Speed ticket

It is annoying, but here is the learning in this. Some years ago my husband was involved in an accident where the driver of a motorbike coming from the other direction ricocheted off the open door of a car going in the other direction into the path of his car. She (the motorcyclist wasa woman) hit the front of my husband's car and was badly injured. The traffic in the other direction was temporarily stationary in a long queue at the traffic lights. The driver had opened her door to get her sunglasses out of the back, which she had previously forgotten to do, as it was raining when she set off.

Bear in mind that my husband did not cause the accident. Nevertheless he was breathalysed and witnesses were questioned as to his estimated speed. Had he been speeding (or drinking) he would have been charged in relation to the accident not to mention would have had it on his conscience for the rest of his life. Luckily he was well below the speed limit and because of this the motorcyclist's injuries were neither life changing nor life-threatening.

3 miles over the speed limit is not very much, but I hope this gives you and everyone reading this pause for thought. IMO speed awareness courses that include this kind of awareness are far more valuable than either fines or points.

I got caught exactly in this situation - it’s a dip as well so physics is not on your side! I was 33 too. Also my first ticket and have been driving since 1989.

You’ll do the course - it can be done online - and, like PP said, I actually found it really useful.

I was pleasantly surprised when I did a speed awareness course, but then we did have a couple of really good presenters who made it entertaining as well as informative. I can well imagine that it could be different if you had some Captain Mainwaring type banging on for hours. The worst thing about it was a couple of the women attending who were utter fuckwits who should have just had their driving licences revoked there and then.

Anyway, if your hit rate is one ticket every 40 years then I don't think you need worry OP.

If you were going 33 then your speedo would have been saying 35/36 so it’s a fair ticket. You knew you were speeding.

Other shitty driving doesn’t negate your “minor” speeding. It’s still speeding. Everyone does it sometime, but if you get caught then you take the hit.

Yes my DH had to do one he said it taught him soooo much and he is not a dangerous driver he was just complacent with his bad habits he drives perfectly now !! So he was annoyed but at the same time he was glad because he learnt alot from it !!!

So do I. I felt like that when I got one. Annoyed at myself for speeding, annoyed that people seem to go at a million miles an hour and must not get caught, annoyed at the expense. Where I live there are lads hooning around on mopeds with no helmets or anything.

When I did the course the teacher asked everyone for their story and everyone had a reason why they were speeding.

I am usimg the speed limiter more and more often. 24 in a 20 here. 7am, no traffic, driving to hospital where my mother had been admitted.

Ive just been done doing 35 in a 30. Midnight on an empty road. Annoying but Im just going to do the course. And agree about the terrible driving. Annoyingly I had just turned off an A road where I was undertaken dangerously by a speeding driver. Bet that bugger never got flashed, but I did 😡

You will probably get a course and keep your clean licence

Someone once pointed out that it helps to deal with these things in terms of a stupidity tax. Every so often we do something that costs unnecessary money, because we weren't concentrating or were just being stupid, and you could get really angry about it. Or you could just shrug your shoulders and say "Well, that's my stupidity tax for this week, I know how to avoid it next time."

I had to use it only last week when I got a parking ticket through not checking the signage properly. For you, it was your tax for not making sure you were keeping to the limit. Accept it and move on.

The speed awareness course is quite good, I think everyone should be made to go on it every 5 years or so.

Those men on bikes with a camera gun always hang out in places where it goes from 30 to 40 mph.

Yeah, 45 in a 40 here, last summer. I was slowing down, having just come out of a 50. It is annoying, but I was speeding (as were you), and you just have to suck it up.
If you're in a part of the country that offers the Speed Awareness Course, take it. I'm in central Scotland, and there's no option for that here. So, as if the £100 fine wasn't enough, the 3 points meant an extra £360 on my car insurance that year. 😭(It went down to nearer what it had been, after just over a year.) I'm more mindful of those type of situations now.
I'd also been driving for 32 years, and only one accident which was partially my fault. Nothing else in the way of points, etc. But, I was speeding, and we have to accept when we're wrong.

This happened to my DD recently too. She was barely over the speed limit at all and we have now learned that the much discussed 10% margin is actually a myth. So don't rely on that.

You might be given the choice of doing the Speed Awareness course or accepting points on your licence. If so then do the course. They are good. They do cost a bit but it keeps your licence clear.

Maybe, I didn't.

I agree. For the price it's a damn good advanced driving course.

My husband and I have both had minor speed tickets (similar to yours op - one was speeding in a goods vehicle, husband genuinely didn't know that a transit with no passenger seats is limited to 60mph on a dual carriageway and one was 55 on a 50 on a motorway where the limit literally just changed above us as we were slowing down).
Both times we were not even offered a spped awareness course just 3 points and a fine.

I did a speed awareness course a few years ago and the instructor told us the 10% thing is a myth.

I would be angry too. So many drivers using their mobile phone or smoking weed and they do somebody for a few mph over.

It's a complete piss take!

It happens to everyone, they need to raise revenue so will set up as many traps as they can.

You got a speeding ticket for speeding. Hold the front page.

Don’t speed and enjoy paying your fine 😂

Why is that annoying? You're not meant to start to speed up until you get to the sign.

Look, I'm not going to be all holier than thou and claim I never ever speed, but you broke the law and got caught for it, there's no point getting annoyed by it. If you don't want to get caught, then don't speed.

Definitely don't go to court about it- you would probably be convicted and then it could well be 6 points. Much better just to do the course.

Just do the course, you might even learn something.

The speed awareness course is actually really good!

Just do the speed awareness course, 3 hours of your time, then nothing more said