Speed camera myths

Whitecat

boogieman said:

chillidoggy said:

There should be a minimum speed limit on a motorway.

I thought there was tbh? 

Not in the UK. 30mph (equiv) minimum in Ireland though.

fields5069

boogieman said:

chillidoggy said:

There should be a minimum speed limit on a motorway.

I thought there was tbh? 

Not in the UK, unless there is a circular sign which I'm sure we all remember from reading the Highway Code . Anyway it would probably follow Ireland's which is 30mph.

boogieman

fields5069 said:

boogieman said:

chillidoggy said:

There should be a minimum speed limit on a motorway.

I thought there was tbh? 

Not in the UK, unless there is a circular sign which I'm sure we all remember from reading the Highway Code . Anyway it would probably follow Ireland's which is 30mph.

Ah ok. I remember the minimum speed thing from the Highway Code too, probably what I was thinking of. 

Cirrus

Whitecat said:

boogieman said:

chillidoggy said:

There should be a minimum speed limit on a motorway.

I thought there was tbh? 

Not in the UK. 30mph (equiv) minimum in Ireland though.

It'd be a pretty pointless law, surely. Plenty of my motorway driving is at rush hour when 30 is a fever dream, so it'd have to be "30mph minimum unless you can't go that fast because of the car in front."

And let's be honest, anyone who'd go at 30mph or less on a motorway when all the other traffic was going faster probably has a mental illness, and the law wouldn't be any good for them anyway.

octatonic

Electro_Ham said:

What about motorcycles that only have a rear reg. plate. Do the cameras pic that up?

Depends on whether the camera is front or rear facing.

Front facing cameras are often ignored by bikers but it makes sense not to take the piss and make yourself a target.
There was a chap who used to wheelie in front of a front facing camera but he was eventually caught and they took his license away.

Edit: found it- http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2008/october/oct0208-bikers-caught-by-forward-facing-cameras/

vasselmeyer

fields5069 said:

Not in the UK, unless there is a circular sign which I'm sure we all remember from reading the Highway Code . Anyway it would probably follow Ireland's which is 30mph.

UK minimum speed roadsign:

ESBlonde

chillidoggy said:

There should be a minimum speed limit on a motorway.

But it's always subject to conditions. Motorway restrictions exclude vehicles not capable of attaining high speeds and maintaining them with the possible exception of escorted special loads which require police approval and escort. If the overhead signs flash for 30mph and the minimum is 50mph on a motorway who wins, what if there is a tailback? Do all the parked cars get a ticket?

I remember when driving used to be fun and drivig fast was almost a sport, a very dangerous sport non the less.

aord43

40 on a motorway is too slow in good weather but 60 is reasonable provided you don't sit in the middle lane and get in the way etc.  Many lorries are doing that speed anyway.  Hence 70 is not a target.
Similarly 50 in a 60 zone is not unreasonable, and as quoted above 22 in a 30 sometimes is necessary if there are lots of parked cars etc.
Some residential streets, shopping streets etc. have the default 30mph limit but much of the time that would be too fast for safety.

darthed1981

vasselmeyer said:

fields5069 said:

Not in the UK, unless there is a circular sign which I'm sure we all remember from reading the Highway Code . Anyway it would probably follow Ireland's which is 30mph.

UK minimum speed roadsign:

I think there is a website where you can see listed all occurrences of it that still remain!

Only usually found in areas where there are "secret things" they don't want you getting too close a look at in case you are zee Russian spy... not generally for safety reasons.

Whitecat

Apparently they are in some tunnels too, which makes sense for a lot of safety and security reasons.

Nitefly

Whitecat said:

There are a couple stretches of dual carriageway near me that I use quite frequently where literally nobody sees the National Speed Limit signage when it appears (and thus increases to 70 from 50). I've gotta be ready for some overtaking because I know they are there but it seems like they must be pretty camo'd into the background or something.

That is a very good point - driving through the endless green tunnels of England, many signs are now invisible because they are shrouded in foliage because councils now "don't have the money" to perform the roadside maintenance they used to.

cruxiform

octatonic said:

roundthebend said:

As such, the only sensible advice is to not exceed the speed limit on your own speedo, and hope that it's not wildly inaccurate. You can't know how accurate the recording equipment is. So forget playing games.

It is illegal for manufacturers to have a speedo that reads under actual speed, so all car and bike manufacturers err on the side of caution and have their vehicles read about 2mph over the actual speed.
You can test by using a GPS device, which will register your true speed and you can compare it to what the car says.

We have BMW's and I can tell you that when you are doing 30 on the cars speedo you are actually doing 28.
When you are doing 70 you are actually doing 67mph.

Very true. The speedo on my BMW bike is wildly optimistic. My Garmin Zumo recorded my speed at 145mph but the speedo showed around 155mph. I'm about to reset it as a UK copper isn't going to believe I did that on a German Autobahn