Near Miss of the Day 788: British Transport Police apologises for "lapse in judgement" from impatient officer

Neil Greig, director of policy and research at IAM RoadSmart, said the survey findings showed that “law-abiding citizens are totally in favour of a zero-tolerance approach when it comes to catching those who are a menace to other motorists on UK roads”

My crusade has had no effect on the hardened idlers at Lancashire Filth- they have a Total-Tolerance approach to all motoring offences

The law in Australia to cross solid white lines.. 'drivers must consider if they have a clear view of oncoming traffic, if it is necessary and reasonable in all circumstances to cross the dividing line, and if it is safe to do so.' Much better than the ridiculous 'if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less'.

In the US it varies by state. Where I live, it's legal to pass a vehicle over double yellow (equivalent of solid white) lines when the vehicle is going 15 MPH or more below the speed limit. As a lot of our back roads are posted 45 MPH, that means it's almost always permitted to cross into the opposite lane when safe to pass a cyclist, tractor, or horse & buggy, regardless of the road markings.

As a lot of our back roads are posted 45 MPH, that means it's almost always permitted to cross into the opposite lane when safe to pass a cyclist, tractor, or horse & buggy, regardless of the road markings

It's different in the Red Rose County: here, it's always permitted to cross into the opposite lane to pass a cyclist regardless of how safe it is

Thing is a lot of our roads are 60 mph speed limits, so a similar rule here would make it legal to overtake Dorris who's still driving at 40 mph.

More of a mystery is the ones who then carry on doing 40 mph when the speed limit drops to 30. 

I can take a car trip of about 6 miles behind someone going at 35 where the speed limit will go 40/60/40/60/30/60/40/30

hirsute wrote:

I can take a car trip of about 6 miles behind someone going at 35 where the speed limit will go 40/60/40/60/30/60/40/30

I've noticed the single-speed 35mph drivers are quite a significant sized group. I suspect it probably has a pretty large overlap with middle laners.

Get that here too, one road in particlar has a stretch that is 60 between two villages and the number of times a car in front pulls away as we come through the village after dawdling through the 60.

I think if you want to report close pacing of cyclists you should google "sticky bottle" on this forum or "closely followed by team car with a full rack of bikes"!

legal.. the more pressing point was the oncoming vehicle which meant the police driver had to squeeze the cyclist alongside.

grOg wrote:

legal.. 

How so?

I mentioned the other day, send the Reg and location details to DVLA directly via Report an untaxed vehicle - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I mentioned the other day, send the Reg and location details to DVLA directly via Report an untaxed vehicle - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Waste of time- they don't do anything either. I have seen HY66 ZZB twice on the roads recently- no VED since 4.6.19, but has MOT until 7.10.22. Reported to DVLA weeks ago. The important point for my purposes is the long term absence of MOT where Lancashire Constabulary do nothing about an uninsured driver on the roads in an illegal vehicle

yep, DVLA would be a waste of time. They can only clamp/lift the vehicle if it's parked on a public road. Can't touch it if it's on a private drive.

They will not accept 3rd party video evidence of a vehicle being used on the public roads whilst being untaxed either (I tried!).

Probably best off seeing if there's a local 'Tyre Extinguishers' group, or print off a sign that says 'Untaxed Vehicle - DVLA AWARE' and slap it on next time you're passing!

So how actually does one go about getting done for no VED/ MOT/ insurance/ licence, or correct plates? I'm beginning to feel a bit of a mug for being so punctilious about these matters.

From my watching of channel 5's cop shows, it would be a traffic car with built in anpr camera set up and police inside that can be bothered.

Being pulled for speeding or obvious drink or drugged driving seems to be a good way of exposing drivers other forms of illegal driving too.

Police interceptors with John "wrong'uns" Thompson is still the best one. Whoever comes up with his lines is a star.

I think the only way of getting caught for no road tax / MOT is if you pass one of the DVLA ANPR enforcement cameras.

