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PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 12:36 
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Bournemouth Echo here
Bournemouth Echo -Jim Durkin wrote:
Driver caught doing 102mph - in a 50mph zone
By Jim Durkin - 9:00am Saturday 26th November 2011

A DRIVER caught hurtling along Poole’s busy Dorset Way at 102mph was just one of 227 traffic offenders caught during a one-day borough-wide crackdown.
The motorist, who more than doubled the 50mph speed limit, now faces a hefty fine and possible ban.

Another 26 careless drivers were nabbed chatting on mobile phones at the wheel as part of the hard-hitting road safety event.

The Poole Surround a Town initiative, forming part of Dorset Police’s No Excuse campaign, married enforcement action with a range of road safety initiatives.

The Daily Echo joined traffic officers during Wednesday’s blitz as they patrolled the borough’s highways. By the end of the day they had notched-up 110 tickets.

Meanwhile, the remaining 117 offences – all for speeding – were detected by safety camera vans.

More than 45 per cent of drivers pulled over were stopped for not wearing a seatbelt.
The majority of these offenders opted to attend an educational presentation held at the LV Streetwise centre on the day, thus avoiding a £60 fine.

Project manager Brian Austin said: “The Surround a Town events support our priority to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on Dorset’s roads through enforcement, education and publicity.
“Disappointingly, 26 drivers risked their lives and the lives of everyone around them by using their mobile phones whilst driving.”

The Automatic Number Plate Recognition Spectrum Van also played a big role in the day, detecting a number of drivers without MOTs, insurance and licences.

One driver, who was pulled over for not wearing her seatbelt, then opted to attend the safety lecture, later contacted officers by email. She wrote: “I wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you all put into making the public aware of the dangers of not wearing a seat belt.
“I went along to this talk and was so impressed with the lady who spoke to us.”
Part of the day’s events also included a number of presentations for Ashdown Technology College students.

Dorset Road Safe’s 50/50 car, which recently won a National Trading Standards award spent the day – with trading standards officers and firefighters from Dorset Fire and Rescue Service – at Asda, Canford Heath.
Children at Canford Heath Middle School were also given free cycle safety advice.

BUT ...
Bournemouth Echo also reported (here)how controversial the dropped speed limit is for a dual carriageway ...
Bournemouth Echo - James Morton wrote:
Speed limit on Dorset Way is dropping to 50mph
By James Morton - 7:00am Tuesday 18th January 2011

A CONTROVERSIAL new speed limit will be introduced on one of Dorset’s busiest dual carriageways from next week.
The limit on the A3049 Dorset Way, from Holes Bay to its junction with Ringwood Road, is dropping to 50mph.
Safety concerns have prompted the reduction from the national speed limit, with a quarter of Poole’s road deaths having occurred on the Dorset Way in the last four years.
But critics argue a 50mph limit is not appropriate for a dual carriageway and speed is only a factor in a small proportion of accidents.

Driver Marie Stickland, who lives in Fleetsbridge and uses the road every day, said she felt there was no need for a new lower limit.
She said: “Nine times out of 10 accidents are caused by driver error and if someone wants to speed, they will do so regardless of the limit.
“There is no need to punish normal motorists just trying to get from A to B. “You can’t even drive at 50mph along there at peak times anyway.”
An Echo poll last year found almost two-thirds of readers to be against the reduction in the Dorset Way’s speed limit.

Steve Tite, principal manager at Poole council, said: “The fact there have been two fatalities on this road since these proposals were first considered last year shows the lower limits are needed.”
Motorists were left in limbo over the weekend as the new 50mph signs began to replace the old national speed limit indicators.
The mixture of signage created some confusion but the council said the work would be completed this week and the new limit enforced from Monday.

Mr Tite said: “I would ask drivers to bear with us while the works are being carried out. “Changing a large number of speed limit signs on roads such as this takes time and unfortunately this has led to some confusion.”
So if it were still a 70mph then he would still be over by 32mph which is certainly not good, but less sensational than the 52 that their headline portrays.

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 13:33 
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Quote:
An Echo poll last year found almost two-thirds of readers to be against the reduction in the Dorset Way’s speed limit.

