UK Driving Licences to Display Union Flag

The Government today announced plans to play the patriotic card by adding a Union Flag to all new UK driving licence photo cards in the near future.

The move was announced by transport minister Claire Perry who explained the thinking behind it. “People in this country rightly take pride in our national flag which is why I am delighted it will now be displayed on British driving licences.

“Celebrating Britain strengthens our sense of national identity and our unity. I will feel proud to carry my new licence and I hope others will too.”

Accompanying the announcement came an image revealing how the new driving licence photo card "could look". The picture shows a photo card complete with Union Flag in addition to the European Union flag which already appears on UK driving licences. The Union Flag is set to find its way on to all new driving licences issued in England, Scotland and Wales from an as yet unspecified date in the not too distant future.

The Union Flag's arrival on licences comes hot on the heals of other more impactful announcements affecting UK motorists. The tax disc met its end on October 1st 2014 while the DVLA announced a drop in driving licence fees later that month. The paper counterpart to the UK licence is also set to be phased out on June 8th 2015.

Speeding Fines Surge to Highest Level in Four Years

The influx of high-tech digital speed cameras has seen the the number of motorists trapped surge to 115,000 in the last year - the highest number since 2009.

Ministry of Justice figures show that a total of 115,549 motorists were fined at least £100 pounds by magistrates after being caught speeding (Those convicted of a speeding offence must pay a minimum of £100 and will have three penalty points added to their licences. ), The increase is put down to the £10,000 digital cameras, that no longer require film and can operate 24 hours a day.

South Wales has seen one of the biggest increases, with the number of people fined tripling last year to 6,491, from 2,181 three years earlier.

The number of offenders has also grown in that period by almost 1,000 in both South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and by close to 2,000 in Staffordshire.

While London saw the most people fined last year, the figure for the Metropolitan Police area has fallen to 7,736 - its lowest level in five years.


The total number of motorists caught speeding is believed to be far higher, as the figures only take into account those summoned to court for failure to pay fines and where speed was particularly excessive.

Police force area	Offenders fined	Police force area	Offenders fined
Metropolitan Police	7,736	Northamptonshire	521
Cumbria	1,473	Cambridge	2,831
Lancashire	5,651	Norfolk	1,675
Merseyside	2,545	Suffolk	2,114
Greater Manchester	5,964	Bedfordshire	1,553
Cheshire	1,788	Hertfordshire	1,983
Northumbria	2,160	Essex	3,091
Durham	469	Thames Valley	4,466
North Yorkshire	1,776	Hampshire	3,667
West Yorkshire	4,567	Surrey	3,134
South Yorkshire	3,511	Kent	3,915
Humberside	3,046	Sussex	1,976
Cleveland	813	Devon and Cornwall	2,410
West Midlands	1,442	Avon and Somerset	3,925
Staffordshire	5,164	Gloucestershire	561
West Mercia	2,598	Wiltshire	406
Warwickshire	2,778	Dorset	1,172
Derbyshire	1,075	North Wales	1,744
Nottinghamshire	2,900	Gwent	2,486
Lincolnshire	3,179	South Wales	6,491
Leicestershire	2,253	Dyfed-Powys	2,540
	Total England and Wales		115,549

Last week the Institution of Engineering and Technology said in the future the speed at which cars can travel may be altered to fit the driver's experience, and the development of driverless cars may mean an end to speeding.

'Speeding may become a thing of the past as cars are likely to be fitted with speed-limiting devices.'
This year this year a speed camera in Cardiff generated more than an estimated £800,000 worth of fines in just six months.

According to road safety group GoSafe Wales, the device on the junction of the city's Newport Road and Colchester Avenue caught 13,624 speeding motorists and a further 146 running red lights between January and June.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said: 'Speeding can have devastating consequences and it's right that drivers should abide by the speed limit. These fines were issued at the discretion of the magistrates and show the number of fines issued is in decline across many police force areas.' 

