Safe Speed Forums

http://www.cumbriasafetycameras.org/index.php?news
Yet another outbreak of pointless survey results and statistics!



If true, then that is a condemnation of the single issue of addressing speed, while bad driving goes unaddressed.

Meanwhile the site still shows this pointless drivell


So which is it.... 30 mph roads, or 60 mph NSL roads?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

If you ask me Ernest it’s all being said to justify councils (nationally) reducing speed limits on all rural roads to unrealistic speed limits

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Its interesting that 96% of those questioned had a different view to the SCP.

w*nkers

Not sure I'd agree that ALL the hazards had been engineered out of Cumbrian roads! For a start, there are still all the lay-bys on the A74! - the ones that CSCP don't acknowledge as a potential accident causation factor but the Highways Agency is going to spend a great deal of money getting rid of to "improve the safety record of this notorious stretch of road"!

Anyone would think they didn't want to see the roads made safer!

Also,

Just heard their latest ad on CFM radio. I don't normally listen to it but was in my wife's car this morning.

It's the one where they quote several drivers on Cumbrian roads all saying (effectively) that they knew the roads and they knew what they were doing. It then went on to tell us (in their usual patronising manner) that Cumbrian roads have all sorts of hazards not normally found elsewhere (really?! Well blow me - I'd never have guessed!).

Two things really cracked me up. The first one was that excess speed doesn't get mentioned ONCE as a hazard (although that's all they seem to prosecute drivers for!)

The second was that the very first hazard that gets mentioned is SLOW drivers!


(we just can't win can we)?!

Today was Westmorland County Show day at Crooklands near Junction 36 of the M6.

Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership were there with a van and gear, to impress the crowd.... not!
Steve Callaghan was interviewed on the Radio Cumbria breakfast show, and with very little to offer, he dragged up some useful stats.

Apparently the fastest speed recorded in Cumbria was 140 mph.
The most pinged vehicle make and model is the Ford Mondeo LX!

Actually without knowing just where the 140 mph motorist was pinged, I dont know whether to be impressed or not.
Now if it was 60 mph over Kirkstone Pass, or 40 mph over Hardnott, then that sort of makes 140 mph on the M6 seem a bit tame!
That's the trouble with statistics - they need to be relevant, otherwise there is just no point!
Anyway, I emailed Radio Cumbria to remind them that the 140 mph motorist would not have been stopped by the "safety" camera, but merely allowed to continue on his/her way, with the toll arriving in the post a week later.
If only the Forth Bridge could be crossed without the inconvenience of having to stop at the toll booth!!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Someone once fed me a statistic that navy blue Mondeos were the most commonly involved cars in crashes. They were a bit taken aback when I asked whether it was the colour or the make that made them so dangerous - and then added that maybe it was because they were also the most common car on the road!

You're right. The statistics can be very misleading! (especially if those peddling them WANT them to be! )

Incidentally, they seem to be dragging their heels over publication of the August KSI figures don't they?!

Do you reckon we might see another bit of their website quietly removed by the end of the year?

Guess what EFC drives !!!!!

Better be careful after that quote

Ah! Mole and myself drive Peugeot's - which was one of the reasons I bought mine!

Speaking of which, where do you get yours serviced Mole? I need new discs and pads all round, and a suspension bush - despite passing the MOT about 6-7 weeks ago!
I refuse to pay the Peugeot dealer £19 for a wiper blade. Having just come back from France, I know how much they are there!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Get the parts from Partco in Kendal, then have local garage fit them, if you need a price for them drop me a PM and i'll get you one.

Ah but can you be sure you're getting the same QUALITY of wiper blade if you don't buy original equipment?????

OK, serious head on for a minute. I get mine serviced at work. The 807 isn't mine, it's a company car and as I work at a place that maintains and supplies lots of Peugeots but unfortunately, it's in Glasgow!

Left to my own devices, I'd always do all my own maintenance - as I do on my own car and my wife's. I'd happily buy "Bosch" or some other recognised brand of wiper blades ("Halfrauds'" own aren't bad!) but I do admit that there are some really crappy ones out there! As far as suspension components go, it's true that modern cars have very squidgy bushes and they do wear out faster than they used to on older cars, so I wouldn't be surprised that they need replacement. It's just the price we pay for more refined cars these days! MOT testers tend not to fail bushes until they can see daylight through them! I'd be a bit wary of buying "pattern" suspension bushes though. My own car has nearly a quarter of a million miles on it and I've kept detailed records of what I changed and when. On average, pattern suspension bushes seem to last about 1/2 - 2/3 as long as genuine ones. I don't (necessarily) think the pattern ones are dangerous - they just wear faster. I WOULD be a bit wary of unbranded metal replacement components (like suspension arms) though. Some of them can be really scary! I also confess to using pattern brake discs but I always go for a make I recognise - like AP. Some of the ones you get on EBAY have no markings on the whatsoever - not even a batch code! Although I've only ever had one bad experience with an unbranded disc (and it wasn't a catastrophic failure), I still tend to shy away from them! Likewise pattern brake pads. Obviously, Peugeot don't make their own brake pads, they buy them from one of the big manufacturers so there's no such thing (really) as a "genuine" Peugeot brake pad! I'd always go for a Ferodo / Mintex / Textar / etc with a proper "e" mark (or "E" mark) on the box.