Police aren't interested unless they are having a slow day and want a reason to stop you.

So, park your vehicle on private land and make sure you know where the local ANPR cameras are and you can pretty much avoid these troublesome legalities.

I think the police are more interested in cloned number plates though and have an automatic system that flags up potentially cloned vehicles to patrol cars. 

At some point in the last couple of years, streets near me had obviously been patrolled by DVLA, as they had clamped and put warnings on a number of untaxed cars parked on the road. I would guess this sort of enforcement is happening regularly, but with limited resources.   

HoarseMann wrote:

I think the only way of getting caught for no road tax / MOT is if you pass one of the DVLA ANPR enforcement cameras.

Police aren't interested unless they are having a slow day and want a reason to stop you.

They do fairly regular roadside pulls round here, there was one on the Clapham Road just last week, four or five police cars at a set point with, I think, a mobile ANPR unit further back up the road radioing them whom they should stop; they had at least half a dozen very disgruntled-looking drivers pulled over when I passed.

They used to do this annually in our town, a spotter up the top of the High Street, then a coned off area they were directing vehicles into for a chat with the driver. Not seen it been done for several years now.

HoarseMann wrote:

I think the only way of getting caught for no road tax / MOT is if you pass one of the DVLA ANPR enforcement cameras.

The DVLA will send out fines to registered keepers whose vehicle is SORN or taxed.  Years ago, I got an £80 fine after I'd SORN'd a car and not renewed it (I hadn't realised it was a yearly thing) - not sure why I took so long scrapping it, emotional attachment I guess.  The DVLA ANPR enforcement cameras would probably come in to play if it is SORN'd and spotted on the road.

But if some is driving a car without VED, MOT and insurance it probably isn't registered to them either or they probably just ignore the brown envelopes.

Excuse me while I go check if I re-SORN'd my old Alfa.... Thanks.

Edit: I did, but I also noticed it states that like vehicle tax itslef the SORN is non-transferrable, so if you buy a SORN'd vehicle you have to SORN it yourself.

But do they ? Because it should all be automatic now its held on a computer system, simply issue a fine when it runs out, yet I'll often check the reg of a close passer/driver acting like a moron, and you'll find the VED ran out months ago, and ok let's say they ignore the fines/reminders or accidentally forgot to update their address when they moved, that's what debt collection agencies,bailiffs,ccjs are for. Yet you never hear of the DVLA pursuing people like that in the way say the TV licence is.

It gives the impression it's just one of those things no-one really cares that much about,

The DfT stats, and like unlicensed drivers is probably conservatively low so as to give the impression theres not a big issue here they are ignoring, is about 719,000 untaxed vehicles in use on the roads, 2 in every 100 vehicles basically, but that's over 100million in lost revenue each year.

yep, DVLA would be a waste of time. They can only clamp/lift the vehicle if it's parked on a public road. Can't touch it if it's on a private drive.

They will not accept 3rd party video evidence of a vehicle being used on the public roads whilst being untaxed either (I tried!)

This is all incorrect, although partially correct in practice. DVLA provide no facility to provide them with still or video evidence of untaxed or SORN-ed vehicles being driven on public roads. They already have the powers to fine/ prosecute the owners of non-SORN-ed vehicles which are untaxed- they just don't do it even when informed (see HY66 ZZB below) of a 'Highways Maintenance' vehicle seen and filmed twice being driven on public roads- and that's a vehicle with no VED for over 3 years. They just can't be bothered, the police are completely uninterested in untaxed vehicles and can't be bothered either with long term No MOT vehicles which are therefore uninsured. So you're completely safe in Lancashire at least without either MOT or VED or both (this is the new fashion here even with very recent and very expensive cars- go completely Off-Grid) if you're just a standard crim, as long as you're not one of the people the police really hate- they would certainly throw the book at me!

".....Have to buy cake" I thought according to Mark Hodsons reply when the unmarked car hit the cyclist the other day.