I don't know, I've been behind a police car and he was doing an indicated 68-69mph on a national speed limit dual carriageway on the inside lane.
Everyone stayed behind him but I thought I'd go past so did an indicated 75ish on the outside lane.
He pulled me over and told me off, saying that when he's doing the speed limit he does not expect to be overtaken by an ordinary member of the public.
Needless to say I felt duly shamed and have not done it again.
Chris
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So what is he then when he takes off his insecurity hider, sorry uniform? Cheeky wotsit... I would have struggled with that.
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Yep, I didn't see anything wrong with it myself, specially seeing as my indicated 75ish to get past him was probably actually 70mph.
He just made me feel really silly when he pulled me over and was glad I didn't get anything more than a telling off.
Chris
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he was probably just a bit bored and looking for something to do - never had a problem cruising past them at 75ish.
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I agree that this paranoia is a little misplaced. I filtered past a marked police car (proper traffic division too, not a panda car) in slow(ish) traffic on the Handcross Hill stretch of the A23 on the bike a few weeks back. (This is a 70-limit dual carriageway, for those unfamiliar with it.) Occupants of said marked car were unconcerned.
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I've been moving along swiftly at 80-odd in the past and had a Police car overtake me! Likewise I was once travelling at 65mph along a 50mph stretch of the A66, saw a Police bike in the mirror - pulled into the slow lane expecting the inevitable, but he overtook too! I can't say I've ever overtaken a Police car on a major road mainly because I daren't do the speeds they often travel at!
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I was overtaken by a battenburg out of hell in the 50 limit around J2 of the M3 this morning. Saw it coming from half a mile behind, so pulled into the nearside lane to give everyone else room to move over. Patient plod then gets right behind the first car in lane 3 and eventually, after about half a mile, it lets him past. Then some clot in a camper completely oblivious to the cop 15 feet from his portaloo for about a mile and a half. What is it with these people? Don't they ever look in their mirrors? Do they tape them over, or something? Or are they fast alseep. Why else would they simply not see a cop car right behind them lit up like a council house christmas tree?
HJ
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As someone who sticks to the speed limit on all roads, I dont often overtake a porkie although sometimes they cruise in the inside lane presumably waiting for the one big idiot who is really tanking it with their eyes closed.
I think the people who brake automatically are most likely those with a guilty disposition about how they normally drive!
At the end of the day, the limit is 70, not 80 etc so if you get pulled over, its at discretion of the officer. Its not like nobody doesnt know the limit and breaking it is a calculated risk - prob wont get caught, but you still might.
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As said above, never had a problem overtaking at 75-80ish indicated.
One time I was on the M62, late at night on an unlit empty section. I was cruising at 90+. A car catches me, and overtakes .... a fully marked Volvo T5, but with no blues going. He went by me at about 110, without even a second glance.
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On one of a number of occasions that might have kept me for ever from this forum, I was a passenger in a hired Ford Zodiac in about 1960-62, six up, coming back up the A30 to the south of Heathrow, driven by an army officer and sometime club racer absolutely flat. Passed a white Police Jag in a layby at 110 and really expected it to have a go, but it didn't, and can't have had time to get the number either. Perhaps thought we would manage to self-destruct.
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My cousin is a paramedic and everytime I speak to him he's telling me tales of people not noticing a gaudily painted big van coming up behind them with headlights flashing, a shock of blue bright lights and rather loud sirens. He calls putting on the blues "adpoting the urban camoflague"!
I can't for the life of me (nor can he) work out how these people miss the emergency services coming up behind in a rush
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And on this mirror question, I have always found plod most appreciative when motorists get out of the way in traffic even if it means placing their cars illegally. Indeed even in the heat of the moment police drivers or passengers sometimes take the trouble to acknowledge it.
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Agreed, assist to make progress, not panic, jam on the anchors and slow them down.
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I honestly think a lot of this problem is caused by two factors:
1. Most people seem to turn the music up so loud in the car they can't hear anything outside.
2. It is not always clear which way the siren is coming from.
That said, as soon as I hear even a hint of a siren I am scanning all round to find the best way to get out of the way, but often find I am the first to pull over/whatever, and vehicle in front of me gets caught with an irate police car/ambulance/fire engine right behind him.
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The ones I love are the ones who hit the brakes (and they DO!) when they see a battenburg on the other side of the motorway.
V
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Quite a few years ago I found myself driving an Astra estate with the roof covered in weird looking ariels. The local bus company was setting up some sort of radio controlled bus positioning system and my job was to drive along the routes whilst an engineer / passenger checked signal quality from transmitters along the route.
