points for speeding???

BostonB

Stark wrote:

I was driving down the N3 towards the Blanchardstown roundabout the other day and there were gardaí stationed on a bridge overlooking the road. One of the them was writing stuff on a notepad while the other was flashing traffic with a camera. Not sure if I was one of the ones they flashed; I was doing 55mph in the 50mph section that the time

Normally moves at 5mph along that stretch.

Hobbes

They don't have to stop you on the road to charge you. Have a look through the forum you will find posts of people getting the fine in the mail for speeding where they were never stopped.

Also the 10% thing, depends really on the gun. More recent guns are way more accurate then the analog radar guns.

And I hope they charge you. If you were speeding and your sun was in your eyes so you couldn't see ahead you were a bigger danger to others.

Lex Luthor

kbannon wrote:

the displayed and actual speed differences are maximums - not definites.
To suggest that its possible to drive up to a displayed 135km/h and yet still be within the limits is misleading.

As for driving over the limit with the sun in your eyes - well that is just pure stupid! If you cannot see all 'hazards' in front of you then you are driving too fast.

DonJose wrote:

Courtesy my ass, speeders are breaking the law, no if's or but's about it. Would you show to the same courtesy after passing through a drink/drive checkpoint!!!

and so speak a few voices of reason

rebel.ranter

I have checked the Ford Focus in work speedo with a GPS and at 100 km/h it is reading approx. 5km/h faster than the GPS reading. The GPS is fairly accurate for speed measurement, in fact it's more accurate for this than giving your exact location. Did the same with a Toyota Land Cruiser found similar results. Tried an 19996 AMG C36 & a few BMWs and they seem to be very accurate between 30mph & 65mph, the accuracy is a bit off outside this range.
I agree that it is irresponsible to drive into the blinding sun at excessive speed, you might as well drive with your eyes closed. People need to remember that a speed limit is not a target, it's a limit. The limit is really only valid when the conditions allow as well. So heavy rain, a bright sunset, ice & snow will all override that limit IMO.
I remember seeing a RTE news story about the Gardai getting mobile cameras last year or the year before. All the gear including printers etc. were fitted in the back of a Ford Mondeo Estate. The camera came out on a tripod. Not sure how widespread they were going to be used or if they went ahead with the rollout of these.

edit: just to add I have been guilty of speeding in the past, I got 3 tickets pre-penalty points & now I always try to stay within the limits especially in the lower speed zones. Hence the GPS tests etc. I would have to agree with the flashing of other motorists for indicating the revenure generating speed traps.

_Kaiser_

DonJose wrote:

Courtesy my ass, speeders are breaking the law, no if's or but's about it. Would you show to the same courtesy after passing through a drink/drive checkpoint!!!

Well drink/driving is a different kettle of fish (no excuses there!), but yes, if I pass a cop that's parked up in a purely revenue-oriented spot (wide, straight road, lots of visibility, 100km/h zone etc) with his speedgun, then I will "warn" oncoming traffic as the trap has nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with easy-money and stats generation that'll look good in the upcoming election!

Have to say the whole holier-than-thou attitude that certain posters here (automatically) come out with when certain topics are discussed wears a bit thin... no doubt you've NEVER found yourself a few kph over the limit eh? :rolleyes:

rebel.ranter wrote:

I have checked the Ford Focus in work speedo with a GPS and at 100 km/h it is reading approx. 5km/h faster than the GPS reading.

Ditto my Passat. When driving at an indicated 120km/h, the GPS reads about 112 or so. The variance really seems to start at about 80kph - below that it's fairly accurate (although, while 60km/h is dead on, 50km/h indicated seems to be about 3/4km/h over).

Lex Luthor

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Have to say the whole holier-than-thou attitude that certain posters here (automatically) come out with when certain topics are discussed wears a bit thin... no doubt you've NEVER found yourself a few kph over the limit eh? :rolleyes:

we've all done it, but it doesn't mean its right. I've been caught doing a few mph over the limit and regardless of what excuse I gave, when it boils down to it, I was over the limit.

stipey

rebel.ranter wrote:

Tried an 19996 AMG C36

What are the cars of the future like?

What do they run on?

... sorry.... couldn't resist

jameshayes

The worst is on the M50 southbound, it's 120Kmh(before the roadwork’s started) until you get to Firhouse and it drops to 100kmh!!! The road gets better right at the spot where the speed limit drops!

cpoh1

Lex Luthor wrote:

we've all done it, but it doesn't mean its right. I've been caught doing a few mph over the limit and regardless of what excuse I gave, when it boils down to it, I was over the limit.

