Roadside Census..

Scania · 20 Mar 2009 at 05:58

Dogbreath said:
You must stop if requested to do so by a police officer, but there is no legal obligation to answer any census questions put to you by a civilian. This means it perfectly legal to drive into the census area, tell the person with a clipboard you don't wish to answer any questions and leave.

Absolutely right.

Its far more fun to pull in and pretend to be from another Planet/Country and/or just give absurd answers.....

If I'm in a rush, I'll pull in as directed by the Copper, tell the Census taker, politely,to ask somebody else and leave.

Five_Star · 20 Mar 2009 at 08:04

They are hopeless, rather than doing real investigations they put on a show of force to remind you how much tax we pay towards an inept police force who only seem capable of causing inconvenience to the general public.

Unless they wanted to arrest me (which they couldn't without good reason) I wouldn't give them the time of day

Magic_x_uk · 20 Mar 2009 at 08:13

Market research affects us all. It is a very important survey. You may think you don't benefit from these types of things. But they affect us all. Everything we buy, everything we want to do. It all has been surveyed to see if the public wants this and that. Or which is the best route to follow.

Granted it may hold you up for a short while. But the outcome far outways the short delay you may experiance.

Freefaller · 20 Mar 2009 at 08:17

I was pulled over and I told him I couldn't tell him as it was classified - I felt like a nob, but the look on his face was brilliant

I did ask why they wanted the answers to these questions they are collecting data - that was his answer.

I told him I couldn't tell him where I worked (and it is company policy) and I told him I was going to the gym which I was literally right outside of when I was pulled over. He gave me a census card, now I just wave it at people and I don't get pulled over anymore (3 times since!! Bloody London).

I'm sure it's a survey to see why so many people use their cars etc... if they just asked that I could tell them that it takes me 1.5 hrs to take public transport to work and 20 mins to drive and park in a secure car park (in fact I even leave my keys in the car since it is impossible for anyone but employees to access the underground car park.). The time I get to work public transport seldom runs anyway...

Instead of collecting such data I wish they'd ask you more sensible questions.

kaiowas · 20 Mar 2009 at 08:49

AcidHell2 said:
No they can't, the traffic is different at rush hour.

Traffic is different when you introduce an artificial obstruction which causes a 6 mile tailback that wouldn't be there under normal circumstances. I really don't understand quite how they expect to gather meaningful information in such a way.

lordrobs · 20 Mar 2009 at 08:59

AcidHell2 said:
What's the point of collecting data in quite periods. Yes it is annoying, but essential. It is the only way to collect the data needed.

Exactly.

Anyway when every car is fitted with a GPS tracking device they will no longer need to use this method to collect data... hopefully thats a long way off yet though.

The ones I've seen round here have caused a slight bit of disruption but nothing major.

Bill101 · 20 Mar 2009 at 09:22

kaiowas said:
Traffic is different when you introduce an artificial obstruction which causes a 6 mile tailback that wouldn't be there under normal circumstances. I really don't understand quite how they expect to gather meaningful information in such a way.

They also ask questions about how many people are normally in the car and if you drive that route every day.
They must be doing a large survey here as the blocked off Queens Drive by the 5 ways roundabout last week, the tail back went all the way to the M62!

Glaucus · 20 Mar 2009 at 09:25

kaiowas said:
Traffic is different when you introduce an artificial obstruction which causes a 6 mile tailback that wouldn't be there under normal circumstances. I really don't understand quite how they expect to gather meaningful information in such a way.

But it's still as close as they can get.

I've never seen it cause problems like that. When I've been stopped. They use a lay-by. And just fill it. Rest of the traffic goes on un-affected.

How else can they collect the data? if you know a way I'm sure they would like to know. Other than gps trackers, even then it wouldn't tell them why.

bledd · 20 Mar 2009 at 09:28

it's for the greater good

my mate works for a traffic / road planning company, he says they get sooo much stick when they have to do this, and the police often make arrests when people start kicking off at them

Vanilla · 20 Mar 2009 at 09:34

The other day when I saw it in London they took up a 100m section of the A4 (Great West Road) on the inside lane.

This area is a traffic blackspot at rush hour and this additional obstruction caused major disruption all around.

Dogbreath · 20 Mar 2009 at 10:32

AcidHell2 said:
I've never seen it cause problems like that. When I've been stopped. They use a lay-by. And just fill it. Rest of the traffic goes on un-affected.

