TAKE CARE - In and around Castle Donington
Discussion
Speed enforcement in Castle Donington.
A general heads-up, especially for those visiting for the Superbikes this weekend, that the local constabulary have agreed to the wishes of a couple of locals and will be deploying mobile speed cameras in the village in the first week of October.
Why does this matter to anyone right now?
Well, I was reliably informed this afternoon that they were also out this morning trapping people on the long hill to the south of the village heading towards the race track. For those who don't know it it's the sort of hill where one is likely to slightly exceed the limit going up or down, so in some way it is surprising it has not been targeted before.
Presumably that is because there was no obvious reason to do so as the official stats would not present sufficient KSI's to justify the move. That may have changed when a local biker managed to end his life, in what is apparently a single vehicle accident, heading in to the village from the north a couple of weeks ago. Whilst I have not seen any official comment on the cause of the accident, which occurred near the point that the new 40 limit changes to the 30 limit entering the village, the local rag this week reported a comment from a local councillor referring to a need to be careful about speed.
He may be speaking from personal knowledge - or he may simply have been brainwashed by the usual mantra, trotted out irrespective of the circumstances. Who knows?
Whichever way you look at it it has given some locals the opportunity to voice their prejudices and the agencies an excuse to appear to be doing something for the local community by targeting through traffic. I guess that lets them off having to come up with a way of dealing with the local chav kids who simply ignore them and continue to cause upset and vandalism throughout the centre of the village.
Anyway, be warned. They announced the first week in October to the press but suddenly there they are early than they said. I can only assume that this is not unconnected with Superbikes meeting this weekend. To 'catch' a whole load of non-locals passing through would surely allow points to be scored with certain members of the local population. Probably keep people quiet for a couple of months.
A general heads-up, especially for those visiting for the Superbikes this weekend, that the local constabulary have agreed to the wishes of a couple of locals and will be deploying mobile speed cameras in the village in the first week of October.
Why does this matter to anyone right now?
Well, I was reliably informed this afternoon that they were also out this morning trapping people on the long hill to the south of the village heading towards the race track. For those who don't know it it's the sort of hill where one is likely to slightly exceed the limit going up or down, so in some way it is surprising it has not been targeted before.
Presumably that is because there was no obvious reason to do so as the official stats would not present sufficient KSI's to justify the move. That may have changed when a local biker managed to end his life, in what is apparently a single vehicle accident, heading in to the village from the north a couple of weeks ago. Whilst I have not seen any official comment on the cause of the accident, which occurred near the point that the new 40 limit changes to the 30 limit entering the village, the local rag this week reported a comment from a local councillor referring to a need to be careful about speed.
He may be speaking from personal knowledge - or he may simply have been brainwashed by the usual mantra, trotted out irrespective of the circumstances. Who knows?
Whichever way you look at it it has given some locals the opportunity to voice their prejudices and the agencies an excuse to appear to be doing something for the local community by targeting through traffic. I guess that lets them off having to come up with a way of dealing with the local chav kids who simply ignore them and continue to cause upset and vandalism throughout the centre of the village.
Anyway, be warned. They announced the first week in October to the press but suddenly there they are early than they said. I can only assume that this is not unconnected with Superbikes meeting this weekend. To 'catch' a whole load of non-locals passing through would surely allow points to be scored with certain members of the local population. Probably keep people quiet for a couple of months.
fortjefferson said:
Castle Donington is probably the same as any other village, in that when the Police set up a speed trap at the request of the local's, 85% of people they catch are local.
That would be my guess as well, but the timing of the first 'test week', and the early start to that week, coincided with quite a busy period at the racetrack and those days always attract a few people who may be tempted to blast up the hill from the village at, say, a reasonably safe 40, given the braking effect of the incline, only to find a scamera half way up. Or down of course. Steep enough to be good for 30 on my pushbike coasting 'cos I have run out of high gears.
Donington gets it fair share of commuter traffic but a higher than average share of visitor traffic passing through for the racetrack, the Sunday market or perhaps just in a bit of a hurry to get to the airport.
