Faster, faster! (Speed Cameras and Speed Limits)

Member Name: MR.COATES

Product:	Speed Cameras and Speed Limits
Date:	26/02/01 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Speed has to be controlled.

Disadvantages: They aren't always effective.

I will warn you now that this could well be my juiciest opinion yet!!

Each day I have the wonderful pleasure of travelling almost 100 miles.
I’m sure that you will agree, this is quite a considerable amount by most people’s standards.

Let’s make a few things clear too, it’s my own car and I pay for my own petrol, I’m not your typical all expenses paid businessman.

I travel mainly on an A road but also have a short stretch of Motorway to enjoy.

On my journey I go past just one speed camera which is pretty good considering the distance I have to travel.

I know what you’re thinking – ‘I bet he goes as fast as possible to get the journey over with quickly’.

Well, yes and no.

I’m a firm believer in speed limits on our everyday roads and I have no objections to doing 30 mph in a 30 mph limited area.
The same goes for 40 and even 50.

Here’s the controversial bit though – Motorways.

I can not believe that we are still forced to endure a 70-mph speed limit.
This limit has actually been in existence for over 25 years!!!
In fact, all those years ago there were plenty of cars on the road that wouldn’t even be able to do 70, never mind break it!

I’m not suggesting that we go straight for the Germany option with no speed limits on Motorways, but there really should be a happier medium by now.
Even if the limit were gradually changed to 90 it would be a tremendous difference.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not suggesting that we become a nation of high-speed motorway maniacs, but those who travel longer distances on Motorways will know that a difference of even 10mph can reduce the journey time by a considerable amount.

The vast majority of us don’t stick to the 70-mph limit in any case.
It’s pretty common knowledge that as long as you’re do
ing less than 80 mph on a Motorway it’s quite unlikely that the Police will pull you over.

There are some areas where the Police are trying to enforce a ban if you are caught doing more than 85 mph!


America
You know what I mean, big place, just across the water.
Feel free to have a gun in your home, but if you’re caught speeding you’ll be in a world of trouble.

In a country that is so relaxed on some very dodgy issues I find it quite astounding that speeding is a seriously big no-no.
Some of their Highways have limits as low as 55 mph with some fairly severe penalties if you break them

So compared to that I suppose we should be quite grateful eh?

Drivers
This is really what it all comes down to.

Even my first car (a glorious beast – 1 litre Fiat Panda) could top 100 mph.
Compare that to some of the cars on the road and you can see that virtually everything with wheels can laugh at a 70-mph limit.

Let’s face it, my brother could probably get a good 30-mph on his bike!


So, are there any downsides to this craving for speed?
To be blunt, yes, quite a few actually.

The big one has got to be accidents.

An accident is an accident, it can happen at any time and it may not even be due to driver error – a burst tyre, broken suspension, a blown engine.

At low speeds this type of occurrence shouldn’t be too much of a problem but even at 70 mph a tyre blowout could end in a terrible crash.
Increase that speed to 80 or 90 mph and you are even more likely to end up in a very nasty situation.

If you crash into a bridge, another vehicle or even a ditch at 70 mph you will be very lucky to walk away from the incident.

Forget about side impact bars, airbags and ABS – if you’re going to crash at high speed then you and/or other people will get hurt.


The environment is
also a factor.
Now I’m not an Eco-warrior who only buys organic produce and wants to save the whale, but as a parent and a sensible human I feel that we should do what we can to be courteous to our environment.

If we drive faster we will obviously burn more fuel, which is a drain on our earth’s resources, and we will also create more exhaust fumes.


As for the Speed Cameras, well, most of us know what we’re looking out for.
The white markings on the road, those rather obvious grey boxes at the roadside – very easy to spot, slow down, go past and speed up again.
I don’t condone this practice but we all know that it happens.

The recent developments in speed camera technology are trying to get around this particular problem though.

You pass a camera, it takes your car registration and that’s it.
Until you pass another one a short time later, the camera recognises your car registration and works out how long it’s taken you to travel the distance between the two cameras.

Very nasty indeed, but at least it’s not a complete waste of money.

The current speed cameras are pretty ineffective and if you know an area you’ll probably be perfectly aware of any cameras in the area.

This new technology is becoming more common though and over time we’re all going to have to be much more careful with our driving speed.


Drivers are getting a bit of a rough ride recently and for people like myself, who literally have no choice but to drive, things are becoming more difficult every year.

If you speed it’s unlikely that any opinion in the world will change your mind, but if you’re in a 30 mph limit please do slow down – it’s that low for a reason and you really never can be sure what can happen in a built up area.

As for the Motorways, I hope that we will see an increase even if it’s on
ly 80 mph but in the meantime keep your eyes peeled – and keep your licence clean.

Summary: