Can we stop warning people about checkpoints?

Discodog

No one flashes lights anymore, we all use twitter & facebook. The Galway checkpoints page has 14000 members.

hytrogen

andekwarhola wrote:

If you bothered to read what I actually wrote, I meant I don't bother overtaking most of the time and stick with the traffic speed in that lane for the (relatively short) time I'm on the motorway because most of the cnuts immediately camp in the overtaking lane and to a lesser extent the middle.

Life in the fast lane Surely make you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane

andekwarhola

hytrogen wrote: »

Life in the fast lane Surely make you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane

/axe break

Wibbs

Most times when I read a speed/driving related thread in AH I picture many of the replies roughly divided along these lines.

Either:



Or:



Oh and; Baby you can drive my car, baby you can drive my car and baby I love you.

The Oort Cloud

Endas government is like a huge vacuum cleaner sucking the life out of every living soul on the island, of course the speed vans are only there to receive extra revenue, without a shadow of a doubt.

There are certain people out there that no matter what punishment you give to them, even a driving ban, they will continue to drive regardless. Some people just do not care and will only think of themselves at all times disregarding the majority of road users, and they just don't seem to give a ****. All it takes is one person like this to cause the death of another or their family, but they don't seem to be able to understand the consequences of their actions of speeding, it just doesn't register, just like trying to explain empathy to a sociopath, does not compute.

AndyBoBandy

I shall consult the Fast & Furious movie franchise, and if they deem it cool to warn others of impending speed fines, I shall follow suit.

Choose Life

Fast Life

Furious Life

Choose a f**king big television.

AudreyHepburn

Senor Fancy Pants wrote: »

But, slowing people down would be a product of you flashing them...hence making the road safer.

Why wait until they get a letter in the post 2 months later? Schure they could kill someone in the mean time.

Your logic is flawed

It's not flawed.....they might slow down at that moment but you and I both they'd go straight back to breaking the speed limit once passed the van and would most likely continue to speed for then on.

Flashing is not deterrent to me, it's a means of allowing people to continue driving dangerously.

AudreyHepburn

Balmed Out wrote: »

I disagree with your opening line. If so most would be located near the bends and corners of accident blackspots where speeding does most damage. They never ever are though because the vast majority slow down and don't speed in these areas.
Where are they most often located? The one point over in a 20 km stretch where its possible to overtake that tractor or else at points where the speed limit changes. That's my own experience anyhow and strikes me as very much trying to make money.
I flash people I see driving way too fast and when it comes to speed traps only if they look like they may be going slightly over.
Never flash for checkpoints, that I cant understand.

If you don't want to be forking out money on fines there's a simple solution....SLOW DOWN.

The checkpoints are there to make the roads safe, nothing more nothing less and I really wish people would stop hiding their heads in the sand, acknowledge that they, and not the Gardai, are the problem and at least attempt to drive safely.

Citroen2cv

Flash the Lights at me


I left school a while ago when I got meself a job
The craic was good on the building sites, and I made a couple a bob
I bought a Ford Festa, me pride and joy is she
If there stopping round the border, wont ye flash the lights at me
Chorus
Flash the lights at me, flash the lights at me
Use the code on the border roads and flash the lights at me
I paid the auld insurance, and it cost me a couple a grand
Im stony broke and thats no joke, Im sure youll understand
I have no money left at all to pay for an M.O.T.
If theyre stopping round the border, wont you flash the lights at me
Chorus
The tyres are nearly bald and I have no tax at all
Theres a drop of red in the diesel tank that could be my downfall
If the customs, they are dipping or the boys in blue you see
If theyre stopping round the border, wont ye flash the lights at me
Chorus
Sometimes on a Sunday, to Jonesboro I go
I might have a couple a squibbs in the boot, tapes or videos
I might have a load of potin or a drop of duty free
If theyre stopping round the border, wont ye flash the lights at me
Chorus.
Were crafty round the border, thats how we have to be
We like to get the better of the customs and authorty
We can barely forge, we know the score, weve a simple philosophy
If the things not right day or night, wont you flash the lights at me
Chorus

AndyBoBandy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZA6qiJVfU

hytrogen

andekwarhola wrote:

/axe break

AudreyHepburn wrote:

If you don't want to be forking out money on fines there's a simple solution....SLOW DOWN.

Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world I'll turn it inside out - yeah
And floating around in ecstasy
So don't stop me now don't stop me
'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time

Discodog

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

If you don't want to be forking out money on fines there's a simple solution....SLOW DOWN.

