Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thedrive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 525 posts

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

#481

Post by closeparen »

callumlocke wrote: post #327
konschubert wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a law is bad when enforced, then the law needs to be changed, not the enforcement. Arbitrary enforcement leads to discrimination and corruption. Regarding the speed limit, I think the laws are just finde and should simply be enforced.

> If a law is bad when enforced, then the law needs to be changed, not the enforcement. Useful as a rule of thumb but it's not always true. Models are never perfect, the map is not the territory. We are constantly figuring out what our shared values are, and it's a moving target. And the body of law itself is a complex beast with its own surprising dynamics. It's part of an ecosystem. You can't wave away its complexi…

In practice, it really never happens that we make the law more permissive through a deliberative process and then start doing the thing. We relax the law because we found that people didn't really respect it and enforcement was unpopular.

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

#482

Post by flemhans »

slumdev wrote: post #371
jsinai wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I once saw speed cameras as “un-sporting”. With no attack on the parent, this reminds me of the general driving attitude of South Africa where I am from. A combination of lack of road enforcement and public mistrust in the police have created an environment where the rule of law on the road, designed to protect lives, is treated merely as suggestions or guidelines, often ignored. It’s extremely common to see driver…

It's the same way in the United States. 40 km/h above the limit is the norm on our interstate highways. Perhaps only 20 km/h on smaller streets.

To be fair, you have low speed limits.

And I think SA is a whole other level of breaking laws.

Anecdotal: Coming from Northern Europe (Denmark), I found people in NYC, Boston, SF , and LA to drive very well-behaved compared to people back home. I had to take care to stop driving like a European, since it made my fellow American passengers cringe.

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

#483

Post by t-writescode »

mschuetz wrote: post #408
tomp wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speeding is one of the most obvious examples of government overreach. 1) The speed limit obviously an arbitrary choice - the chance of death is decent at 50k/h (standard "town" speed limit in Slovenia) (so why not 40hm/k or 30km/h), and e.g. Germany has no speed limit on the highways (in some places) so there's really no good reason to set a limit of 130km/h (why not 110km/h or 150km/h)? 2) The easiest objection to (…

Speed limits are important for non-cars. As a cyclist, I don't want people overtaking me 100km/h with a 1m gap. As a pedestrian trying to cross a small city or town street without dedicated crossing, I don't want drivers to suddenly appear with 100km/h from a small curve. I'd argue that 50km/h in a city is still too much. 30km/h should be the limit.

I think this is a reasonable stance. Personally, I don't have a problem with the in-city, shared roads having very low limits.

I have a huge problem with enormous super-highways having 60mph limits or lower.

Some of the roads out where I live were engineered with going 90+ in mind. In fact, there's a tale of an engineer going such speeds and getting out of a ticket by explaining that to the judge out here.

What was the speed limit? When you're over 15 miles from the city, it's 60, but pass a turn in the road and it's 70.

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

#484

Post by t-writescode »

ptr2voidStar wrote: post #410
mschuetz wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speed limits are important for non-cars. As a cyclist, I don't want people overtaking me 100km/h with a 1m gap. As a pedestrian trying to cross a small city or town street without dedicated crossing, I don't want drivers to suddenly appear with 100km/h from a small curve. I'd argue that 50km/h in a city is still too much. 30km/h should be the limit.

This should be obvious. It's surprising you have to state this for those who only think about themselves and their fast cars. Not all road users are car drivers!

Not all roads have multiple kinds of traffic!

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

#485

Post by t-writescode »

everybodyknows wrote: post #430
swarnie_ wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its the "one size fits all" rule which annoys me. My car will comfortably sit at 110mph all day long, if I'm alone on a motorway in the early hours who am i hurting or endangering? It certainly isn't about safety because that same car will stop from 100mph in less distance than the highway code requires for 70.

At 110mph fuel consumption per mile of most cars is ~3x that at 55mph: http://mpgforspeed.com/ And so is its "carbon footprint" 3x greater. To answer your question: You're hurting everything that's alive on the planet.

That's the reason there was the national mandate to drive no faster than 55mph on any road in the entire United States.

You're welcome to drive no faster than that speed on any road you like. On several of them, please, please don't drive on any road that has a higher speed limit than 60 to keep the rest of us safe, though. And have your hazards on, so we can reasonably get around you.

Also, just as an aside, electric cars exist now.

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

#486

Post by t-writescode »

slumdev wrote: post #370
swarnie_ wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its the "one size fits all" rule which annoys me. My car will comfortably sit at 110mph all day long, if I'm alone on a motorway in the early hours who am i hurting or endangering? It certainly isn't about safety because that same car will stop from 100mph in less distance than the highway code requires for 70.

Someone not as perfect as you won't know to slow for blind hills and blind corners. Someone not as perfect as you won't know to back off in wet conditions. Someone not as perfect as you won't anticipate when to brake early to accommodate the extra stopping time. Someone not as perfect as you won't be as meticulous about vehicle maintenance. Someone not as perfect as you doesn't have your quick reflexes. Someone not a…

There exist roads that have vision off into the horizon where there is no one else, or that "someone else" is miles away.

edit: made it nicer

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

#487

Post by t-writescode »

closeparen wrote: post #481
callumlocke wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a law is bad when enforced, then the law needs to be changed, not the enforcement. Useful as a rule of thumb but it's not always true. Models are never perfect, the map is not the territory. We are constantly figuring out what our shared values are, and it's a moving target. And the body of law itself is a complex beast with its own surprising dynamics. It's part of an ecosystem. You can't wave away its complexi…

In practice, it really never happens that we make the law more permissive through a deliberative process and then start doing the thing. We relax the law because we found that people didn't really respect it and enforcement was unpopular.

And then we only enforce it on people we don't like and can use it as an excuse and everyone will go "yeah, well, I mean, it is a law, after all. They should have known better. Everyone gets caught eventually."

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

#488

Post by Closi »

remus wrote: post #206
Closi wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.K. does have variable speed limits on most major motorways that change with conditions, congestion etc, with LED signs that display the current speed limit.

Smart motorways will readily adjust the speed limit down (often for no discernible reason), but they don't increase the speed limit were it may be appropriate e.g. good weather and very limited number of vehicles on the road.

Your post seems to imply that the reason 80mph isn't the limit is because of safety, but actually the governments main reasoning for not moving up to 80mph when this was last reviewed was actually about emissions rather than safety (last debated in 2011).

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

#489

Post by Lammy »

ISL wrote: post #17

I once saw speed cameras as "un-sporting" until travelling elsewhere in the world where they are commonplace. In those countries, it seems like everyone just drives the speed limit. If the point of speed enforcement is to, you know, ensure that everyone is going the speed limit or slower, they're awesome. Norway's system of timed speed cameras are particularly wonderful -- they simply photograph a car and then photog…

Sounds like “needing” to check speed is a great justification for building a surveillance system.

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

#490

Post by tim333 »

buran77 wrote: post #235
_ph_ wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German here. Indeed only the driver of a car is punished for speeding. The burdon is on the officials to determine the driver. But they will send an official inquiry to the car owner to name the driver of the car, if the identification is not obvious by a photo. There are cases where no one gets the ticket, because the driver is not named by the car owner, sometimes for very valid reason. With a larger group of peopl…

In other European countries where it's also illegal to just fine the owner rather than the actual driver, the police sends an official inquiry about who was driving the car at the time. Providing false information or refusing to provide information at all is punishable by law, you have to name someone and take responsibility for the veracity of that information. The owner is legally responsible for knowing who is dri…

I have a friend where it often seems to be one of his similar looking cousins in Pakistan who was driving his car too fast.
Post reply on HN