Speeding again!!!!

Very true indeed. To drive in the UK is bliss, you do not know how good you have it!


George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/M46, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230FT/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K, 90k)

[GorgeousGeorge]

on the whole the driving conditions are fine but you only need one bad apple to spoil the bunch !!!!

henrik, i'm gorgeousgeorge over there as well but more of a lurker than a poster.

later

scott

[sheerwater]

A good variety of opinion here then. I gather most of you do not live in my area where the speed limits change with the wind and I can show you a roundabout with 50, 30,60 and 40 mph limits on it where the limit changes again within a few yards from 30,40 to 50. You will notice however that in general the policy is to remove drivers off the road by the points system. A system which increases insurance with the points and nets the government additional insurance tax. Bear in mind that EVERY legal driver on the road has passed a driving test set by the Government (and even this was introduced as a tax). If it passes drivers it must accept some responsibility if they do not drive well. It is about money, not driving ability. Why would somebody driving at 47mph in a 30 zone not be as dangerous as a person driving at 31 mph if this was not the case.(yes my wife was caught doing 47 in a 30 area a week after they changed the speed limit and was ''offered the standard £60 + 3 points''). Another friend caught doing 31 YES 31 was offered retraining on a course at a cost of £90 plus a days lost wages instead of the £60+3points. Who was the most dangerous ? Who has a clean licence and who benefitted most ? British roads are designed by experts. I can show you numerous mistakes in road design i.e.
2 lanes going into one straight after traffic lights where there are accidents regularly. Why allow 2 lanes to start and compete for the same space. At one junction this is especially poignant as the exit road has just been reduced from 50 to 30. The situation arises where 2 lanes feed in doing 30 and they used to be able to accelarate to 50 and ZIP feed into one line. Now the exit is 30 2 lanes of traffic compete for one lane which is now doing about 25 as this is a mobile speed camera area. Result is 2 lanes bumper to bumper squeezing into one and this halves road area per car. Result bump after bump. If criminals are offered rehabilitation free of charge why not motorists ? Why if the government is so worried about driver attitudes does it not offer FREE courses to promote better driving for anyone interested? You may have read that it is considering allowing people who have taken an advanced test to drive faster on motorways. Now thats going to be an interesting situation. As for being bad drivers...yes we all are. Not one of us is perfect and not one of us can hold our hands up and say we have never made a mistake. The difference today is the government has realised that our little mistakes can be turned into cash. PS if you are caught in Northampton parking with a wheel touching a white line in a paid parking bay this can cost £60. Another example of the motorist cash cow.
Cheers Nige

Motorists are cash cows all over the place, nothing new there. Of course there are mistakes in road designs in England, but nothing compared to Belgium where all civil servants designing roads are smoking pot. My personal favourite is where the E40 meets the Brussels ring and there is also a junction from the A road. Thus, you have five flows of traffic: at the one end one coming on to the motorway and one coming from the E40 and at the other end, one going into Brussels, one going onto the ring clockwise and one anticlockwise. Now, I would personally design this thus: split motorway and junction separately and then merge junction traffic with motorway traffic, i.e. if you come off the A road and wish to go on to the ring clockwise, you will only merge with motorway traffic going onto the ring clockwise. Not the Belgians, here they merge junction traffic with motorway traffic and then quarter of a mile later, split the traffic, thus creating a very dangerous cross flow and overtaking on both sides. It is mad, frightening and plain dangerous.

George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/M46, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230FT/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K, 90k)

[sheerwater]

Been there George!!!
I hate to admit it but the French seem to be leading the field in motorways. Flack will hit me here but the system around Paris has always been Magic for me. It was designed years ago (at least 20 to my knowlege but please correct me) in the days of lighter traffic. Last week I crossed Paris twice in under half an hour with no stops. Yes I have seen it stationary but its an old system dealing with modern traffic flows and they even tell you if you are going to get stuck so you can turn off before you sit reading a newspaper!!!! Cheers Nige

[niloc]

For those of you who have received the latest magazine, I was particularly interested in the article about safety innovations by Volvo. Quite a comprehensive list, of which a lot of items have become compulsory on new cars.
This begs the question ..... Are Sweden's roads that dangerous? :+

I understand that it is very often below freezing, with a blanket of snow and also mountainous, but how do they drive over there?

How do they drive in Sweden, well, they have a gearbox and an engine, they select the right gear and then press the throttle... No seriously, first of all, winter tyres are compulsory in winter and most people use studded tyres. Most of Sweden is quite flat so that is not a problem, but ice is, it does kill people every year.


George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/M46, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230FT/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K, 90k)

[sheerwater]

Hi George,
Nice to see your write up in the magazine.
For goodness sake dont tell our Government that ice kills people or they will either tax it or ban it!!!!! Cheers Nige

Just installed a BEL Euro 550 detector. Seems very reliable and gives ample warning.

To my knowledge this is one of the best detectors on the market and specically designed for Europe rather than previous versions which were adaptations from the USA.

I do not use this device to drive any faster than normal and I certainly do not agree with anyone speeding in a built up area.

What it does do is protect you from lapses of concentration on motorways, country lanes, temporary speed restrictions etc.. where cameras are positioned just around bends, behind trees etc..and alerts the driver in advance to potentially higher-risk areas.

Incidently there are guidelines as to the postioning of cameras. www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk is a very good site to look at.

Most local police authority web sites provide information on where mobile cameras will be positioned on a weekly basis. This is worth checking out before journeys.