The checkpoints are there to make the roads safe, nothing more nothing less and I really wish people would stop hiding their heads in the sand, acknowledge that they, and not the Gardai, are the problem and at least attempt to drive safely.

They & the speed vans are revenue generators. Checkpoints are mainly for windscreen checks during the day. They are never there at closing time to catch drunk drivers. The vans aren't just on accident points. They hide where they will generate easy money.

My 70 year old neighbour was caught twice - both times less that 5kmh over the limit. She isn't a dangerous driver. She has never had an accident.

Another neighbour was stopped taking her kids to school. Her tax was 6 weeks out of date. They could of given her 10 days to produce her tax but they decided to take the car off her & leave her by the roadside with two children & a baby. That isn't about road safety.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfgf9HatIHI

Discodog

Discodog wrote: »

They & the speed vans are revenue generators. Checkpoints are mainly for windscreen checks during the day. They are never there at closing time to catch drunk drivers. The vans aren't just on accident points. They hide where they will generate easy money.

My 70 year old neighbour was caught twice - both times less that 5kmh over the limit. She isn't a dangerous driver. She has never had an accident.

Another neighbour was stopped taking her kids to school. Her tax was 6 weeks out of date. They could of given her 10 days to produce her tax but they decided to take the car off her & leave her by the roadside with two children & a baby. That isn't about road safety.

She's got legs, she knows how to use them
She never begs, she knows how to choose them

Sorry, had to be done

CoolHandBandit

There is a money making van (sorry speed enforcement unit) on the N11 Northbound at the lay by just before the Enniskerry exit this morning folks.

This has been a public service announcement on behalf of pissed off motorists.

Kimbot

TBH why on earth should you notify any other driver of a speed camera, if they are speeding and get caught then so be it, it might just teach them to slow down on the roads.

AudreyHepburn

Discodog wrote: »

They & the speed vans are revenue generators. Checkpoints are mainly for windscreen checks during the day. They are never there at closing time to catch drunk drivers. The vans aren't just on accident points. They hide where they will generate easy money.

My 70 year old neighbour was caught twice - both times less that 5kmh over the limit. She isn't a dangerous driver. She has never had an accident.

Another neighbour was stopped taking her kids to school. Her tax was 6 weeks out of date. They could of given her 10 days to produce her tax but they decided to take the car off her & leave her by the roadside with two children & a baby. That isn't about road safety.

If you've broken the law, you have to take your lumps if you get caught.

I'd imagine your neighbor might have been given the time to produce the disc if the tax was only a few days or maybe week out of date but a month and half probably looked to them like she deliberately didn't tax it.

And your other neighbor being elderly makes no difference....if you repeatedly speed and get caught you have only yourself to blame. I know they weren't going that fast but it only takes a split second at speed for things to go wrong.

I say again the vans are only there to make the road safe and if you can't or won't obey the rules of the road you shouldn't be on it.

hytrogen

CoolHandBandit wrote:

This has been a public service announcement on behalf of pissed off motorists.

Slim Shady is not responsible for your actions.
Upon purchasing this album you have agreed to not try this at home.
Anything else?
Yeah, don't do drugs.

Balmed Out

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

If you don't want to be forking out money on fines there's a simple solution....SLOW DOWN.

The checkpoints are there to make the roads safe, nothing more nothing less and I really wish people would stop hiding their heads in the sand, acknowledge that they, and not the Gardai, are the problem and at least attempt to drive safely.

Hey kids, rock and roll
Nobody tells you where to go, baby

Maybe you did
Maybe you walk
Maybe you rock around the clock
Tick-tock, tick-tock
Maybe I ride
Maybe you walk
Maybe I drive to get off, baby

Hey kids, where are you?
Nobody tells you what to do, baby

Would you at least acknowledge the positioning of the vans is more to drive revenue then to improve road safety?

martingriff

The Oort Cloud wrote: »

DangerMouse27 wrote: »

I go driving in my car,
Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep


Look at what I've become.
I hope posters are taking something from the original post and not just adding lyrics.

Fair play Dangermouse.

Well, I suppose if a vehicle is oncoming especially on a back-road and you flash them as to a checkpoint ahead then they will obviously slow down immediately which is good, and I'm sure most folk that were actually speeding would continue to keep to the speed limit after that as of the acknowledgement of the flash. The odd stupid person would probably continue to speed thereafter, but I would say the majority would just take it handy after the warning imo.

