Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Chatting on the Plot => Topic started by: AlaninCarlisle on November 17, 2017, 16:44
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I got clocked speeding by a mobile camera a couple of weeks ago doing 40mph in a 30mph zone
It seems I can attend a 4-hour Speeding Awareness Course at a cost of £92 and get no points on my licence or pay £100 fine and get three points. As my licence is clear and has been for the majority of the 55 years i've held it, I see the course attendance issue as 4 hours of my time to save £8, the 3 points being immaterial.
Has anyone else on here gone through this decision-making process and would they like to share their thoughts on this matter, please?
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Your insurance premium will certainly rise if you have 3 points on your licence, which have to be declared.
Admiral still regard it as a notifiable offence even with no points, so read any insurance schedule/quote form very carefully before deciding.
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This will be no help (and not sure if someone was telling porkies) but....... a friend of ours went on a visit to one of the centres that do those courses organised by his local IAM group. They were told that a few weeks before someone on the course had found more hazards in the final 'test' than the official figure (virtually everyone finds fewer). They said they thought he must have been pressing the record button randomly so asked him if he minded doing it again - he came up with the same score so they then asked him to go through the test again explaining what he could see. Turned out he was a retired Met Police driving instructor.....
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I went to the course, it made me more aware of the dangers of going too fast & potentially hurting someone.
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No personal experience of taking this alternative (not saying I've never been done for speeding though :blush:) but I can say that getting even 3 speeding points on your licence will be far more costly insurance-wise in the long term.
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Most people I know who have gone on the course have found it of some value. To me it's a no brainer. Keep a clean licence and probably become a better driver.
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Most people I know who have gone on the course have found it of some value. To me it's a no brainer. Keep a clean licence and probably become a better driver.
Yes that’s what I was trying to say but you said it sooo much better lol
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I went on the course and found I learned quite a lot as well as becoming more speed-aware
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A couple of years ago my wife did the course simply to avoid getting points on her licence, she went along with a fairly closed mind, simply to tick the box and get it over and done with. She came away with a totally different attitude, having learnt a few things, and stating that everyone should do the course as it is so valuable. From her experience, I would certainly choose the course instead of the points.
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A couple of years ago my wife did the course simply to avoid getting points on her licence, she went along with a fairly closed mind, simply to tick the box and get it over and done with. She came away with a totally different attitude, having learnt a few things, and stating that everyone should do the course as it is so valuable. From her experience, I would certainly choose the course instead of the points.
That is how I approached the course as well, but came away amazed at how few people actually knew the speed limit of various vehicles on different roads... quite worrying... and determined to be a safer driver myself
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As an ex long haul Truck Driver, (with no points on my licence), though having paid a "few" euro/lira/francs etc. my advice is to swallow your pride, take the course, and learn from the experience.
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whatever you decide you have to inform your insurance company, the rules changed.
We get people speed through the village, 2 blind bends and children crossing for the school bus.
People say I can do 10% over....a friends daughter was killed at age 13 by someone driving at 33 mph.
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Definitely do the course, it made me a better, safer driver. (and journeys only take a couple of minutes longer, if at all)
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The annoying thing about it is that I've had a licence for 55 years and this is only my second offence, the last one was 23 years ago. To be truthful, I thought I was obeying the speed-limit but this particular stretch of road changed from a 40 to a 30mph limit a couple of years ago and I was just one in a stream of traffic
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Done the course twice (both for 34 mph in a 30 mph zone, due to the power of my old 1.4 diesel Ford Fiesta), found both useful, not least finding out the national speed limit on A roads was 60 and not 50 as I had thought, my friend also attended the course some time later but got caught speeding on the way. some people never learn
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Maybe they should offer the option of the driiver riding a bicycle a few times on an NSL main road for a week. They will maybe appreciate the externalised risks of speeding from the other side.
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Or try to cross a village road on crossing, perhaps even a school one?
Some drivers can have no idea how dangerous it feels for pedestrians faced with speeding traffic. It feels as if the majority just don't care, and some seem to enjoy driving at you and even speed up :ohmy:
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My husband did the course and rated it highly he felt he learned loads
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Thanks for all the advice. I decided to attend, 22nd of December, and will give you my feedback after it
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Mum, in reply to your unasked question, "they don't". I live on the busiest road in Clacton on Sea, and I have been working on Essex CC for the last 2 years to try and slow down the traffic on it, the police did a survey in response to my pleas and came up with 2000 VEHICLES WERE EXCEEDING 38 MPH PER DAY on a 30 mph road, and Essex CC said, and I quote, "we don't go on police surveys, we do our own when it's necessary, and here it isn't."
ps at the same time 85000 vehicles passed the "little black box" in 6 days.
