Speed Camera FEAR!

[Guest]

Interesting story on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7919110.stm

 

Man 'cured' of speed cam phobia

 

A Suffolk motorist contacted an enforcement agency to help cure his "irrational fear" of speed cameras.

 

Colin Gant, 41, of Lowestoft, who drives more than 500 miles a week in his job, was forced to take detours to avoid the detection devices.

 

He then approached Norfolk Safety Camera Partnership for help.

 

Inspector Marcus Rowe said: "We were more than happy to help by talking him through the process and introducing him to the people who operate it."

 

Mr Gant's phobia grew despite never having been caught speeding, said Mr Rowe.

 

"Although there's a lot of information on the internet about speed enforcement, it really helped him to have a personal touch to just explain a bit about the process."

 

Mr Rowe added: "It's recognised that if you drive past a fixed site camera the average person will probably check their speed to make sure they are doing the appropriate speed.

 

"Colin's reaction went beyond that and he felt anxiety and stress."

 

I must admit I get a bit anxious when I see a speed camera, mainly because I'm sat there frantically trying to remember what car I'm in, what wheels/tyres it currently has on it and how far the speedo is out, all because I don't trust them. I doubt I'll contact the people involved mind.

[pogweasel]

The only anxiety I get is related to whether or not the bell-end in front of me will slam on their anchors when they spot the camera, slowing to an unnecessarily slow speed. (When usually the camera is facing the other way anyway)

[Ratdat]

I cannot fathom why people feel the need to slow down to well under the limit when they pass a camera. Do they feel they need a massive margin for error or something? People do seem to get spacked out at the sight of a speed camera. Pay attention, know the speed limit and do it when there's a camera. Pretty easy really.

[Richard]

There are some stretches of road where the speed limit is up and down like a whore's drawers and they throw speed cameras into the middle of it all to catch you out.

[Guest]

It is quite alarming how many people stomp on the brakes just as they come up to a camera, there's a load on the big road outside my estate and they're incredibly visible and obvious, but some people just go down the road braking each time so they slow from 33mph to 25mph, disrupting the traffic flow behind them, STOP IT YOU FOOLS!I imagine these same people brake all the way down big hills in 5th gear with the clutch down, drive around really jerkily in car parks constantly braking when they could just coast to a halt, etc. Then they moan because they need their pads doing every service.

[Mash]

I think now I may just have seen everything - I can die happy I agree with the comments above about slowing down to 15mph below the speed limit for a camera; it really annoys me. It won't catch you even at 60 because most cars probably read a bit high anyway.The thing that gets me about camera sites is that there are two very good, straightish, derestricted roads near here on which you can really make good progress if there's no numpties and everyone's doing 60. The problem is that they've now put cameras on most of the good overtaking spots so if you get behind some twat doing forty-odd it's a bit of a judgement call to overtake now in case you have to be doing 65 say to get past safely. More often than not you just sit there and fume till the dual carriageway :evil:Hirst - you need to sue the enforcement agency because it doesn't make a specific allowance for your Galant!

[Richard]

Hirst- get yourself a cheap sat-nav, that will tell you how fast you are really going.

[reallyloud]

I suspect they're thinking 'If I drive 10mph below the limit, I might even get my points removed of my licence quicker'.

[Dukestar25]

I don't get the 'Safety Camera' bit of the title. They are cash generators for our greedy, fit-for-f**k all Government, end of.The one at the bottom of Parbold Hill near Newburgh in Lancashire is a superb example.It is not only on a corner, it catches people trying to slow down to 30 (the speed its set at) from a very steep downhill road but it also catches those trying to get up a decent turn of speed to get up the said road (great if you drive a lorry! ) HATE HATE HATE!!! (rant over, thankyou )

[Mr Lobster]

I don't get the 'Safety Camera' bit of the title. They are cash generators for our greedy, fit-for-f**k all Government, end of.

Very well said, couldn't put it much better myself!'Safety' cameras my arse.

[dollywobbler]

I've got a great technique for avoiding trouble from them - I don't speed. It's great and I've only been flashed twice! (And got away with it both times too! Some years ago now mind).Maybe it's because I drive slow cars, but the speed limit seems fast enough most of the time. Starving the cameras makes me smile too!

[CortinaDave]

i hate the "if you dont like them just dont speed " argument.. its so easy to find yourself going over the limit even when you have no intention of doing so, and usually you find the cameras are placed just where you are most likely to do that like at the bottom of hills *flash* 3 pointsI'm much less inclined to go fast in my shite than in modern stuff.. sat in the cortina with its 4 speed box the revs are quite high at 70 so your instinct is that your going fast enough.The cougar will quite happily get up to licence losing speed without you feeling like you're going particulary quickly or pushing the car hard, so i find myself naturally going faster without meaning to.

