly slow and all-too-frequently I tend to get stuck behind them - at this time of year in particular.

They are still a menace though because their reaction times are poor and they are unpredictable.

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If you can predict the local drink/drugs driver by this method you need to let the local cops know!
Seriously driving is a divided attention task, and introducing drink/drugs to this means drivers concentrate on keeping cars in a straight line etc, and forget the things like wearing a seat belt/indicating/ going to fast-slow for the speed limit set etc. This is because the gross-motor skills employed with driving take over brcause the brain is not able to process the other divided attention tasks per se...
This is akin to walking - when sober you can keep in a straight line and take in other things happening a round you. When drunk you are lucky to be able to keep the line straight and the pace constant, nevermind note what else is happening around you.
So Steve the local plod 'should' be interested in your driver going too slow as well as the ones driving erratically.

Speed limits in built up areas are too high for the most part whereas those on motorways are too low. This doesn't factor in the piss poor standard of driving in the UK (I can't speak for other countries).

Even a 20mph limit doesn't entilte you to drive at 20. It's merely the speed above which you will be nicked - if you get court.

I've done advanced driving courses. It has taught me how to drive better - but has it made me a better driver? Of course not. It doesn't work like that because I'm just as capable of making a mistake as I ever was when I'm tired distracted or irritated.

We are all bad drivers some of the time. Speed doesn't have much to do with it in absolute terms but inappropriate speed is commonly a factor in bad driving. Too fast and too slow.

I think that UK speed limits and their methods of enforcement have little to do with helping us avoid accidents - but that's the law and we all know how to stay within it.

Just my £0.02

Harry

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Originally posted by mike lacey:
The Kings Road in Reading is usually full of slow moving traffic. There is a Bus pull in at one end, big yellow lines etc. This pull in frequently has parked in it a Police van with speed camera in it.

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Correct - up near the college.

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Originally posted by mike lacey:
In 5 1/2 years on working in The Kings Road, I never saw a single accident.

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Are you SURE you worked on Kings Road? I lived there from 1997-2000 (in the house right opposite the pelican crossing by the main college campus - yep - the house that looked like it was about to fall down (rented flat!). I heard about 6 crashes during my time, got photos (from 3 floors up - good vantage point) of 2 of them - shunts and bumps - and had to walk around a blood/skull/brainmatter puddle that used to be a motorcyclist while walking home from work once (I almost literally stood in it - his remains (he died instantly - after going in one side of a Volvo and half out the other side) barring this puddle had just been taken away when I got there, and I saw the remains of the Volvo being put on the recovery truck. I'd imagine there were a lot more crashes I didn't see...

And then there's always the tossers who think it's their right to jump those aforementioned pelican lights - hope that guy's Merc needed a new door when I kicked it with my toe-tectors that time the bastard nearly ran me down (I was halfway across on green man).

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

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Anyway, you could start with Roadcraft

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And I wonder just how many of those with strong opinions here have read it?

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So it's not so much me I need to worry about on a clear road but me meeting incompetent drivers who can't deal with my startling ability.

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But Tom, startling ability in a driver is the ability to deal with others incompetence

It's all in your driving plans; What you can see, what you can't see, and what you can reasonably expect to happen.

These days reasonable expectation involves astonishingly unreasonable behaviour by just about everyone else.

Andy.

Exactly, one of the reasons I don't have a car down here

Tom

Actively enjoying it all

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Exactly, one of the reasons I don't have a car down here

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I can't remember the last time I actually went out for a drive and actually enjoyed it.

There's no doubt the south east is getting far worse and my recent jaunt to the rural surroundings of Wigan (well, close to anyway!) made me realise that there's some much more pleasant areas on the planet.

In fact the only thing that's returned some joy to my daily travels is a new in-car CD player that plays mp3's, allowing me my own little radio station on the move, without the banal chat or adverts

Andy.