Motoring Discussion > Idiot again Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Manatee Replies: 28
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 Fri 16 May 14 16:49 
 Idiot again - Manatee
Just got a 'request for driver details' in relation to the MX5 clocked at 38 in a 30. Sadly I was the driver.

Not sure how I did it - I'm pretty observant and compliant as a rule since my last transgression.

Somewhere along here, probably this one - goo.gl/maps/moxj4

Looking at Google Maps I can only see one 30 sign before the camera, actually on the spur from the ring road beforehand, which may well have been obscured, or I just missed it. I might have a look tomorrow morn. No repeaters of course, being a 30. It'll be interesting to see whether the Garmin thinks it's a 40 or a 30 too, a lot of limits have been reduced in Oxfordshire.



Last edited by: Webmaster on Fri 16 May 14 at 16:59
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 Fri 16 May 14 17:08 
 Idiot again - Runfer D'Hills
Retired people should be limited to those little electric wheelchair thingies shouldn't they? The inactivity rots their brains to the point where they can't drive normal vehicles properly and attentively any more. Too busy thinking about what exciting bargains are to be had at The Edinburgh Woolen Mill.

Ducks for cover....

;-)))))

,
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 Fri 16 May 14 17:18 
 Idiot again - Manatee
Spot on as usual Humph.

Their fleeces come in an unsurpassed range of colours, as I'm sure you know being somewhat of a trend leader yourself.

My weskit of many pockets is looking a bit tatty, perhaps they'll have some of those in, and a Fyfe Robertson hat.
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 Fri 16 May 14 18:26 
 Idiot again - sherlock47
There are indicators that it is a 30mph zone every 30m or so along that road - surely you did not miss all of them :)
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 Fri 16 May 14 18:30 
 Idiot again - Robin O'Reliant
>> There are indicators that it is a 30mph zone every 30m or so along that
>> road - surely you did not miss all of them :)
>>

Too busy rummaging in the glove box for a Werthers Original.
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 Fri 16 May 14 19:14 
 Idiot again - Manatee
>> There are indicators that it is a 30mph zone every 30m or so along that
>> road - surely you did not miss all of them :)

I do know what you mean of course. But it's unreliable I find - lots of such roads are 40 with infrequent repeaters, and in any case it's usually a pick up when I begin to worry whether I've got the speed limit right in my mind.
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 Sat 17 May 14 19:57 
 Idiot again - Bill Payer
>> - lots
>> of such roads are 40...

Things must be different around where you are - no way does that look like it'd be a 40 limit to me.

Must say I had a particularly iritating drive home across Cheshire after venturing out last week - I didn't even stick rigidly to 30 & 40 in the limited limited sections but was overtaken multiple times, including by a Discovery who very nearly took a motorbike out that was trying to pass us both.
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 Fri 16 May 14 19:45 
 Idiot again - madf
>> Retired people should be limited to those little electric wheelchair thingies shouldn't they? The inactivity
>> rots their brains to the point where they can't drive normal vehicles properly and attentively
>> any more. Too busy thinking about what exciting bargains are to be had at The
>> Edinburgh Woolen Mill.
>>
>> Ducks for cover....
>>
>> ;-)))))
>>
>> ,
>>

That's the kind of attitude I would expect from someone who is becoming senile before he becomes an OAP...:-)
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 Fri 16 May 14 23:41 
 Idiot again - No FM2R
Bit surprised you managed to get over about 15 on that particular bit of road. That's just along from Richer Sounds, I think, and a very irritating road.

What time of day was it?
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 Sat 17 May 14 18:51 
 Idiot again - Armel Coussine
Hard luck. Damn stupid speed limits and damn thieving local authorities with their damn thieving cameras.

Were I a younger, more athletic and more foolish man I would go around blinding, vandalising and stealing speed cameras. I'd like one as a trophy in the sitting room.
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 Sat 17 May 14 19:34 
 Idiot again - rtj70
Plenty of clues on that bit of road that it was a 30mph limit. If I was on a road and I didn't know it was definitely 40mph I'd assume 30mph.
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 Sat 17 May 14 19:42 
 Idiot again - Manatee
I think that point has already been made and acknowledged. Fair enough if you spend all your time worrying about the speed limit. I saw no 30 sign, it's a main road, it was only the continued absence of repeaters (which seem to be an endangered species even where they should exist) that eventually alerted me, as I now recall having been reminded.

I shouldn't even have been there really - meant to go round the ring road and was misdirected. No FM2R is right too - I spent well over an hour getting through to Headington roundabout, the traffic was vile as ever in Oxford.
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 Sat 17 May 14 19:46 
 Idiot again - bathtub tom
Could happen to anyone.

Walking through my town centre the other day, I noticed the High street's got a 20MPH limit - never noticed it before when I've driven down it. I guess it's never been policed when I've driven it or it's been too congested to exceed it.
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 Sat 17 May 14 20:37 
 Idiot again - No FM2R
I'm sure I remember it was originally 50. Certainly it was 40, and then I have a vague memory of it becoming 30 about 4 years ago or so.

Like all of Oxford, stupid design, stupid limits, and no forward thinking. It really is an obnoxious place, give me Cambridge anytime.
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 Sat 17 May 14 21:31 
 Idiot again - Runfer D'Hills
I was in Cambridgeshire the other day. Thursday I think it was. Gorgeous day for weather anyway. Normally to head home from there to Cheshire I'd do the A14 / M6 but there was some problem on the A14 according to Brunhilde ( my built in sat nav )

She's a clever thing and can somehow 'see' traffic jams ahead and suggests ( well insists on actually ) alternative routes. Gets quite naggy if you ignore her.