Good luck!

I'm seriously considering waiting a few weeks, and getting them done in France.
I priced up repairs and spares for my old Renault Espace, and Renault 19, and substantial savings could be made.
Ferry fare in off season is £67 return, so a £750 repair bill reduced to £600 with Peugeot guarantee from the garage is well worth it.
The MOT I had done was at the same Peugeot dealer who now wants to go PHISHING in my wallet! I hope the suspension bush has another 500 or so miles in it!
Incidentally, I'm not sure what's in it, but 4.5 litres of oil cost £33.75!
I'm so glad the 250 mls of screenwash was only 99p.
Peugeot screen wash (lave glace) in France was €4.75 for 5 litres = about £3.20
Bosch wiper blades were €13.75 a PAIR in the supermarket, a shade over £9 and H4 60/55w headlamp bulbs (I bought two sets) were €5.75 a pair = £3.85. Halfrauds wanted £12 EACH before I went on holiday!
Five years ago, I lost a wheel trim off my Espace. Replacement cost was £19 each. I picked up the exact same wheel trim in a French supermarket for £6 per set of four!

Anyone fancy coming on a booze and parts cruise before Christmas?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Oil price isn't too far out. If it's a relatively new Peugeot diesel, it will have fully synthetic oil in it to get the long service intervals. I think Mobil 1 (or whatever equivalents) are about £30 a gallon.

A cutting letter in this weeks Gazette, accuses the CSCP of taking a quarter page advert in the Gazette of 25th August, to highlight that road deaths are at the highest level since they took on the "challenge" of reducing casualties!

It asks if CSCP are finally admitting "...accidents are random events which cannot be manipulated by speed cameras or anything else?"

It goes on to highlight a previous letter from a reader (which might have been me) which said any association between the words SAFETY and CAMERA was laughable!
Finally, it asks in view of the fact that cameras are NOT reducing accidents, and may well be causing them, is it not time we got rid of them!

This letter is not from anyone who has usually risen to challenge the CSCP's modus operandi, and the name is instantly memorable. It leads me to suspect that a whole load mre of the general public is waking up to the effects of the safety camera partnerships propaganda machine, and starting to see through the smokescreen of statistics they throw up.

After a disasterous JUNE figure, CSCP had the July figures out in double quick time - by the 5th of August! Now we are well into September, and NO SIGN of the August figures!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Nope, it wasn't me. That said, I've been thinking about it but have been wondering whether I should wait until a round number of years since they started their "work" before writing to the Whitehaven News. The thing is, they can still hide behind the "SI" figures to justify their worthless skins! We had a number of guests up this weekend (Saturday) and several of them who had come up the M6 from down South said that there was a scamera van ON THE HARD SHOULDER scamming people on Saturday morning. I got confused reports as to exactly where though. Still, it seems they're not just using the bridges any more!

Nope, it wasn't me. That said, I've been thinking about it but have been wondering whether I should wait until a round number of years since they started their "work" before writing to the Whitehaven News. The thing is, they can still hide behind the "SI" figures to justify their worthless skins! We had a number of guests up this weekend (Saturday) and several of them who had come up the M6 from down South said that there was a scamera van ON THE HARD SHOULDER scamming people on Saturday morning. I got confused reports as to exactly where though. Still, it seems they're not just using the bridges any more!

OK, I heard you the first time!

It was somebody from Kentmere - a quiet valley just up from Staveley!
The surname was distinctive so I'll ask in the village!

I dont think they CAN hide behind the SI figure.
Everytime I buy or look at a car, even a second hand one, it has loads more safety features, such as Airbags, side airbags, SIPS, ABS, and a host of others.
The POLICE data I got for the A591 between Kendal and Windermere, showed only 3% of accidents were down to speed in excess of the limit as the cause - so if they stopped EVERY SINGLE CAR from speeding in excess, EVERYWHERE along that road, the best they could hope for would be a 3% improvement. On their website they claim that "in 2004 there was a 67% reduction in KSI at monitored hotspots."
In other words they are taking the credit for improvements which are nothing to do with them!
AND they are paying themselves to tell us that the most pinged vehicle is a Mondeo LX, and that 140 mph is the highest speed pinged. They dont shout anything like as loud that they didnt STOP the 140 mph monster!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

HA! They've just posted the August figures. We're up to 41 "K"s now. Wouldn't be surprised if they drop that section from their website and just concentrate on the self-serving rhetoric like other SCPs soon!

At the risk of getting all sentimental....

I can remember in the good old days, when Steve (or was it Kevin?), started a thread with the title "Still doing well". What a good thread that turned out to be

To give CSCP their due... (and it isn't much "due"), at least they do put the actual figures up on their site. It will be interesting to see, for how much longer they continue to do so though.

Ah yes, I remember that "still doing well" thread too!

From memory I think it was boasting about the first quarter of 2004 when CSCP claimed to be doing much better than the previous year.

Strangely enough when the last quarter of 2004 was a total disaster (25 killed in 3 months) CSCP said it was incorrect to refer to 3 months in isolation

Sums up the scam picture nicely really - secretive, unaccountable and make the rules up as they go along

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).