Now here's some good news...

[Grahamm]

  Motorway tailgaters and middle-lane hoggers are to face quick justice with on-the-spot fixed penalties under new measures announced by the government.

    From July, police will be able to issue £100 fines and three points for careless driving offences that would currently have to go to court.

    Current fixed penalties for using a phone while driving or not wearing a seatbelt will also rise by £40 to £100.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22770064

I'm sure we've all seen (and experienced) instances on motorways of Lane 1 being empty whilst someone blithely cruises along in Lane 2 (ignoring the rule of "Keep left unless overtaking" or, worse, an impatient idiot who thinks that they can "bully" you out of their way by driving six feet from your rear wheel, so this is a good thing.

The question is, of course, given the limited numbers of traffic police on our roads, do people think that this is actually going to have a positive effect on people's driving (or even riding!) or is it just a cynical money-making exercise designed to rack up more fines for the Government's coffers?

What are your opinions?

[Doddsie]

The full item also states on the spot fines for being in the wrong lane at roundabouts... be interesting how they are gonna police this with the recent news about filtering being legal??? Does this mean if you cross the white line when filtering you will get nicked for approaching in the wrong lane???  what about lorries turning right on mini roundabouts etc?? Middle lane hoggers are a pet hate of mine but how do you even begin to police this? `Sorry officer but I saw a slow moving vehicle in the distance so pulled into the middle lane to give myself plenty of time.` If you are doing 70 in the middle lane nothing should be going past you anyway!!!!

[Punkstig]

Heard this on the news this morning and just laughed, there's no police on our roads anymore anyway!


As for 70mph, don't forget that legally you have 10% +2 mph on all speed limits!

[Tmation]

Heard this on the news this morning and just laughed, there's no police on our roads anymore anyway!


As for 70mph, don't forget that legally you have 10% +2 mph on all speed limits!

I think you will find this is an urban myth or maybe the leeway the police can give. My mother in law got a NIP then fined for doing 33mph in a 30 

[dBfazer600]

If you remember the AA are receiving some police powers so will this be part of their remit?
 
As for the roundabout forget it as no one roundabout is the same and people get confused due to bad signage.
 
Daz

[Punkstig]

It's leeway the police give due to differences in speedo accuracy, its one of them- if you take it to court you'd get away with it, but they depend on people putting their hands up and saying fair cop Guv! (And why wouldn't you,  who wants to go to court?)


Met bike safe ride to this as do ride safe courses, but to be completely honest I stick to 30's and 40's quite rigidly due to pedestrians cyclists etc, 50’s plus I go by vision and conditions, rarely will I excess 90, there's just no point. My standard on the motorway is 80-85
(I say rarely, we all have our adolescent moments)


Under no circumstances am I saying this to get people going on the whole holier than though well if you speed here why not there etc etc, that's just how I feel comfortable!

[xjrnino]

How the hell will this be enforced, they can't stop people using their mobiles whilst driving
and that has been an offence for years.

[BBROWN1664]

How the hell will this be enforced, they can't stop people using their mobiles
whilst driving

When people realise the fine for using a phone is now £100, a few more muppets will stop using them.
 
What gets me with phones and driving is that almost every phone has a headset provided with it to allow hand free answering of calls. Many new cars have Bluetooth built in and even a cheap Bluetooth headset can be had for £30 or so yet people still insist on using the phone normally.

[stevierst]

The seatbelt legislation has been in force since 1983, yet people still don't wear them!

I think the fine should have stayed at £60, but put the points up to 6 for mobiles. Quite a lot of people don't bother paying the fines, and end up in court. The points would hit them harder, specially the young and naive with less than 2 years behind the wheel. Instant ban!

As for bike filtering in the wrong lanes, I think its really aimed at impatient car drivers who take the piss. As for trucks using all lanes, well its in the highway code, and being an ex-HGV driver who used to drag 60 foot long trailers, you HAVE to negotiate some small roundabouts on the wrong side, regardless of the markings or you simply will not get round them!

Tailgating is going to be hard to prove from a cops point of view unless there's video evidence, and lane hoggers, well the selfish, lazy bastards get what they deserve, its about time that its ticketable!

I'm all for the change, regardless of it being just a money making scheme.

Stop polishing it and ride the bloody thing!

[JZS 600]

I always ride on the left as lane 3's always full up 

[Lawrence]

As far as I'm aware the 10%+2mph is a guide line only.  If they want to do you for 71mph on the motorway they can.
 
And as for speedo inaccuracy, your speedo should only ever over-read (70mph on speedo, ~67mph (for example) actual).

[stevierst]

As far as I'm aware the 10%+2mph is a guide line only.  If they want to do you for 71mph on the motorway they can.

CPS wouldn't touch it at 71 unless in extreme circumstances due to the inaccuracies in speedos, hence the 10% + 2/3 guide. They like a watertight case for court.

Stop polishing it and ride the bloody thing!

[BBROWN1664]

Steve, they don't NORMALLY do you for 71. Nothing to do with inaccuracy, just too much of an argument. As you say, they like a watertight case so tend to go with the 10%+2mph guideline. For most drivers this would mean a speedo reading of well over 80mph before actually getting a tug from the plod.

