I just got pulled over for doing 32 in a 30

[dialdrunkforyou]

I’m shaking as I write this. I just drove out to walk the dogs and on my way back a police car pulled me over. I was doing 32 in a 30 and he said I was “lucky” that he’s not choosing to prosecute me over this.

AIBU or is this total overkill? It’s a dry sunny day, the roads are relatively quiet and I wasn’t driving erratically.

Are you sure the limit was 30?

Thought they normally have 10% tolerance
Maybe just for cameras and he was using a manual hand held thing
Bit annoying on a downhill too
Oh well you know now that they are out recording speed
As long as you aim to do slightly under it'll never be a problem
I've done the speed awareness course and found it really good

Most cars speedometers will show doing about 35/36 when actually doing 32, very rare that the speedometer shows doing less that actually are, car manufacturers are over cautious if anything.

Well, most car speedometers are deliberately calibrated to show up to 10% higher than your actual speed, and cannot legally show below the true speed.

So did he pull you over because (a) he had accurately measured your speed with an external device, or (b) was he judging it by his car speedometer?

If (a) that means your speedo must have been showing between 32 and 35, so you would have known you were speeding.

If (b) the likelihood is that you were only doing 29, so he was in the wrong.

Yes. I drive along that road very often

If that is actually true, then you need to get that looked at. Legally a speedo should never underread your speed, for obvious reasons.

Struggling to see why this would leave you shaking

Which is why they are not taking any action.

Take it as a heads up: it's easy to go over the limit when the road is clear and you are going downhill.

Shrug and move on.

We have speed cameras on our high rd and people get done for being 2 and 3 mph over all the time. seems harsh but Limit means means limit not some sort of vague guideline.

I just think it’s a bit silly. About two miles away there’s a town full of drug addicts and drunks who make part of the town a no go area. But they’d rather pull over innocent people!

Bored copper. I'm sure speedos are only accurate within 10% or something. Hence why he said "you're lucky" because a there's no way a prosecution would stand up. Isn't it the CPS who prosecute anyway, not the police?

It seems ott, but Tbf you were speeding and got a warning, so it’s the right thing really

Because he was very intimidating, I’m a woman on my own and he was treating me like a criminal

Your speedo was showing 32? They usually read over, 33mph on my speedo is 30mph, 76 speedo is 70mph. Double check it against Google maps next time you're driving, I've never been caught speeding despite going through cameras/passing cops with my cruise control set to 76 so certainly for me google maps speed is more accurate than my speedo

I think tyre profiles make a difference to the accuracy

But it literally is speeding?!

I use the limiter on my car, saves a lot of stress esp as my city is mostly 20mph nowadays

You're not going to do it again though, are you?

Was he on his own too? If he just pulled you over after following you with his police car I’d be inclined to check to make sure he was a real police officer.

Anything over 30mph in a 30 zone is speeding, by definition.

But you weren’t innocent

But I was.

I just set my cruise control, same if I’m in a 20

If that were the case,

a) For the OP to say that the speedo was showing 32mph, they've have to be going faster than that, then

b) If it's impossible to see until they reach 5mph+ over a limit, they'd need to drive slower everywhere or they'd have a slew of speed camera fines.

I'm surprised it even showed up as speeding.

You’re wrong to speed but you know this. I would say it’s overkill for police to pull you over though for being 2mph over.

Love threads like this. They bring all the MN busybodies to finger wag. "Oooh a mile over the speed limit, lock her up!" "She's no better than she ought to be!" etc. The kind of people who were in seventh heaven during covid, twitching curtains to see if any of the neighbours went out twice in a day.

YANBU at all, OP. There was no need to pull you over for that, and I'm very wary of police officers pulling over lone women after the cases we've heard in the last couple of years. I'm not surprised you were shaken up. You could probably report him, although who knows if it would do any good.

That does seem like overkill to me tbh, but i also don't get why you're shaking over it.

My neighbour got sent on a speed awareness course for (so he says) doing 34 in a 30 zone. I think because 30 areas are so busy with pedestrians you have to be especially careful