They would slow down till they pass the speed trap then floor it even faster to make up for time lost for that money grubbing exercise (irony been if people drove at speed limits they could not make money)

AudreyHepburn

Balmed Out wrote: »

Would you at least acknowledge the positioning of the vans is more to drive revenue then to improve road safety?

No because I really don't seem them as money makers....I suppose it's easier for people to jump to that conclusion than admit that they themselves and their persistent speeding/refusal to tax or insure the car/dangerous driving etc are the problem

seamus

The hypocrisy of people on this kind of stuff always makes me laugh.


Accountants using loopholes to legally avoid paying tax - Bastards! Should be strung up by their balls!

Motorists flashing other motorists to warn about checkpoints - Doing a good public service.

Whistleblower giving evidence to an Oireachtas committee about how he tried to stick to the rules and alert when other weren't - National hero

Garda doing you for being 10km/h over the limit - Just an aul prick.


We want everyone else to play rigidly by the rules but get indignant at anyone who suggests we should do the same. No, I don't flash other motorists. Not my problem.

Balmed Out

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

No because I really don't seem them as money makers....I suppose it's easier for people to jump to that conclusion than admit that they themselves and their persistent speeding/refusal to tax or insure the car/dangerous driving etc are the problem

I don't speed, never been fined or had points so lets not jump to conclusions.

If their primary aim is to improve road safety can you explain why they are rarely (or never in my own experience) located at or around accident black points where speeding has killed and are instead located at points where for instance there is a change in speed limit.

Graces7

Neighsayer wrote: »

I hardly ever let a journey pass without flashing a couple of oncoming cars in the hope it might encourage them to slow down.

My own thoughts were heading along those lines..anything that makes them slow down..

Out here in rural lanes, the only reason I flash headlights is when there are sheep etc on the road round the next bend behind me. Last week I slowed and put hazard lights on as there was a small lamb on one side of the road and the ewe was on the other... and a big camper van on my tail.

Ubbquittious

I always flash people to warn them of upcoming GoSh!t vans. Can't stand fecking do gooders who think they're doing the world a favour by letting you get caught by one of them.

Its the car insurance industry who really benefits from this, they suddenly have an excuse to add 100s onto someone's premium who is really very little extra risk

AndyBoBandy

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Its the car insurance industry who really benefits from this, they suddenly have an excuse to add 100s onto someone's premium who is really very little extra risk

someone who speeds is really very little extra risk?

martingriff

Balmed Out wrote: »

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

No because I really don't seem them as money makers....I suppose it's easier for people to jump to that conclusion than admit that they themselves and their persistent speeding/refusal to tax or insure the car/dangerous driving etc are the problem

I don't speed, never been fined or had points so lets not jump to conclusions.

If their primary aim is to improve road safety can you explain why they are rarely (or never in my own experience) located at or around accident black points where speeding has killed and are instead located at points where for instance there is a change in speed limit.

Can't tell you why they are not at all black spots but some (most I say) is because they can not safely and legally pull over. Very few vans I see are at speed changes and there are now signs to let you know you are coming to 1 and it's your responsibility to start slowing to that limit not Wait till you pass the sign

hytrogen

seamus wrote:

No, I don't flash other motorists. Not my problem.

On behalf of every motorist here we're thankful of not seeing your hairy arsecheeks

FutureGuy

The only time I ever flash is when I know there's no speed cameras and I get them all to drive at a reasonable speed.

Ubbquittious

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

someone who speeds is really very little extra risk?

Unless you're way over the limit it doesn't really matter a damn. These GoSh!t vans are usually on a grand stretch of road where people might get caught 120 or less, hardly flirting with death.

Graces7

Discodog wrote: »

They & the speed vans are revenue generators. Checkpoints are mainly for windscreen checks during the day. They are never there at closing time to catch drunk drivers. The vans aren't just on accident points. They hide where they will generate easy money.

My 70 year old neighbour was caught twice - both times less that 5kmh over the limit. She isn't a dangerous driver. She has never had an accident.

Another neighbour was stopped taking her kids to school. Her tax was 6 weeks out of date. They could of given her 10 days to produce her tax but they decided to take the car off her & leave her by the roadside with two children & a baby. That isn't about road safety.

Read about that some years back and that time there was more to it than you have said. And 6 weeks? Taking a great risk driving with her kids in that condition.

