Speeding fines and Smart Motorways

[Kimbers]

So since the introduction of Smart Motorways with variable speed limits, use of hard shoulder and camera's on every gantry, speeding fines have gone up from 2000 to 52,000 a year and revenues from £150,000 to over £1.1 million last year.

Now whilst smart motorways are a good way of managing traffic by increasing the number of lanes in busy times and reducing speeds etc, I can't help but think that such a hugely massive increase is both a cynical stab at motorists and just another revenue maker!

Your thoughts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37888207

[theelanman]

I think Im going to buy myself a bit of motorway.......

easy money........

[Bibs]

 

[LF1]

Don't get me started on that subject... 81 in a 70 at 7am on a completely empty 4 lane motorway without any variable speed active.

[Dan E]

Tom, I have always wondered, are they still on then with no speed limit displayed? I must have been pretty lucky then!!

If the rule of 10% plus 3mph applies you was really very unlucky. I would much prefer they actually fined heavily for bad lane discipline, I have never understood why you would feel safer in the middle lane. It is my pet hate I genuinely see red but have ever been bothered by people driving at 90mph as long as they are doing it safely.

 

 

[Kimbers]

It's my understanding they they aren't operable unless the variable limit is in force?

[LF1]

24 minutes ago, Dan E said:

Tom, I have always wondered, are they still on then with no speed limit displayed? I must have been pretty lucky then!!

If the rule of 10% plus 3mph applies you was really very unlucky. I would much prefer they actually fined heavily for bad lane discipline, I have never understood why you would feel safer in the middle lane. It is my pet hate I genuinely see red but have ever been bothered by people driving at 90mph as long as they are doing it safely.

Must be - What was priceless was that on the speed awareness course (where no one in the room seemed to know anything about speed limits, highway code, etc) they were gobsmacked I was there for that. Apparently it is a summerset thing.

100% it was not in force. I saw the flash and there was a letter waiting for me when I got home. I spoke to the police about it at some event they were showing off unmarked cars this summer - they were pretty open about it and how they would have just ignored me. They also made the point of the middle lane hoggers. The problems on motorways are caused by people being completely unaware of what is going on around them. Most of them do 60 in the middle lane endlessly and will never get into trouble for anything but cause carnage.

I think the variable speed thing is a good idea if it works to back off traffic further ahead when there is an issue, or there is an extra lane in use that is not suitable for 70 mph speeds. If this needs to be policed by automated cameras then that is fine by me as we all get there quickly. But let's put the fortune being generated by these systems towards educating people on how to use a motorway properly. @alias23 posted a perfect road sign illustrating this this recently - can't find it now.

[Bibs]

I was going to produce some TLF 'Keep Left Unless Overtaking' stickers a while back... 

[100th_Idiot]

38 minutes ago, Kimbers said:

It's my understanding they they aren't operable unless the variable limit is in force?

Not true. Some cameras are on all the time regardless of whether a variable speed limit is indicated or not. Certainly the section of the M4 at Bristol between the M32 and M5 junctions is like this. Cameras are always active.

As I understand it this is not the case with all variable speed limit sections.

[LF1]

Yup - i can vouch for that

I had just left the M4 and was going west bound on the M5.

[alias23]

Don't get me started of middle lane hogging!

[MesTCS]

23 minutes ago, Bibs said:

I was going to produce some TLF 'Keep Left Unless Overtaking' stickers a while back... 

Mrs Mes and I often discuss this. It's the middle lane idiots that cause a lot of the problems here. Standard English scenario, everyone is just too selfish. You're not me, why should I care?

The government could do a hell of a lot for things like this by pushing a "KEEP LEFT" campaign. If these idiots were made to feel some semblance of guilt for their poor / inconsiderate driving they'd do it a hell of a lot less I think. 

In fact, if they put that forward as a policy it might actually get me to vote!