[Pillock]

If you do 30mph below the speed limit then they credit points back to your licence. Fact. I read it on the internet.

 

I've only been flashed once - it was travelling towards a Gatso doing 45 in a 30, and it only did one flash. Unfortunately at the time I was in an SORNed car so spent ages panicking that even though they couldn't do me for the speed, at some point someone will notice that the car should be tucked up in a barn 150 miles away. They never did.

 

And I know that my speedo reads about 8-10% fast, so whilst they're widening the M1 here and have the 50mph specs cameras, I can cruise at an indicated 55mph very slowly overtaking everyone else with an inaccutate speedo. It's the little things in life that please me.

[Pete-M]

Between the M6 J15 and my brothers house near Lichfield there are something like 17 cameras each way along the A34 in each direction. Most of them are hidden behind something, most of them are hidden behind speed limit signs.I.E You're doing 60 in a 60 bit, then 40 mph signs with cameras behind 'em, then there is quite often another camera 400 yards down the road around the next bend.I've never been done by a camera (touch formica) but that road has come close a few times..

[pogweasel]

I have been knobbed by the mobile scamera vans twice now. Second one, fair enough I don't really disagree with, I was doing 60+ in a 50 mile stretch of the A1, the speed limit having been lowered as it's the part where it skirts the edge of Sandy and there's multiple private turnings off it. First one really pee'd me off though. 12.30 am, A40 Westway, right at the start of it where you come off the marylebone flyover. This part of road used to be the start of the A40(M), i.e, you could be whizzing your speed up to 70mph, it's 3 lanes wide, armco either side, no probs really. EXCEPT, that when London (& Ken the Bastard) became responsible for al the roads within it's demise, any motorway bits had to be declassified as such, and this part some gaylord decided should be 30 mph. Now, on the night in question, roads fairly quiet, so why have a camera there? Also the scamera van had been parked in a very dubious position, there's no hard shoulder as such there and the van was slightly protruding into the carriageway. As I approached I had a car moving faster just about to enter my blind spot. What's the SAFEST thing to do so we can both get past the van protruding into my lane? Should I welly the brakes? As the ambient temp was v. cold and it was raining, I reckoned that a quick squeeze of the go pedal was safer, gave me enough margin to pull back ahead, & go round the van (which I had assumed was a broken down vehicle, judging by it's position & it had no markings!). Flash flash, £60 please, 3 points. If it weren't for the fact you couldn't stop there I would have gone back and placed the camera up the operators bumhole.

[Monkey_boy]

A65 coming out of Leeds towards Guiseley there are tons of cameras. Me and Volksy both believe that we must be mistaken that the sections which are a 40 limit must actually read to every other f**ktard on the roads as 35. Also I agree with the rest of you who get REALLY pee'ed off with those who slam on the breaks just before the camera...in the case on this road going from 35 - 25 for NO reason. Also it's a very frustrating road as there are next to no overtaking places so once your stuck behind one of these retarded drivers your screwed for a good 20mins unless you are luck and they veer off into a tree and die!

[CortinaDave]

I got done for doing 47mph in a 40 at 5.40 am on a sunday morning with NO other traffic on the road.I ignored the fixed penalty offer figuring that if it went to the fiscal he would dismiss it since it was so laughably trivial.Wrong. 4 points (an extra one for ignoring the penalty offer ) and a 250 fine.

[Wolseley1660man]

Doubt I've anything fast enough to break a speed limit, hence no fear of cameras.

[King Maz]

There is one lunatic in ***** ***** - I know him by name - who is making everyone's lives a mystery - except children of course - what a hero!!I've recently got 3 for 47/30 at 6.50am. Except this tit was hidden behind a truck in the dark on 60/30 changedown on a bend. He then spunked some drivel about a school or other (1/2 mile away, doesn't even open for an hour). All it's taught me is that if I drive at 17mph over the speed limit I'll probably get 3pts, so now I make sure I do that speed everywhere.What offends me more than anything is the way everything has turned on its head in a generation. In 1982, some friends were crossing the road outside my house. They were skittled by an uninsured driver, doing at least my speed, who drove through the red light of a pelican crossing. My friends were told (correctly but harshly) that they ought have been more careful at 9yo.You might say that the hero tag is applicable then - I disagree. Very little is being done about the most reckless drivers.