Electronic Tag Catches Speeding Criminal

Convicted burglar Darren Girling, who denied a speeding charge was placed at the scene by his electronic tag that was part of bail conditions for previous offenses.

He was caught speeding twice and decided that he didn’t really need it adding to his burgeoning rap sheet of over 50 previous convictions for burglary and car theft.

He was caught doing 41mph on his Piaggio X9 scooter in a 30mph zone and decided to not to pursue his defence in court when compelling evidence, in the form of his exact location provided by his GPS tag, was presented.

He initially denied the charge by claiming that someone had cloned his scooter and carried out the offence on the A13 near Leigh.

An Essex Police spokesman said: "Police were able to confirm he was at the scene both times the cameras activated because he was wearing a Buddi tag as a result of a bail condition imposed by Basildon Crown Court."

'Self Healing Concrete' = No More Potholes?!

The UK suffers particularly badly with potholes due to the type of Tarmac used on our roads. It is more porous than that used in hotter European countries, this is so that it can clear surface water during a downpour.Unfortunately  in colder weather, this water that has seeped into the road surface can freeze and expand, causing damage to the asphalt.

Scientists at the University of Bath, Cardiff University and the University of Cambridge have been in the process of creating a new road surface, which uses bacteria to fill-in gaps and cracks caused by poor weather. This "Self healing concrete" means that Potholes could soon become a thing of the past.

When the bacteria comes into contact with water, it  bursts and produce limestone, which seals the gap before it can develop into a pothole.

The team behind the project believes that benefits will include

• Removing the need for patchwork repairs
• Reduce Compensation claims from drivers who've had their vehicles damaged by potholes
• Transport network would become safer for vulnerable road users such as cyclists.

The groundbreaking (or should that be ground-making?) new material is just one of a number of innovations outlined by engineering company Arup.

Other ideas include replacing asphalt with solar panels, which could be used to charge electric cars and melt snow.

It also has plans to harvest energy from pedestrians by fitting pressure pads into the pavement, and place snowflake graphics on road surfaces using temperature sensitive paint, which would warn drivers when the temperature drops below a certain point.

Arup's global highways business leader Tony Marshall said: "While temperature-sensitive paint and solar surfaces may seem far-fetched, the innovations envisioned in this report are already being tested and piloted around the world," writes the Telegraph.

"They will change the way that we approach mobility and freight transport and will provide safer, more reliable and more environmentally friendly highway infrastructure for generations to come."

Think Britain's Roads are Busy Now? Just Wait Until 2034 When There'll be an Extra 20 MILLION Drivers

Roads could be jammed with an extra seven million drivers within 20 years, according to the RAC Foundation.

The number of road users will leap from 36 million to 43 million if current trends persist, the foundation said.

It said its forecast was consistent with Government figures which predict that compared with 2010, traffic levels on urban roads in England and Wales will rise by around a fifth by 2025 and by a third by 2035.

The biggest increase by 2025 is predicted to be in eastern England and Yorkshire and Humberside (both up 25%), while the biggest rise by 2035 is Yorkshire and Humberside (up 40%).
The RAC Foundation's 43-million vehicle forecast came as it published essays by transport experts in a paper entitled Moving Cities: The Future Of Urban Travel.

The essays showed 49% of people in England and Wales now live in towns or cities with a population of at least 250,000 with three-quarters of households in towns and two-thirds in cities owning a car.
RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said any new road investment due to be announced this week by the Government was very welcome.

He went on: "But our work illustrates the massive challenges we also face in unclogging our urban areas. Traffic forecasting is not an exact science but the direction of travel is clear: towards increasing jams.

"We all want to see more drivers using alternative methods of getting about but the Government's own figures suggest we face an uphill battle under present policies.

"To preserve the quality of life in towns and cities we must revise our travel expectations and ministers need to set clear and coherent strategies to facilitate this."

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