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New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

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Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#461
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK police are not like the US. They aren't very well funded, and they police by consent rather than shooting people (They probably would do more, but you have to realise that in many parts of the UK we don't see police even driving about let alone on the beat i.e. fear mongering)

All modern police forces are modelled to some extent on Robert Peel's ideas ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles ). That includes to some extent the US police as well. The notion that US police just go around slinging guns around like some gun toting cowboys (while it does happen) is propaganda. The police in the UK can be just as corrupt and inept. However there is a need for armed police in the UK. Ju…

That's why we have armed police

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#462
post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check the laws in your local area first. Intentionally dazzling other drivers may be illegal and can carry a much higher fine (sometimes 10x more) than speeding, depending on country.

I'm in the UK, so it isn't any more illegal than warning drivers.

In the UK you should only flash your high beams to alert other drivers to your presence.

Using them as you describe could lead to a £1000 fine. I understand that people using them to warn drivers is also illegal, but two wrongs won't make this right. Why put yourself at risk for no benefit?

Honestly you should reconsider. There's enough bad driving on the roads without you adding to it.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#463
post #338

There’s too much focus on the easy to measure speed problem. I’m not saying inappropriate speed should not be enforced against but i strongly believe more effort should be applied to avoid the more common cause of major road traffic incidents - inattention. You can’t easily measure inattention but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The solution doesn’t only have to be in penalties, it could be in making it harder t…

> And yet... road deaths are down over the same 20 years and mobility is up. > Road traffic enforcement isn’t even in the top 1000 issues facing the UK today. Road collisions are one of the biggest killers of young people in the UK. It's absolutely a big issue.

What’s the bigger issue: road traffic enforcement or avoiding pedestrian deaths by finding acceptable ways to remove vehicles altogether from pedestrian areas?

Road traffic enforcement or reducing infant asthma in cities by moving tailpipe emissions away from populated areas?

Road traffic enforcement or ... you get the point.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#464
post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you object to people speeding illegally, yet you have no problem with using your lights to illegally distract other drivers? How curious!

They are making people slow down to the legal limit, thus resulting in a net increase of lawfullness on the road. Also, around here, it's incredibly common to flash your lights to remind oncoming traffic to turn off their high-beams. It's a form of communication, and not all communication is distraction.

I disagree, it doesn't result at all in a "net increase" of lawfulness, it's just an extra person breaking the law and driving badly.

UK highway code is pretty clear on when it is acceptable or not to flash your headlights. Using them to alert others to your presence (ie, "I'm here please turn off your high beams") is fine. Doing it like the parent poster suggested could result in a £1000 fine if caught.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#465

There’s too much focus on the easy to measure speed problem. I’m not saying inappropriate speed should not be enforced against but i strongly believe more effort should be applied to avoid the more common cause of major road traffic incidents - inattention. You can’t easily measure inattention but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The solution doesn’t only have to be in penalties, it could be in making it harder t…

It has not been all that long that we had technologies we could put into cars to determine if a driver was paying attention; though exactly what that is is also subject to interpretation With my Tesla I am able to have it chime if I exceed the speed limit by a set amount and even if a light turns green. however the big danger is still cell phone usage and no one wants to take the step of disabling them while moving a…

>> however the big danger is still cell phone usage

There’s more than just cell phone usage. Inattention comes in many forms and none of them is better or worse than the others.

Drivers paying more attention to the radio show they’re listening to while gently zoning out to the traffic conditions around them - this is really common on long motorway journeys.

Drivers fizzing with rage at the argument they just had before getting in the car.

Etc etc

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#466
post #208
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the UK, and by the time you've reached a certain age, we've all heard of families torn about by bad driving. The couple who we bought our house from, the mother pulled out in front of two racers just down the road from us and ended up with life changing injuries, unable to walk and with brain damage. A little boy at our local nursery died along with his father hitting a van head on who'd crossed the road takin…

Purely anecdotal, I noticed there were far more people in fancy cars going at ridiculous speeds in ridiculous stretches of roads with loads of pedestrians and cyclists around when I lived in Bristol compared to the Netherlands. I called them CICs: "Cunts In Cars". Road design probably plays part in this; a comparatively wide fully asphalted road probably isn't the best design for 20mph. Traffic calming and all that.

It's a prevalent attitude of successful people who are used to lower ethical standards applied to them and being given priority in their day-to-day life. An extra factor is that premium cars (irrespective of wealth) are sought after by people with negative personality traits [1].