AudreyHepburn

Ubbquittious wrote: »

I always flash people to warn them of upcoming GoSh!t vans. Can't stand fecking do gooders who think they're doing the world a favour by letting you get caught by one of them.

Its the car insurance industry who really benefits from this, they suddenly have an excuse to add 100s onto someone's premium who is really very little extra risk

If you speed you're a risk, simple as that.

If you continuously speed you're an even bigger risk.

So you will rightly be loaded on your insurance.

AudreyHepburn

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Unless you're way over the limit it doesn't really matter a damn. These GoSh!t vans are usually on a grand stretch of road where people might get caught 120 or less, hardly flirting with death.

Speeding doesn't matter?!

I hope I never meet you on the road. You shouldn't be driving if that's your attitude.

Wanderer78

AudreyHepburn wrote:

So you will rightly be loaded on your insurance.

Does it work?

Wibbs

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

someone who speeds is really very little extra risk?

"Speeding" isn't some monolithic always risky factor. Some muppet doing 110 kph in a 50 zone should be strung up by the neck on the nearest lamppost, someone doing 110 kph in a 100 zone is a very different animal.

Wibbs

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

If you speed you're a risk, simple as that.

This is the kind of "thinking" that blights such discussions. 99 kph in a 100 zone = "safe", 101 kph in a 100 zone = "dangerous. Oh noes!". Eh nope, it's not as simple as that. Never mind that I can think of many a road where the speed limit is set too high and yet the pedants would reckon so long as someone was under the limit...

Balmed Out

Wibbs wrote: »

"Speeding" isn't some monolithic always risky factor. Some muppet doing 110 kph in a 50 zone should be strung up by the neck on the nearest lamppost, someone doing 110 kph in a 100 zone is a very different animal.

Add to that the speed limits set on our roads with little thought to the actual road. Plenty of roads with a speed limit of 80 or 100 that should arguably be higher and plenty more with speed limits of 80 where driving at 40 will result in certain death.

SmartinMartin

At last, voices of reason.

blackwhite

DangerMouse27 wrote: »

Come right up behind me again, try to intimidate me to endanger myself to get out of your way. It happens every five minutes on the m50. These people cannot drive.

If this keeps happening on the M50 then it certainly gives the impression that you are driving in the incorrect lane a lot.

KERSPLAT!

Wibbs wrote: »

"Speeding" isn't some monolithic always risky factor. Some muppet doing 110 kph in a 50 zone should be strung up by the neck on the nearest lamppost, someone doing 110 kph in a 100 zone is a very different animal.

But we all agree, it is breaking the speed limit, right? I do take your point however, there is a huge difference.

No I don't flash others. If you're speeding and you're caught then tough. If I'm speeding and I'm caught, tough.

The notion that flashing someone slows them down and in itself is enough is false, IMO. It will slow them down for a brief time but, IMO, a fine and a few points will do a better job.

There's an abundance/wasteful amount of signs on our roads, there is no excuse.

If you don't want to get caught speeding, don't break the speed limit.

PREG1967

DangerMouse27 wrote: »

Ok, I think I am on to a loser already. It's been decreed in every parish that flashing the headlights for an oncoming speeder that he is approaching a speed van or a checkpoint is what's called, doing a solid. It's not though. It is keeping the local driving lunatics on the road and I for one, am sick of it.

I meet them everywhere, and they are getting worse. People are forgetting how to drive and have zero manners when behind the wheel. Come right up behind me again, try to intimidate me to endanger myself to get out of your way. It happens every five minutes on the m50. These people cannot drive. I cannot wait for a future RSA campaign alerting people to the dangers of flashing the high beams. And by cannot, I mean that I can not stand idly by until such a campaign brings about a change in mindset.

I have been doing quite a few shifts in the EDs of Dublin and with every bump and bang that arrives in the door via the latest RTA, I wonder, could the person who caused it have been stopped before they wreaked havoc upon someone else's life. Every accident has its own story, yes that's true, but I would like if the ones caused by irresponsible drivers could at least be quelled for a bit.

Maybe your Tax was out and someone flashed you before and now you think that you have some debt of gratitude to repay. You are not helping anybody by flashing an oncoming driver of any sort of Garda or whatever type of speed van. In fact, your hurting people.

Here, I don't expect people to row in and agree, and if you don't, fine, but think about it and pass it on and let someone else save a life.

I only warn non lunatics

KERSPLAT!

