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back to article Speed cameras slide out of LibCon budget

Jeremy Clarkson can start pressing his itchy accelerator pedal back to the metal - the new LibCon Government isn't going to fund more speed cameras. It's acknowledging the suspicion that the devices are being used as revenue generators, and is encouraging local councils to “use other methods and effective safety measures” to …

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  1. Anthony Cartmell
    FAIL

    Driving test fail?

    If you can't drive to a standard that would allow you to pass the driving test, as a novice driver, should you still be allowed to keep your driving licence?

    I'd vote to remove all speeding fines, and double the "that would have failed the driving test" points on the licences of those who speed. Then speedophiles wouldn't be able to moan about revenue generation of speeding fines.

    Speed limits are there to reduce death and injury caused by road crashes (still nine people per day being needlessly killed on UK roads). Remember that crashes almost always happen when you least expect them!

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    1. Steven Jones
      Reply Icon

      Wrong statistics

      Tha actual figure for average deaths per day on the road in the UK is about seven and not nine (in 2007 the number was 2,538, or 6.95 per day, and the rate has fallen further since then).

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      1. Steven Jones
        Reply Icon

        update

        I've just found the most recent set of UK-wide (provisional) figures for road fatalities and it was 2,430 for the 12 months to September 2009 or 6.6 per day on average. That's continuing a consistent downward trend for overall road deaths. As all stats ought to be properly sourced, here's the link to the Department for Transport's official stats.

        http://www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/162469/221412/221549/398822/rcgbq309.pdf

        The rate has been steadily reducing since 2003 (it was fairly flat between 1999 and 2003. Clearly something has had an affect over the last six years.

        The trend is downwards on all classes of casualty types, although I suspect that the definition of casualty might be rather elastic whilst fatality numbers are, by nature, less vulnerable to interpretation.

        It is also the case that the reported accident rates is down which does not support the notion that it is better crash protection alone that is responsible for the reduction in casualties (albeit I assume that accidents without injuries are less likely to be reported).

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  2. jizzflam
    Badgers

    Ha - another foolproof way to get around speed cameras

    You know those old style gatso cameras that photograph your car twice from behind? well simply change your speed by more than 2mph after you pass the camera and it cannot keep up with the calculations so has to abort the test - you see a single flash instead of two. You have to be quite quick but as long as your speed changes by at least 2 mph during the test ( normally 0.7 - 1.3 seconds) jobs a good 'un. I have verified this many times (er naturally on my private track with my own gatso). A handy bonus is that there will now be an odd number of exposures left - hahahaha screw you AC and your 'pointless' license.

    P.s I wouldn't take the p*ss if they weren't taking the p*ss. So use this info sensibly please.

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  3. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Second solution

    They're putting these cameras in the next town over from me. My solution, if they get any closer, is to fit an lcd panel to my plate. If the 5-0 are looking, flip a switch and it's clear. If i go to camera-land, it's pitch black. I don't object to speeders and especially red light runners getting ticketed. But these cameras don't take road conditions into account, and the red light ones are well known for ticketing people for *legally* coming to a dead stop then turning; in addition, most areas that have gotten red light camera, the yellow light has been set below the legal minimum so people can enter the intersection when it's just flipped from green to yellow (i.e. Too close to the intersection to safely stop), and then either get nicked for red light (since the yellow is too short) or speed up and get nicked for speeding instead.

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  4. Juillen 1
    Grenade

    Safety?

    I can remember when I was younger (senility hasn't kicked in yet!). The TV was awash with adverts about "Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule".. Which probably gives a clue as to my general age. However, this is something that PREVENTS accidents by actually giving people a good rule to follow to be far safer.

    Pedestrians had the Green Cross Code (and some character called 'charlie' if I remember aright). Sod this "Well, if you get hit, call this number and you can make some money out of it", it actually told people "Be responsible, don't get hit. Pointless being 'right' but dead, just be safe", without all the over the top HSE stuff we have today about tying your shoelaces the right way and wearing 4 types of safety jacket and a helmet before going near a road.

    Real safety comes from within every driver, not by applying oppressive force from without.

    Personally, I think getting a good ad agency on board to revamp the old ads to apply to a more modern setting would be a big win. Give some good rules of thumb for people to apply (and make them seem like jerks if they don't; a lot of the drink drive ads do this, which is why it's largely socially unacceptable these days to get trollied and drive).

    Give people something sensible to look at, and let them see why it's sensible, and they'll likely modify behaviour (in the main) and follow good practice. To catch the others, you need eyes (or at least a good "dangerous driving detector", and yes, it's possible with current image/pattern recognition techniques to identify this; just a lot more expensive than a Gatso) on the road to stop the real dangerous driving.

    For "speed to kill", you have to have the accident first. Lets concentrate on stopping the collisions (the cause) rather than arbitrarily taking a hard line stance on speed (which is nothing more than a 'contributing factor' as the road stats have it listed).

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