www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49090755
Interesting reading - my BMW has speed limit sign recognition which displays on the heads-up display.
However it is regularly wrong as it picks up limits from signs not on our road - eg driving along motorway and it picks up the "50" sign on the sliproad going off.
I live in a housing estate with 20's plenty signs everywhere. Yet somewhere, my car picks up a 40 sign. I never notice it at the time but one of these days I am going to need to drive whilst watching it to see where it is getting the 40 from!
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I read that story this morning, but got sidetracked from that which you will all want to talk about. I was intrigued by the picture of the sad looking woman in the car, supplied by Getty Images. I wondered if there is an army of photographers who sit down and say "we need to take a picture of almost anything anyone can think of, whether it's a young black person peering angrily into a shopping trolley with a dice n their hand or a white old lady falling off a skateboard wearing a tutu, because one day the media will buy that picture and use it". There is always a picture that's "appropriate" somehow.
I looked up Getty and how the industry works - it's not brilliant - and also, Wikipedia reckons the usage rights is about $500 a pop for commercial purposes. Even if the BBC have negotiated some great deal, perhaps they pay just £100 a go, but even so that's two images in that article alone that are entirely useless and add nothing, as far as I am concerned, and that's another £200 of licence fee gone.
Maybe I'm overthinking this because it's hot.
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Do you know what, i never thought about 'bank' images at all until you mentioned that.
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Hmm. Can of worms. I just looked at it again, and that picture has gone, to be replaced by a shot of a 30 sign, not Getty. The first one, though, out of focus blurred car by a 20 sign, is still there, and that is Getty.
So someone at the BBC has changed the pictures today, why? Do they always change the pictures through the day? I've never noticed if they do. Questions must be answered!
Intriguing stuff for the terminally bored.
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The bored blonde is still there but may have moved down the page (or maybe the images change dynamically). Those with an eye for such things will also notice that the image is sourced from a country that drives on the right.
That or the picture is reversed.
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I had to attend a Speed Awareness Course this week. 37mph in a 30mph at 01:20 on a dual carriageway. I knew the limit (it had fallen from 40mph a few months earlier and it was a big scandal in the local press), so purely my fault for being distracted.
Anyway what i took away from the course is that I had not been well taught about speed limits and had forgotten what I knew. Tne refresher was very timely and if everyone had a 20 minute refresher every ten years, far fewer people would be able to say that they did not know what the speed limit was. Technology cannot beat the basic information in your head.
>Every road with streetlights has a speed limited of 30mph unless stated (with signs) otherwise.
>Roads without streetlights have a limit of 60mph (for cars) unless stated otherwise.
>Motorways are 70mph unless stated otherwise.
So unless you are on a motorway, most people in the country should only be doing 30mph unless they know with certainty they are permitted to drive faster.
Doesn't necessarily mean I am going to drive slower than i do now but I will have no excuse if I get caught.
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>>Roads without streetlights have a limit of 60mph (for cars) unless stated otherwise.
70 if it's a dual carriageway.
Apparently on speed awareness courses hardly anyone knows what constitutes a dual carriageway.
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>> Apparently on speed awareness courses hardly anyone knows what constitutes a dual carriageway.
I had an 'interesting' conversation with a BIB who refused to accept this was a dual carriageway. They maintained that as it only had a single lane in each direction it couldn't be 'dual'. Never heard any more about my alleged speeding along it, I guess someone put them right.
goo.gl/maps/tdQGDvyWfcM6dCFR9
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Fri 26 Jul 19 at 17:24
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>> >>Roads without streetlights have a limit of 60mph (for cars) unless stated otherwise.
>>
>> 70 if it's a dual carriageway.
>>
>> Apparently on speed awareness courses hardly anyone knows what constitutes a dual carriageway.
>>
>>
>>
True - the definition of a dual carriageway is clear, but it is surprising that it includes a highway divided by a grass strip. No barrier required... The American call it better as a 'divided highway'.
And yes the speed limit on a DC is 70mph for a car.
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Dual Carriageways
As I understand it, any road that has separates the lanes, by barrier or central grass strip is classed as a dual carriageway. The number of lanes does not apply otherwise a 6 lane road would not be a dual carriageway.
A couple of examples...
My brother got a days course for 70, on a 4 lane stretch of the A303 marked as national speed limit as it was not a dual carriageway.
An ex-4 lane road near me has had the NSL signs replaced with 60MPH signs. The number of lanes has been reduced to 2, one in each direction and there is a mixture of barriers, trees and grass between the lanes. If it was not considered to be a d/cw then the 60MPH signs would not be required and the NSL signs could have stayed.
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>>
>> My brother got a days course for 70, on a 4 lane stretch of the
>> A303 marked as national speed limit as it was not a dual carriageway.
I can't recall any S4 sections on the A303, there is a section of S2+1 (Ilminister Bypass).
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Best not to wait for a speed awareness course. All you need to know in the Highway Code. All road users would benefit from reading it occasionally especially the bit on signalling when approaching, on ad leaving a roundabout.
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>> especially the bit
>> on signalling when approaching, on ad leaving a roundabout.
I drive a Beemer, thats N/A
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>>
>> >> especially the bit
>> >> on signalling when approaching, on ad leaving a roundabout.
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>> I drive a Beemer, thats N/A
>>
At any time, anywhere.
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I don't think the bored, dopey blonde is in the UK, is she?
So, no worries?
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>> I don't think the bored, dopey blonde is in the UK, is she?
>>
....no, we got the bored, dopey blond......
