It's
when they change a 60mph limit to 30mph for no reason on a dead straight road 4 miles long with no hint of a built-up area anywhere and then put cameras on it that gets my goat.

(as they have to the road connecting our village to the next)

It's all very well saying obay the limits, but if the limits are wrong then they should be ignored.
(dchurch bah, Sat 17 Oct 2009, 18:46, 1 reply)

oh for fuck's sake, get a grip.
yes, there are some (increasingly) stupid speed-limits around. the police authorities do it for a variety of reasons but the main one, as we all know, is to raise revenue.
by CHOOSING to ignore the speed limit because you think yourself above the law you are inviting prosecution.
then getting angry at the feds/government/local authority/highways indicates an utter lack of responsibility.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Sat 17 Oct 2009, 18:54, closed)

Well
yes and no. Speeding tickets (and parking tickets in particular) are remarkably easy to get out of. I have paid ONE ticket in 20 years of driving. I didn't receive just one, but only one got paid. The reason that was paid was simply as it was 150 miles from where I live, and after both appeals were knocked back (they always are, the people who stand to get the dosh are the people who decide the appeals), the next step is the adjudicator - it would have cost me more than the 30 quid in juice to get back up there, so I paid it. In hindsight, I would probably go back and do it properly if that happened now.

Some might say, "is it worth it?", but to me the answer is yes. In a tiny way it shows these cunts that they can't just do as they please and take the piss out of all of us with snidly little tricks like dropping the speed limits, or (as happened once) putting cones next to your car and then ticketting it.

Plus, the feeling you get when you get the letter telling you that you are no longer being prosecuted and that you have beaten them is excellent.

I always suggest to people that have been nicked to go to court at the very least. Not all mind, some have been nicked in the right place and in a place where the limit is a sane one. Take it on the chin in those instances, but for those that get nicked where they've clearly changed the limit as a revenue earner, I say cost them as much as you can. Eventually someone will be looking at stats and say, "you know that road where we dropped the limit? It seems it's costing us more since we did it."

As for being above the law - if that's how the law acts, and has simply become another arm of HMRC, then yes, we're all above it. Learn to run rigns around it and you'll be fine.

Plus, the fight is fun.

...or you can be a good little boy, do as you're told and let them get away with it to the detrement of all of us - which in my eyes indicates a complete lack of responsibility.

The "do as you're told and you'll be ok" mentality plays straight into their hands, as everyone then puts blind faith in them, and as such as a whole, no-one takes responsibility for anything.

It's your responsibility as a responisible citizen to fight and challenge everything NOT to think "oh, *they* are never wrong"; we've seen what happens to societies where that becomes the norm, haven't we?

Sorry if I'm a little harsh, but nothing riles me more than people accepting bullying - particularly bullying by men in suits who have never met you, simply to get at the contents of your bank account.

You talk about responsibility, but I cannot understand where someone taking bullying on the chin - and bullying it is - is accepting responsibility. The more people that bow down to it, the more they will continute to do it; and yet you preach about being responsible to me? Utterly incomprehensible.
(dchurch bah, Sun 18 Oct 2009, 7:30, closed)

I do believe you are correct
Good to see someone with their head staight
(M61A1 CUPID- STUNTS, Sun 18 Oct 2009, 8:08, closed)

okay, just so you understand where i'm coming from here...
i have been caught speeding 3 times in 23 years of driving.
1st time doing 55mph on a single carriageway A-road driving a 3.5t van. oops. 3points and £30.
2nd time doing an average of 113.9mph over 2.92miles on the motorway riding my bike. 6 points and £250.
3rd time doing an average of 116.4mph on the same stretch of motorway 14 months later. same bike but this time no insurance. 8 points and £450. exceptional hardship (non-earning partner) meant i kept my licence.
i then had to make a choice, either insure my van (now £1600 a year TPFT) or my bike (£1900 TPFT) cos i couldn't afford both. i chose the van, put the bike off the road until enough points had expired to make it affordable to re-insure.
and in the meantime i got on and behaved myself.
yeah, maybe some speed limits are innapropriate (generally in the minds of those who get caught) but they are still the limit.
how much more simple can it be?
stick to the limit or get punished when you get caught.
and when that happens then just take it on the chin for god's sake.
having sympathy for someone when they get points for speeding is as ridiculous as having sympathy for me having a hangover today. i chosed to get pissed last night just like i chose to speed on my bike.
responsibility is not a popular word with some people.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Sun 18 Oct 2009, 8:36, closed)

exactly
the point.

"yeah, maybe some speed limits are innapropriate (generally in the minds of those who get caught) but they are still the limit.
how much more simple can it be?
stick to the limit or get punished when you get caught.
and when that happens then just take it on the chin for god's sake."

So, just do as they say and let them continue to take the piss?

Nice. No wonder it gets worse rather than better.

They are the 'limit' because someone says so - someone with a vested interest in taking money from you. Is that person right? Sometimes, sometimes not, but you are saying that you should just take it on the chin in either case, because "it's the limit".

You sir, are wrong. Things, especially authority, needs challenging constantly, else you end up in East Germany.
(dchurch bah, Sun 18 Oct 2009, 9:30, closed)

there are far better ways of challenging the authority than allowing yourself to get points on your licence.
or do you think that if you fight the law by breaking it you're being intelligent?
i don't think a 40 zone on a straight bit of duel carriageway is appropriate (generally) but i don't think that doing 60 down it and getting clocked is at all bright.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Sun 18 Oct 2009, 10:57, closed)

Perhaps not
but if you fight the fine - you will usually win, and then that is logged and catalogued.

How else would you fight to get the limit changed to a more appropriate level?

I fought 11 tickets (yes, some were deliberatly incurred by me for this purpose) on one stretch of road. This stretch of road was 60mph - quite appropriate for the level of traffic/houses etc... One night at around midnight a chap hit and killed an elderly woman and her dog. He was doing an estimated 130mph (according to the report). Shortly after that the limit was changed to 40 and a camera put up.

Would that 40 sign have stopped him doing 130 at midnight? I seriously doubt it.

Anyway, each of those 11 tickets were thrown away - I got not one single point or fine.

Six weeks ago, the limit was raised to 60mph.
(dchurch bah, Sun 18 Oct 2009, 11:07, closed)