Steve Tite, principal manager at Poole council, said: “The fact there have been two fatalities on this road since these proposals were first considered last year shows the lower limits are needed.”


Two things here which should be glaringly obvious to anyone with ANY common sense.

Firstly, if TWO THIRDS of the drivers polled think that 70MPH is ok, then there is a VERY GOOD chance that it is ok and safe to travel at that speed when conditions allow.
Secondly, does this statement ..."“The fact there have been two fatalities on this road since these proposals were first considered last year shows the lower limits are needed.”.....make sense to anyone with any clue about road safety?

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 14:10 
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So those two deaths were definitely caused by the 70mph limit? Love the way he provides evidence for this. I also love teh way it is dropped to 50 and not 60mph, which would be half-way sensible. I can imagine the frustration of crawling along there at 50mph when you are the only car on the road.


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 17:10 
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The reduced limit displaces traffic to roads where the casualty risk is disproportionately higher.
Any casualty reduction (assuming fatigue wouldn't become an issue) could be due to the displacement effect; not only that but the the policy would be detrimental to the road system as a whole. This has been proven (link).

The A3049 is a quality DC; the 50mph reduction will further erode respect for law.


Quote:
... in the last four years....

... two fatalities on this road since these proposals were first considered last year ...

So they're applying their treatment after the spike of casualties? Who in their right mind would say RTTM is dead?

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 04:01 
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Sad how their intended 'sticking plaster' will fail to deliver in the long term but tragic as people's lives will be lost as their visual perception is altered.
If they really took road safety seriously why are they so determined to just use 'speed reduction' & auto enforcement as a golden egg ?
They ought to be forced to show proof for every action taken thus making sure they have properly considered the best solutions feasible.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 23:02 
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What interests me is that overall we see a nation of "steves"in charge of road "safety"
In Cumbria- we had the old submariner - Steve XX
In Warks we had anothe Steve - Rumbling on about road safety .
Then the next one -Steve Tite. -making a *i* of himself .

What next - a Steve (gormless)in charge of a national road safety campaign :shock: :D

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:28 
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So is 'Steves' the perjorative way to refer to them? F*****g Steves! Effing up our roads with their financially driven road safety policies!


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:29 
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Not really some people who happen to have the name Steve, agree with us and some don't. There is nothing to draw from a name.

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 14:03 
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SafeSpeedv2 wrote:
There is nothing to draw from a name.

I really hope so :D

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 14:59 
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Steve wrote:
SafeSpeedv2 wrote:
There is nothing to draw from a name.

I really hope so :D
Precisely ! :lol:

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 17:35 
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Steve wrote:
The reduced limit displaces traffic to roads where the casualty risk is disproportionately higher.
Any casualty reduction (assuming fatigue wouldn't become an issue) could be due to the displacement effect; not only that but the the policy would be detrimental to the road system as a whole. This has been proven (link).
The A3049 is a quality DC; the 50mph reduction will further erode respect for law.
Quote:
... in the last four years....
... two fatalities on this road since these proposals were first considered last year ...

So they're applying their treatment after the spike of casualties? Who in their right mind would say RTTM is dead?
And ... let's not forget too, that there is 6% less traffic on the roads (total over last 5yrs), and add to that, people are travelling less far less often too (& so exposed to less danger).

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 19:56 
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Steve wrote:
SafeSpeedv2 wrote:
There is nothing to draw from a name.

I really hope so :D


My apologies,Steve -had forgotten about you ,just that the two of the same name, seem to be spouting the same rubbish (or using the same script)And another ,spouting the same,struck me as a bit of a co-incidence .Fortunately,we've got one who talks sense .

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 15:20 
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One of the issues with all the camera captures of doing 'x' miles over the speed limit, is that in many ways all that is happening is that we are now able to observe and record what probably many police-men & women have know for years, that many MoP (members of the public) speed and some do so excessively. I have it on first hand reports that police have stopped vehicles over a ton but in safe conditions and apart from a good telling off have allowed them on their way because it was safe at the time.

When we hear of police personnel are not 'suffering' for their speed incidents too, it speaks of hypocrisy to the Nation's disgust and further divides the relationship between the public and the police.