The phrase "people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones" springs to mind here :rolleyes:

As an aside my car reads around 10% over on my speedo too, my gsm reads 119kph at a speedo reading of 133kph. So to the OP there's a fair chance you were barely over the limit and the gardai are usually as reasonable bunch and wouldnt do you unless you were 10kph over.

Rew

AFAIK the cameras on tripods can photo you the hand held guns they have to pull you over. Makes sense as there is no way you would get the tripod down and in to the car in any sort of resoanable time.

I met a guy with a tripod one on the back road between Confee and Maynooth last week but I was well under (i think). Ill check with somone in traffic to clarify anyway.

My speedo also reads over what im actually doing by 5kmph or so.

Lex Luthor

cpoh1 wrote:

The phrase "people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones" springs to mind here :rolleyes:

I'm not throwing stones, I'm simply pointing out that if your speedo states you are over the limit, then you must be. Even the OP has admitted to that.

If people want to speed, then they take the risk of getting caught, I've done it and been caught but never used the excuse that I thaught I was ok because maybe my speedo might be reading 10% faster than I was travelling.

Whoever suggested that you would be ok to go 10% over the limit, I'd like to know if they ever got caught speeding and tried on that excuse with the garda in question? Can't see if they got very far

Alun

Lex Luthor wrote:

I'm simply pointing out that if your speedo states you are over the limit, then you must be.

Have you actually been following the rest of the thread at all? Speedos are not accurate and all of them deliberately overread .. FACT. Therefore your statement *may* not always be correct depending on how much over the limit your speedo is reading. Understand now?

BrianD3

Rew wrote:

AFAIK the cameras on tripods can photo you the hand held guns they have to pull you over. Makes sense as there is no way you would get the tripod down and in to the car in any sort of resoanable time.

The vast majority of tripod mounted laser guns don't have cameras and the guns themselves are the same as the handheld ones. It may be the case that the Gardai don't have any tripod mounted laser guns + cameras.

However as kbannon says there may be manned speed traps in the Louth/Meath division that can take a picture. I believe this equipment is pretty bulky and tends to be used on motorway overbridges looking down on the traffic below. In which case it may as well be a covert trap because most driver will not spot it anyway and will just get a letter in the post if caught.

edit: there are a few Ford Galaxy Garda cars about. I haven't gotten a close look at these but I thought I saw some fairly bulky equipment in the back of one. It's possible that these have recording equipment meaning that speeders don't have to be pulled over at the time of the offence.

Hobbes

Kaiser2000 wrote:

no doubt you've NEVER found yourself a few kph over the limit eh? :rolleyes:

Not for more then 1-2 seconds and then its normally it's under 5kph before I bring it back down. We can compare points if you want. I have none, never been stopped except at Tax checkpoints. I am not a perfect driver but I keep it well within the limit so if I do fuk up I don't end up killing someone.

But I see daily fricken idiots on the road. I've seen a motorcycle get creamed by a van that didn't indicate while the bike was speeding. I've seen numerous crashes. Not as bad as a year ago but still around 1 a week.

So no sorry. No sympathy from me for someone who might get caught who was intentionally over the limit.

Lex Luthor

Alun wrote:

Have you actually been following the rest of the thread at all?

no

FX Meister

Lex Luthor wrote:

never heard so much rubbish in my life

135kph = 135kph

So if my speedo breaks and it gets stuck on 80kph at all times then when I pull in and stop I'm still doing 80kph by your logic.:rolleyes: Most speedos are out. FACT. Drive your car and keep it at 60kph for a full km, mulitply the time taken to drive the km by 60 and you should get 60. FACT. You won't. FACT
So are you now going to try telling us that your odometer is wrong but your speedo is still bang on? :rolleyes:

_Kaiser_

Hobbes wrote:

Not for more then 1-2 seconds and then its normally it's under 5kph before I bring it back down. We can compare points if you want. I have none, never been stopped except at Tax checkpoints.

Me neither, nor do I habitually speed as you seem to be inferring, however I do have a big problem with cops camped out on motorways, or at the bottom of hills on national routes, where the purpose is obviously to appear to be doing something (and generate revenue and stats), without actually tackling the real problems/dangers on the roads.

For example: if they were really serious about preventing drink driving, all they have to do is sit outside the pubs at closing time (particularly country pubs), and catch the idiots who stumble out to the car? Course not.. too many politicians have interests in/own pubs you see.

