Speed Awareness Course?

Got one in an hour, what can I expect?

A return to the classroom.
Some nice, some disruptive, some ignorant, most keen to show they have mended their ways and are willing to learn.
Ice breaker for your group session:
In late-breaking news, it has been revealed that Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp has come forward to claim that he was driving when Chris Huhne’s car was caught speeding on the M11.
His solicitor said Harry was desperate for the three points.

The blokes who ran mine were great – should be available to everyone, tbh.

Lots of young Subaru’ists, young, bored girls driving MINI’s and older chaps who need a refresher.

I actually quite enjoyed it.

Try to just go with it. Mine was ok, better once i resigned myself to it and joined in a bit.

Got another ticket a couple of weeks later Doh 🙁

I feel like I’m missing out by sticking to the speed limits….

😉

You are now funding the very thing that caught you……

Take the fine and points, dont fund the cameras and they will dissappear

I got done doing way too fast in a 30 recently. Too fast to be allowed to do a speed awareness course. How stupid is that?

That makes you very stupid johndoh.

1 Be surprised how many drivers don’t actually know the speed limits on a variety of roads.

2 Realise that most people there are middle/old aged.

And when asked, ‘Why are you here’, answer with ‘Because I got caught’ 🙂

How fast?
I was caught doing 41 in a 30 (from Blackstone Edge to Littleborough), offered the course.

Life’s cruel, sometimes, isn’t it? 😀

Unless of course you don’t think that they’re a bad thing.

I did one recently, it was badly constructed and the presenters were terrified of upsetting the attendees. I did not experience a life-changing decision to stick to the speed limit.

That makes you very stupid johndoh.

Yeah it does – in my defence I was driving back from the cemetery after staying too long tending my mum & dad’s headstone (on the 4th anniversary of dad’s death), was late getting back to work and didn’t have my head in a good place.

(45 in a 30 just as it exited a 40 BTW).

But surely the people who should have a speed awareness course are the ones going way too fast, not the ones who crept over the limit a bit?

My guess is that they feel that people going waaaay over the limit aren’t going to take any notice of a course whereas people going a bit over might be influenced to slow down a touch. Don’t actually know why mind.

Take the fine and points, dont fund the cameras and they will dissappear

Isn’t the fine used to pay for cameras?

And why would you want speed cameras to disappear? I think they are generally a good thing (though obviously a better thing would be a society where it was socially unacceptable to speed)

I’ve been on two. (no, really I have.) They were very useful.

Take the fine and points, dont fund the cameras and they will dissappear

Really?

I don’t think either is allowed to fund cameras. My course they were adament that catching speeders was loss making.

I thought my course was great. It was full off really clever “facts”.

His best was about speed cameras. Smallish village on an A road. In short space of time one fatality and one death due to speeding motorists.

Parish council ask for a speed cameras. The answer?

You won’t get a camera until 2 more villagers are killed

Cameras revenue was used to fund “Saftey camera partnerships”

Now that revenue goes into the government pot.

Speed awareness courses used to be for upto 4mph over the limit.
Saftey camera partnerships are now allowed to use revenue from speed awareness courses to fund the cameras

Now the cost of the course has risen, and they have increased the upper limit in order to make more people eligible for the speed awareness courses than were at the lower limit.
This is sold as “Take the course rather than the points”
It is not explained that the course directly funds the cameras.

“Saftey cameras”, are by their own figures not improving saftey……

In Essex a few years ago, the figures were trumpeted as a success for the cameras as accidents were down by a small percentage.
What those figures also showed (But the police publicity really didnt want made public), was that yes, you were less likely to be involved in an accident……. but if you were involved then that accident was more likely to kill you…..

Its not the speed cameras I have an issue with, it is the misleading propaganda and statistics used to justify their introduction and continued use.

If they really were about saftey they would be placed more appropriately.

There is a lot more to it than is apparent on the surface…..

Speed does not kill

Bad driving kills (which can include innapropriate speed for the road or conditions)

And a camera or speed awareness course will do nothing to stop the likes of the woman I saw on the way to work this morning, who was reading her Kindle propped up on the steering wheel on a Major A Road dual carriageway 🙄 😯

And a camera or speed awareness course will do nothing to stop the likes of the woman I saw on the way to work this morning, who was reading her Kindle propped up on the steering wheel on a Major A Road dual carriageway

It might do something about her doing it too quickly though.

Bad driving kills

If we keep reducing to absurdity, it’s the sudden deceleration from the speed your body was travelling at when it then encounters something stationary that kills you. As well, as your brain and other internal organs trying to keep going. The more slowly you are going before this sudden deceleration, the more likely you are to survive. At present it seems society has decided that we cannot or will not legislate for crap driving any more than what a traffic copper might see, and give a ticking off for. All that we can reduce for now without constant monitoring is inappropriate speed.

“Saftey cameras”, are by their own figures not improving saftey……

Source?

Its not the speed cameras I have an issue with, it is the misleading propaganda and statistics used to justify their introduction and continued use.

But you just said those misleading stats show that they don’t improve safety…

If they really were about saftey they would be placed more appropriately.

They are placed where people have died. Is that not appropriate?

Speed does not kill

Bad driving kills

If you drive over the speed limit and can’t spot a bright yellow box on a pole then you are a bad driver.

I can honestly say that I learned quite a bit doing the course last month. The person delivering the course was very qualified (they are all ex-driving examiners etc) and knew his stuff.
I’d highly recommend doing it over the points and fine!

I got flashed yesterday. I expect I’ll be getting an invite any day soon.

I got flashed yesterday. I expect I’ll be getting an invite any day soon.

Are you sure you posted that on the right thread? 🙂

Just got back from course, a little earlier than I’d planned, I’d turned up a month early!!!

That’s what happens when you drive too fast ^

GrahamS, there are a number of camera’s on the island where I live. All on straight roads, 30 limits, none in accident black spots and all downhill. I fully support camera’s where they are there to reduce accidents. But the locations I’ve listed are easy to speed without even trying. It says to me that they are the were primarily for revenue generation.
They’re currently all deactivated so it’s a moot point.

Speed awareness courses used to be for upto 4mph over the limit.

Seems odd that they’d have a fixed figure irrespective of speed. 34 in a 30 is a bigger transgression than 74 in a 70.

IIRC, Lancashire’s cut-off is 10%+2. So, 35 in a 30, and so on. It varies between forces, I believe.

Source?

Here[/url], perhaps?

They are placed where people have died. Is that not appropriate?

That’s the theory, but IIRC there’s a loophole in the guidelines which says they can place them where they like.

If you drive over the speed limit and can’t spot a bright yellow box on a pole then you are a bad driver.

No arguments there.

That’s the theory, but IIRC there’s a loophole in the guidelines which says they can place them where they like.

I think you can put them within half a mile or something, even on different roads?

In my own experience, around where I live, most speed cameras I know of are in genuine black spots where people have died. You have to remember too that many of them are campaigned for by the general public and families of victims.

Seems odd that they’d have a fixed figure irrespective of speed. 34 in a 30 is a bigger transgression than 74 in a 70.

Err, because its a bigger percentage

IIRC, Lancashire’s cut-off is 10%+2. So, 35 in a 30, and so on. It varies between forces, I believe.

It used to be, then Lancashire increased the threshold. I got caught by a camera doing 39 in a 30 over Colne way last year, & was offered the awareness course.

Up to 42mph in a 30 gets the awareness course option in North Yorks