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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

JUST BECAUSE THERE IS A SPEED CAMERA ON 50MPH ROAD

296 replies

NotYoMomma · 02/06/2013 17:06

Does NOT mean you should drop your speed to 35MPH!!!!

Ianbu!

HATE this, seriously why do 50, traffic moving nicely and then bang on the break just as you go past?!

Note I didn't nearly crash but we had to slow right down and of course it was muggins here who got stuck at the next set.of traffic lights of doom

GRrrr twitch

OP posts:

OrangeFireandGoldashes · 03/06/2013 10:13

Problem with that, AU, is that you can't control the distance between you and the car behind - only they can do that. You can only control the distance between you and the car in front (unless that's what you meant - same as what I do - in which case apologies for misunderstanding).

SoupDragon · 03/06/2013 10:17

Soudragon. It is easy. Learn the national speed limit for the type of road you are on or spend millions on speed limit signs. Not stupid now is it

Ilovemyself Did you mean to be so patronising and rude? My point was that the signs should have been a number in the first place.

Ilovemyself · 03/06/2013 10:18

Chunkychicken. There is NO excuse for not knowing t he speed limit ( other than the theft of both signs on the entry to a change in speed restrictions)

If you do not know the limit, you are driving without due care and attention. !

Abra1d · 03/06/2013 10:20

We live near a beauty spot and the road we rely on for getting to town/school buses/doctors etc, is a national speed limits road.

That is 60mph. Admittedly, I would usually drive parts of it at 40-45mph as it is a bit windy.

Many visitors to the area insist that it is 30mph and it is very frustrating as we can't overtake on this road. I am afraid I do now flash them to pull over into one of the few places it is possible so that I can get past. Seventeen years of putting up with it have chipped away at my patience.

ArbitraryUsername · 03/06/2013 10:21

Oh I do try to increase the distance between me and the car in front. But I will also slow down (gradually, because rapidly slamming on the brakes would cause the person behind me to hit me) to make the fact there's an idiot behind me less dangerous. I don't slow down to something ludicrous either.

I am particularly flummoxed by tailgaters in the middle lane of the motorway. The right-hand lane is usually empty when they do it. I am overtaking traffic in the left-hand lane (or I'd be in the left-hand lane). I don't understand why an idiot in the sort of car Jeremy clarkston approves of (and it usually is) needs to drive up right behind me and tailgate me until I get past whatever I'm overtaking, instead of anticipating the slower moving traffic ahead and switching to the right-hand lane to overtake it. What benefit is there to driving aggressively and dangerously? It's not like I'm going to suddenly think, 'oh yes. I'll speed up to 85/90 because that's how fast you want to drive'.

Ilovemyself · 03/06/2013 10:22

Soupdragon. Er yes if you are not thinking. Do you have any idea how much it would cost to have to place speed limit signs every few hundred yards ( because if the limit is not the national limit that must be done).

If people simply learned the Highway Code there would be no need. You are asking for a solution to a problem which already has an answer if you care to abide by the law when driving

BasilBabyEater · 03/06/2013 10:22

It's not about 2 wrongs making a right - it's about safety. If someone is going to go into your boot, it's safer for them to do it at 40 than 50, 60 than 70, etc.

As for speed cameras only being there to fleece law abiding motorists - well if you're breaking the speed limit, you're not law abiding are you. If you don't want to be "fleeced", don't speed. And take a look at the data - where speed cameras are installed, road traffic collisions decline.

I blame Jeremy Clarkson.

ChunkyChicken · 03/06/2013 10:24

Ilovemyself I think I just made that point didn't I?!!! Why I am I getting the flak here??! I don't brake at speed cameras, I drive at the appropriate speed, I made the point that a speed change shouldn't be catching Melika or anyone 'unawares' so did you mean to be so rude?

BasilBabyEater · 03/06/2013 10:25

Yes just so Arbitraryusername.

It's not slamming on the brakes so they go into you - the point of slowing down (slowly) is to try and make things safer, not less safe.

I just can't stand tail-gaters - it is extraordinary dangerous, discourteous and generally twatty to drive up someone's arse when a) they are already doing the speed limit and/ or b) there is a bloody overtaking lane right there that they could use.

