Hi Folks,
Had some experience recently in Sweden of a tailgating camera system with automated enforcement near Nynashamn. The system detects your distance to the car in front and your number plate is flashed up with a demand for corrective action on the distance. This is coupled with markers to help you gauge the right distance (a bit like the chevrons on used on the M6). If you fail to correct it and maintain it you get nailed by the next camera. It works because everyone is scared witless by it.
I'm kind of in favour of it. There's much talk about brakes being better these days, but that's only when their factory fresh. Can you really believe that the guy tailgating you has changed his brake pads on time, replaced the brake fluid every two years, replaced the disks before they hit the thickness limit, maintained his ABS (duff sensors) etc? I don't. A recent DOT experiment showed that poorly maintained vehicles have the same or worse stopping distance than cars in the 1960s, hence the reason that the stopping distance never changed in the highway code.
So, who knows maybe we'll be measured soon on our behaviour with something that does matter, driving to close to another car for the speed that you are doing. We're all for the safe use of speed aren't we?
John
Had some experience recently in Sweden of a tailgating camera system with automated enforcement near Nynashamn. The system detects your distance to the car in front and your number plate is flashed up with a demand for corrective action on the distance. This is coupled with markers to help you gauge the right distance (a bit like the chevrons on used on the M6). If you fail to correct it and maintain it you get nailed by the next camera. It works because everyone is scared witless by it.
I'm kind of in favour of it. There's much talk about brakes being better these days, but that's only when their factory fresh. Can you really believe that the guy tailgating you has changed his brake pads on time, replaced the brake fluid every two years, replaced the disks before they hit the thickness limit, maintained his ABS (duff sensors) etc? I don't. A recent DOT experiment showed that poorly maintained vehicles have the same or worse stopping distance than cars in the 1960s, hence the reason that the stopping distance never changed in the highway code.
So, who knows maybe we'll be measured soon on our behaviour with something that does matter, driving to close to another car for the speed that you are doing. We're all for the safe use of speed aren't we?
John
