Radar Speed Traps

Don't Speed: Big Brother is Watching!

I fully accept that it is absolutely necessary to regulate the speed of the motoring public because there will always be those people who have shit where their brains were supposed to be, and they make it difficult and dangerous for everyone else. My question concerns the placing of speed cameras, and whether they are fair or foul?

The first thing you notice is that in spite of the signs that state that speed is being checked by radar, there are those people who plough on regardless at very high speeds. If the camera is doing its job they must be issuing speeding tickets by the millions. When I am on the road, I am such a slow poke that everybody passes me by anyway, but when I approach a radar warning sign I do check my speed and adjust accordingly. Usually the signs are placed where it is necessary to reduce from the maximum, but I have been noticing the following:

Radar machines placed along entry lanes onto the motorway that also serve as exit lanes. As such there will be a lower speed limit for exiting vehicles, but that will also govern entering vehicles.

Radar machines placed along stretches that allow 120 kph, but the machine is placed just before a sign that demands you slow down to 100. When you pass the machine you might be doing 120, but when you reach the 100kph sign you must be travelling at no more than 100. The distance between the two is too short to safely slow down. I think you are still within picture range.

Radar machines are faced to only be able to take a picture of the back end of the car, but who was driving? This can be a real problem when the family car is used by more than one driver, particularly because points can be lost from one's license. In France the camera faces the on-coming car.

Along stretches of road where there are several lanes, what if the speeding car is in the far left lane, or in the middle lane, but there are cars in every lane? Does the camera record the speed of the fastest car only?

You can record your own observations, and I am sure you will find a whole lot of situations that bring into question the integrity of whomever was responsible for placing the bloody things where they are.

Drive carefully, and at a reasonable speed.

Copyright (c)  2012   Eugene Carmichael



Celebration Time in Valencia

No place for machines!  Waiting for the Mascletá.

I am going to make this short and to the point. We are celebrating not one, but two major festivals that overlap one another, The festival of La Magdelena in Castellón de la Plana, and Las Fallas in Valencia City and the surrounding towns. the area is heaving with people who have travelled in to join the multitudes already here.

My one word of advice is to leave your car and bike as far away from the centre of activities. My other is a wish that you fully enjoy the celebrations that chase away Winter and usher in Springtime. For the time being we are forgetting our problems and its on with the show.

Enjoy!

Copyright (c) 2012  Eugene Carmichael

Gasoline and Diesal

We have come a long way from the days when only truckers and farm machinery used diesal. The diesal family car was a clunky thing that was also noisy as hell. Now, manufacturers are turning out diesal cars that are super quiet, and they start with the turn of the key. I know without doubt that my wife's diesal Seat runs much, much farther on a litre of diesal than my volvo does on a litre of gasoline, but how much farther I can't say without doing a test. Bit it is significant.

Diesal, by its very nature is cheaper to produce, and the cost at the pump is also lower than standard non-leaded gasoline. However, when some governments get involved and place crippling taxes on diesal, it can actually be more costly at the pump. For now, diesal is more economical here in Spain.

So why, in the name of all that's sensible, does an examination at ITV for a diesal car cost euros 65:00, and euros 51:00 for a gasoline powered seven seater?

I recall the time when diesal was promoted as a more friendly fuel, and new buyers were encouraged to take home a diesal. Buyers did that, and now we find that in some countries you pay more for the fuel and more for the annual examination.

I would suggest we not waste even a minute trying to understand the logic of that. There is no logic. Yes, they are a bunch of people with excrement for brains, but they are the government.

Copyright (c) 2012   Eugene Carmichael

Motorcycle Trouble

A very roadworthy Honda Goldwing

March the First is the beginning of Valencia's month for Las Fallas. Everyday at 2pm there is a massive firework display in the central square outside of City Hall that is attended by thousands. They are there for the noise because during the day there are no beautiful coloured explosions. If you have never attended a Mascleta it is really something to experience. It doesn't last long, about five to seven minutes, but it is the most violent five to seven minutes you could ever hope to be involved in. Even serving soldiers have said that it puts real live fire in the battle arena in the shade.

Las Fallas culminates with monuments that are planted in the streets on the 15th, and they remain until the 19th, when they are simplly set on fire. Many of these monuments cost the equivalent of building a house.

The First of March is also traditionally the start of the Valencia police campaign to focus on motorcycles. There are check points set up exclusively for this purpose in various parts of the community to examine motorcycles with a fine tooth comb. Recently, the law has made motorcycles subject to the annual roadworthy examination, but not everybody has got into the swing of it. If you are found to be operating your bike without having renewed your bike's certificate you are fined euros 500, and depending on the state of the bike, it may be taken into the impound centre.

Strictly speaking, every vehicle that does not have a current certificate should be pulled off the road because no-one can know whether it is roadworthy, and if it is the cause of an accident chances are that the insurers may not want to pay out.

So, while everybody else will be having a fun time with fireworks, making as much noise as they can, you are reminded to attend to your bike's papers. 

Ride safely, Ride well, and wear a reflective jacket to be seen to be safe.

Copyright (c) 2012   Eugene Carmichael