I was watching 5th Gear last night re the speed detection units and my wife said "are you gonna get one of those things then?"

I thought about it and figured it was pointless.........I only take the S2000 out on roads I am familiar with, I know where plod operate traps and I know where the fixed GATSO's are

Surely you should only 'speed' where you know the road.....if you don't know the road surely you should be driving with more care than ever and unlikely to even be speeding

I accept this is slight provocative but at the end of the day I do have a point don't I?

 

sort of

well I speed on the roads I know as I know where the schools, churches, bus stops, side roads. local parks etc are, but it doesnt matter really cos the unexpected can always happen and if speeding then you limit your ability to stop/react etc, but sorry no lectures because we are pretty much all as bad as each other, and this encompasses all drivers today!

but yup, I drive faster when I know the road, but then I drive fast anyway

 

I think's its more a question of speeding where you either know the road OR your visibility & the road conditions permit e.g. lovely B road across open moorland (granted that you're unlikely to find a speedtrap in that example!)

 

where I have been 'caught' out is when there has been a speed limit change for NSL to 40mph but I assume they allow a period of time for people to become aware of the new limits

A lot of NSL's have been changed on the Epsom Down's cause of the number of horses on the local roads

 

Do you drive at 70mph on quiet motorways and dual carriageways?

 

East Lancs sucks ass

It's full of bloody Gatsos and there's a chap with a little stripy van, whose job it is to drive to *your* favorite drive, stop and eat his sandwiches while his van collects number plates. Then it's off to the next person's favorite spot...

There are also a suspicious number of rubber tubes across the road all over the place, which always seem to be a precursor for a new Gatso. ("Ah, three people in the last two weeks have done 42mph in this 40 limit. Best have a Gatso.")

They are bastards. The lot of them.

(In answer to the original post, yes, I drive more carefully in unknown territory than in my own backyard, but I drive pretty carefully anyway. Fast, but careful )

 

just stay in the capabilities of yourself, your car, the weather, road conditions,and your surroundings.
simple thoughts but i've had 26 years of clear driving,not causing any accidents,and a clean licence.

 

If you drive with anticipation, forward thinking and common sense, you will be within the speed limits a lot of the time anyway. Or at least that used to be the case.

Where you are likely to fall foul is where the limits have been lowered recently, seemingly, like some of the dual carriageways round here, for no reason.
It's no longer safe to assume that a straight dual carriageway with no junctions is NSL anymore, so many are being lowered to 50 or even 40.

In many cases, I actually drive slower on roads I know because I'm more aware of hazards I can't see. For instance, the A4 at Silbury Hill nearby rises up to a crest by the hill, just over the crest is a layby on the westbound side of the road. Because I have seen more than one geriatric pulling out of the layby and trying to turn round to go back east using a three point turn just over the brow of the hill, on a wide NSL road I always approach it with caution. So my ability to anticipate the road is better, and I drive more slowly.

 

zero your absolutely right. Speed limits are there for a reason. I use my ECM as a safety device

 

My RA is essential. Not only for static but also for mobile units. I understand that once the laser has hit the car you have been caught, but I have been in a situation where I wasn't speeding and started to accelerate without noticing plod pointing his gun at me Had I had my RA I would not have accelerated, Luckily nothing happened on this occasion.

The RA is also a good reminder when maybe I am not concentrating as well as I should. This happened on the A1 recently when I let me speed creep above 80mph without noticing as I approached a Truvelo. With the RA its bleeping, so I can't fail to notice.

TBH I speed too much and any thing that can help me avoid being caught is worthwhile. I am seriously considering a Laser diffuser to stop the muppets that try to catch us doing 80mph on the motorways. I figure one of these crappy mobile independent van camera units is not going to give chase.