Is non-automated traffic enforcement dead?

[dubber68]

While out and about today it occurred to me that there has been an increase in illegal riding in our local area. By this I mean pit bikes ridden with no helmets etc on the public roads, bikes bought from "mates" then not registered or insured and the number plate "lost" and still ridden on the roads. Now without trying to sound like the miserable old git I seem to be turning into, this can only be due to the fact that they believe they won't get caught. I tried to recall when I last saw a police patrol in our village and I can't recall it was that long ago. It seems to be that if a camera can't do the job it doesn't get done. I believe it's time we went back to a properly funded and manned police force as eventually low level crime will become the norm and things will escalate.

Anyway rant over and off on my jollies tomorrow.

[zimtim]

There was a copper parked up in a lane near me. I tapped on his window asked if he was alright and was he lost.
When asked why

I justh told him I hadn't seen a copper round here in ages so I must assume he was either lost or ill.

He did see the funny side.

[Elmer J Fudd]

While out and about today it occurred to me that there has been an increase in illegal riding in our local area. By this I mean pit bikes ridden with no helmets etc on the public roads, bikes bought from "mates" then not registered or insured and the number plate "lost" and still ridden on the roads. Now without trying to sound like the miserable old git I seem to be turning into, this can only be due to the fact that they believe they won't get caught. I tried to recall when I last saw a police patrol in our village and I can't recall it was that long ago. It seems to be that if a camera can't do the job it doesn't get done. I believe it's time we went back to a properly funded and manned police force as eventually low level crime will become the norm and things will escalate.

Anyway rant over and off on my jollies tomorrow.

I had to laugh, as I learnt to ride a bike on public roads when I was 11 (40 years ago), we didn't have a helmet, so it was a riding hat, but as we only had one, the rider went without and the pillion got the hat on the basis that the looming crash wouldn't be their fault.

We used to ride round my grannies field, but the sheep didn't like the smell of 2 stroke.

We never saw a copper then either, which is probably a good thing...

[vRSG60]

Driving standards seem to have dropped dramatically.
Mainly just minor things.
No indicating leaving a roundabout.
No indicating at all!
Tear arseing around when there's no cameras.
Parking on a double white line system (endorseable).
Parking blocking the pavement.
The list goes on.

But clamping down on minor infringements stops folk committing major infringements.
Zero tolerance if you will. It worked in New York

[HedgeHopper]

I only did my Car test in my 40's and was gobsmacked at the things being taught........

No need to indicate when there is nobody around (what about the ones you didnt see?)

No need to go down the gears and use engine braking when coming to stop, just clutch in and use the brakes till you stop (what about being in the right gear if you need to accelerate to avoid something?)

Seems to me even the instructors are sh11te these days

[DaveCon]

Driving standards seem to have dropped dramatically.
Mainly just minor things.
No indicating leaving a roundabout.
No indicating at all!
Tear arseing around when there's no cameras.
Parking on a double white line system (endorseable).
Parking blocking the pavement.
The list goes on.
But clamping down on minor infringements
stops folk committing major infringements.
Zero tolerance if you will.
It worked in New York .

I'm no expert but I think that's a great poem

[hotbulb]

HedgeHopper ... I have to agree with you. It seems we live on part of the local Test Route: we have a constant supply of learners doing 273-point turns and reversing around our corner, "supervised" by halfwits who seem to be more interested in their phones, or delving into their handbags, than in their "charges"! Unfortunately, some of the learners don't even seem to have been taught which way to turn the wheel, or to be aware of other road users, before they're let loose on the road! As we're also part of a commuter "Rat Run" (no offence, Mr Rat!), things can get a bit interesting between 8 and 9, and 3:30 to 5:30.
The standard of some of the instruction is dreadful; I saw one, a couple of weeks ago, obviously oblivious to his surroundings, let his charge amble very slowly and indecisively around our local roundabout, causing an ambulance - that was announcing its presence with "blues and twos" - to stop and wait while the learner eventually exited the roundabout and after some deliberation finally decided which of the two exit lanes it was going to use..

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

I only did my Car test in my 40's and was gobsmacked at the things being taught........

No need to indicate when there is nobody around (what about the ones you didnt see?)

No need to go down the gears and use engine braking when coming to stop, just clutch in and use the brakes till you stop (what about being in the right gear if you need to accelerate to avoid something?)

Seems to me even the instructors are sh11te these days

That's modern 'eco' driving...also, terrifyingly, taught to lorry drivers under the slogan 'gears to go, brakes to slow.' This ignores the engine brakes, exhaust brakes and retarders fitted to modern trucks.

Resulted in the Bath tipper crash.

[daveuprite]

We don't see much in the way of Gendarmes out here in rural france either, and the government is dead keen on the cameras that seem to be springing up everywhere. You do sometimes get a roundabout check, where les flics (gendarmes) stop lots of vehicles to check documents. But we live close to one of the more dangerous N-roads in France (N147 from Poitiers to Limoges) and the main cause of accidents is misjudged overtakes. We see the most catastrophic decisions being taken to overtake long lines of lorries just before the brows of hills and ahead of corners - and of course the cameras do absolutely nothing to prevent it. If the road was regularly patrolled by camera-evidence equipped plain cars with gendarmes on board they would witness and be able to punish on the spot all kinds of dangerous driving - far more useful than cameras auto-slapping wrists and fining people for 95kmh in a 90 zone. But less lucrative...

As to standards of driving, hate to sound like an old fart but I agree with Hedgehopper above. Last time I was in the UK I was driven by my 25 year old, freshly licenced, nephew from Stansted to Dorset. It was traumatic. He headed into roundabouts still in 5th gear and chugged round on the verge of stalling, followed by belated crunching downchanges. His observation was appalling and the dashboard of his Fiesta still has my fingernails imprinted in it.

[Andi_Archer]

Its even worse now UK Learners are allowed on Motorways as long as they are "supervised"