Roadside Census..

MrMatteh · 20 Mar 2009 at 19:18

I wonder if they could just catch everyone on ANPR then send out questionnaires to the registered keepers address?

I realise it wont have as a high a hit rate (wrong addresses, drivers not being the registered keeper, people not returning them etc..) but it would save a lot of people a lot of hassle and lost time!

rypt · 20 Mar 2009 at 19:22

Burnsy2023 said:
They don't. They just stop traffic so the council can.

Their job is to stop traffic for police matters, not for council matters

Dogbreath · 20 Mar 2009 at 19:30

MrLOL said:
Remember the census has its own little place in law. Isnt it a fineable offence to lie on the national census or something ?

A road traffic census and the national census that counts population etc. are entirely different things.

mejinks · 20 Mar 2009 at 20:13

Should have asked them why they weren't out reloading the speed cameras

Scania · 21 Mar 2009 at 07:44

andi said:
Police in the UK do not require any reason to stop a vehicle. They do need one to search it or you though.

I get the impression watching things such as Traffic Cops that they do require you to do something generally to require a pull. If not, they certainly give that impression imo.

mike5678 · 21 Mar 2009 at 08:32

A police officer has the power to stop any vehicle he wishes in order to examine the drivers driving documents. He uses section 163 Road Traffic Act to stop the vehicle, and Section 164 Road Traffic Act to examine your driving documents.

This pretty much provides blanket powers for police to stop any vehicle they wish whenever they want without reason, as they are always covered as they wished to examine your driving documents as part of the stop.

rypt · 21 Mar 2009 at 10:22

mike5678 said:
A police officer has the power to stop any vehicle he wishes in order to examine the drivers driving documents.

A census is not examining documents, and it would still be abuse of power to pull over everyone you see to examine their documents

AtreuS · 21 Mar 2009 at 10:31

Knowing the law as it stands now they could probably just pull you over under anti terrorism laws claiming you mouthed "Allahu Akbar" as you drove close

Lum · 21 Mar 2009 at 16:08

Street said:
But people heading down that road are all heading to the same destination, doesn't matter what time of day they do it, if they're only asking where people are going, everyone driving down there at rush hour is going into Liverpool.

Apart from the ones going to Birkenhead, Wallasey or Belfast.

Next time there's your answer "Well I was going to Belfast, but thanks to you ****s I've missed my ferry. Can I have £100 for another one please?"

Edit: and no they're not going to get accurate results, suppose I was planning to travel from St. Helens to Birkenhead, normally I'd come down the M62 and then through one of the tunnels. As soon as I got wind of this tailback, I'd take the M56/M53 route to Birkenhead instead.

Burnsy2023 · 21 Mar 2009 at 19:33

rypt said:
A census is not examining documents, and it would still be abuse of power to pull over everyone you see to examine their documents

That's not the law they stop you for though. The council just require a uniformed police officer to stop the traffic. They could have used the highways agency traffic officers rather than police but either way they do need this supervision.

rypt · 21 Mar 2009 at 19:34

Burnsy2023 said:
That's not the law they stop you for though. The council just require a uniformed police officer to stop the traffic. They could have used the highways agency traffic officers rather than police but either way they do need this supervision.

And either way it is not the job of the police to be stopping motorists for the hell of it rather than for police matters.

andi · 21 Mar 2009 at 20:38

rypt said:
And either way it is not the job of the police to be stopping motorists for the hell of it rather than for police matters.

According to who or what? You?

Django x2 · 21 Mar 2009 at 20:42

Prize for the most number of times the word "model" has been used in one post goes to MRK1@1

Overlag · 21 Mar 2009 at 21:00

Dup said:
I heard if you can't mention that you're heading to a specific destination and that you're "Just out for a drive", they escort you into the back of a van where you come out with no memory and a sore bottom.

i had that one too

AcidHell2 said:
But where in Liverpool and where from. Does a new route need to be made. Can an existing road be re-organised to ease traffic flow. Or a million and one other things they can analyse the data for.

It's not as if it's an every day occurrence.

to be fair, ANPR cameras can (and one day will) log where you come from and where your going (main road wise). Big brother is watching.

*Moangroan* · 21 Mar 2009 at 21:35

I heard if you can't mention that you're heading to a specific destination and that you're "Just out for a drive", they escort you into the back of a van where you come out with no memory and a sore bottom.

some people pay for that you know...

Bomag · 21 Mar 2009 at 21:58

MrLOL said:
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.

The standard on Censuses is from the 80's so the advice of traffic flows is a bit out. It's in the process of being rewritten.

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 ?

Don't tell everybody :eek:

I used ELR a couple hours ago and I was the only one going in to Leeds and passed a couple going out. Apart from the inappropriate speed limits I want all roads to be like it

The standard on Censuses is from the 80's so the guidance on traffic flows is a bit out. It's currently being re-written.

mattyprice4004 · 24 Mar 2009 at 01:06

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.

Had this in Bootle (A5036) near the Netto, think they were moving it to the way you go home as I was driving back - and yeah it did cause a silly amount of traffic.

Grr!

Edit: Hope it isn't still there, in the week I've been away I hope they've moved to annoy some other people instead.

Street · 24 Mar 2009 at 20:16

rover416i said:
Had this in Bootle (A5036) near the Netto, think they were moving it to the way you go home as I was driving back - and yeah it did cause a silly amount of traffic.

Grr!

Edit: Hope it isn't still there, in the week I've been away I hope they've moved to annoy some other people instead.

And another one today at the top of Parliament Street, made me late for work..