The media can add to the sensationalism of it all too and that doesn't help produce a more factual and more level approach to seek out the truth. The press can be far too keen to 'make it personal' than 'what is really going on'.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 22:02 
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I got pulled at over a ton the other day. Well, he said I was doing over a ton. He let me off with the first run which was 90-odd. I got the impression that was more because he couldn't be arsed to go to court but I appreciated it anyway. Tellingly no issue of safety was ever raised. There was no telling off or comment on my riding. He didn't even tell me not to do it again. They usually at least do that. There was no discussion other than here is a ticket, get it paid. It was like an encounter with a tax collector rather than a police officer. Still he was polite and courteous enough so whatever. He was only doing his job. I, too, have known people who have got off at over a ton if conditions were favourable.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:05 
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DoktorMandrake wrote:
There was no discussion other than here is a ticket, get it paid. It was like an encounter with a tax collector rather than a police officer.

It was ever thus, even back in the seventies in my area those grey box radar traps were very often set up on good roads in the middle of the afternoon when roads were quiet. I remember a few years back ... quite a few years back ... being driven along a 30mph dual carriagway by a recently retired trafpol past a common speed trap spot at around 2:30pm on a fine dry day, the road had little traffic on it, he was doing an indicated 50mph, quite safely, I felt there was no danger to anyone, but he'd prosecuted 1000s of motorists for doing anything over 33mph at the same spot in similar conditions for years ... the quality of the hypocrisy is outstanding, but he can't even see it!

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:13 
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85th percentile is apparently fine for them, but for the rest of us the law applies. :loco:

Btw did you mention the hypocrisy?


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:56 
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DoktorMandrake wrote:
Btw did you mention the hypocrisy?

Indeed I did Dok, argued with him about it on several occasions, his positions was basically .... I'm a highly qualified Police pursuit driver and have been trained to drive safely at high speeds!!! which is why I said he can't see the hypocrisy ... oh yes and his face would go a funny bright red colour if you wondered if his old cronies would charge him if they caught him speeding :lol:

A few years back was out for a bike run with a few pals, pal in front of me (going a bit quicker than I was) got pinged at 67mph by a hand held laser from a traffic car (nice dry day, wide road, little traffic, huge long straight). When my friend went past them they pulled out of their hiding place and gave chase. I was sitting pretty much bang on 60mph, they disappeared after my pal at some rate. They pulled my pal in a layby .. and stopped me also. I got a lecture on the dangers of speeding, the conversation went something like this.

Policeman - lecture on dangers of speeding.
Me - I wasn't speeding.
Policeman - your pal was.
Me - I'm not my pal, however fast he was going I still wasn't speeding.
Policeman - I'm just trying to give you some advice on staying safe.
Me - Ok then lets go with that, as far as I can see there was two people speeding, my pal and you, and you were going much faster than my pal.
Policeman - we are highly trained in safe high speed pursuit, we have to catch up with folks to stop them.
Me - but you've just told me speeding is always highly dangerous, are you now telling me there are circumstances when its not?
Policeman - speeding is always dangerous.
Me - so you've just been driving dangerously then?
Policeman - no, we are trained to drive safely at high speed.
Me - but you just said speeding is always highly dangerous.
Policeman - I think you have a very bad attitude, you'd be better just listening to what I'm telling you.
Me - I am listening, but so far you've told me speeding is always dangerous, then you told me it isn't always dangerous, make up your mind :loco:
Policeman - we will now do a safety check on your bike ...............

A very detailed examination of my bike followed ..... no faults were found :P

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2011 15:57 
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Sounds like he used the safety check thing to divert attention from any more of your questions :lol: :clap:


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:55 
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DoktorMandrake wrote:
Sounds like he used the safety check thing to divert attention from any more of your questions :lol: :clap:

That and they were pretty determined to 'get' me for something .... anything.

They'd have been much better off congratulating me on the fact I wasn't showing any inclination at all to keep up with my pal, and keeping a bike over 10 year old in such good condition. But no, they have to stop someone who is demonstrably driving well and is fully legal and spout p*sh at him, then get upset when the p*sh is exposed for what it is. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have bothered with the 'safety check' if I'd just kept my mouth shut.

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2011 16:33 
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I am pretty sure they wouldn't either, mate. Welcome to the police state!


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