Lancer Register Forum banner

The golden age of driving is over

6K views 65 replies 16 participants last post by  Baileyk 
#1 ·
First we're forced to give up our petrol cars and go electric for the sake of "the environment". Thank God the average consumer has no idea how batteries are made, or how electricity is made. Out of site out of mind is now official government policy. When the government hiked petrol taxes the country was brought to a stand-still by protests, yet year on year there is scandal after scandal as energy suppliers hike prices and there is nothing anyone can do about it. No wonder the government wants everyone in their thrall.

Now the UK is going to implement the latest EU lunacy of mandatory speed limiters on cars.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47715415

Possibly even worse than the speed limiters are the black boxes which your car will also have, that records your general driving and attitude to speed. So when that 90 year old man pulls out of a side street into your path because he didn't see you, Big Brother could rule against you because you put your foot down that time on a clear country road, or on the motorway at 2am.

How about using technology for good rather than evil? What about a system that forces people who do 40mph on a 60mph road to speed up? What about a system that forces tractors, lorries, busses etc to pull into laybys when there are queues behind them? What about a system for pushbikes that monitors every time they jump a red light, every yard cycled illegally on the pavement? What about a system that makes Amazon pay tax?

I'm not against speed controls per se, obviously some speed limits are more important than others, but it's a system that is far from perfect and up until now this imperfect system is only tenable due to human discretion. Most people would agree that drivers should slow down around schools, or built-up areas in general, maybe stick to 70 on busy motorways, even drop your speed to 60 or 50 in heavy rain. But if you passed an unmarked cop car at 80 on a clear motorway in good driving conditions chances are they wouldn't do anything. Removing the human intervention that makes an imperfect system tolerable and replacing it with forced automation is lunacy. I know the system can be overridden yadda yadda, but let's get real, this is the first step on a slippery slope. Once the technology is there it will become more and more intrusive.

Each year the amount of revenue generated by speeding fines is close to £100m, what is the government going to do when that money drops? It's chickenfeed in the grand scheme of things but it's still enough to staff a whole unit of officers dedicated to tracking down and prosecuting people who say mean things on twitter.

I was good while it lasted. We drove fast, our cars were loud, driving was exhilarating. Now our roads are congested, cameras and "roadworks" are everywhere, speed limits are dropping, road surfaces are terrible, costs are spiralling but that's still not enough...they're determined to suck every last drop of fun out of driving. Eventually we'll all look back and think; "Remember when cars were fun?"
 
See less See more
#3 ·
pretty much agree with everything you said Aidy.

I get real wound up by the amount of people who treat other road users with contempt, or who just plain cannot drive. I think this technology should be applied on a discretionary basis, as effectively a punishment for anyone who is convicted of dangerous driving, driving without due care, drink driving etc..
 
#4 ·
From the article in your link to save you actually reading what you are fulminating about:

The system can be overridden temporarily. If a car is overtaking a lorry on a motorway and enters a lower speed-limit area, the driver can push down hard on the accelerator to complete the manoeuvre.

A full on/off switch for the system is also envisaged, but this would lapse every time the vehicle is restarted.
 
#8 ·
That's why Brexit is so important, next we need these Liberals stamped on and the BBC feminist liberal nutters but its ok to be a kiddy fiddler o yes :wallbang: Churchill wouldn't stand for it and Jacob Rees Mogg for PM, so what if he's posh but he's no fool not like most of our MPs and as for labour shower of baby s*** Then we have Nigel Farage talks a lot off sense so these two men would sort out lots off crap in our country today.:shake: Bloody teachers moaning about no corporal punishment, so in schools now there getting assaulted in school. They have created a paradox That's a load off my tits aaaaahhhhh! Stress management and a beer.
 
#11 ·
I have a few points>

I mostly agree with Aidy.
(I know, I know - but there was always a chance that that would happen, erm.... sometime or other, LOL)

I also totally agree and subscribe with the "slippery slope" mentioned from strange_days... and I said as much to my Mrs while bombing down the road at 90 today:

Yes they *say* that the system "can" be turned off, but I don't expect that to still be true when the technology is rolled out properly. That comment is simply a nod to the elephant in the room that nobody else is talking about and the very reason that this device should NEVER be fitted as a mandatory item.

How many times have you been in the process of overtaking some dilly-dally - SAFELY - when they suddenly decide that they don't want to be overtaken and then put their foot down to try to prevent you getting past - even though they were travelling at a lot less than the posted speed limit?

Happens ALL the time. People are weird like that...

So you are sitting as the first car in a small queue behind a driver doing 50mph on a country road. You pull out to overtake, and your *device* lets you travel at 60mph. A 10mph overtake speed is safe and sufficient. But then the *weird* person happens and puts their foot down. You are both now doing 60mph. You alongside them. So you would be forced to slow back down and pull in. Except the car behind you has closed the gap. Because people are weird like that too.

That scenario is the one thing that would blow the entire argument against speed devices out of the water. "They" know that it is, so are offering some baloney fabrication about "being able to switch it off". Well I for one do not believe that at all. It is simply a distraction and an appeasement in order that the scenario outlined above is cut off at the ankles and doesn't get the due attention it deserves.

Why do I not believe that it will be "able to be switched off", even for one second?

