In West Hoathly in Sussex, the locals are so fed up with drivers speeding through their village that they have teamed up with the local plod to set up their own speed traps.
There are some caveats.
- The first offence gets you a polite letter from Plod
- A second offence gets you a less polite letter from Plod
- A third offence gets you a nasty letter from Plod
- A fourth offence gets you…..
You get the picture. These people cannot at the moment get you a ticket. Having said that, I do have some sympathy – I wouldn’t like to live on a main road. But, as usual, we are seeing the same old, same old…
When will people realise that there is more to driving than just speed? Speed is a part of the overall package. Speeding it seems has become the national obsession with the consequence that we are seeing our roads clogged with unnecessary road furniture, speed cameras and other paraphernalia.
When will it occur to the powers that be, the media and the good folk of West Hoathly that driver education is the starting point?
I understand that we are going to try out the Dutch idea of NO road signs, NO white lines, NO traffic lights etc. It’s all about eye contact between drivers and pedestrians. Does that mean NO sunglasses ?John
[Longrider replies] Can’t manage without my sunglasses. On the bike I have an inner dark visor on my helmet – can’t manage without that, either. I’m watching the Dutch experiment in Exhibition Road with interest.
The Dutch idea huh? Will that also mean NO hills? :-)Visit me @ http://iridescence.blog-city.com/
We have an anti-cruising law in the city effective from 7:30 PM to 3:30AM. So, I guess it’s okay to make more than 3 revolutions after 3:31 AM–nobody’s sleeping then! ;^)Visit me @ http://pimme.blog-city.com
It is of course just as easy to drive dangerously when obeying the speed limit. The key point about speeding motorists is that they are an easy target for both crime figures and statistics. I have particular problems with the lack of consistency tho. For example David Beckham gets away scot free with speeding whereas myself and Glenn Johnson of Chelsea both receive a 1 month ban and £1200 odd fine he for doing 112mph on the M25 and me for doing 104mph on the M1 at 1am. And yet my best mate was caught at 98mph on the Surrey section of the M25 and fined £80 and given 3 points. Likewise I know others that have got away with it at times.
Fair enough I acknowledge if you speed you are breaking the law I respect that but to have a random set of punishments dependent on who’s running the council and how high the budget deficit is, seems absurd.
As with any such payments it must reflect your ability to pay, fines should be proportional so rather than £60 it should be 10% of your net monthly income. This would mean that everyone face the same deterrent factor.
Finally I think we need to be very careful bearing in mind our lifestyles now are more forced around cramming everything in and this includes work. I believe if you can show that you were driving for your company and that the workload necessitated you speeding the company should take the full hit of your actions. At the moment companies take full advantage of having total immunity on such things and it’s time that Corporate Responsibility was dealt with once and for all.
/rant!Visit me @ http://redbaron.blog-city.com
[Longrder replies] I’m inclined to agree with all of that.