[alias23]

Actually you have got me started! All this money being spent on motorway extensions and road works well if people drive properly then we'd have a more effective through put on the motorway and therefore need to spend less on creating more runway... Just like the NHS if we had less obese people and people who would just take responsibility for their health we'd have less budgetary problems with the NHS!

Rant over and general assumptions throughout

Oh and one last one.... People who can't be arsed to use indicators! They should have a temporary ban or fine! 

[MesTCS]

Bang on mate, although the NHS... it's the system and results based performance measuring that's most of the problem from what my Mrs tells me (works in strategy for the government).

And the indicators bit... MY GOD there's just no excuse!

Crossing the road at a large crossroads to go home the other day and I check the road joining and no one is indicating so I presume (wrongly) they're all going straight. As I start to cross a guy in some old rust bucket just turns. I was in the road so thankfully he braked. I pointed at the front of his car and gave him the universal sign language for "are you a bit short of brain capacity". He winds his window down and shouts "What's your f***in' problem mate?" so I explained I wouldn't have attempted to cross if he'd bothered to indicate. 

"F*** off mate" and off he drives up the road. Hopefully into a tree.

[Stubox]

49 minutes ago, LF1 said:

Yup - i can vouch for that

I had just left the M4 and was going west bound on the M5.

They also work on the eastbound bit...

 

 

[TheKevlarKid]

I often wonder what the roads would be like if for just one day everyone drove like me...

[USAndretti42]

What I don't understand is how a penaly for speeding when the limits are lower to ease traffic flow are just as sever as for speeding when the limit is supposed to be about safety!  That can't be justified, surely.

The safe speed is usually the speed that most people are doing, not what someone in a control room has decided unless there's some hidden hazard.  Trouble is, "smart" motorway signs so often cry "wolf" with their "aniimals in road" signs and suchlike that it's hard to believe them.

Talking of speed limits around Bristol, the last time I drove through there on the M5, they had a 60 mph limit on even though the 4-lane wide stretch of motorway was very quiet.  Looks like a moneyspinner to me.

[ramjet]

I think a real problem that most of us have is that we see only the piece of road we are on. It's going too slow etc. The 'someone' in the control room is looking at our bit of road in conjunction with many other bits of intersecting road. I might be wrong, but I have been told it is all set out to hopefully all work in unison.

We have the 'middle lane hoggers' here as well as well as the people who remain in the right lane of a dual carriageway for km after km. I don't care if you want to sit there, but don't tailgate the car in front of you so that I can't move to the right when I wish to turn right. I will quite happily vouch for the fact that a 'Keep Left' campaign is a waste of time. The police can actually fine for people for not moving left, but don't.

[LF1]

About a year ago there was a news story about the police cracking down on anti social driving and had new fines for things like middle lane hoggers, tailgating, queue cutting, etc. 

Don't know if anyone has been penalised for it?

[ramjet]

Scare campaign maybe?

[theelanman]

flow dynamics........that's what variable speed limits are about.......

basically what they're trying to avoid is everyone arriving at the bottleneck at the same time or sooner......

should also avoid people ploughing into the back of stationary traffic.........to stop situations like the one where the trucker was pissing about on his phone and drove (without braking) straight into the back of a queue of traffic and wiped out a family....

[ramjet]

A variable speed limit can't fix stoopid. 

[theelanman]

that is oh so true but its trying to reduce the likely hood of some f****ing idiot driving straight into the back of someone at 70mph coz theyre not paying attention.....

 

[Bibs]

2 hours ago, LF1 said:

Don't know if anyone has been penalised for it?

I think they've issued a few hundred tickets. I'd assume this is because, compared to days of old, it's very rare to see the cops on the motorway nowadays. ?They have speed cameras to do their job against speeding instead since it's the most profitable, most prolific, easiest to detect with no effort, only crime that happens there. 

[LF1]

I think the problem it it takes effort to fine them for this offence, whereas speeding I suspect it is automated end to end.

The day I over/undertake a middle lane hogger when I've sat behind them for 10 miles with the trailer will be the day there is an unmarked entrapment officer near by.