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Stopping distances


jon_bousfield
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Hi folks,

To cut a long story short I got snapped going through a red light and got the NIP form on the doormat other day. I am considering going to court on it as the light changed very quickly and I believe the traffic light wasn't calibrated to stay on amber for a sufficient period of time to allow me to stop before the line when the lights changed from green. Local plod have confirmed amber period was 2.9s on the day in question. What I'm after basically is a manufacturers quoted stopping distance in dry conditions for an A5 from 40mph. With a quick bit of maths this would let me calculate whether the 2.9s is sufficient time to stop. Are there performance tables of such things I could refer to? Any help much appreciated.

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I'd look at the stopping distances given in the highway code and use these. It's well established that modern cars can stop a lot quicker than the highway code stated distances but the code is the rule of the road. Might as well make your job easier and choose the more generous distances/times.

This site:

http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/stopping.htm

Suggests a stopping time of 3 secs.

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You should always drive in such a manner that you can anticipate incidents and come to a stop safely. It's a long time since I read the highway code but doesn't it say you should always approach traffic with caution and with the expectation that they will change and you have to stop.

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Thanks eldavo69 I did write a letter to the nice folks at the local 'safety' camera patnership attaching my calc which used the 36m distance quoted in the highway code and got a fairly short response confirming that camera was set to 2.9s which was within government guidelines. Dont agree with it but might just take this one on the chin as I've got no faith in local magistrates to understand the logic of the argument and not just take the easy out and decide that if government guidance says it was calibrated within the stated range then it must be right. The 3 points and £60 is hard enough to swallow without running the risk of them topping it up!

Understand your point Cuprabob but all I'm asking for is to be given a reasonable chance to stop at the lights when travelling within the posted seed limit for the road rather than it being a lottery every time you approach a set of lights. If these things really are 'safety' cameras and not just money makers for the local plod then they should be catching people who knowingly and willfully decide to drive through on red not people who don't phyically have enough time to react and stop and so have to continue on through.

Irony of all this is its a dual speed/red light camera and they confirmed I was only doing 37mph as they snapped me. Had I decided to give it a bit more loud pedal to beat the red light and got a speeding ticket instead I would have been offered a speed awareness course as alternative to the points and fine!!

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