Something to make you smile.

Vern1961 · 19 Jan 2018 at 16:06

There are quite a few 20 zones around Swindon, it is actually quite hard to regulate your speed that low though no excuse for speeding, of course. 25 MPH would be more logical and better suited to the gear ratio in our quaint UK manual transmission cars, but for some reason we don't seem to do 5 MPH increments in this country!

ShivP · 19 Jan 2018 at 17:02

Acme said:
Indeed. I was very polite and apologetic and pulled all the "I'm sorry, I don't usually speed, blah blah" cards. Didn't help that I was ferrying passengers back from a party (I was designated driver) and they were being rude and they threw rubbish out of the car as well, so I apologised for them and repremanded them for being loud while I was trying to talk to the Police (which the officer seemed to like...) and I generally must have seemed embarrassed and scared...

Oh and I was in my Skoda which probably helped as opposed to being in a riced Celica GT...

Very weird story from me as well around 3 years ago. Was going to nuneaton and my dad had just picked his A8 up, 4 up in the car and went for an overtake of a slower car (going on opposite side of the road)
Got up to 85 in a 60 and the dreaded blue lights come up from behind so we all think >ban
Officer slapped his wrist, said even though it was a 60 limit the overtake was safe etc etc.... nice car (said he used to have one like it) and just let us on our way
WTF?

Akagi · 19 Jan 2018 at 17:10

Shivy011 said:
Very weird story from me as well around 3 years ago. Was going to nuneaton and my dad had just picked his A8 up, 4 up in the car and went for an overtake of a slower car (going on opposite side of the road)
Got up to 85 in a 60 and the dreaded blue lights come up from behind so we all think >ban
Officer slapped his wrist, said even though it was a 60 limit the overtake was safe etc etc.... nice car (said he used to have one like it) and just let us on our way
WTF?

Not all Police are jobsworths. Unlike PC Butcher who fined me £100 for having an incorrectly sized front numberplate, on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon...

ttaskmaster · 19 Jan 2018 at 17:30

Acme said:
Unlike PC Butcher who fined me £100 for having an incorrectly sized front numberplate, on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon...

Well, you are a Škoda driver...
Consider yourself damn lucky he didn't also beat you up, flush your head and take your lunch money, or something!!

FoxEye · 19 Jan 2018 at 20:27

Vern1961 said:
There are quite a few 20 zones around Swindon, it is actually quite hard to regulate your speed that low though no excuse for speeding, of course. 25 MPH would be more logical and better suited to the gear ratio in our quaint UK manual transmission cars, but for some reason we don't seem to do 5 MPH increments in this country!

Wut? Hard to do 20? You must be joking

If you find it hard to regulate your speed at 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60... you shouldn't be driving

Sorry but it's child's play, really is, in a "normal" car. If you all drive supercars don't expect any sympathy either

Akagi · 22 Jan 2018 at 08:03

ttaskmaster said:
Well, you are a Škoda driver...
Consider yourself damn lucky he didn't also beat you up, flush your head and take your lunch money, or something!!

Am I?

ttaskmaster · 22 Jan 2018 at 11:08

Acme said:
Am I?

Acme said:
Oh and I was in my Skoda which probably helped

Yes you are..... in both cases!!

Akagi · 22 Jan 2018 at 11:12

That Skoda is long gone! Fond memories of drag racing at Santa Pod and almost beating an MR2. And the marshalls reaction when I assured him that I wasn't in the RWYB queue by mistake and I did indeed intend on drag racing in an 90HP diesel...

ttaskmaster · 22 Jan 2018 at 11:14

Acme said:
That Skoda is long gone!

You can take the driver out of the Škoda, but.....

Akagi · 22 Jan 2018 at 11:16

ttaskmaster said:
You can take the driver out of the Škoda, but.....

It was very relaxing to drive.

ttaskmaster · 22 Jan 2018 at 11:17

Acme said:
It was very relaxing to drive.

L&K?

Akagi · 22 Jan 2018 at 11:19

ttaskmaster said:
L&K?

Nah nothing quite so luxurious. MK1 Blueline TDI. Limited Edition with Ambiante spec, different wheels, different metallic blue paint, and VRS spoiler.

ttaskmaster · 22 Jan 2018 at 11:38

Acme said:
Nah nothing quite so luxurious. MK1 Blueline TDI. Limited Edition with Ambiante spec, different wheels, different metallic blue paint, and VRS spoiler.

Ah. Shame.
I rather like my L&K!!

SDK^ · 22 Jan 2018 at 13:47

geekman said:
I drag raced what turned out to be an unmarked Audi S3 up a slip road from 50 to 100+, got let off. Same car stopped a friend a few weeks later for 110 and sent him to court.

The only times I’ve ever got a ticket were in France - both times I was being very stupid and both times I got away with a small fine. I guess I must have a very innocent face

Obviously, I’m much more sensible now....

Similar thing happened to my Dad.
He had a unmarked Police car right on his bumper on a dual carriageway - he put his foot down and left him (140mph : BMW 650i), at the next round-about he got pulled. Dad asked if he could go down to 99mph, Policeman said best he could do was 120mph. He got 6 points and a £1k fine.

MooMoo444 · 22 Jan 2018 at 13:48

If 120 is 6 points and 1k fine, what would 140 be? Month ban?

Akagi · 22 Jan 2018 at 13:49

Well, a ban one would assume. And probably a fine as well.

120 is usually a ban as well is it not?

geekman · 22 Jan 2018 at 14:50

Depends on conditions, manner of driving, whether you were caught in England or Scotland, mitigation, defence, magistrate leniency (or lack of). It's impossible to predict, but over 120 you're normally looking at a ban.

Akagi · 22 Jan 2018 at 14:53

I was going 135~ along a (private) stretch of road the other week, totally clear, but then I saw a traffic car in a layby which had pulled someone else over, which was obscured by a hedge, and he must have heard me coming from the roundabout (car makes quite a lot of induction noise...), and then slam the anchors on and slow to about 85~ and cruise past. My heart was going ten to the dozen, but then I remembered it was a private road and let the relief wash over me... -ahem-

I have no doubt that if I had shot past at 135~ he would have abandoned his stop and chased after me instead, or at least radio'd it in... Y'know, if it weren't a private road. Which it was...

MassiveJim · 22 Jan 2018 at 15:31

Acme said:
I was going 135~ along a (private) stretch of road the other week, totally clear, but then I saw a traffic car in a layby which had pulled someone else over, which was obscured by a hedge, and he must have heard me coming from the roundabout (car makes quite a lot of induction noise...), and then slam the anchors on and slow to about 85~ and cruise past. My heart was going ten to the dozen, but then I remembered it was a private road and let the relief wash over me... -ahem-

I have no doubt that if I had shot past at 135~ he would have abandoned his stop and chased after me instead, or at least radio'd it in... Y'know, if it weren't a private road. Which it was...

if you went past him at 135, without a speed gun there is pretty much nothing he could have done.
how far you would get ahead of him at 135mph before he even got in his car and started to chase it just wouldn't be worth it.

As for the comments about the 20 mph speed limit.
The reason for it costing so much to rollout a new speedzone.
Is due to them having to do analysis on the "zone" that they want to change the speed limit on (goes for any speed limit change) they have to put forward a case that is significant enough to warrant doing it.

There are other less obvious things that they do also,
an example used in the speed awareness course I recently went on, was that they changed a 2 lane road to one way + contraflow cycle lane, naturally this will slow car drivers down as they concentrate on not knocking over cyclists etc (well most of us

)

Something to make you smile.

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