Speed cameras to be hidden again?

[UrbanRacer]

HIDDEN SPEED CAMERAS SCANDAL

A NEW war on drivers was declared yesterday, with Britain’s top traffic policeman backing the return of “hidden” speed cameras.

Sneaky new rules mean speed cameras no longer have to be brightly painted, but can now be disguised to trap motorists.

Meredydd Hughes, the head of Roads Policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said covert cameras would help cut road casualties.

But changes in the camera rules and calls for a new purge brought fierce criticism from motoring groups and camera critics. They fear such a crackdown will alienate motorists without reducing the number of accidents.

Anti-camera campaigner Paul Smith said: “There’s one certain consequence of hiding speed cameras and that’s more dead people. Don’t do it. The rules requiring speed cameras to be painted bright yellow were changed in 2001 for a very good reason. It was in response to the damage being done to relations between motorists and police.”

Mr Smith, of Safe Speed, cited research showing that a fall in road casualties recorded by official figures was not backed up by the level of hospital admissions.

Police statistics last year showed only one in 20 collisions in 2005 was caused by motorists breaking the speed limit. Instead the commonest cause of accidents – 32 per cent – was a driver failing to look properly.

The most recent official figures showed that the use of about 7,000 speed cameras failed to prevent an increase in the number of fatal road crashes last year.

Meanwhile, the steady decline in road casualties over the past few decades has levelled off in recent years.

Up until April, when the new rules were sneaked in, fixed speed cameras had to be painted bright yellow and be visible from nearly 200ft.

This was seen as enhancing their deterrent effect without alienating motorists. But the new rules mean that fixed cameras no longer need to be seen. They also no longer have to be at accident blackspots and can be used by local camera partnerships on roads seen as dangerous – for instance, outside schools.

Mr Hughes, who is the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, now wants to exploit the new rules. He has compared telling motorists where speed cameras are with the secrecy of operations to catch burglars.

“We need to think about whether greater compliance will be delivered using technology in a less conspicuous way,” he said.

“I might put up Neighbourhood Watch signs but I don’t tell burglars when I am running an anti-crime operation.”

His proposal comes with a new offensive on motorists already under way. New digital speed cameras – which never run out of film – are expected to double the number of drivers caught to four million a year.

That would double fines to £240million a year, raising £130mil­lion for the Treasury once the £110million a year costs of the safety camera partnerships have been taken into account.

But the Institute of Advanced Motorists warned that going back to hidden cameras risked alienating motorists.
Spokesman Vince Yearley said: “We want to see the evidence that hidden speed cameras will reduce the number of accidents and not just put points on licences.”

The Department for Transport said it still regarded it as best practice for cameras to be visible with warning signs. It accepted, however, that the current system means local partnerships are free to choose whether to make the cameras visible or not.

The AA said it opposed the wholesale introduction of hidden cameras but accepted that they could be useful in some areas.

There are now thought to be up to 10million motorists with points on their licence. Insurers Direct Line estimates up to one million are on the brink of losing licences by totting up 12 points or four speeding convictions.

Last month insurance firm Swinton said it will no longer automatically penalise drivers with six points, as that tally is “nothing out of the ordinary”.

What do YOU think? Are hidden speed cameras a good idea? Comment NOW on Have Your Say.


Source: Daily Express

[veeeffarr]

[Hetzer]

Most drivers done for speeding by scameras are driving perfectly safely according to conditions. The consequent fine is one thing, the points are an added outrage.

The answer is two-fold:

a) An increased campaign of scamera destruction.

b) Refusal to buy insurance unless the insurance companies follow Swinton's lead.

This criminal cash-extortion and points-persecution has to be stopped.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Rob]

All it will do is increase the amount of unlicensed, untaxed vehicles on the road.

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Love is 1050cc

[duncanpage]

36mph cost a friend £60 and 3 points on their licence.

With all the pot holes in the roads thanks to the council not putting revenue from speed cameras back into the community I find I'm usually spending most of my time watching the road trying to avoid riding into a crater or going over a piece of poorly laid tarmac which will bounce my pillion right off the back that I don't get a chance to make sure I'm riding exactly at 30mph!