Answer: because that would be "proof" of premeditative law breaking. So you would be hung out to dry with the full force of the "perverting the course of justice" laws (just like "failing to declare who was driving" as it is at the moment...
... Would your insurer still cover you in the event of an accident after switching off the device? Would they balls...

The whole thing is just sickening in its total lack of credibility under scrutiny. And yet - it'll still go ahead.

signed: Angry from Lincoln :frust:

PS - 'Out of "sight", out of mind', Aidy, LOL :thumbup:
 
  • Like
Reactions: evoviii8
#14 ·
It *could* have, but "They" ****ed that up. Royally.
Incompetents.

:thumbdown
 
#30 ·
So easy solution....why don't why keep hold of our jap scrap wagons (or anything else pre this law introduction). Solved.
Not quite. Fossil fuels will be taxed so much you will be forced to buy a new electric vehicle, certainly for commuting, all of which will have a limiter fitted.

I guess it was never really a free country anyway.
 
#25 ·
Well there's some motivation to get on and underseal the bottom of my X properly so it doesn't die of the dreaded tin worm.

And you thought those garaged red TME's were expensive now, just wait until 2022 and the prices will go through the roof when this is introduced :D
 
#26 ·
Surely new car sales will drop faster than Dianne Abbot on Jeremy Corbing
 
#28 ·
Aidy i agreed with most of what you say apart from the tractor bit i drive one for a living. If people get past when there is a gap instead of sitting up my back side looking up at me as if to say what do i do next we wouldn't get the 2 mile of cars. So yes we need more power in cars not less. So leave us tractor boys alone we are putting that food on ya table. And people overtaken when you can.
 
#29 ·
Sometimes the problem certainly is other people, for some reason no-one overtakes these days, even if it is a bus or a tractor, people just sit behind it. When you come to the tail end of a ten car queue, none of whom seem to want to overtake, it makes it harder to pass yourself, and more dangerous too as people rarely check they are being overtaken before overtaking themselves.

Despite the fact that it is ultimately the fault of the ten idiots between me and your tractor, you could still do the decent thing in pull in where possible to let them pass.
 
#34 ·
SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC

Rules and legislation on slow moving vehicles (which applies particularly to tractors and also caravans (but not pedal cycles)):

Highway Code Rule 169:

Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass.

(Which isn't in itself legally binding)

The Police have been on record more than once:

"The police recommendation to slow-moving vehicles is to pull over, where it is safe to do so, and make use of lay-bys, when you have six or more vehicles behind you."

(which in itself is also not legally binding)

There have been a number of convictions of offences of holding up traffic by slow moving vehicles, where fines and points have been given.

I can only presume this is under "inconsiderate driving" laid down in the Road Traffic Act, Section 3:

Careless, and inconsiderate, driving.

If a person drives a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place, he is guilty of an offence."

Inconsiderate Driving is defined in Section 3ZA, para (4) of the Road Traffic Act 1988:

Section 3ZA

Meaning of careless, or inconsiderate, driving

[snip]

para (4) - A person is to be regarded as driving without reasonable consideration for other persons only if those persons are inconvenienced by his driving.]

All the best

Mark H
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arronevo8
#42 ·
Eventually we'll all look back and think; "Remember when cars were fun?"
Aidy you are 100% spot on except that "Eventually" has already well past. The 1990's were IMO the optimum period when we had a good road system with a lot less traffic, gatso cameras but we had detectors and a great selection of cars that were fast and fun. It's gone downhill from there.
 
#47 ·
What people have to realize is read between the lines this has been done before in the 80s new learner motorcycles where restricted to 35mph/ 2.5 hp and they wanted changes to cars but was stopped by a government team looking into it. Now this new 2022 ruling this is to push people towards the rail system which is crap and very expensive, the effect on performance people business, the time increase in travel time will drive people to other methods off travel. The EU has designs on many new ideas which will make you hair curl. Germany has banded all diesel vehicles off a certain age in two major cities as a scrappage deal for a new cars like we had here a few years ago. The German car companies have voiced there worries to Merkel so much so have cut there help to political parties in Germany and when the EU asked the Germans for another 20 billion to prop up the EU losses. So new 5g there is a reason as it maps peoples surrounding and everything they do a pulsed millimeter wave length. They want people to share vehicles with no drivers so you just input where you wish to go and just sit there. What a load of **** and so be part off the EU and you can sit there a scratch your ass going to the shops or Brexit and decide what we want.:naughty:
 
#54 ·
Its like in Ireland this man crashed his BMW and he got out and was standing having a *** when the police turned up and he said he didn't call for help and how did you know I had a crash. The car sent info off the crash, and he was then breathalized and found to be over the limit. Its the beginning off control so driving will not be a pass time for us car owners who like FUN! The top supercars are all linked to the factories for car use service rev use on engine and GPS whats its been doing. :wallbang::wallbang::wallbang::wallbang:
 
#58 ·
The news today BBC1 cars create pollution, well there a shock but do you see the trend. This is all the tree huggers in the BBC. Years ago leaded fuel was stopped for sale and one side effect was believe this better temperament in the population so they now use unleaded with benzene which will kill you with cancer. Its the nice smell when you fill your car that's benzene. :wallbang:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top