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arh - It's the same old story, over and over again, it makes me so (expletive deleted) angry :mad:
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whatever you decide you have to inform your insurance company, the rules changed.
Whilst I agree with the general thrust of your post, not all insurance companies require you to inform them. You need to read the policy carefully to see what they require.
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Well, I attended the Speed Awareness Course as an alternative to points on my licence. Comments:
Poor, badly heated environment in a local hotel conference room
Course mainly attended by Scottish drivers and conducted by two consultants with heavy, difficult to understand Scottish accents
Learned very little other than to not do it again and subject myself to another four hours of tedium
If I'm daft enough to get caught again, will take penalty points
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Poor, badly heated environment in a local hotel conference room
Learned very little other than to not do it again and subject myself to another four hours of tedium
If I'm daft enough to get caught again, will take penalty points
. You weren't there to feel comfortable.
. Surely the point was to make you see why you shouldn't speed, not to make you better at avoiding getting caught.
If you get caught and take the points you won't have '4 hours of tedium' but you will have an increase in your insurance quotes. If you are wondering how much more..
How will having a speeding conviction affect my insurance quote?
To work out how much a speeding conviction could add to the cost of your cover, we ran a series of quotes using a 1.2L Vauxhall Corsa, testing different age groups without convictions before testing them again with an SP40 (exceeding passenger vehicle speed limit) conviction, which comes with three points added and a £100 fine.
The findings are based on the cheapest available insurance quotes:
For a forty year old there could be an increase from £498.86 to £582.37
A fifty year old could expect costs to rise from £397.29 to £589.42
and that was in 2015
https://www.moneysupermarket.com/car-insurance/articles/how-does-a-speeding-ticket-affect-your-insurance/
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. Surely the point was to make you see why you shouldn't speed, not to make you better at avoiding getting caught.
Semantics. What I mean is that I've no intention of breaking the speed limit again.
Another observation: Talking to the other attenders on the course, several had driven the 100 miles from Edinburgh and the 90 miles from Glasgow to attend the course. They told me that Carlisle is the nearest course venue for them. There's surely something seriously wrong when I in N Cumbria have a choice of two venues, each about 10 minutes from home and our friends in Scotland are expected to travel up to two hours each way. It's not as if the Scottish Central belt is underpopulated
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Sounds very different to the course I did. I actually learned a few things - like the limit is not 70 on a 4 lane road unless there's a central divider. A bit of help with anticipation as well plus it did change my attitude. If I'm driving in a 30 or 40 zone and the rest want to go faster - I'm the bee who sticks to the limit.
Incidentally, I think the speed limits are wrong. Motorways should be 80 or maybe higher and many of the 40 limits around here would be better as 50 BUT I'd make the limit on housing estates 20 or maybe 15 with lots of passive controls like road narrowing spots.
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I'm probably being unfair when I say I learned nothing new. The truth is that after the penalty notice, I bought a copy of the Highway Code and learned about all the changes since I last read it 50+ years ago so most of what the instructors were telling us was old news. Like I said, the big lesson learned was to not let it happen again.
Oh, and the other lesson was to understand why many Scots feel bitter about English Law when I discovered that there are no suitable Speed Awareness venues for them, and unlike me who had the choice of two venues each about 10 to 15 minutes away, they had round trips of 4 hours to attend one
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Oh, and the other lesson was to understand why many Scots feel bitter about English Law when I discovered that there are no suitable Speed Awareness venues for them, and unlike me who had the choice of two venues each about 10 to 15 minutes away, they had round trips of 4 hours to attend one
We're not too fussed about them coming over the wall and rustling our cattle but if they drive too fast they have to pay the price! :)
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My OH had one not too far away from here and he learnt a lot too. Then he tested me to see if I was au fait with current rules etc. I surprised him and myself as to how much I'd retained from when I passed my test in the mid-seventies, and also how I'd been able to update my driving skills etc. I think he felt a bit contrite especially as he's been done for speeding before and I never have.
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Yes, it was honours even in our house too. Wife picked up two convictions on same trip about six years ago and I'd never let her forget it, until now!
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The scottish drivers must have broken English Law rather than Scottish Law as Scotland offers Driver alertness course less than 20 miles away from Edinburgh.
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I've no idea how it works, but out of 23 attenders, there were a dozen Scottish drivers there, most of them from Glasgow/Edinburgh areas. The other strange feature was that although the course was held in Carlisle (6 miles inside the English border), the two instructors were from Strathclyde area. I asked one of the Scots attenders why they didn't attend a course in Scotland, he was quite firmly of the opinion that there were none in Scotland.
Just thinking about it, maybe because their offences were committed in England, the Scottish courses disowned them? ::)