51 Offences in 45 Minutes

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Look at it another way Davel, we aren't living in times where anyone is saving anything so all the extra money people would spend on petrol is money that they don't spend elsewhere and people lose their jobs and go on benefits. Round and round it goes. If you get hit in the pocket you stop spending on something.

 

I think that's a fallacy.  It's based on the idea that if you don't account for a cost, it magically dissappears.  Or it's akin to the idea you could help the economy by encouraging more crime (smashing windows creates jobs for glaziers!).

Motoring has costs, whether it's accounted for in the tax system or not.   At the moment most of those costs are just hidden under other categories without being specifically paid by motorists or put in the 'motoring' column when it comes to adding up the figures.

  The ideal would be by increasing taxes on it you oblige those choosing to drive to factor in the real cost of the behaviour when making the choice to engage in it, causing them to do it less and find alternatives.  Thus reducing the costs imposed on everyone in the form of externalities like pollution and health problems and RTAs and policing...etc.  Thus making everyone better off.

Obviously, though the huge problem is making it work out in that 'ideal' way.  Which almost certainly requires not just increasing taxes but also making alternatives more viable.

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Look at it another way Davel, we aren't living in times where anyone is saving anything so all the extra money people would spend on petrol is money that they don't spend elsewhere and people lose their jobs and go on benefits. Round and round it goes. If you get hit in the pocket you stop spending on something.

 

Is that an argument for, or against, austerity? 

hawkinspeter wrote:

Why can't other forces just copy the West Midlands Police? Is it just that they're super-human or is it that other forces just don't care?

Both innit. 

It's politically unfavourable to join in The War On Motorists - another headline today reports that scrapping the freeze on petrol duty would net the treasury £30bn+. Or, look at that another way - the freeze COSTS £30bn+. And sustainable transport has to fight for the pennies...

So it takes a heroic kind of DGAF sprinkled with The Right Thing and evidence-based policy (remember that?) to do what WMP are doing. 

fenix wrote:

A truly impressive haul. One guy was driving the kids to school with no insurance from all of 500 metres away. Muppet.

A sad indictment of the blatant selfishness most of us witness on a daily basis. And outside a f..king primary school!

'Muppet' is being overly generous IMHO. He needs his license withdrawn.

WMPRHRT are nothing less than superheroes in my view, chipping away at the idea that motorists have priority and are above the law.

CXR94Di2 wrote:

All the police need to do is mount a camera on the side of a road going into city/town and record people using phones, record no Insurance,  vehicle tax,mot etc.  Stop them a few hundred yards down the road and issue points and fines.

 

I see loads of folk who should be caught.

What happened to good old fashioned random police checks?  I got pulled over in the US for being slightly over the speed limit; I wasn't going to complain with 2 armed Georgia cops walking towards me.  Scrutinised my Brit licence and told me my speeding points had expired (which was correct) and that I needed to get my licence updated.  I'd have passed out if a UK cop had gone to that level of detail.  Mind you, I did some time in Zimbabwe; you grin like a Cheshire cat when a bloke with an AK47 peers through your window!

Good old UK; don't upset the motorists.

Shades wrote:

CXR94Di2 wrote:

All the police need to do is mount a camera on the side of a road going into city/town and record people using phones, record no Insurance,  vehicle tax,mot etc.  Stop them a few hundred yards down the road and issue points and fines.

 

I see loads of folk who should be caught.

What happened to good old fashioned random police checks?  I got pulled over in the US for being slightly over the speed limit; I wasn't going to complain with 2 armed Georgia cops walking towards me.  Scrutinised my Brit licence and told me my speeding points had expired (which was correct) and that I needed to get my licence updated.  I'd have passed out if a UK cop had gone to that level of detail.  Mind you, I did some time in Zimbabwe; you grin like a Cheshire cat when a bloke with an AK47 peers through your window!

Good old UK; don't upset the motorists.

What happened to good old fashioned random checks?  I think they went out the window when the government realised replacing coppers in cars with speed camers saved them loads of money on wages and petrol and buying cars, and brought in loads of money on fines.  Because speed cameras save lives, right? 