The local councils are clever, "lets make the roads an assult course which will distract riders from watching their speedo's & seeing our cameras"! Now they'll have the power to hide them?! I think it's time i start wearing a long jacket that flows over my number plate! Where can i get a "Matrix" style jacket?!

[pa_broon74]

Surely the concept of hidden cameras contradicts the much couched tenet that these cameras are first and foremost a deterrent to speeding. If you hide them the deterrent value is reduced to zero, the whole thing becomes a revenue generating/penalisation excercise.

Will they, or indeed can they continue to officially deny this as the main motive for having speed cameras?

I think not.

[Hetzer]

[Luke_Retrofly]

More wank from the government, I think you get offlighter by not having a number plate, I think they just tell you to get it fixxed if you say it just fell off.

Ghost rider style it it

Luke
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Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!

[Andy C]

as mush as i hate them i feel the average speed cameras are the way forward. Everyone maintains a constant speed and i dont feel like i have to look down at the speedo so much as everyone is going at the limit.

So much safer than the "oh feck, slam the brakes on" cameras that are more hazard than good
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Hetzer]

[Andy C]

Yea to some extent i agree that they just money making but at the same time i dont think i would like to ride on roads that had no sort of speed regulation, esp with old ladies and young inexperienced boy racers all on the the road. If this was the case, vehicle fatalities would rise massively and therefore would back the government's concept of speed regulation.

I dont like it as much as the next person, but can you think of a better way for the speed to be regulated??
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Hetzer]

[Itchy]

[Andy C]

so you are suggesting a mechanism that just deals out punishment for regulating speed on the road. Do you not agree the prevention of fatalities is the key objective with road safety??

The first major problem with this idea is that more people will die. The second is more will get convicted. Where you going to put them then? Not in our "full to the brim" prisons?

Also, you say about recording speed on impact? So, the government speed billions of developing such a system.....WHICH sounds very similar to the system they have looked at to make sure people cant exceed the speed limit by engine management and a box in the vehicle.

Why would they develop such a system that you suggest over one they are keen to implicate on the roads?

Its been scientifically proven that the faster the roads are the more people will die. You system gives for gross manipulation by people not having to worry about getting speeding tickets so going much faster. This of course will make the stats of deaths rise.

I agree something needs to be done, but i feel your system just doesnt have everyone's interest at heart. Only the person who would like to go fast on UK roads and not get convicted for it.
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[Hetzer]

[pa_broon74]

[Hetzer]

[Andy C]

[firefox]

ive got 4 old tyres in the shed anyone want them
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bye bye gti <^>( ' . ' )<^>
*officer* what caused the crash ? *firefox* you see that wall up there sir ?
*officer* yes what about it *firefox* i tooted my horn but it refused to move i had to teach it a lesson.

[UrbanRacer]

[ColdInsomnia]

The whole speed camera campaign has absolutely sod all to do with saving lives. Anyone with two brain cells can see that;

1. Road casualties have not fallen.

2. It's a reliable source of income that cannot be argued against.

Road laws are becoming stupidly strict for the public, yet the police forces are having huge numbers of their officers getting away with speeding.

Whilst I respect that officer's might have extra training, it's not a license to assume they can stop a ton of metal any quicker than anyone else. I've seen undercover police drive at 50mph in unmarked cars, with no sirens or lights, in 30 zones, through roundabouts and anything. They might be skilled, but they're not immortal.

The seperation of public and police laws needs to be stopped, less we end up living in a police state within a few years.
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Yamaha YB100 | Yamaha TZR125 | Yamaha XJ600S | Suzuki GSF600
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
John Lennon

[WATCHOUT!]

[pa_broon74]

Part of the reason for having laws is for their deterrent value. Knowing the speed a vehicle was travelling after its squashed a person (or heaven forfend; a bunny) seems a bit superfluous to me. The police are well able to measure things and do what ever it is they currently do.

As for allowing human beings (arguably a species unique for having little self control) to go hog wild will probably end in disaster.

[kiers]

fuckin idiots man, you see a big yellow box, you slow down. you dont see a bgi yellow box, you dont slow down... not hard is it?
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'but this wasn't any ordinary clio197.this was the SUPER DUPER version.
ooh i can't wait for the next instalment of superluke and his tales of skullduggery.' - lurker 27 sep 2008

[TheShaggyDA]