Speed ticket

[MyLoyalAmberHelper]

Absolutely fuming to have a speeding ticket. 3mph over the 30. It was 7 in the morning half term so very quiet on the road. Speed trap with speed gun. I never go that way normally but was giving someone a lift to work as a favour.

Its my first spending ticket in 40 years of driving, also never had an accident, i feel I am a good driver . Im fuming because over the past few weeks i have witnessed some awful driving, that's really dangerous with no consequences. Am i being unreasonable to be so annoyed.

Maybe, I didn't.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You will probably get a course and keep your clean licence

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 😡

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.

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.

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 !!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

It was the most boring 3.5 hours of my life. At least they had decent biscuits with the tea

Of course you're being unreasonable.
It doesn't matter what other drivers do, this is about what you did, and that's speeding, you sound very entitled.

Just do the course then hopefully you’ll learn how not to speed again. You can’t control other drivers behaviour, only your own.

It IS annoying, especially as other drivers will be annoyed if you drive under the limit. Around here it is 20 everywhere, so I keep checking my speed to make sure I am not going higher than 20 but also not lower than 18, so distracting!

Isnt it just all part and parcel of owning a car?

And that will be exactly why they were sat there, lol.

Thats just a money grab. Id challenge it, Im pretty sure the there is a 10% window of tolerance as its impossible to be completely accurate.

No, there isn't.

Lots of police forces choose to follow the 10% +2mph rule but they don't have to.

The reason for the guidance is if it goes to court its difficult to prove it wasn't a device accuracy issue. Hence the window of tolerance. So if they choose not to follow the guidance, they risk it being thrown out. Depends on your appetite for challenge.

Got my first ever speeding ticket the other week too - 36 in a 30 zone. That was a really crap week, lost my house keys and the boiler was condemned as well as getting the speeding ticket.

It doesn't happen to everyone.
Lots of drivers can monitor the speedo, read the road and check signs. I always keep a shade under the speed limit.