I mentioned recently how I had bought a GPS tracker/logger so that I know where my car is when it is out on test.
I had a pupil fail (for the third time) recently. He’s a good driver, but he does something different (and dumb) each time, and ends up with only two or three faults… plus a serious. His serious fault on his last test was for speeding.
He was on a 30mph dual carriageway approaching a speed camera. He’d missed the speed limit sign (as it happens, one of Nottingham City Council’s recent and irritating changes) and decided that it must be 40mph because everyone else was going faster than him!
The graph above, edited out of the speed data I logged, shows the exact moment he failed. You can see how he is accelerating sharply above 30mph, with no sign of easing off as he approaches 40mph. The examiner knew the camera was there and had to use the dual controls – his speed suddenly drops to just below 30mph as she did so.
For something not much bigger than a matchbox, this logger is proving to be very useful.