O RLY?

AcidHell2 said:
How else can they collect the data? if you know a way I'm sure they would like to know. Other than gps trackers, even then it wouldn't tell them why.

I've got a great idea, how about they install thousands of cameras all over the country and dispense with any notion of privacy by using them to track vehicles? You can probably make them more acceptable by lying about their intended purpose, e.g. say they will be used to stop terrorism.

arknor · 20 Mar 2009 at 10:48

Dogbreath said:
O RLY?

I've got a great idea, how about they install thousands of cameras all over the country and dispense with any notion of privacy by using them to track vehicles? You can probably make them more acceptable by lying about their intended purpose, e.g. say they will be used to stop terrorism.

werent they planning to do that anyway? i remember something about it some time ago

RickST · 20 Mar 2009 at 11:48

it is annoying, however it is by far the cheapest and most effective way to gather information for the reasons already mentioned. If you have concerns about your privacy simply say you would prefer not to answer and be on your way.

mejinks · 20 Mar 2009 at 11:53

Isn't it classed as assault for the police to stop you without good reason? As far as I am aware, failing to complete a census is not a criminal offence. :confused:

RickST · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:02

there is a good reason, just becuase you feel the reason isnt great doesn't mean you can ignore then nice policeman.

failing to complete the census isn't the problem, failing to stop is

mejinks · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:08

RickSri said:
there is a good reason, just becuase you feel the reason isnt great doesn't mean you can ignore then nice policeman.

failing to complete the census isn't the problem, failing to stop is

If the police don't have a good reason, they can't. Failing to complete the census isn't a criminal offence. As I said above.

[TW]Fox · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:11

mejinks said:
If the police don't have a good reason, they can't. Failing to complete the census isn't a criminal offence. As I said above.

But failing to stop for a police officer IS. You can refuse to give them any information, but you MUST stop.

Fr0dders · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:12

Street said:
But in rush hour traffic.. Causing a 6 mile solid 2 lane queue?! Its a joke.

They don't need to know where I've come from, where I'm going or where I'm going to park.

they're observing peak time traffic patterns

If you want to know whats causing a road to be busy during peak time traffic, no point asking people who drive on the road at midday where they are going

They did quite a few of these in leeds recently, prior to the openning of the east leeds link road. It links Junction 44 of the M1/A1 Link with leeds city centre. Previously everybody going into leeds from the A1/M1 link had to come off at junction 43 and come in via a dual carriageway, that then merged into 1 lane, that then merged with the a46, the road carrying all the peak time traffic from wakefield into leeds. Funnelling all traffic from wakefield into leeds, and from the M1A1 into leeds, into a single lane meant rush hour traffic was a standstill.

So to find out if this link road would benefit people, they pulled people over during rush hour and asked them where they travel from, and where they travel to. And worked out that most of the traffic could be re-routed through the new leeds link road

It openned about a month ago, and my journey into work has halfed now.

Guessing they must be considering building a bypass or new road near you then ?

Street · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:34

AcidHell2 said:
I've never seen it cause problems like that. When I've been stopped. They use a lay-by. And just fill it. Rest of the traffic goes on un-affected.

That wouldn't have been as bad, but the dock road is two lanes each way. They'd closed one side down to one lane and the other side had closed off the outside lane and were filtering people over into the closed of lane on the other side to ask them questions. Meaning that two of the four lanes were functional. If they had done it 100 metres or so further up the road, there was a perfect layby that they could have used, infact the cops regularly use that bit for speed trapping and it never causes problems.

Bill101 said:
They must be doing a large survey here as the blocked off Queens Drive by the 5 ways roundabout last week, the tail back went all the way to the M62!

I've seen them in a few places around Liverpool now, and further down the dock road towards Crosby.

MrLOL said:
Guessing they must be considering building a bypass or new road near you then ?

I can only hope! It takes me an hour to drive 15 miles in the mornings.. Although I can't see them spending anymore money on roads. They still haven't finished the rest of the stuff they've started.

mejinks · 20 Mar 2009 at 12:40

[TW]Fox;13719047 said:
But failing to stop for a police officer IS. You can refuse to give them any information, but you MUST stop.

Sorry, yeah, thats what I meant. Once established they have no good reason to detain you, you should be able to drive off.