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Isn't it peculiar how we, myself included, see speed limits as the target speed, not the maximum speed.
Though I am noticeably less bothered about it these days, 30 years ago you would never have seen me willingly driving at less than the speed limit.
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Target, limit...
Bunch of anecdotes discussing this on another forum, saying those learning to drive now are told if you don't drive at the limit, assuming no exceptional hazards, you'll fail, and some alleged examples of that happening.
I don't tend to drive at the limit in a 60 UNLESS someone is clearly pushing on behind me, when I speed up, though not over the limit. Left to my own devices I'll do less, as I prefer it. Happy enough at 55 ish, but sometimes as low as 45 on a lovely day and nobody about. Not often there's nobody about of course, or not for long.
Motorways I keep out of everyone's way in lane one, going a hint faster than the wagons. When I catch one, slowly, I'll wait till very clear in lane two, whip past, go back to lane one. Saves a bunch of fuel, and I relax more.
30 or 40 limits, if clear, set the tech to an indicated 32 or 43, which gps and roadside illuminated signs tell me is exactly 30 or 40, and I'm done, don't care if someone is up my chuff.
20 limits I kind of try to, but never over an indicated 25.
I don't think that's inconsiderate overall, but of course you don't really know. What do we think?
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>>I don't think that's inconsiderate overall, but of course you don't really know. What do we think?
Sounds reasonable to me.
Motorways to one side, have you ever tried to catch up with someone who left 10 minutes before you. Even driving like a nutter trying to catch up with a gentle driver is somewhere between difficult and impossible.
Kind of suggesting that driving around crammed up to the speed limit is largely a stressful, frustrating and pointless activity.
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Yes. I use TomTom mostly. I don't believe it's clever enough to learn my average speeds on various roads individually. On all journeys it gives me an ETA as I start. As I bimble along it recalculates the ETA on the fly. Even at my most bimbly the ETA changes by about a minute or two every fifty miles or some such.
It's really not much.
I was thinking more about this on the motorway journey I've just done. I had the cruise set to 62. At no point did I have to think about the vehicle in front, maintaining braking distance, even at a low level wondering if he might do something. Nothing. Because there was never a car in front. Everyone overhauled me and tootled off into the distance. But at the same time, nobody ever sat behind me, nor did I hold anyone up. I just steered, no change of speed, for thirty miles.
I was quite happy with that, though I appreciate it wouldn't work on the M25 when it's heaving.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sat 27 Jul 19 at 21:28
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>> Yes. I use TomTom mostly. I don't believe it's clever enough to learn my average
>> speeds on various roads individually. On all journeys it gives me an ETA as I
>> start. As I bimble along it recalculates the ETA on the fly. Even at my
>> most bimbly the ETA changes by about a minute or two every fifty miles or
>> some such.
By hustling, say exceeding speed limits by 15% I can shave 5 minutes per hour off Google maps predicted ETA's. If there is no traffic jams, If there are, then its not worth the effort trying.
>> I was thinking more about this on the motorway journey I've just done. I had
>> the cruise set to 62. At no point did I have to think about the
>> vehicle in front, maintaining braking distance, even at a low level wondering if he might
>> do something. Nothing. Because there was never a car in front.
So your actual speed was about 58 or so. Try that on the M25 and you'll have a nasty evil euro lorry up your jacksy (specially the irish truckers, they dont seem to have a speed limiter)
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Try that on the M25 and
>> you'll have a nasty evil euro lorry up your jacksy
I just went up the M3, round the M25 then up the A3 to Clapham and back to pick someone one up.
I was travelling at an indicated 76 or thereabouts on the motorways and despite there being a reasonable amount of traffic, I could have pretty much done it all on the inside lane, which I had virtually to myself. I do occasionally overtake up the inside but rarely as I don't want to get nicked for it.
The thing which irritates me is when I've swung out from lane 1 to lane 3 or 4 to overtake someone going MUCH slower, then once their headlights are in my rear view I gently pull back in and they have the cheek to flash me, presumably for not indicating. Happened twice on this trip.
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Why not assume they're apologising? You don't know either way qnd however unlikely it'll stress you less.
There's a reason it's always the person behind who flashes, waves or blows the horn and never the person in front. Happens in real life as well.
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>> The thing which irritates me is when I've swung out from lane 1 to lane
>> 3 or 4 to overtake someone going MUCH slower, then once their headlights are in
>> my rear view I gently pull back in and they have the cheek to flash
>> me, presumably for not indicating. Happened twice on this trip.
Maybe there's a more mundane explanation - indicating that it's OK for you to pull back in ahead of them. Lorries do it for each other and I often get it while towing.
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When occasion demands, I flash the headlights too if a coach or other long vehicle overtakes, to tell them it's safe to pull back in. You nearly always get a flash of the hazards in thanks.
Unless a flash of hazards means "you idiot, I'll kill your mother and ban you from the roads. You, and your children, and your children's children. Until Tuesday."
You know, the rage status other drivers seem to jump to if you look at them funny.
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OK, It doesn't really bother me so much (except their probable lack of awareness I suppose) and maybe you're right, they are apologising. But the flash is usually when I'm almost back in line with them, and there is no sign of them moving back to lane 1.
I also would flash other vehicles back in, but not when thy are clearly going much quicker and are already off in the distance.
I remember a previous work colleague, nice enough bloke, intelligent enough and all that, but ha was taking me somewhere and we were being flashed etc for lane hogging. He said he didn't care, he'd paid his taxes and was entitled to drive wherever he wanted - and he meant it!!
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Speed Limit enforcement plans - Crankcase