I must dig out the local paper for the last 2 weeks to see if anything about teh results has been reported yet.
v15ben said:
They had a similar thing at Croft for the superbikes in April. There were marked and unmarked police cars, bikes and vans everywhere. They were driving round with traffic, parked in lay-bys, in junctions and generally all over. Seemed to stop speeding though!
Yep, but this is apparently a longer term activity which is not directly related to events at the racetrack and other local amenities - it's just that they announced they were going to do it and then introduced it somewhat early than announced, presumably because fo the 'opportunity' that a few events offered.
It seems to have come about because a couple of people living on the main road through the village have decided that many vehicles are travelling much too quickly. Frankly the levels of traffic these days mean that at the normal busy periods most of the time seems to be spent stationary, but then I don't live on the main roads and they are not part of a regular route through the village for me. However on the occasions when I do use those roads, I have not noticed a significant level of excessive speed in use.
Of course of one was to set a trigger point of, say, 33mph on the long hill, either direction, I suspect that quite a number of vehicles could be measured at 34 or 35 at some point on its length before they 'correct' their speed. That would hardly make them dangerous.
I do wonder how the locals come to the conclusion that there is a problem. The chances are that it is mostly based on a noise factor - always likely to be a problem on a hill of course! Especially where people have followed advanced driving advice to put the vehicle in a lower gear to go down the hill as well as up!
Some quality reporting from the local rag under the heading "Camera Nabs Speedsters!". "Castle Doningtonm 'rat run' purge set to continue"
I think they mean people using the roads as they are intended to be used here but the press sees the maion road through the village as a rat run since the A453 became an alleged 'by-pass'when Junction 24 of the M1 was re-developed a few years ago. Something of a detour rather than a by-pass in reality if you are heading west to Derby.
Seems they are using a Pr-laser device "which gives an accurate reading of a motorists speed".
Quote from the Beat Officer "There has been a reduced amount of complaints regarding the level of speeding in the village and hopefully our intiative will send out the right message."
I think what he means is that doing this is good PR is it keeps the village whingers quiet for a while. How the effects of a few hours in one week when the NIPS have not yet been sent out will have produced any measurable effect on passing traffic on the rat run escapes me.
Unless of course the major 'culprits' are locals ...
I feel an FOI question coming on in a few week's time.
I quite liked this paragraph.
"The information recorded by the camera has been sent for analysis to the Force's Traffic Management Unit and it is expected that the results will be available over the course of the coming weeks."
What on earth does that mean in the context of watching a video?
Anyway, even without the 'analysis' they have deemed it a success and will be continuing to place scameras at various locations in and around the village. If nothing else it will keep the natives quiet for a while.
Next week they start to install speed bumps and 'tables'. Large 4x4 required I think.
I think they mean people using the roads as they are intended to be used here but the press sees the maion road through the village as a rat run since the A453 became an alleged 'by-pass'when Junction 24 of the M1 was re-developed a few years ago. Something of a detour rather than a by-pass in reality if you are heading west to Derby.
Seems they are using a Pr-laser device "which gives an accurate reading of a motorists speed".
Quote from the Beat Officer "There has been a reduced amount of complaints regarding the level of speeding in the village and hopefully our intiative will send out the right message."
I think what he means is that doing this is good PR is it keeps the village whingers quiet for a while. How the effects of a few hours in one week when the NIPS have not yet been sent out will have produced any measurable effect on passing traffic on the rat run escapes me.
Unless of course the major 'culprits' are locals ...
I feel an FOI question coming on in a few week's time.
I quite liked this paragraph.
"The information recorded by the camera has been sent for analysis to the Force's Traffic Management Unit and it is expected that the results will be available over the course of the coming weeks."
What on earth does that mean in the context of watching a video?
Anyway, even without the 'analysis' they have deemed it a success and will be continuing to place scameras at various locations in and around the village. If nothing else it will keep the natives quiet for a while.
Next week they start to install speed bumps and 'tables'. Large 4x4 required I think.
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