Or how about putting speed traps on secondary routes (or where the fatal accidents ACTUALLY happen?) Nope, and why (and you have to appreciate the irony really) - because they reckon it's too DANGEROUS to have cars/cops camped out on these roads. :rolleyes:

I am not a perfect driver but I keep it well within the limit so if I do fuk up I don't end up killing someone.

It's not speed that kills.. it's INAPPROPRIATE speed. I know stretches of road that are posted as 80 or 100 km/h for example, but doing even 60 would be crazy, so going by the posted limit just isn't enough I'm afraid.

I'm not saying we should have a German Autobahn style system with no upper limits, but there is a lot of new road out there that have stupidly low limits, while at the same time (as I've just mentioned), there's a lot of poor roads out there with limits that are posted way too high.

So no sorry. No sympathy from me for someone who might get caught who was intentionally over the limit.

I agree if they are something like 20km/h+ over, or doing 80km/h through towns etc (basically blatantly flouting the law regardless of the posted limit or road/weather conditions), but cops doing people for being a few km/h over, or people coming on here with an aforementioned holier-than-thou attitude is a completely different story.

At the end of the day, a large part of the problem is the varying quality of enforcement, which lead to the "it depends what cop you get" scenarios, as well as the varying quality of Gardai themselves (both from an attitude/ego and training perspective - it seems Templemore doesn't create em all equally).

Another big issue is the Irish "ah sure it'll be grand" attitude, and the fact that all to often it's about being SEEN to do something, rather than ACTUALLY doing anything (or perhaps more accurately, doing anything CONSTRUCTIVE and with "joined up thinking" - to quote one of the more recent media/political phrases).

A whole shake up of the road management system is needed from design and implementation, to ongoing maintenance, to the setting of limits appropriate to the conditions, and ultimately to the enforcement aspects of the situation. Until all that happens though, I can't see the situation improving (and it's likely to get worse with the forthcoming privately-operated speed cameras, but we shall see).

Anyway.. I've rambled on long enough so I'll be quiet now!

alfie

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Or how about putting speed traps on secondary routes (or where the fatal accidents ACTUALLY happen?) Nope, and why (and you have to appreciate the irony really) - because they reckon it's too DANGEROUS to have cars/cops camped out on these roads. :rolleyes:

A Garda and fireman were killed on one of these roads. Is that not justification enough not to be out doing speed traps on these roads??

Seth Brundle

Alun wrote:

Speedos are not accurate and all of them deliberately overread .. FACT. Therefore your statement *may* not always be correct depending on how much over the limit your speedo is reading. Understand now?

You are assuming that all speedos definitley over-read. You cannot make that assumption! Some will be exact! If you assume that speedos will always over-read then eventually you will end up driving a car at what you presume to be within the limit but be in fact be well over the limit.

FX Meister wrote:

Most speedos are out. FACT. Drive your car and keep it at 60kph for a full km, mulitply the time taken to drive the km by 60 and you should get 60. FACT. You won't. FACT
So are you now going to try telling us that your odometer is wrong but your speedo is still bang on? :rolleyes:

The word in bold is the weak point of your argument!
edit: how can you exactly tell that you have travelled 1km?

_Kaiser_

alfie wrote:

A Garda and fireman were killed on one of these roads. Is that not justification enough not to be out doing speed traps on these roads??

Actually I'd argue that if anything, it's MORE of a reason to be policing these roads.

Seth Brundle

alfie wrote:

A Garda and fireman were killed on one of these roads. Is that not justification enough not to be out doing speed traps on these roads??

Surely if people are driving too fast for the road then it is a good reason to have patrols* on them?

* a speed trap may be of no use in most situations where the driver is going too fast for the road but still be within the limit.

I.S.T.

Hobbes wrote:

So no sorry. No sympathy from me for someone who might get caught who was intentionally over the limit.

What about someone driving at 80kmph on a windy country road, where the legal speed limit is 80kmph? Do you think they are commiting a lesser crime than someone on the M1 doing 20kmh over the limit?

Lex Luthor

FX Meister wrote:

So if my speedo breaks and it gets stuck on 80kph at all times then when I pull in and stop I'm still doing 80kph by your logic.:rolleyes: Most speedos are out. FACT. Drive your car and keep it at 60kph for a full km, mulitply the time taken to drive the km by 60 and you should get 60. FACT. You won't. FACT
So are you now going to try telling us that your odometer is wrong but your speedo is still bang on? :rolleyes:

stop picking it to pieces.....you know what I mean :rolleyes:

saobh_ie

I've no problem with somebody driving at 135kmh, indicated or real, on a good road where its reasonbly safe but to the OP, if the low sun prevented you from seeing the the Gardaí perhaps it wasn't appropiate to be travelling at 135kmh.

