Yeah, I read about their fun and games at the "lets mug the public" conference. Apparantly they were handing out info packs in ABD carrier bags. Everybody was accepting them and then walking into the conference!!! If thats not direct action then I dont know what is. V. funny too.
astraboy.

 

Can you contest/appeal against set speed limits? I know it is the Local Govt that set them, but do the voting public have a 'right of say'

There is a dual carriageway near me that is in the middle of nowhere - no houses/shops, just one petrol station and a pub. Road literally goes through the middle of fields. Two lanes in most places, three at times. In 5 years of regularly driving on this road I have never seen or heard of an accident, let alone a fatality. Yet this road has just been reduced to a 50 limit for 2 miles, followed by a 30 limit for 2 miles!!!! Needless to say, 150 yards after the 30 limit comes into effect 'PC Tax Collector' was camped there with his hairdryer, car out of sight, hiding as much as possible behind a road sign

If this is not blatant Police revenue generation and immoral behaviour, I don't know what is!! Can we appeal? Presumably the speed limit setters in the local govt are answerable to someone? or like most official public bodies it would seem, can they do just what they want??

 

Not a lot of chance of getting it raised i'm afraid. Unless you can prove that the correct procedure was'nt followed you're not in with much of a shout, and even then it's unlikely you'll succeed. So you are quite correct, they can do what they like.

If you want to fight back, join the ABD and next time you are on that stretch of road and see the speed trap, flash your lights at everyone coming towards it.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Neil Smalley:
<B>
If you want to fight back, join the ABD and next time you are on that stretch of road and see the speed trap, flash your lights at everyone coming towards it.[/quote]

Neil - I've asked this many times but no-one can answer. What does the ABD do?? As far as I can see, they issue a few press releases, and charge 10000's of people 15 quid to do so As any lobbying/other action certainly hasn't made any difference as far as I can see, and I only ever hear about them when a member is persuading me to join - you're not all on commision are you

 

No mate i'm not.

They are a pressure group, in the same way that transport 2000(BC ) are. If you read the newspapers such as the times, telegraph etc etc you'll see more and more quotes from the ABD than the AA/RAC etc. They were also on Top Gear, rather than the AA/RAC.

Recently they staged a information distribution at the 'lets put loads of cameras up and hide them to make loads of money' conference at Northampton.

As for membership, they only have 1500 members. That's half the size of the SIDC, and they are about the only organisation trying to drum some common sense into the sea of anti car spin.

I think CA, on this BBS is on the national committee. Why not drop him a mail and ask him for more info.

[This message has been edited by Neil Smalley (edited 08 July 2001).]

 

Gary,

see

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Neil Smalley:
<B> next time you are on that stretch of road and see the speed trap, flash your lights at everyone coming towards it.[/quote]

Is this legal/advisable? I can imagine an irate boy in blue charging you with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty. Suppose you could claim you were requesting people to slow down as you thought they were dangerous! Still...

Otherwise, Gary all I could suggest is contact your local council to get the file on how and when they approved the change. But normally they put little notices on lampposts in 8pt font (like most motorists can read them at 50mph ) to say "we are going to lower the limit on this road and if you don't like it, object by DDMMYY." And advertise in Public Notices of the local rag. So they'd say you missed the boat.

Other thing to do is find a motorist-friendly local paper, and get them to publicise it. If you can get local accident stats and show that they targeted that road while ignoring a more dangerous one, I think that really WOULD get people's backs up.

Tuppence worth.

BJH

[This message has been edited by Brendan Hughes (edited 08 July 2001).]

 

Dunno about the obstruction thing. What if you were warning oncoming motorists of a large pothole just ahead?

 

Neil, there is no need to flash any lights - aren't the AA supposed to _not_ salute you or something.

Oh, right, not _that_ AA

mb

 

Being a pedant, you are only supposed to flash your lights to warn other road users of your presence. A builder was done recently for putting up a sign saying "speed trap ahead". Even if obstruction of justice etc wasn't proved they could probably trump up some other charge along the misuse of headlights line...

[This message has been edited by Jerome (edited 09 July 2001).]

 

They never actually do anything about it though... besides, you flash your lights _after_ the trap, and thus the rozzer never sees.

Besides, they're not all that sharp, these police peeps.

 

Given the Police would only ever camp out at an accident blackspot - all you would be doing is alerting other road users of this dangerous stretch of road

...unless you are saying that Police sometimes speed trap on a road that is NOT dangerous or an accident blackspot

 

Where I live they put all the road changes and closures in the local rag months before it happens. Nornally it is very official with all the council logos and worded in legal terms. I guess it means reading your local rag and finding out in advance what they have got planned next. After reading your original post it looks like the police are just generating money for the coffers, not policing the community like they are supposed to. Didn't David Blunket say he was going to go easy on the motorist? Don't believe a word of it, it's going to get worse soon.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jerome:
<B>Being a pedant, you are only supposed to flash your lights to warn other road users of your presence.[/quote]

Well, I was in a pretty bad mood that day (due to the speed trap), so I thought it wise
to warn other road users of my presence.

 

Matthew

Absolutely, I use my lights to let people know about speed traps as well. I also use them to flash at other Scoobs, to let people across my path etc. I wouldn't if I saw a random breath testing trap though.