Cooperman1 wrote:
They would save more lives if they all volunteered to help to clean up the local hospitals, ensured that all hospital visitors washed their hands on entering, assisted the ward staff with patient feeding and generally made themselves useful
OY! We've put hand washes and notices all over the place - asking all to wash hands on entry.
Wildy had no issue with the food they served up to her whilst "incarcerated"

these past few days.
than they'll ever do by pointing a 'dodgyscope' at all and sundry. Especially as they actually have no power to do anything with any read-out they get, over the limit or not.[/quote]
I know - that's the problem. I have zero issues with a police officer just being there every so often and nicking the fools - but educating all all the same.
Quote:
Actually, they would be of more use outside schools and nightclubs photographing possible drug-dealers.
I live in St.Ives and if I see one of these vigilante groups i'll stop and ask if I got 'Fastest Time of the day'. If not, can I please have another run!
The trouble with photographing real criminals is that they can do you for "undermining their human rights"

On the other hand a drug dealer is quite a nasty character. I would not like the person to see me filming him or her .. lest I end up wearing concrete slippers somewhere.
We have 20 mph speed limits through some of the busier villages around here. I do not have much of an issue with that as the place heaves with walkers and cyclists all year round. The safe speed would be around that given the tourists sauntering around in many places.
But the real problem was actually discussed on the Jeremy Vine Show some three years or so ago. He had a Sussex speedwatch scheme on his show. He had the volunteers giving a commentary and motorists were heard honking horns in the back ground but not reported as "speeding" on the prog that time. The prog then had two callers : one a serving police officer from Northumberland who said that he audited one such complaint and found the ones he pulled were the very people doing most of the complaining.. in the next village on the road. He said the best way to deal with the situation was police presence on a regular - but still "random" enforcement. The other was a councillor from Cambridgeshire who said they had had to pull one scheme because one set of villagers "targetted the towny upstarts who had moved in"
Basically the only real and cost effective way to contain the inconsiderate fools who think our rural roads are a "tasty twisty set of sexy curves"
(to quote one fool on PH when replying to my wife who was arguing that common sense dictated a safe speed on a twisty dippy at Over Kellet. - notorious police incident is to have a real police officer present every so often. Word of mouth vibrates down the motoring jungle beat

and the site gets a "local reputation for milky cowboys/// milky bar kids ?? of policemen" to translate - roughly - my father-in-law's eloquence.

Add a VAS sign and do a huge paint job on the tarmac - and you have perhaps a "fait accompli" which would snare only the richly deserving of a licence quarter or more.
As for the sign placed in the road warning of SpeedWatch presence... I really care not if abusive to the speedwatchers or not. If it made the fools slow up - then it perhaps helped more than hindered?
If such a sign were placed here - no issue. I was - at one point - considering putting up a series of signs anyway which reads "OY TWAZAK! YEAH YOU _ YOU FOOL! HAMLET AHEAD - "NASTY" MAN IN VAN WILL GET YOU! CONSIDER OTHERS AND I HELP SAVE YOUR LICENCE AS YOUR REWARD HERE "!
Unfortunately - I will need planning permission to do so .. which I will not get .. and I may risk a fee of £80K in costs whilst the committee ponder this.
Oh why? Our driveway runs out to an NSL .. but beyond this .. the 20 mph hamlet. You go from 60 mph to 20 mph in split seconds for a minute's drive through the hamlet cluster. Actually our exit to the trunk A road is just in the NSL and we have thus a rather tricksy situation for us and family visitors here. I have been allowed to have a sign reading "concealed exit" and I have not been billed for it yet after 10 years and can hope the limitations act will kick now,
But in any case - whatever the provocation - no excuse for abuse.
We keep saying COAST. We are right as speed is not the killer. Inconsiderate behaviour.. driver error.. poor attitudes.. complacency...,.. serious failure to understand how far we travel per second at any one speed.. including failure to "feel" the speed. These are the KILLERS. We have to face it and work out how to resolve it.
DIS.. SPEED AWARES help. We need now to work out how to educate the learners properly and re-educate and rekindle enthusiasm within the older mob to perfect skills in the older population.
How we achieve this .. now that''s the real safepeed challenge.
For record.. Swiss and my own family are not speed freaks. We are not anti-police.. anti-establishment. We ask hard and soul searching questions and seek to encourage all to improve skills in graduated steps towards personal best improvements.
You owe to selves to keep open minds and seek to improve skills all the time. That way .. we progress and improve our lot in life.
But how do we reach the lacklustre? That;s the real challenge here.

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Martin - my friend. We all know the score. Our job has to focus on how we get across a message that we can enjoy driving at a safe speed.. being responsible enough to understand safe speed and COAST values.. that the real enjoyment of driving/riding lies in knowing we know we can never know it all .. and have to learn more skills. We can derive a lot of pleasure in knowing we evaluated the drive and considered how to improve technique in the same way as a rally/racing professional hero will - but in a more domesticated fashion as urban road skills require more than the Grand Prix etc in all reality
