Speed cameras : stealth tax or life saver

[Dr Nick]

im writing a speech about speed cameras that will be my as english coursework.

anybody here got any views on them?

[flat spot]

Lifesaver outside schools and accident blackspots. Not even a stealth tax everywhere else. They have to paint them yellow now so you can see where the money is being taken.

[Kris]

Danger to everyone Makes drivers stare at their speedometers, panic brake, and generally doesn't catch the real villians such as dangerous drivers

so in a word, SHIT
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[JimboJ]

But we love front facing cameras they're bloody great cameras!
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[Kickstart@Work]

Hi

Do next to nothing for road safety. OK they might be useful in a very few places, but then people slow down there anyway so the pickings are not rich and they don't bother.

Around the time speed cameras were brought in the fall in the death rate slowed from around 6% a year to 3% a year (and now has basically stopped falling). If the death rate continued to fall at 6% then over 5000 people killed on the roads would still be alive.

Stealth tax? Not really as it is hideously expensive to rake in. However they have become a self supporting scam run by local quangos. The amount of money collected and wasted by the camera partnerships is hideous. If you want a real laugh, try and get hold of a breakdown as to where they spent the money. In Avon they will not even tell the local council!

Anyway, check out:-

www.abd.org.uk
www.ringroad.org.uk
www.safespeed.org.uk

They should give you all the info you need to show how the cameras are a total waste of time.

All the best

Keith
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[MarJay]

I think that the worst part about speed cameras is in their name. Speed. Speeding is cited as a factor in something silly like 70% of accidents, however it is very rarely the main cause. Speed cameras catch people that are speeding and fine them. They cannot stop Mr boy racer from flinging his car into a ditch 3 miles down the road.

They do catch law abiding people who creep 5MPH or so above the limit. However they are not able to catch drink drivers, bad drivers, people who talk on their mobile phone whilst driving, people who read the Autotrader whilst driving (I've seen it done!!!), People who read maps whilst doing 80 on the M4, people who drive unroadworthy vehicles, people without tax, insurance licence etc... The list is endless.

Good money is spent on speed scameras which ought to be spent on driver education, traffic police (Yeah I know, but its the lesser of two evils IMO) and Motorcycle parking bays etc.

There is lots of evidence that points to the fact that speed scameras are actually the caose of some shunts because of excessive panic braking.

Why the F*** can't the government stick to making laws so that we have more freedom from beaurocracy, not less.

I've got two words for you which sums it all up, and I hope you don't take offense:

Nanny State.
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[Kickstart@Work]

[Stew]

The worst thing about speed cameras for me is the fact there is no reasoning with them. I got flashed last night whilst travelling 65mph in a temporary 50mph zone which had been set up for motorway. Had I been stopped by a policeman he may have been lenient as I had just entered the 50 limit and was in an entirely empty lane.
As it is I am going to have to wait to see if the camera had any film left in it. This is the first time I have been caught by a speed camera and the annoying thing is I was only doing 65 and on the motorway.
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[Hex]

[andrew]

Saw some muppet on BBC breakfast this morning from the RAC. He was going on about how speed cameras do save lives and he was saying its fact and that they have "definatley" reduced the numbers of accicdents since they were introduced 13 odd years ago. What he did moan about is the way drivers are fined, he suggested that everyone caught for speeding should be sent on some sort of advanced driving course and that by giving people points and a fine is making people "anti" speed camera. He said what he did approve of is the way in which money from speed cameras is being ploughed back into road safety. Bloomin idiot, i dont claim to be an expert on the subject but i believe what keith says over some muppet who is paid by the RAC. Oh and one for Kornel and Richard, did you know the camera on the A316 as you approach Richmond coming from whitton was the first speed camera in the country??

[Kickstart@Work]

[McJamweasel]

They are indeed pants. IMO they bring speed up to the most important thing in a drivers mind, rather than watching the road and concentrating on their driving.

One of the local villages is going mad on speed, the main road through is a 30 - there have been a few deaths on their lately. They are campaigning for speed cameras on that road and part of this is putting up shit loads of signs. So all that happens now is that people drive through but read all of the signs instead of watching the road.
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[Dusty]

Also imho be lowering speeds I think drivers are likely to concentrate *less*, I know if I am going faster I am more focused,- I have to be or I would crash.

Take for example the autobahns in Germany, they effectively have no limit, but afaik their accident rate is lower than on motorways in this country. Police there will still pull you if you are doing 100mph on a dark wet night,- because that is inappropriate use of speed, which is the real danger.

Another problem with limits in this country is that they are set with the worst possible conditions in mind, so a road that may need to be a 30mph zone on a dark frosty night, could, realistically be driven at 40mph in good conditions. The police will tend to make allowances for this fact but cameras are incapable of making this differentiation.
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