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85% Of Car Drivers Break 20mph Speed Limits, Reveals U.K.’s Department For Transport
I believe it 100%.
I started riding with a Garmin bike radar and installed an app that tells me exactly how fast a car is going when it passes, and the majority are over the speed limit.
Just the other day, in a 60 km/h zone, I clocked two cars going 125 km/h.
If I thought for a second that police would charge these drivers using photo/video evidence, I’d fork over the $500 to get the radar with a camera built-in and report each and every speeding driver that passes me.
In Denmark we have the lovely new law that if you drive more than 100% over the speed limit and over 100 kmh or drive over 200 kmh at all or drunk driving with over 2‰ they confiscate the car and you are not getting it back at all. They confiscate the car regadles of who owns the car (with very few exceptions) and that is also if it is leased. So far since when the law started they have confiscated over 2000 cars in two years. It’s my favourite law of all laws right now. The fine for driving crazy is also nicely proportional to your income and it removes the car so the person cannot just drive without license afterwards.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 The law seems inspired by the Swiss. They have had proportional fines for long (e.g. I recall the wealthy Finn racing in CH in his sports car and had to pay a fortune). Car removal is probably common in CH as well.
@stahlbrandt @TDCN @Showroom7561
Lithuania also has a similar law (so it clearly doesn't conflict with any EU human rights legislation), they were donating the confiscated vehicles of DUI offenders to the war effort in Ukraine..
@stahlbrandt @TDCN @Showroom7561
UK has speeding fines partly proportional to income (albeit with maximum of about £1500 or £2000, so still not a deterrent to superrich) and strong penalties for DUI (min 12 months driving ban + fine and 11 years of higher insurance premiums), but vehicles are only confiscated (usually temporarily) for Section 59 offences which normally involve deliberate anti-social driving (doughnuts, drifting, making noise in public areas with illegal exhaust mods) >>
@stahlbrandt @TDCN @Showroom7561
the problem with 20mph zones in some parts of UK is resources aren't always put into enforcement; which requires either "boots on the ground" and/or cameras - both aren't cheap and they are often in middle class residential areas where folk get paranoid about any CCTV camera; even if it is clearly there for traffic enforcement purposes...
@vfrmedia @stahlbrandt @TDCN @Showroom7561 In the USA we call those sudden low limit areas "speed traps" and the purpose is revenue collection.
@mike805 @stahlbrandt @TDCN @Showroom7561
in England most of these areas are far from sudden, there are plenty of prominent speed limit signs. Also cops aren't allowed to directly keep the revenue from speed camera fines, they go to a "road safety partnership" which is a mix of public sector organisations; and are reinvested in road safety measures. in a well designed 20mph (or 30mph) zone there are usually other physical traffic calming measures such as road narrowing, bollards etc
@vfrmedia @stahlbrandt @TDCN @Showroom7561 The better solution for that isn't enforcement, but changing road layout in a way that makes 20 mph the maximum that one would like to drive. Still that takes investment and time.
@meijerjt @stahlbrandt @TDCN @Showroom7561
in many parts of England we do have speed reducing layouts (for both 20 and 30 mph roads) such as road narrowing with pedestrian refuges every few hundred metres, and most 20mph streets have parked cars either side.
Even so, there are still those sociopathic motorists who will flout the limits, some even see it as a "protest" similar to environment activists but from the other side. Maybe UK has more of these than other Northern European countries?
@vfrmedia FYI five years. source: me, when younger and stupider.
@alanfleming currently its 5 years higher insurance premiums for minor offences (including speeding) and 11 years following a DUI charge (alcohol or drugs) - this may have changed since you were younger and/or vary between Scotland and England (eg driving under influence of drugs only became a crime in 2019 in Scotland but was already illegal by 2015 in England)
@vfrmedia Interesting. Got a ref to this policy so I can remind myself in future? Thanks!
@alanfleming there are two parts of the penalty - legislation against whatever the traffic offence is - which differs slightly between Scotland and England and is on each country's government website, and commercial decisions made by the insurers for how long they increase an offenders premium - this can vary but would be apparent on comparison websites.
Its generally taken from the time the offences stay on a driving licence (insurers usually check this record)
https://www.themoneypages.com/insurance/ouch-ive-just-fined-speeding-will-affect-insurance/
@vfrmedia Doesn’t confirm what you said though. The points did stay on my licence for 11 years, but after 5 insurers didn’t care. Only one insurer would touch me for the first 3 years, then a few, then at year 5 I could take my pick from the comparator sites with no or minimal ( less than 5%) uplift (I checked!)
@alanfleming the insurers can make their own decisions as to how much they increase premiums - it also depends a lot on where you live/drive and the perceived risk factors (including whether you are interested in high performance or modified cars) - they have become a lot harsher in London/SE England in recent years..