Very few drivers overtook - and no matter what speed I was travelling at, there was always a long queue behind me.
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Cop cars dont cruise along at motorways at 70mph. They are told not to as it causes jams to build up behind them. So they travel at about 62-65mph in the hope that traffic will trundle on past. It doesent of course because all the numpties slow down to 62-65mph
Me? I cruise by at an indicated 80mph (a real 74mph-ish) I always make sure they know I have seen them and that they know I know what I am doing. (the old bill HATE being unnoticed - specialy if its dressed up in its war paint). Never been pulled up yet.
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< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
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I regularly undertake police cars in bus lanes.
No I'm not a bus driver, and the bus lane is out of hours, but no one else uses them, why they sit in a non-moving non-bus lane when half the road is empty I don't know. Many people seem to get upset though.
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Going back to the sirens issue and not seeing them coming.
I have noticed recently round my area that they seem to have a habit of having lights on but NOT sirens - even when approaching junctions, roundabouts or traffic lights.
Is there any reason for this?
In bright sunlight it isn't always obvious the lights are on etiher.
Andrew
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I always make sure they know I have seen them and that they know I know what I am doing. (the old bill HATE being unnoticed - specialy if its dressed up in its war paint). Never been pulled up yet. >>
Whats that, a few flashes coming up behind followed by a blare of the two tones, one finger or two as you pass (depending how many there are in the car of course) and a few flashes of the hazzards as you disappear up the middle lane of an otherwise traffic free m/way eating a sarny and using a moby while steering with your left knee - guaranted not to be stopped! Now if you were doing 85 ..................
;-)
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Whats that a few flashes coming up behind followed by a blare of the two tones one finger or two as you pass
No - All that is required is a glance over as you pass, with a wink perhaps.
Air horns? hmm yes! Being un piloto español del coche I need a good set of FIAAM trumpets dont you think?
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< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
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un piloto español del coche >>
So have you aquired dual nationality as well as changed you name by deed poll? No, I think you mean un conductor de un coche espanol
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No, like all good agentes I immerse myself in the part, and to drive is merely a passionless act, so " un piloto español " Is, I feel, appropriate.
Now about those FIAAMS, Hi or Low?
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< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
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Now about those FIAAMS Hi or Low?
Hi plus a gang of four Cibees across the front ....
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2. It is not always clear which way the siren is coming from.
I agree - it's a case of twist all around thinking "Where the flip is that coming from?" - perhaps some sirens are worse than others for this?
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I used to thoroughly enjoy blasting my whaletail Cosworth past police cars and then sitting at 70 mph. while they came tearing upto me-a friendly wave on both sides was usually the result.
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Some on this board will be old enough to remember when several forces had the Rover P6. A mate had his Dad's white one on loan, can't remember why. We were all baby officers in the RN, and routinely wore a blue jumper, white shirt and black tie to work. Cap had a white top....
The game was to drive along the A38 at 65 mph with hats on - and watch the traffic build up behind.
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Driving up the A14 last year, we became aware of cars coming up behind at speed then slowing down as they passed and pulling in front.
We were in an Octavia estate,, my brother and I had just been to a funeral and were wearing white shirts and black ties...
--
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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I've always overtaken at 80 ish and not had probs, undertook a plain clothes car in Halesowen a few years back as he was sat in the outside lane on a duel carriageway and subsequently got a massive telling off, threatened the dangerous driving offence, which I can understand, but he should not have been in the outside lane!
Unmarked car was following some bad boys down a duel carriageway in Droitwich and I came steaming down the outside, must have been at least 80 and this road is a 50, as I approched the vectra the back window display just flashed "Police" I braked slipped in behind and took the first left hand turn I could!
Thankfully they were tailing someone!
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I really hate Handcross Hill! For some reason everyone infront of me feels the need to slam their brakes on and crawl through it at 50mph! I quite often go through at 70mph as long as I can see that there isn't a queue of traffic just round the corner (I usually do this road at night so can see the red glow round the corner)
A few years ago, I was coming down the hill in moderate traffic. I was driving the Discovery, fully loaded with stock for the restaurant, and going about 60mph in the outside passing a car. All of a sudden the woman in the car I was about to pass decided to pull in front of me and slam her brakes on!!! Luckily I had the room to just slip into the space she had just left in the inside and passed her but it confused the hell out of me and showed me how unstable the Disco was when fully loaded!! lol
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