Tuesday, 11. March 2014
A Gatso speed camera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Sometimes you get the feeling of déjà vu when you read something in a magazine and think to yourself, here we go again! Years ago, before most of the bloody things were turned off, local authorities were accused of putting up speed cameras to simply raise money, not to save lives.
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They would hide them behind trees or camouflage them so that you didn’t stand an earthly of seeing them. So as you raced past the gates of a school, you weren’t slowed down, as was supposed to be the intention, instead you simply received a fixed penalty notice in the post.
As a result the local authorities were forced to paint the Gatso’s yellow so that motorists could see them and slow down to prove that the point was safety not money making. So I was surprised to see that London council, Redbridge, is trialling automated CCTV cameras to capture motorists straddling yellow boxes and making illegal turns in order to issue automatic fines.
At the moment fines can only be issued when a camera operator views the offence either live or on a recording. The new system uses number plate recognition to identify the driver then issues fines automatically via the computer system. The system has already been introduced by some local authorities to capture drivers illegally driving in bus lanes.
However this latest move has caused the AA and RAC concern who believe that the objective may be money raising rather than deter bad driver habits. Time will tell. By Graham Hill
Sunday, 13. November 2011
Have you ever driven the 27 miles of the M6 toll road? I did last year and it was an absolute delight. You zoom round without a care and every so often you catch a glimpse of the log jammed cars on the actual M6 thinking – suckers! So do I agree with the idea that tolls should be introduced wholesale across the country – no I bloody don’t. It took ages Read more »
Thursday, 27. October 2011
We’re getting to that time of year when many start to think about flitting over to France on the pre-Christmas fag and booze run. Some may pop over to Belgium whilst others may make a bit of a trip of it and drive down to Spain or elsewhere in Europe. And not a bad idea, but don’t forget to check the motoring laws for each country you will visit, Read more »
Friday, 29. July 2011
20mph speed limits could be coming to a road near you as the government announces new rules that make it easier for councils to impose them, even though a survey carried out by the RAC revealed that 13 million of the 34 million drivers ignored 20mph speed limits. Currently the councils are obliged to use speed humps and signposts to control Read more »
Friday, 27. May 2011
Rip off Britain is still alive and well and currently living in the diesel fuel pumps! According to latest figures Britain now has the highest priced diesel in Europe even though the actual cost of the diesel before taxes is the lowest. In January the cost of diesel was 51.1 pence per litre (ppl), according to the National Statistics Office. In February it rose slightly Read more »
Friday, 18. March 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Today’s amazing fact is that there are over 25,000 traffic lights across the country with 6,000 in London alone. The number increased by 30% between 2000 and 2008. The figures were collated by the RAC Foundation who also pointed out that the number of lights that were programmed to give priority to busses rose by 221% in just 2 years from 3,801 Read more »
Friday, 21. January 2011
- Image by M 93 via Flickr
DEKRA, Germany’s equivalent to our AA or RAC, has voted the Vauxhall Insignia as Europe’s most reliable car. The findings came about following 15 million inspections of 230 different models so a pretty significant survey. DEKRA is highly regarded for its independent inspections and testing. The Insignia came out on top with more than 96% failure free. Good news for GM as their Corsa topped the chart last year. In second and third place came the Ford Fiesta (95.8%) and the Toyota Prius (95.6%). So surprise surprise we have made the Insignia our deal of the week. Do you run an Insignia, has it been reliable for you? By Graham Hill
Thursday, 30. September 2010
Auto Express has launched a campaign to force manufacturers to disclose known problems with their cars. At the moment the manufacturers only have to make public known safety faults that are subject to recall. For all other problems, such as reliability issues, these do not have to be made public. The AA, RAC and Retail Motor Industry Federation have all joined with Auto Express to put pressure on manufacturers to make public their technical service bulletins – the documents that detail the Read more »
Sunday, 12. September 2010
As more Brits decided to reduce their holiday costs and drive to their European destination this year many were caught out by the different European laws that apply to safety equipment that you must carry or face an on the spot fine. In a survey carried out by Sainsbury’s Finance they found that a third weren’t aware that they needed a reflective jacket, 15% didn’t know about the need for a warning triangle. 2% said Read more »
Friday, 13. August 2010
The drive in movie is a phenomenon that never really caught on over here as opposed to the USA where it seemed to feature in any movie (did I say movie?) that had young actors and actresses in making the film appear hip and trendy. But thanks to the RAC this is changing this year. They are sponsoring outdoor screenings of car-themed films across London. For details of where you can go and sit in your car and Read more »