Am I About to loose my driving licence for speeding offences

Almost every phone that isn't an iphone uses Android. The USA is almost the only country in the world where Android isn't the most used phone OS

A 30 mph speed limit generally applies to all roads with street lights (excluding motorways) unless a sign shows otherwise. So authorities don't need to put up repeater signs in lit 30 mph areas.

If the speed limit is anything other than 30 mph there need to be repeater signs and there are rules about the distances between them. And that includes 20 mph roads.

But... where it's a 20 mph "zone" across an area rather than just one street, the Department for Transport has updated the guidance to say councils can use traffic calming measures and paint on the road instead of just using repeater signs.

"20mph zones require traffic calming measures such as speed humps or chicanes or at least one calming feature and repeater speed limit signing and/or roundel road markings at regular intervals, so that no point within a zone is more than 50m from such a feature, sign or marking. In addition, the beginning and end of a zone is indicated by a terminal sign. Zones usually cover several roads".

So the traffic officer is absolutely right about the signs (and I'm sure is clued up about the situation in your town) but a 20 mph limit might still be enforceable in court without repeated signs if a zone has the "right" combination of traffic calming and signs to warn drivers. But it seems a bit unfair for councils to be able to rely on road paint (which does fade) when drivers are used to looking for speed limit signs...

@GasPanic

Agreed. OP says it's her fault 'because she knows where the cameras are'. No, it's her fault because she habitually speeds. If your mindset is that you only drive safely to avoid being caught, you shouldn't be driving. Same goes to all posters who are whining about not being able to drive according to the law and still pay attention to the road. If that's the case, don't drive.

Whether or not you will lose your license is to some degree irrelevant.

What is obvious is that if you don't change your behaviour you almost certainly will at some point in the future.

Suggestions to avoid this :

i) Put a note or sticker somewhere where you can see it every time you go out. This maybe in the car, or on the back of the front door. It should remind you to check your speed and beware of the speed limits.

ii) Set the car alarm to go off when you exceed a certain speed. This could be a bit annoying.

iii) Get a sat nav that warns you where the speed cameras are.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62134399.amp

@LakieLady

Everyone has an anecdote or a friend's, cousin's police dog who tells them things. The 20 zones aren't speed limits in the same sense as on other roads, they are zones, within which you cannot exceed 20mph. Signage is at the entrance and exit of these zones.

kangandco.co.uk/2023/10/13/caught-speeding-in-a-20mph-zone/#:~:text=Drivers%20caught%20significantly%20exceeding%20the,increase%20beyond%20the%20standard%20three.

No it doesn't. You have to look on .gov for you can't remember them yourself.

I wish drivers who tailgate were pulled over more often! We had one behind my learner driver yesterday when he was sitting at 57 on a straight country A road. There were multiple opportunities to pass before he eventually did, only to end up behind a long line of traffic ahead where a van was sitting on 50. The driver continued to tailgate the next car, often needing to brake so we kept a good distance.

Yes, unless it's a road where conditions mean most people would do under 20 even if it was 30. If it's a straight road with good visibility you do end up watching the speedo more than the road. Gears don't help as second gear easily goes faster.

Have you clicked on the gov.uk link yet OP?

Your husband might want to read up on how the economy works.

Do you have a friend or family member with a clean licence who could say that they were the driver? ..ONLY JOKING . 🤣

OP, I think the back of your driver's licence should show any points?

But he might actually learn some techniques to not exceed the speed limit and less risk to his driving licence/insurance cost, especially if he gets caught again as 6 points causes insurance to increase far more than 3 because so many people have 3 points now.

My DP chose to pay the fine and take the points over doing the course; fines go to central government to actually maybe? do some good. The payment for the course goes directly to the people who run it, so just a money-making exercise.

Can vary from area to area but this is what the Met police say

The Met threshold for enforcement of 20 mph roads and issuing a speeding ticket is 10% + 2 mph. Enforcement from 24 mph and Prosecution from 35 mph.

20 is a sodding ballache to keep to. I've just had a weekend of it where every other road in Wales seems to have a 20mph speed limit.

Hopefully you'll be offered a speed awareness course. They should be offered as standard for minor to moderate speeding offences, eg up to 10 MPH above the limit.