Most people don't realise that the speedo on a car or bike varies by about 3% over the life of the tyres due to slightly different rolling radius affecting the distance travelled per revolution.
Legally, a speedo can OVEREAD by up to 10% (though I did hear some EU bollox about it being 20% but don't believe it made UK law) but can NEVER under read. In other words, your speedo could read up to 77mph before you exceed 70mph in reality. It will never read less than 70mph when you are actually doing 70mph.

[BBROWN1664]

In other words, your speedo could read up to 77mph before you exceed 70mph in
reality. It will never read less than 70mph when you are actually doing 70mph.

This also explains why some people appear to be only doing 45mph in the variable 50mph limits. They think they are doing 50mph but your (potentially more accurate) speedo shows the lower speed.

[Lawrence]

I realise that, the point I was making was that there's no leeway.

[Lawrence]

I realise that, the point I was making was that there's no leeway.

Also bear in mind that to be doing 79mph (70+10%+2) you'd probably be indicating around 85.

[stevierst]

Also bear in mind that to be doing 79mph (70+10%+2) you'd probably be indicating around 85.
[/quote]
Its not always the case, I regularly do Speedo checks with a stopwatch over a measured mile in various vehicles.(im slowly letting the cat out of the bag) You'd be suprised how accurate they are sometimes, so don't rely on how far out you think your Speedo is.

Stop polishing it and ride the bloody thing!

[noggythenog]

Also bear in mind that to be doing 79mph (70+10%+2) you'd probably be indicating around 85.

Its not always the case, I regularly do Speedo checks with a stopwatch over a measured mile in various vehicles.(im slowly letting the cat out of the bag) You'd be suprised how accurate they are sometimes, so don't rely on how far out you think your Speedo is.

Stop polishing it and ride the bloody thing!



Its ok steevie


We've Already got you in the illegal but increasingly popular  "accurately running over cats"  section of the forum

[size=78%]Miaow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.[/size]


Some folk will go to extreme measures for a thrill these days & accuracy is the key




 

[rustyrider]

To meet type approval, the speedo on a vehicle must be between +10-0%.  In other words, it can over read by up to 10% but cannot under read at all.  This allows for the increase in displayed speed as your tyres wear down and the rolling circumference reduces, so it will be more accurate on new tyres than almost worn out ones.

As for middle lane hoggers, it isn't only middle lane.  I live near the 4 lane wide stretch of A1(M) near Peterborough and drive it every day.  At least 3 times a week you find one person sticking in lane 3 with little or no traffic in lanes 1 and 2.   I put it down to the slow lane, medium lane, fast lane mentality.  I'm doing 70 (but is only doing 65 in reality due to the speedo error) so I need to be in one of the faster lanes, not the slow lane.

[Dead Eye]

A lot of the time I find lane 4 on the M25 to be a right pain as well. Got stuck behind loads of traffic doing 60-65 in my car the day. The other lanes weren't as busy but had traffic ans would occasionally begin to undertake

The day after I was on my bike doing the same stretch at about the same time of day. Ended up being a bit naughty and undertaking a few cars in different lanes to get around the idiots who wouldn't move - did it all at legal speeds though but it would have been impossible to do in the car

[chaz]

Heard this on the news this morning and just laughed, there's no police on our roads anymore anyway!


As for 70mph, don't forget that legally you have 10% +2 mph on all speed limits!

10% +1 I got done for riding at 79 in a 70

[Dead Eye]

There are different variations for different counties. Devon + Cornwall is 10% + 1 others may be 10% + 2 and I'm sure there are other variations as well

[Punkstig]

A lot of the time I find lane 4 on the M25 to be a right pain as well. Got stuck behind loads of traffic doing 60-65 in my car the day. The other lanes weren't as busy but had traffic ans would occasionally begin to undertake

The day after I was on my bike doing the same stretch at about the same time of day. Ended up being a bit naughty and undertaking a few cars in different lanes to get around the idiots who wouldn't move - did it all at legal speeds though but it would have been impossible to do in the car

And let's face it- if seen by the hibernating traffic police you'd have been branded a weaving biker menace and pulled for it!


M1 jct 8 north is 5 lines wide for about a mile and yet the amount of fucktards in lane 4 is unbelievable, and yes, I do completely illegally pull into lane 1 and undertake because its empty.
Classic case of the beginnings of road rage cussing under my helmet whilst staring down all the mofo's to my right!

[maddog04]

middle lane hoggers..........ggggrrrrrrr
I hate them bastards, they squeeze a 3 lane road into 2 and everyone suffers bar them. How I wished I'd been a bike cop many a time on the motorway....................I'd have had a years worth of tickets done in a week. chuck the book at them

[DILLIGAFF]

Does this mean that "Outside lane" hoggers will be ignored????


They are the ones I would snow plough off the motorway.
You know the ones, down the slip road, across the white hachings and straight out to the outside lane where they stake their claim at 70 till they are adjacent to their off road, then swerve across 2 or 3 lanes to exit.