Anyway, she took me on a very scenic but surprisingly efficient route along deserted B roads in rural Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, passing through some stunningly beautiful chocolate box villages.

Thatched cottages in wholesale quantities, duck ponds and quaint old churches. Country pubs with relaxed people enjoying a cold one on the way home.

You can easily forget how pretty parts of Britain are when you get off the beaten track.

I wasn't in a hurry, my day's work was over, the evening was balmy and the low sun still shone. The Merc was in its element, full waft mode on but happy to pick up its skirts when asked., bit of Mozart for company. I simply didn't notice the miles ebbing away

No, I never ever want another office job I thought. To hell with that I thought.

Then I reached the M6 and suddenly everything went grey again.


Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 17 May 14 at 21:33
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 Sat 17 May 14 21:49 
 Idiot again - Cliff Pope
It looks a bit 30-ish to me. Seems rather narrow to allow 40.
OTOH isn't there some rule about a 30 having to have frequent street lamps? I can't see many in that view.
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 Sun 18 May 14 07:37 
 Idiot again - CGNorwich
Any street lamps and it's 30mph unless posted to the contrary.
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 Sun 18 May 14 07:54 
 Idiot again - Manatee
>> Any street lamps and it's 30mph unless posted to the contrary.

I do know that. And also that there are never any repeaters in 30 limits where there street lights.

The problem is that this is not a good technique for knowing what the limit is at a given point. There are many urban roads with limits higher than 30, and very infrequent repeaters. If you have missed the initial sign then it can be a problem in an unfamiliar place.
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 Sun 18 May 14 10:08 
 Idiot again - rtj70
If you look at the side roads, if this was anything other than 30mph, the side roads would have a sign saying 30mph. One of the 'clues'.

To assume it was anything other than 30mph was a little foolish but you know that.
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 Sun 18 May 14 13:33 
 Idiot again - Cliff Pope
>> Any street lamps and it's 30mph unless posted to the contrary.
>>

There must be a specified number or frequency, surely?

I know of several isolated houses on main derestricted roads that have a single street lamp outside - that doesn't make it an automatic 30 limit.

There often used to be cases where someone like Mr Loophole escaped prosecution for speeding by proving that the street lamp spacing exceeded the specified amount - 200 yards or something.
Has that been changed?
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 Sat 17 May 14 21:53 
 Idiot again - Armel Coussine
>> You can easily forget how pretty parts of Britain are when you get off the beaten track.

Yup. I was saying much the same the other night heading for one of the local pubs.

But it's only half an hour to the M25 and the beginning of London soon after that. Just remembered I have to go there tomorrow. Damn.
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 Sat 17 May 14 22:36 
 Idiot again - WillDeBeest
...bit of Mozart for company...

Sound fellow! Mozart needs a quiet car, though; never understood how Inspector Morse could hear it properly in that rackety old Jaguar. (I understand the character in the books preferred Wagner, which makes more sense.) The oddly named Serenade for Thirteen Wind Instruments works well in the car, and I've got a highlights CD of Don Giovanni somewhere, which works a treat when I'm on my own and can try to sing along. What was it for you?
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 Sat 17 May 14 22:42 
 Idiot again - Runfer D'Hills
Figaro.
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 Sat 17 May 14 22:50 
 Idiot again - WillDeBeest
Mmm! But I'm not sure I could drive safely while listening to this:
www.roh.org.uk/news/accessible-arias-voi-che-sapete
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 Sat 17 May 14 22:59 
 Idiot again - Runfer D'Hills
That was the point when I wished I still smoked. There was something about a drive like that, on an evening like that, with music like that which needed a rolled down window and a Marlboro.
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 Sun 18 May 14 10:34 
 Idiot again - rtj70
This thread reminds me of when someone I knew got done speeding. He was caught doing 45mph in a 30 zone. When the police stopped him, his defence was he thought it was a 40mph speed limit :-) So still speeding then.
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 Sun 18 May 14 13:05 
 Idiot again - Manatee
Except that 10% + 2mph is 46:)

I'm hoping I get another speed awareness course, I obviously need it!
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 Sun 18 May 14 21:31 
 Idiot again - rtj70
>> Except that 10% + 2mph is 46:)

It is... but defending yourself for doing 45mph in a 30mph zone, it's not that good when technically you were speeding in a 40mph zone! The leeway is of course due to previous inaccurate speedometers... but that's little defence these days.
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 Sun 18 May 14 17:06 
 Idiot again - Fenlander
>>>I was in Cambridgeshire the other day. ...

Runfer oh how we laughed at Fenland Towers. First, and that's not the funny bit, you were only 10mins from a coffee here. That Brampton diversion thing was an as yet undisclosed distressed person threatening to jump off the race course bridge onto the A14.

>>>full waft mode on but happy to pick up its skirts when asked.,

Anyway after my run round to get the tyres I gained a slightly better idea of the 525's driving style and commented to Mrs F just a couple of hours before your post that a motoring journalist of old might say the 525 made stately progress but was capable of picking up its skirts if needed.

And there you are with the expression.

This of course compares with the 156 which constantly had its skirt hitched and ankles behind its head.... if you will excuse that expression.

Incidentally lots of miles on the 525 now so impressions soon... but Mrs F today had a first drive and said, after 2mls in town, a week behind its wheel should get you an automatic PSV licence.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Sun 18 May 14 at 17:08
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