Caught On Camera

You mean you haven't been 'caught' for 25 years!

Unfortunately I was caught slightly above the posted limit many years ago and did the awareness course. I would have liked to argue (but didn't) about some of the 'facts' they said - such the braking distance is the same no matter what car, tyres, road surface, road incline etc are used. Only rain and snow apparently make a difference.

We should tell Michelin and all the other tyre manufacturers that they are wasting their time making clever rubber compounds for tyres and instead invent the 'high milage, all weather condom' or something.

The sneaky camera got me again late last year (on a dual carriage way that should have been 70 but was signed 50). Thankfully I was able to do another speed awareness course. When booking it I told the lady that the previous one was so goo i thought i'd like to do it again. Such mirth.

 

You only get offered speed awareness once every 3 years if you remain good in the interim.
DoI; 34mph in a North Wales village as I crested a hump backed bridge - going towards camera van - so got tagged on the way past - cameras at both ends!

 

Pulled going flat out on my RD80LC (64mph in a 40) on L plates. Peeler said "you were just about to open it up there, weren't you?" "Yup" says I. Sent on my way (when police were allowed to do their job properly). Other occasions since with a variety of results

 

Got camerered about four years ago doing 57mph on the motorway near J25 on the M60 (it's a 50mph limit) so I did the speed awareness course. This was in the car going to pick someone up from the airport at daft o'clock one Saturday morning. Nearing the end of the course, one of the women said to me, "so what have you learned today". "Be a lot more careful not to get caught again", I said.
She tut tutted and turned away in disgust. "Well", I said, "it's not like i'm a boy racer driving around like a lunatic and 57 mph on a motorway isn't exactly dangerous and I usually keep to speed limits anyway". She didn't speak to me again.

 

I think I've mentioned this before on here but I did once commit the Crime Of The Century as a teenager on my Suzuki 250.
I'd fallen off it and damaged the front number plate which became loose and fell off. I was stopped by Mr Policeman and given a nice new ticket for not having a front number plate. This was two weeks before a change in the law meant you didn't need such plates anymore and I was fined £2.
Sensible or what ?

 

Which reminds me of the time I was the lead bike going home one Saturday night on my CB450 full of beer, me not the bike. I came to a T junction where there was a triangle of grass. You could pass either side of the grass depending whether you were turning left or right. We were turning left. But instead of following the road I rode over the grass (about 20 feet) onto the road and turned left. All the other bikes followed me. A bit further on I got pulled by a nice man in a Panda car but by the time he caught me all the others had got away.
Anyway, I lit a cig, he told me to be careful as there were a lot of drunks about on the roads at that time of night and then he got in his car and drove off. Like I said, he was a nice man.

 

Cambridge City Council had an offer on a couple of weeks ago which I took advantage of: £60 to use their bus lane.

 

Bus lanes - great invention. The rest of the road is gridlock, you’re sitting on your bike overheating (bike and rider) in the jam - breathing noxious fumes from a badly maintained rust bucket van in front of you but unable to use the bus lane (like you can in parts of London). After half an hour you count the total of zero busses using their dedicated lane. This is true - not fake news.

And why do plebs need express routes? To get home from the job centre to watch Jeremy Kyle? What about the cost to the economy of delayed vans and folks plus pollution.

Should have bikes allowed in all bus lanes.

PS: kidding about the plebs bit.

 

My crime was to enter the bus lane too soon despite I needed to turn left. Decided to appeal by letter and got let off which surprised me. Copies can be ordered £20 each lol.

 

Belfast bus lanes were bike friendly, but the new 12 hour bus lanes for the new "Glider bus" system may not be - initially lauded to put people out of their cars, not to reduce congestion or keep people moving.

 

Oh and don't get me started on occupancy ratios - often in my town I can be sat at lights on my bike next to a massive great turquoise green landship that has it's own dedicated lane and consumes a large bucket of smelly diesel for every foot it moves. We often have exactly the same occupancy - i.e. ONE (the driver). It might be different elsewhere and at peak times...

I guess they need to fine people for driving in the buss lanes to help finance their transport strategy. Better that they ban car ownership altogether except for nice people like you and me.

How did this turn into a rant about fcuking busses?

 

As a speed camera operator , I can tell some funnies , like the day I set up camera at 2 pm and finished at 8 pm and caught two cars each on two separate occasions a couple of hours apart ! Or today , photographed the same semi articulated truck 3 times, camera took photographs of the number plate on prime mover and each of the two trailers all in the one pass !!

It's very surprising how people behave on the roads and speed cameras catch some of them !

In Perth a motorcyclist panic braked to avoid a road side photo opportunity , and locked up the front wheel, fell off/over and went past the camera at 1%+ klms hr in a 100 KLM zone ... The ouch bit was ... He was trapped one leg under the bike ... And NO Leather's shorts and helmet Camera took two photos of this event !!!

 

Did a speed awareness course Dec and the class was full, so full they were queuing out of the door.
The lecturer asked everyone why they sped, when I was my turn to answer I thought I’ll only tell the truth...
I fall asleep at 30 and only start noticing things when I speed as it keeps me alert, pin sharp as a laser and on the ball!! It went quiet after that but I knew everybody there must have thought similar but never dare say it!

 

Victoria has no leeway on their cameras. I got a ticket for 105 kph (recorded speed 108) in a 100 zone (which went up and down like a yoyo depending on where you were at the time). I contacted Fines Victoria and was allowed away with an official warning

 

In WA the Police mainly enforce speed limits on Country roads , speed camera operators do towns and the freeways. There is a margin that is always applied, it can only be described as fair. One exception to Police enforcement of speed is School Zone's and also "Hoons".

 

A few years ago on a ‘quiet’ ride through the hills on my Ducati 916SP in South Oz on my way to Strathalbyn for a coffee a rider coming the other way gave me a flash.
I slowed down and as I approached the 50 mph sign I saw two occifers on bikes and another two in a car.
They pulled me in anyway for a ‘licence check’.
As one was checking my licence one was writing a ticket.
I ask why and he said you don’t have a State issued number plate on the back of your bike, it’s a plastic one
(I have a plastic fabricating company and the State plates are pathetic)..

If you have an accident and your bike catches fire we won’t be able to identify you.

I said ... did I die in your accident.... he was.not amused.
$138 no points though.

They must have been having a slow day.

 

TWATS

 

Ask to see the photo evidence also the last camera calibration it's your right

 

Its just a big money scam. Yes if you are out there being an idiot or built up areas then fair enough but on a motorway or empty road it stupid a little over the limit should just warrant a ticking of. But it pays for a lot of government bodies and their pay rises.
Ride Free
Joe.

 

I got photos with minutes of a call at the very helpful Gloucester Speed Camera Team. It helped my understanding of what had happened in the situation (as I was baffled).

I also got photos for an incident in London where the car was falshed. Either me or the wife was driving at that point but we genuinely didn’t have a clue who. I said - i’m Blonde, she’s a brunette so it should be easy too tell. It wasn’t. In the end they kept insisting that it is our legal duty to say who the driver was - so I estimated on the balance of probability that it was me, said as such and sent them my licence and card details. I got let off... odd but delightful.
In both cases I got a cool snap of me being a twat.