OrangeFireandGoldashes · 03/06/2013 10:28

Soupdragon And MY point was that it's not as simple as sticking a number on the sign because that number varies depending on the type and size of vehicle. All you have to do is learn the NSL for the category of vehicle you are driving and the type of road you are on. You shouldn't assume that just because you are in e.g. a standard car so the NSL that applies to you is 60/70 depending on number of carriageways, that the same speed limit applies to all other road users.

Didn't you cover this when learning to drive?

BasilBabyEater · 03/06/2013 10:28

LOL at everyone being rude to each other.

All this road rage.

ArbitraryUsername · 03/06/2013 10:30

Or when it's really obvious that the person you are tailgating has no control over the general slow speed of the road. If you can see a long line of slow moving traffic behind a caravan or tractor (or just an over cautious crawler), what purpose could tailgating the person in front of you in that queue serve? It's not like you can intimidate the entire queue into going faster (as I assume that is the purpose of tailgating).

Ilovemyself · 03/06/2013 10:30

Sorry chunkychicken. I must have missread your post.

BasilBabyEater · 03/06/2013 10:38

To be fair I think sometimes tailgating is due to people not being aware of stopping distances and being a bit absent minded - if you slow down slowly, mostly someone will draw back because they hadn't realised how close they were and it reminds them.

But the aggressive "you go faster because I want you to" wankers - no, no patience with them.

Abra1d · 03/06/2013 10:41

'Speed cameras are about generating money from law abiding drivers. They are not about reducing accidents. I wouldn't be surprised if they actually caused an increase in accidents due to the situation the OP d'

This really isn't true. Speed cameras are very expensive to install, fit with film and monitor. They are only put into stretches of residential road where there have been a lot of complaints about speeding motorists, near schools, for instance. Usually this means there have been serious accidents: people badly hurt or killed.

I learned this on my speed awareness course. Changed the way I look at them.

ChunkyChicken · 03/06/2013 10:44

No probs ilovemyself. I was trying to make the same point as you - there is no reason to be unaware of the limit. :)

melika · 03/06/2013 10:50

There are not always speed limit signs near a camera (I have come across a few) that is why you have to assume it is 30.

melika · 03/06/2013 10:52

Just to pre-empt any silly comments back, bollocks to you.

Of course you never make a mistake.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/06/2013 10:53

So why do you need to brake if you're assuming it's 30?!

OrangeFireandGoldashes · 03/06/2013 10:54

"They are only put into stretches of residential road"

Abra1d I think your speed awareness course must have simplified the justification for speed cameras as there are fixed cameras on both the A1 and the A14, on 70mph stretches miles from any residential areas.

melika · 03/06/2013 10:56

Because may bee it was a 40, spelling it out f-or y-ou!

OrangeFireandGoldashes · 03/06/2013 10:56

Ignore that, I've just read your post properly.

In my defence I'm in bed with tonsillitis so the old brain is working even slower than usual.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/06/2013 10:57

Riiight.

So, to sum up, you sometimes do 50 and brake to 30, because it might be a 40 zone, but you know the 'bloody' speed limit, of course you do, and you're never a bad driver, except when you don't know the speed limit, except you suspect it might be 30 but you decide to break it because, oh, other people's lives aren't very important. And you're fed up with us for mentioning this because it's terribly rude to care.

Glad we sorted that one out, then.

Fakebook · 03/06/2013 10:58

Hmm, yanbu I suppose, as long as you don't try to overtake them or anything. I go pass a notorious speed camera when I sometimes pick up dh from work on a 30mph road. About 3 weeks ago a cocky idiot in a convertible decided I was going too slow at 25mph and overtook me on the left in the bus lane and then slammed his brakes on when he realised the camera flashed! I caught up with him and laughed at him when we got to the roundabout at the end of the road. He was mightily pissed off. Idiot.

melika · 03/06/2013 10:59

OMFG. If I am trundling along the road which is a 40 and then some time down the road a camera appears and the signs are not visible or missing as they sometimes are, then I assume it is 30. As I said before, there should be limit signs on the camera itself.

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