Driver awareness course - Anyone been on one?

[Joey Shabadoo]

A guy at work told me the same story. He did his course in Carlisle, then watched the little old lady blast back up the M6 to Scotland.

Do I know you?

 

[stephec]

Do I know you?

Do you live in Oldham, and do a course in Carlisle about six months ago?

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

No and it was about 3 years ago.

 

[Globalti]

There are so few Police on patrol nowadays that the fear of a random catch has disappeared and drivers can break the law with impunity; there are even whispers that drink-driving is on the increase especially in rural areas but the government doesn't want that to become public knowledge. The only way you'll get caught nowadays is if you are not paying attention or you have an accident.

I was stupid enough to get caught by a camera so I went on a speed awareness course. It did nothing for me because the instructors tried to act the nice guy, in fact from the room next door all we could hear was gales of laughter, which was very distracting. I did not go home with the feeling I had had a life-changing experience.

 

[Julia9054]

I went on a speed awareness course last year. I found it quite interesting - not at all finger pointing and guilt trip inducing. I was a little embarrassed by the things I had forgotten about the Highway Code in the 20 years since I passed my test. There was a complete cross section of society there and most just sat there and took it although there were a couple of rather defensive van and lorry drivers who seemed to be trying to make some sort of point. Unlike what some others are saying, there was no mention of anything to do with cycling.
I did feel that it could have done the job in half the time but a guess that part of the point of it is to inconvenience you.
There were no biscuits!
I cycled there.

 

[asterix]

There are so few Police on patrol nowadays that the fear of a random catch has disappeared and drivers can break the law with impunity;..

Have noticed that myself, question is where are they all? They are rarely to be seen on the beat round here.. Have they all gone undercover?

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I got caught with a random speed trap the other week

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Have noticed that myself, question is where are they all? They are rarely to be seen on the beat round here.. Have they all gone undercover?

I heard that the police over the last few years have more specialised units, for example one for burglary, murder, arson, etc. which means the amount of police on the beat are limited and are pretty much just responding to 999 calls then hours of paper work if they actually have to make an arrest. The stupid thing is, instead of countries like Canada where they would lock up and someone else would deal with the paper work, over here an officer could lock up at the start of the shift and potentially be stuck in the office for the rest of the day.

 

[Globalti]

There are so many CCTV cameras and ANPR cameras around our towns and cities that the Police don't need to be out patrolling. If they wanted to know where you had been for the last few months, all they would need to do would be to key in your car registration and the database would tell them exactly where and when you passed the cameras. Luckily lawful behaviour is so deeply ingrained in the majority of citizens that we can be left on our own to follow the rules without supervision. Break those rules and draw attention to yourself though, like by drink-driving and having even the smallest accident, and you are in big poop because they will breathalyse all drivers involved. Break the rules but drive with good observation, especially for speed cameras, and you can get away with almost any infringement.

 

[Archie_tect]

I can't help the feeling that, though what you say above is true, you have missed the point about the benefits of driving slower.

 

[Smurfy]

There are so many CCTV cameras and ANPR cameras around our towns and cities that the Police don't need to be out patrolling. If they wanted to know where you had been for the last few months, all they would need to do would be to key in your car registration and the database would tell them exactly where and when you passed the cameras. Luckily lawful behaviour is so deeply ingrained in the majority of citizens that we can be left on our own to follow the rules without supervision. Break those rules and draw attention to yourself though, like by drink-driving and having even the smallest accident, and you are in big poop because they will breathalyse all drivers involved. Break the rules but drive with good observation, especially for speed cameras, and you can get away with almost any infringement.

There's a lot of ANPR cameras, and I've heard that of those cameras that aren't ANPR compatible, the goal is to convert and replace until they all are. So the obvious question is, why aren't more ANPR cameras used for average speed checks, rather than just the dedicated SPECS system, which is actually a lot more obvious and less covert than most ANPR cameras? They even have ANPR on supermarket car parks and motorway service stations now to check who's leaving their car too long. They're everywhere, so why isn't law enforecement extracting more value by using them for average speed checks?

 

[Amanda P]

This Toad article is vaguely relevant.

 

[Matthew_T]

[QUOTE 2977063, member: 9609"]Is this all in connection with this, LINK , or is it a separate speeding offence ? it's brilliant that you have turned out into a pure petrol-head have you lowered it and fitted a big exhaust yet ?[/quote]
No. I havent been caught doing anything. This is a totally unrelated matter.

I want to lower it, but my insurance would be invalid. Plus the car isnt worth £120 on lowered springs.

 

[Roadhump]

If you get caught speeding and do the course is it still classed as a conviction and one which requires you to declare it to your insurence or not?

Also if you do it yourself and then declare it will it push your premiums up as it's associated with you normally speeding and being caught by the police.

I went on one 2 years ago. We were told it is NOT a conviction and the whole point is to give marginal offenders who have not been caught speeding in the last 3 years, and therefore who are likely to reflect, learn and take responsibility, an opportunity to do so without harming their driving record. It is clearly not a conviction and it seems to undermine the object of the scheme if it becomes compulsory to declare it to your insurance company. You would hope that insurance companies would play ball and not try to capitalise on information they could get access to by penalising people who have been on the course (or do I have too much faith in human nature?). Unless specifically asked, I would not declare it, and if I was asked I would say "NO", get a quote, then realise my error and if there was a difference, I would take my business elsewhere.

 

[Archie_tect]

Interesting use of the word 'caught' Matt...