Anyone that thinks this is going to change anything in Ireland has never driven around Ireland. To say speed limits as taken as an amusing suggestion here is the biggest understatement I’m going to make all day.
And I, for one, I think it's great. It's not a popular position but I'm a speed limit enforcement maximalist. I think if you're going 31 in a 30, after accounting for measurement errors, there should be enforcement action. Driving is one of the most dangerous things we do so I'm not sure why we're all so blasé about breaking this particular law.
Encouraging everyone to break the law just means selective enforcement is a bigger problem. If safety depends on cars moving the same speed, then everyone else should slow down to the speed limit to match my speed.
I really don't get this brinksmanship stuff. "Oh it's just 5 MPH, it's just 10 MPH." A limit was posted. The negotiation process doesn't happen _after_ the sign is put up. It's very simple.
All that said, I don't like ALPRs. They're so bad for privacy. I just know that they'll be connected to the Internet and used to track people wherever they drive, many of them already are.
Some countries have, or used to have, regulations saying that the devices aren't allowed to record the number plate details unless a crime is detected. I don't know how well that works since you're relying on the police to self-enforce that.
The UK doesn't have any such regulations and has fully embraced ANPR. They are being deployed everywhere now, for speed limit and red light enforcement, implementing toll roads and zones, enforcing modal filters, detecting cars reported in crime, detecting cars without insurance/tax/inspection, etc. and much of it is being converted to report to the "National ANPR Data Centre".
I wouldn't say I'm pleased about the privacy implications, but most people here are fine with it and seem to derive more benefit from it than harm. Vehicle crime is one of the UK's biggest problems, and I know several people who've had their stolen cars recovered thanks to the system, and ~everyone supports cracking down on uninsured drivers. It's become more controversial lately due to low emissions zones and the potential future introduction of road pricing, but that isn't really a push back for privacy reasons.
I just think in the UK, people don't have a cultural expectation of privacy when driving.
Interesting, because in the states, similar infrastructure is being deployed specifically for road pricing. I assume then we can start working on the more sensible uses you describe, but don’t have high hopes that it will be easy or quick.
I echo the sentiments of the parents where limits should be absolutely enforced, but also your concern about privacy.
At the end of the day though, this is what the majority is asking for, by dint of consistently breaking the rules. If people obeyed the limits, there’d be no need to expand the vast quantities of resources to build all the infrastructure for these cameras. It certainly sucks for those who always obey the limits (probably a low single digit percentage of drivers) and will get caught in the dragnet.
I foresee IR dazzlers becoming more popular on license plates and windshield/window frames.
Biggest one is just merging / changing lanes. Often you have to go 10 or 20 over the limit to merge without impeding a lane of traffic. I sometimes see people stopping(!) at the end of a merging lane when there was a perfectly good gap they could have gotten by just speeding up. Trying to merge from a dead stop onto an 80kph+ road is more dangerous than going 90 fore sure.
Another one is on 2-lane roads. You catch up to a truck/lorry and see a gap. The gap is big enough to get the overtake done, but you instinctively go faster to make the whole thing less of a close call. Is society really helped if every truck has a 20-car queue behind it because people are afraid they'll get fined if they help traffic flow?
On a more general note, I agree that there needs to better enforcement. However, better enforcement to me includes removing all the sneaky money-making schemes you see in the wild. They put a speed limit sign on the wrong side of the road, behind bushes or behind street-side parking (often making the limit non-enforceable legally), put up a speed camera and cash in on people that won't defend themselves.
That shit has to stop, put those ressources on deadly country roads, in front of schools and other accident hotspots instead. While we're at it, do more preventative traffic stops. It's not right that blind grandma or psychotic grandson have to seriously hurt someone before anything happens.
Little anecdote here: I passed my driving exam despite going 30kph over the limit while overtaking a tractor. I just told the examiner that I was trained to leave the opposite lane asap, slowed down as soon as I noticed how fast I was going and there was no issue.
Personally, I would imagine it's very unlikely to improve safety, and have seen near crashes result from it, so I think if you're needing to go 30 kph over the limit to make the overtake, then you probably should have just waited. However, I am completely willing to accept that this is a case where evidence should outweigh anecdotes, so if there was some study and reliable data to show that this sort of a tolerance is a good idea, then we should absolutely adopt it into the law under some objective criteria.
I do of course agree about malicious enforcement though. Again that's something that doesn't tend to be a big problem in the UK. Speed limits must be posted on both sides of the road to be enforceable, and if it's not the default limit (e.g. 30 in a built up area), there will be repeater signs every 200 metres or so. Plus we tend to also paint the limits on the road, and speed cameras are painted yellow and have a sign telling you that there are cameras, often with a reminder of the limit. You do occasionally get situations where the signs are obscured by trees, especially now that maintenance budgets have been cut, but you can use that to get out of the fine. My experience driving around the UK is that it's really rare that I don't know what the limit is, and if I don't, 99% of the time it's my fault for not paying attention.
Sure, it is a limit rather than a recommendation. In terms of statute, anyway. Almost every social or legal convention in the UK pragmatically treats it as a recommended speed for some unknown reason and you could even pick up the attention of the police doing 40mph in a NSL on a bad day. (I even recall my driving instructor telling me I should "do the speed limit" unless I had good reason not to!)
Getting older, I'm in support of your idea, though. Stick the cruise control on at 50mph and see how big an entourage could be mustered with no easy way to overtake. It could almost be as fun as speeding was. I've long assumed this is the way lorry drivers keep things interesting..
My instructor very much taught me that it's a limit rather than a recommendation, however, that's also balanced out with the minor fault of "making progress". Obviously if someone just drives at 5mph everywhere then they're clearly not a competent driver, but there's definitely a grey area. My instructor said as a rule of thumb, on a clear day, clear straight road without any hazards, you should be within 5mph of the limit on the test, but that otherwise, examiners are relatively tolerant of driving below the limit.
As far as the police go, I think it's because people driving slow is generally suspicious of perhaps them being a drunk driver or some other issue with their competence or road worthiness. I was once driving at 40mph on a dual carriageway in Scotland and got pulled over, but I explained to the police that I was just low on fuel due to a number of closed petrol stations, so I'm trying to conserve fuel by driving at the speed I get the best economy otherwise I won't make it to Inverness. They were completely satisfied with that and let me on my way.
Nowadays I'm more like you described, and I prefer to just punch in the speed limit on the cruise control and enjoy my podcast/music. If the traffic ahead slows down, I slow down. I leave the outside lane to the angry BMWs.
(My belief may be biased by a certain person I used to know: he was driving one of two vehicles with me and my friends to an event that wouldn't start until both arrived; I asked why he was doing 98 mph (UK speed limit 70), and his answer was "If I was going faster I might have to waste time with a court case to prove I wasn't driving dangerously" rather than to slow down. The other vehicle was driven by someone who obeyed the speed limit, and we started at the same time and place).
As strict enforcement without the leniency of warnings go: most rural areas in the States because city and county revenue heavily depends on speeding tickets and fining home owners for petty infractions.
The most essential enforcement is in the areas:
1) residential
2) residential/commercial
Another racket is HOV/toll-lanes (also known as yuppie-scofflaw lanes) because they create more traffic, create dangers of speed differentials, and penalize people by socioeconomic strata. I wished the US adopted day-fines. [1]
1. https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/print-archive/constitutionali...
PS: I haven't driven around Ireland (yet). As a general principle, I don't drive in other countries because of the insurance liability and idiosyncrasies in driving conventions and laws. RHD<->LHD can also be a hurdle to some.
Then i found myself backing into a hedge to avoid a large speeding tour bus in Ireland!