Friday, July 29, 2011

You're speeding!

Yesterday I saw that the flashing sign was back on the downstretch of Gilgal, I wonder how long it will stay up this time? Annoyingly it seems to have little margins of error as it's flashed me for doing ~30mph; that is with the needle hovering on the 30 mark and no-where near the 35 mark.

My worry is that it's a distraction - it's high up on the outside bend; so if it 'catches' the car behind you it will flash in the corner of your eye as you're approaching a bend that narrows, next to an exit for the petrol station, and just before a point where people cross the road. You need to be looking ahead and not jerking your head to the left.

4 comments:

Dan H said...

About two months ago I was on a pleasant ride through the villages. I was really pleased with myself on a downhill segment for setting off the 30mph sign until a car overtook me a few seconds later and I realised it was that.

FlipC said...

Sadly that doesn't mean it wasn't you that triggered it. Again it may just be age, but adhering to the speed limit seems to have gone out of fashion.

walkerno5 said...

It does annoy though when the signs go off and you're very, very close to 30. I pretty much keep to the speed limit except on the motorway where I can tend to go up to a good 20% over - keeping up with frankly most of the traffic and police without their sirens on.....

The worst ones are in Belbroughton, those signs must be set to about 29 mph, to the extent that they may as well be permanent signs. Belbroughton is unfortunate in becoming an inevitable cut-through given Kidderminster's woeful links to the motorway network but it seems over-provided for in this regard.


I like to imagine in my bitter way, how fast the residents who campaigned and complained to get these signs installed, drive in their cars through other towns and villages. Looking at some of the cars in the village, "very quickly indeed" is probably the answer.

FlipC said...

According to the speeding fines I've seen the limit is 10%+2mph. So long as you're within that margin you should be safe.

Anyway hardly bitter, perhaps more cynical a case of them thinking 'I don't want people to drive through my area at these speeds, but isn't it annoying that I can't drive at the speed I think I should be able to through their area' :-)

On my point about being a distraction someone recently did mention how they had a "What the hell was that moment?" as they drove past it and it flashed up for the car behind. Given that it's half hidden behind a tree and normally black it's not as if it can be seen from a distance and ignored.