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[andrewducker]

From the observation last night in conversation with Lilian that people complain about speed cameras all the time, but you rarely hear anyone saying that the actual limit should be raised.

Note for for'n types - speeds are in MPH.

[Poll #1257772]

Comments

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to see dynamic speed-limits. We already have them variable by road, (and in some very few cases by time of day, I think?); there's easily the technology to have them variable by visibility, rain, traffic levels, pedestrian count, and so on. It'd mean that drivers would have to pay a bit more attention, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I was discussing this with someone recently - ways of doing it, reducing speed limits in fog/rain, raising it on good days - we worked out that in addition to the regularly stationed sensors they would also need to be networked with each other, since it's important that when it's foggy you're already at a lower speed, so the limit you see needs to be correct for the sensors in the road ahead, not where you are, and...

...well, and so on, and so forth. But I'd love to see it happen - while there are days and roads where 80mph or even more is perfectly reasonable there are also days when even the present 70 is suicidal.

On the camera note, what irritates me is not speed cameras, but speed traps - situations designed to catch people speeding rather than discourage them immediately from doing so - police waiting behind the rises of hills to catch folk etc. The idea of having targets is also abhorrent for the same reason - if you have to meet a quota, you need people to keep breaking the law; it's ridiculous.

The new "average speed" cameras are good I think - the best idea I can think of with the current tech on the roads is to have a beg, well-marked, shiny/blinky/huge lettered "START OF AVERAGE SPEED CAMERA ZONE"... and then hide the end of it, and not mark it at all, and the only way you know you've been out of the zone is when you see that the next one has started...

[drplokta]

There's a problem with average speed cameras on roads other than motorways, which is that to prove an offence was committed, you don't just have to prove that the vehicle passed point X at time A and point Y at time B, but also that the entire journey between X and Y happened on the public roads, and that the route on which you base the average speed is the shortest route between X and Y. These are difficult things to prove for most roads.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

What about having a 'spy in your car' that is a GPS system that records your location. Rather than in the nightmare scenario where this info is wirelessly transmitted to MI5/6 all the time, it could only be required to be produced (needing to be done physically) at the time an offense was suspected of being committed?

[red-phil.livejournal.com]

how big is this unit?
where on my motorbike do I put it?
who pays for it?

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how big it'd need to be, probably not very big at all. I'm not thinking big Tom Tom like device with a huge LCD screen, I'm talking a few chips (for the GPS / CPU / flash) and a built in aerial. We're talking watch size here, nothing bigger.

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to introduce it as a phased in thing, where all new vehicles have to have such a device equipped. Or alternatively you bit the bullet and say that everyone has to have such a device installed by 20XX.

One way or another we pay for it. That's how all such things work.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I believe Norwich Union were trialling a GPS tracker to offer low-mileage drivers a lower insurance rate. I rememeber thinking that I'd never take that offer since it would mean my speed/movements could also be recorded.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wouldn't propose them anywhere other than on long stretches of motorway. And an appeal system is already in place for just such misunderstandings if they happened even then.

[cdave]

That's what I was going to say.