I don't know why the difference between UK and Netherlands, maybe due to differences in income equity and judicial fairness? I imagine the behaviour is worse in countries with worse social fairness (Russia, even US?).

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ijop.12642

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#467
post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Finland - is has a bit: https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/face_masks_fool_finlands_... Seems weird to me, as someone who’s used to the UK system of photo from the back and the owner being responsible for identification of the driver, that people hadn’t already figured this one out :)

Sounds like they want the burden of proof to be on the accuser.

Oh I totally agree the Finnish way makes far more sense in terms of accountability and process.

Just was wondering that, if you were the sort of person who habitually broke the limit and didn’t much care for the dangers, wearing PPE might have already become part of every drive, regardless of the pandemic situation.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know this was a thing in the US until a few months ago - apparently the local police notify insurance companies (somehow) of speeding violations and thus give the insurance reason to increase your premiums.

They aren't notifying insurance companies. The violation becomes a part of your driving record and the insurance companies pull this information at regular intervals that can vary by company.

That's the same thing, just in a different part of the process. Why does the insurance company get access to your driving record, which ideally is confidential between you and the state? Corporate lobbying making laws that give select companies access to everyone's driving records?

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#469
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a pedestrian, I'm not ok with someone overtaking me at 30km/h with a 0.5m gap. See? It's all discretionary. As should speed limits be (at the discretion of the driver, based on the current road conditions). The problems you mention have other, better, actual solutions (e.g. cycling lanes, speed bumps before road crossings, ...).

In my city, cycling lanes are never going to happen. And even if they were to happen, I would never ever want cars driving 100km/h through cities.

Cars drive through cities at that speed regularly. They use highways. That’s what the people are saying. With better strategies for putting cars and non-cars at decent distances, we can allow for cars to go faster with the same or lower risk. The issue right now is that people in cars want higher speeds and pedestrians/cyclists want to go all over the road like cars don’t exist. These two things don’t work and thus we have to go with whatever is the slowest of the equation here (people jumping into the street). The annoying part is when there are low speed limits but almost no pedestrian or cycling traffic on such roads. Highways are frequently an example of that in the US. (Literally no pedestrians or cyclists anywhere near but speed limits are frequently 55mph in some places but 80+ in others - no reasoning for the difference)

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#470
post #434
post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fact is that people drive that speed regularly on German autobahns without any widespread carnage. Driving aggressively when below the speed limit, or being distracted, is far more dangerous than just driving quickly on a clear road. The emphasis on speed is mainly because it’s easy to measure and enforce. There’s standard etiquette there to slow down when there are vehicles in the distance ahead or curves or imperfe…

In Germany not all drivers want to go fast even on unlimited sections. And people are much more respectful (both fast drivers and slow drivers) of who use which lanes and to not push you if you are in the right lane. Statistically you would be safer anyway at 130km/h on that same highway than at 160km/h. Lets compare apples to apples.

My point is that driving at 160 km/h on a fairly empty highway in a manner that is respectful of others is not particularly dangerous. In fact it’s pretty relaxed and routine in Germany for the middle lane of 3 lane derestricted autobahn. The right lane goes 130 km/h, middle lane goes 160 km/h, left lane stays mostly empty except for the occasional person passing. People keep their distance, slow down when there’s traffic in the distance ahead, and strictly adhere to keeping right except to pass. On most modern cars, stopping distance and fuel economy are also pretty reasonable at 160 km/h. I will admit people flying by at over 200 km/h in the left lane can be scary, and stopping distance and fuel economy become terrible for most cars at 200 km/h, though it generally works safely there because of the strict lane etiquette, coupled with people maintaining distance and slowing down in advance when traffic is ahead.

A bigger danger than speeding on clear highways is things like tailgating, weaving between lanes, aggressive passing, and distracted driving. This often happens below speed limits, and is not the focus of automated speed enforcement systems.

In Ontario, Canada, we have wide, well maintained, and well engineered highways that have unreasonably low speed limits of 90 or 100 km/h. While there are times when it’s necessary to drive more slowly (bad weather, traffic ahead), strictly enforcing such limits on wide clear highways in good weather would be silly. People here generally drive 120-130 km/h because cars are designed to operate safely and efficiently at these speeds. Strictly enforcing unreasonably low speed limits would just breed contempt from drivers, so currently the police are lenient with the speeds people actually drive. Strict enforcement of speed limits could be more reasonable if they set realistic speed limits, perhaps variable ones depending on the weather and traffic conditions.

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