Balmed Out wrote: »

Add to that the speed limits set on our roads with little thought to the actual road. Plenty of roads with a speed limit of 80 or 100 that should arguably be higher and plenty more with speed limits of 80 where driving at 40 will result in certain death.

A speed limit is just that, a limit, not a target.

I do agree however that some roads have ridiculous limits. Some too high some too low.

Mr. CooL ICE

Nobody gonna take my car; I'm gonna race it to the ground
Nobody gonna beat my car; It's gonna break the speed of sound
Oooh it's a killing machine. It's got everything
Like a driving power big fat tires and everything
I love it and I need it, I bleed it
Yeah it's a wild hurricane. Alright hold tight, I'm a highway star

Wanderer78

KERSPLAT! wrote:

The notion that flashing someone slows them down and in itself is enough is false, IMO. It will slow them down for a brief time but, IMO, a fine and a few points will do a better job.

Does this actually work, does fining people and giving them points actually slow them down or does it have a similar effect in just temporarily slowing them down?

Ubbquittious

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Speeding doesn't matter?!

I hope I never meet you on the road. You shouldn't be driving if that's your attitude.

These roundy signs with digits on them you see along the road were just thought up by some councillor and don't signify some mythical hard boundary between perfectly safe and driving like a lunatic.

I hope you don't meet me on the road either, wouldnt want to be holding you up

KERSPLAT!

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Does this actually work, does fining people and giving them points actually slow them down or does it have a similar effect in just temporarily slowing them down?

I was caught about 10 years ago doing 132kph in a 100kph zone. Got a fine and 2 points. I rarely break the speed limit now and if I do and I'm caught, like I said, tough. That's my experience and I'm basing my opinion on that and of people I know, whether there's anything in that, I don't know.

blackwhite

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

If you speed you're a risk, simple as that.

If you continuously speed you're an even bigger risk.

So you will rightly be loaded on your insurance.

Fairly ill-thought out logic there TBH.


By your reasoning them - someone driving who drives this stretch of road every day at 90kmph is a "even bigger risk"
https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.41797,-6.845137,3a,75y,288.37h,81.96t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1so6lKSvWk6WY3Oi5fZSS5Ew!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Yet before the M4 was opened 12 years ago (when cars on the road generally had lower safety ratings), when the Kilcock to Enfield road had much higher traffic volumes, if they drove that exact stretch of road at the same speed they'd have been an incredibly safe driver for staying 10kmph below the speed limit?

Balmed Out

martingriff wrote: »

Can't tell you why they are not at all black spots but some (most I say) is because they can not safely and legally pull over. Very few vans I see are at speed changes and there are now signs to let you know you are coming to 1 and it's your responsibility to start slowing to that limit not Wait till you pass the sign

The majority on my commute are at speed limit changes save one which is at the only point in 20km or so that its safe to overtake and there are plenty of tractors etc on the route so people tend to overtake if possible.

For many black spots its not feasible right on them but it is on the approach to them but they choose not to as most traffic is local and wont break the speed limit (though they may be going too fast) when coming to a dangerous point.

There's one road near me that seems to have a fatal crash every year but the only two places they park are the only two places where its safe to drive at or even beyond the limit, the rest of the road they ignore as too many drive at less then the speed limit so they wont catch people even though the odd one that does speed causes fatal accidents.

Quazzie

DangerMouse27 wrote: »

Come right up behind me again, try to intimidate me to endanger myself to get out of your way. It happens every five minutes on the m50.

If you're on the M50 and aren't using the lanes correctly then the bigger problem is you.

Sam Kade

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

But we all agree, it is breaking the speed limit, right? I do take your point however, there is a huge difference.

No I don't flash others. If you're speeding and you're caught then tough. If I'm speeding and I'm caught, tough.

The notion that flashing someone slows them down and in itself is enough is false, IMO. It will slow them down for a brief time but, IMO, a fine and a few points will do a better job.

There's an abundance/wasteful amount of signs on our roads, there is no excuse.

If you don't want to get caught speeding, don't break the speed limit.

I came across a lunatic in a van overtaking cars into oncoming traffic and speeding on an N road. As he overtook a line of cars with a truck driving on the hard shoulder and cars in the driving lane coming towards him the fool in the truck started flicking his lights at him to warn him of Gardai ahead:rolleyes: the oncoming cars had to swerve to avoid him. It turned out after that the Gardai were waiting for him as someone tipped them off about his crazy driving.