Gromit37 wrote: Now I'm off to polish on my halo and wait for the wrath of vonhosen, soren and TripleS to descend upon my head at a high rate of knots
Hi Gromit,
Nice first post,
If you have an honestly held opinion about a matter, I would never criticise it. I'd point out the reasons why I hold the opinion I do, and you might find they alter your opinion, perhaps not, but such is the beauty of forums such as these.
I've no time to discuss your post in detail, got an horrible exam in Cheltenham tomorrow, so need to get prepped for that.
Suffice to say that peoples attuitude and sense of responsibility are the most significant factors when considering driving risk. This leapfrogs such factors as lack of skill by a significant margin, especially when talking about the skill level required to attain a marginally higher speed when conditions dictate.
And subjectivity and discretion when dealing with road traffic offences has been around forever. It is vital to allow the system to function, after all, as a nation we commit something like 10 billion speeding offences every year (conservative estimate). The courts and admin systems simply couldn't cope.
But why should some of those be prosecuted and others not. Why does this number of offences not create havoc on our roads?
If you have exceeded a prosecutable margin more than 4 times in the last 3 years, can you explain why you should hold on to your licence?
Subjectivity also operates within the camera empire. Prosecutable limits have ranged from 10% (33 in a 30 limit) to 25% and more, dependant on the number of tickets being generated by each camera. Different partnerships have their own margins.
An experienced trafpol can spot a bad driving attitude very easily indeed and should be able to deal appropriately.
We need quantity rather than quality, and I'll have subjectivity over ease of capture anyday.
Ah.. my lift has arrived.
Back in a week or so.