Oh bloody hell.
The tory side of the national coalition has won out on speed cameras. We all know that they work. People slow down. Point speed cameras have an impact but average speed cameras are fantastic. Average speed cameras result in 99%+ speed limit adherence over the area they cover.
Well documented that speed limit adherence saves lives. Its not just well documented but peer reviewed research papers have proven it. Many are peevish about how safe they are and speed limits should’nt apply to people that drive as they do. Well everyone feels safe until that crash.
The revenue from speeding fines goes direct to the treasury and does’nt touch the sides of the enforcing authority the treasury then allocates funds to run cameras as per politician decisions. This was a silly change made by labour that urgently needs to be reversed.
Tory minsters have stated they’re ‘ending the war on motorists’. With this they mean they’re reducing the funds allocated to run speed cameras. So when we see more children killed, more multiple pile ups you know exactly which person is responsible – tory Secretary of State for Transport Phil Hammond. Of course speeding in our country is considered by most as ok until they’ve had the impact on family or circle of friends of a crash. Hopefully this selfish attitude will change as our country becomes more mature over speed as it did over drink driving all those years ago.
In a sane world local authorities would keep speed cameras fines and have to fund the cameras themselves. If residents think their council is overly zealous in enforcing the LAW about speed they vote them out. It’s called democracy.
In the mean time many local authorities are closing shop on speed cameras – Swindon, Oxford are some of the first.
he residents of Richmond and Kew DID vote the Lib Dems out of office because you WERE over zealous with the ‘War Against the Motorist’. We were all glad to see the back of them. You also cancelled $250,000 of meals on wheels for the elderly and bought £6,250,000 worth of parking meters – a really worthy cause serving the public! Your stated arguments on speeding fatuous.
Less than 4% of accidents are caused by speeding if you ignore the police propaganda figures; nobody in the real world believes them. Most accidents are caused by abject stupidity; people stepping out in front of vehicles sober or otherwise, and ignorance of the laws of the road – we see it everyday; to say otherwise you must think that ALL of the public are stupid. There is also a large driver fatigue factor involved having to drastically monitor all the Greed Cams. Just like Labour you would drive us all back to the horse cart and then tax us for that as well, rather than put public information films on the BBC about how to infiltrate at roundabouts, how to change lanes associated with the speed you are travelling – instead of just picking a lane, the importance of mirror watching and not blocking the overtaking lane in sheer bloody mindedness or ignorance.
The propaganda you have written above for the weak-minded makes you look like a fool. I so hope you never reach a position of power.
Hi Steve,
You’ve obviously been reading Private Eye. I used to read Private Eye until I read stories about things I knew about and discovered how fictional some of these stories were.
Blimey ‘War on motorists’. The real relative cost of motoring has never been cheaper despite the current oil price blip. If that’s war what would your peace look lie – free sports cars for evey speeder?
I’m sorry you think the Police are issuing propoganda about the causes of the crashes they investigate.
Why would you think that? Why do you think they would do that?
Do you really think the Police would lie about what they understand, after their crash inviestigation training, when they try and find the root cause of every crash and to achieve what?
Funny that you call crashes accidents then describe lots of factors that mean they’re not random occurences that the word accident implies. Agree with you that many crashes can be designed out of happening. Straight motorways were found to lull drivers into slumber so they gently curve now. We need more such thinking on our urban roads.
NB. Last week I was trying to persuade council officers to not install a series of raised humps on a busy local road. So you’d rather I not do that?