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

Shades wrote:

CXR94Di2 wrote:

All the police need to do is mount a camera on the side of a road going into city/town and record people using phones, record no Insurance,  vehicle tax,mot etc.  Stop them a few hundred yards down the road and issue points and fines.

 

I see loads of folk who should be caught.

What happened to good old fashioned random police checks?  I got pulled over in the US for being slightly over the speed limit; I wasn't going to complain with 2 armed Georgia cops walking towards me.  Scrutinised my Brit licence and told me my speeding points had expired (which was correct) and that I needed to get my licence updated.  I'd have passed out if a UK cop had gone to that level of detail.  Mind you, I did some time in Zimbabwe; you grin like a Cheshire cat when a bloke with an AK47 peers through your window!

Good old UK; don't upset the motorists.

 

What happened to good old fashioned random checks?  I think they went out the window when the government realised replacing coppers in cars with speed camers saved them loads of money on wages and petrol and buying cars, and brought in loads of money on fines.  Because speed cameras save lives, right? 

Average speed cameras are better and hopefully not too far down the line when all motors have speed limiters set in them so they cannot go above the prescribed speed (even if we don't agree with that limit) it'll be even better. Not saying that static boxes are/were a good idea, just that trying to reduce speed of motorists in certain areas without having to rely on plod being there all the time is a good thing. 

Shades wrote:

What happened to good old fashioned random police checks

Very topical subject in my case. I live in rural France, and a couple of weeks ago driving home from dinner with one glass of wine, with friends one Saturday night was shocked, or more accurately scared &hitless when I came across a police checkpoint stopping every driver for random breath tests. I passed, but certainly in my case, the experience served as an effective deterrent. Then again, I suspect there are those in the same situation who now have even more confidence to drink and drive.

Shades wrote:

CXR94Di2 wrote:

All the police need to do is mount a camera on the side of a road going into city/town and record people using phones, record no Insurance,  vehicle tax,mot etc.  Stop them a few hundred yards down the road and issue points and fines.

 

I see loads of folk who should be caught.

What happened to good old fashioned random police checks?  I got pulled over in the US for being slightly over the speed limit; I wasn't going to complain with 2 armed Georgia cops walking towards me.  Scrutinised my Brit licence and told me my speeding points had expired (which was correct) and that I needed to get my licence updated.  I'd have passed out if a UK cop had gone to that level of detail.  Mind you, I did some time in Zimbabwe; you grin like a Cheshire cat when a bloke with an AK47 peers through your window!

Good old UK; don't upset the motorists.

I worked in Nigeria for a few years in the bad old days of the military government. Back then police spot checks were generally a way for the police to amke extra money.

OldRidgeback wrote:

Shades wrote:

CXR94Di2 wrote:

All the police need to do is mount a camera on the side of a road going into city/town and record people using phones, record no Insurance,  vehicle tax,mot etc.  Stop them a few hundred yards down the road and issue points and fines.

 

I see loads of folk who should be caught.

What happened to good old fashioned random police checks?  I got pulled over in the US for being slightly over the speed limit; I wasn't going to complain with 2 armed Georgia cops walking towards me.  Scrutinised my Brit licence and told me my speeding points had expired (which was correct) and that I needed to get my licence updated.  I'd have passed out if a UK cop had gone to that level of detail.  Mind you, I did some time in Zimbabwe; you grin like a Cheshire cat when a bloke with an AK47 peers through your window!

Good old UK; don't upset the motorists.

I worked in Nigeria for a few years in the bad old days of the military government. Back then police spot checks were generally a way for the police to amke extra money.

Were you there when it was an offence to smoke while driving?   A colleague of mine was caught and refused to pay the ‘dash’.

He spent a very uncomfortable 24 hours in the lock-up.

Shades wrote:

What happened to good old fashioned random police checks?

 

A friend of mine was told by local police (East Cambs) that if you see a traffic department police car on the road here, it's on its way to or from a collision - they have absolutely no resources for anything else.