My typical speed on motorways (excluding the M50, which I rarely if ever use)is 150kmh, decreasing with proximity to other traffic, with the odd burst of 160kmh if theres no visible traffic ahead. The trick is to only do it when the road is clear and you can see everything. If theres an obstacle on the road side that may conceal a Garda I slow down.

I'm also probaly on a motorbike when I do this, as my cars a 1.5 Almera and doesn't ride comfortably in excess of 140kmh, and there's not point of hurrying in the car... hurry up and wait, so I'm also trying to keep myself safe and won't travel quickly if theres any hazards about, actual or potential.

Basically, what I'm saying is, travel at pace but don't do it in inapproaiate envirmoments. For example on the N roads, 100 for me equates to no limit, 80 can be up to 100, 60 is 60 or below (mostly), 50 is a maximun of 50 under all circumstances.

Kaiser2000 wrote:

if I pass a cop that's parked up in a purely revenue-oriented spot (wide, straight road, lots of visibility, 100km/h zone etc) with his speedgun, then I will "warn" oncoming traffic as the trap has nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with easy-money and stats generation that'll look good in the upcoming election!

Surely the other traffic should be able to spot it themselves, if they're not paying attention they shouldn't be driving at the limit never mind above it.

Hobbes wrote:

I am not a perfect driver but I keep it well within the limit so if I do fuk up I don't end up killing someone.

You can fuk up at 30 in a 50 zone and kill someone, your cars not made of tissue.

Wibbs

Hobbes wrote:

Not for more then 1-2 seconds and then its normally it's under 5kph before I bring it back down. We can compare points if you want.

Do you polish that halo with brasso?

I have none, never been stopped except at Tax checkpoints.

That's cool, but I know too many loopers behind the wheel who don't have any either. Against that I know pretty good drivers who have a couple of points, so it's not that much of a judge.

I am not a perfect driver but I keep it well within the limit so if I do fuk up I don't end up killing someone.

Sure it reduces the risk, especially in built up areas. Anyone who speeds in those areas should have their unmentionables roasted. As saobh_ie points out, your car isn't made of tissue.

overdriver

...unless it's a Trabant.

Golferx

alfie wrote:

A Garda and fireman were killed on one of these roads. Is that not justification enough not to be out doing speed traps on these roads??

I think one will find that the reason these gentlemen were killed was down to driver error (possibly including the consumption of alcohol) and not the breaking of a speed limit.

el tel

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Well drink/driving is a different kettle of fish (no excuses there!), but yes, if I pass a cop that's parked up in a purely revenue-oriented spot (wide, straight road, lots of visibility, 100km/h zone etc) with his speedgun, then I will "warn" oncoming traffic as the trap has nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with easy-money and stats generation that'll look good in the upcoming election!

Have to say the whole holier-than-thou attitude that certain posters here (automatically) come out with when certain topics are discussed wears a bit thin... no doubt you've NEVER found yourself a few kph over the limit eh? :rolleyes:


Ditto my Passat. When driving at an indicated 120km/h, the GPS reads about 112 or so. The variance really seems to start at about 80kph - below that it's fairly accurate (although, while 60km/h is dead on, 50km/h indicated seems to be about 3/4km/h over).

Same as my Passat, it's pretty accurate upto about 60km/h after which it gets a little optimisic. At an indicated 200km/h it's only doing 180km/h according to GPS :-(

Seth Brundle

Golferx wrote:

I think one will find that the reason these gentlemen were killed was down to driver error (possibly including the consumption of alcohol) and not the breaking of a speed limit.

As has been said before, you don't have to be exceeding the speed limit to be going too fast though. Had the driver been driving (ignoring the possibility of alcohol, etc.) at a speed appropriate to the road then they should have had time to stop.
However, as I don't know the details of this case Im talking through my bum. I would also make a large assumption that there was no advance notice of the hazard ahead i.e. "Accident Ahead" signs, etc.

Lex Luthor

kbannon wrote:

I would also make a large assumption that there was no advance notice of the hazard ahead i.e. "Accident Ahead" signs, etc.

thats fair enough kb, but when my dad was teaching me to drive he always said to expect the unexpected around every corner.

Had that guy been going at a safe speed its probably fair to say the accident could have been avoided.