That's assuming that they do actually want to improve road safety instead of just take money off people for nothing. 3 points and a fine for driving at 22 MPH on a 3 lane dual carriageway even if it is going past a primary school at 3 pm seems very harsh. There's a lot worse drivers out there that seem to face no penalties such as those who use their phones while driving, tailgate or speed excessively.

Hi OP.

I have some family experience of almost an identical situation and so even though it sounds like you will have reached just 9 points, it’s useful to know what you/any other readers could be dealing with if it were to reach 12.

Safety awareness courses can only be offered once every three years, but won’t always be offered.

The initial contact you receive is just to declare that it was you driving, once you confirm this, they will let you know whether it’s points or an option to do the course. This normally takes a few weeks once you’ve sent the first response.

If you reach, or exceed, 12 points you will not instantly lose your licence. You will need to wait to hear for a court date for this to be made official. When my family member reached 12 points, it took a whole year to hear about the court date, although this was admittedly in Nov 2021 so likely Covid backlogs were still very high.

Be vigilant when filling in any responses to paperwork/online forms. Mistakes can complicate the situation and cause you to be awarded a higher number of points/higher fine for the delayed correct response. Also be vigilant when watching out for contact about a court date. My family member had theirs sent to their parent’s previous address meaning the initial court date had been and passed before we realised that they had in fact been driving unlicensed for a number of weeks without any awareness.

You do not need to attend court to officially have your licence revoked, however if you wish to contest the driving ban, you will need to. The most common way to do this is by pleading ‘exceptional hardship’. This essentially means that a ban being enforced would cause totally unmanageable implications for someone in your life (most likely not yourself, but let’s say a dependent or an employer). You can plead exceptional hardship by yourself or enlist the support of a solicitor. Exceptional hardship cases are not easily won, from my understanding and my family member decided not to go ahead with this option for that reason, despite having already sunk a considerable amount of money into initial legal fees.

Once your ban is in place, you are off the road from that date, generally speaking for 6 months for offences such as yours, increasing to 1 year if it’s not your first ban. Once you approach the end of the 6 month ban you can apply for a new licence in order to begin driving as soon as your six months are done. Your points will have been cleared and you will have a clean licence again. You do not need to re-take your driving test. You will need to continue declaring the ban and conviction for a duration of 5 years to insurers.

I know every speeding ticket is intended to make our roads safer and so the process is a very good thing. But there’s a difference between 24 in a 20 zone and 100 in a 70 zone in that it simply is just easier to happen in seconds, even for the most careful drivers. I hope everything goes ok for you, but if not it will be ok and won’t be as awful as you’re probably imagining. The guilt will almost certainly be the worst part and you’ve already done enough of that so cut yourself some slack now and trust that you have/will firmly have learnt from this experience.

I've been told that the 20mph limit across the whole of our town centre is unenforceable. It has 20mph signs as you enter the 20 zone, and a circle with "20" in it painted on the carriageway in places, but there are no other metal signs at the roadside. There should be repeated signs at intervals, apparently.

The colleague who told me was told this by her police sergeant husband who's in traffic, and I can't see any reason why either of them should lie about it. And I've never heard of anyone getting done for it, and traffic often goes way over 20mph.

I live on a 20mph road that has a dangerous bend, but when we have had community police evenings and said about the speeds at which people speed down the road we were told it is unenforceable. So that's why I believed that.

A three lane dual carriageway with a 20 mile an hour limit?

I'm sure saying that makes you feel Very Important & Superior®, but tell me... do you want to know how I know you're not grown up enough to drive a car yet? xcx

If you don’t know how many points you have accumulated have you been informing your insurance company about them properly?

You really need to find a way to not exceed the 20 limit, there are lots around where I am and I use a lower gear to help keep to the limit. You can’t rely on your sat nav as there are several around here where the sat nav says 60 but it’s a 40 or 30/20 and it wouldn’t be a defence against prosecution.

You need to have a handle on this really, because the way you are not aware of the points and that you’re speeding in the same spot in a short amount of time could come across as you being too lackadaisical about your driving and if there’s any discretionary decisions (e.g. you’re stopped by the police when they have witnessed you speeding or another driving issue) and then you are saying “oh I might have some points but I’m not sure, it’s just the 20 zone where I live I keep getting caught out by it” then I would imagine that would make them more inclined to treat it more seriously.

Can't you drive more slowly? 20 is a limit, not a target.

Here you go