RE: London spends big on scameras
Wednesday 5th April 2006
More cameras on the wayAutocar Magazine today reveals extraordinary spending on speed cameras in London. Reports suggest that 66 new digital cameras are going in at £50,000 each for a total of £3.3 million, and £1 million is rapidly being spent on a massive advertising campaign.
London spends big on scameras
£4.3 million to go on cameras and advertising
More cameras on the way
Coming as it does in the last month of financial year 2005/6, this extraordinary £4.3 million spend will anger those who are serious about road safety, said road safety campaign Safe Speed.
Campaign founder Paul Smith said that larger issues are raised about control of expenditure in the forthcoming last year of the 'greed charter' - the scheme whereby speed camera fines pay for more speed cameras in what would have become a never ending spiral of motorist persecution.
Before the end of the netting-off scheme in April 2007, speed cameras will have generated more than £1 billion in fines issued to in excess of 15 million motorists. (Safe Speed calculated figures based on Home Office data, extrapolated to April 2007.)
Smith said: "The simple fact is that money spent on speed cameras is wasted - they don't make the roads safer. They bring misery and distraction to drivers. But worse than that are the false safety messages implied by speed camera publicity. These undermine the true core values of road safety - skills, attitudes and responsibilities."
"We will not be able to get road safety back on track while a single speed camera remains on our roads."
Discussion
wab172uk said:
but it just takes that loss of consentration and drift up to 33-35mph, then, SNAP.
Too true...on the way back up the M40 on Sunday in the roadworks with the VERY narrow lanes, I booted it a bit to hurry past a white van that was 'meandering' across his lane, then saw white lines across my lane...look down, and thankfully was only doing 52 in a 50, but it gave me a shock! Not sure how safety on the M40 is increased by putting a camera there and making everyone drive within 2mph of each other in very narrow lanes, but, of course, our government know best!!!
are these going to be in central london or in the burbs ... if they are to stop people jumping red lights in central then no problems, (as long as our frend Ken stops dicking about with the traffic light timing) - but in Greater London, there are more than enough cameras already surely?
I see they still don't seem to be writing the speed limit actually on the camera - an act which as far as I can tell would only be a positive thing. Where I live there are many cameras going in and out of 30mph and 40mph limits, it chops and changes so much at one point that unless you are constantly looking at the repeater signs you foget what speed you are supposed to be doing. Next thing you know you've been flashed by a camera. WHY CAN'T THEY PUT THE SPEED LIMIT ON THE BACK OF THE SCAMERA??? Grrr.
Funny you should mention that. On Sunday morning I was on the South Circular (eastbound), where it cuts across Clapham Common. Now I know there are a pair of cameras, but couldn't remember what the speed limit was. Right from the start of the road, I was looking for a sign, but could I find one? Could I 
Now perhaps I missed one, but there should have been three or for over that distance. And yes, my road awareness was reduced as I peered around. But I must have been safe, because I was below the speed limit...
Now perhaps I missed one, but there should have been three or for over that distance. And yes, my road awareness was reduced as I peered around. But I must have been safe, because I was below the speed limit...
Has anybody realised that it is in the one area of traffic enforcement that the police show their greatest success rates. They have demonstrated time and time again that they are incapable of actually binging criminals to justice for crimes such as , rape, murder, burglary etc, but in the case of criminals committing the heinous crime of speeding, they demonstrate remarkable success.
In simple terms, crime does pay, of course, the payer is the driver, and the payee is the Government.
In simple terms, crime does pay, of course, the payer is the driver, and the payee is the Government.
woodlands said:
Has anybody realised that it is in the one area of traffic enforcement that the police show their greatest success rates. They have demonstrated time and time again that they are incapable of actually binging criminals to justice for crimes such as , rape, murder, burglary etc, but in the case of criminals committing the heinous crime of speeding, they demonstrate remarkable success.
In simple terms, crime does pay, of course, the payer is the driver, and the payee is the Government.
Really ?
2004/05 saw a detection rate of 98% for murder (842 solved out of 859 offences).
I'd have thought the opposite with speeding. Only a very very small fraction of speeding offences are even detected let alone prosecuted.
>> Edited by vonhosen on Wednesday 5th April 21:37
vonhosen said:
Has anybody realised that it is in the one area of traffic enforcement that the police show their greatest success rates. They have demonstrated time and time again that they are incapable of actually binging criminals to justice for crimes such as , rape, murder, burglary etc, but in the case of criminals committing the heinous crime of speeding, they demonstrate remarkable success.
In simple terms, crime does pay, of course, the payer is the driver, and the payee is the Government.
Really ?
2004/05 saw a detection rate of 98% for murder (842 solved out of 859 offences).
What was the clearup rate for car theft?
Deltafox said:
What was the clearup rate for car theft?
Better than speeding I promise you.
I think what Vonhosen is getting at is that speeding above the posted limit will occur all the time on roads where speed cameras are not placed (ie the majority of the road network), so despite the huge number of speeding convictions the clear-up rate is very low.
Either that or he's lost the plot.
>> Edited by stenniso on Wednesday 5th April 22:28
stenniso said:
What was the clearup rate for car theft?
Better than speeding I promise you.
I think what Vonhosen is getting at is that speeding above the posted limit will occur all the time on roads where speed cameras are not placed (ie the majority of the road network), so despite the huge number of speeding convictions the clear-up rate is very low.
Either that or he's lost the plot.
That's what I'm saying , clear up rate for speeding will be awful.
Deltafox said:
What was the clearup rate for car theft?
Not sure about clear-up rate, I'm sure it's pretty bad unless you class issuing a Crime Report Numer for the insurance claim a clear-up. However I saw an interesting figure that said that only 10% of car thefts are executed by simply breaking in, the other 90% are done using the keys (mostly from burglary, but also pick-pockets, car-jacking etc.). Of the 10%, a proportion of these are fraud, where the owner wants to make a claim on insurance.
I've always argued that addressing symptoms does not help in the long term if the root cause is not resolved. In this case car theft is the symptom, criminals are the root cause. Beating up owners and manufacturers to improve security is all well and good, but if you don't deter criminals they just find new ways of stealing your pride and joy.
shuvitupya said:
2004/05 saw a detection rate of 98% for murder (842 solved out of 859 offences)
But murder is easier to detect than speeding !
The suspect is nearly always someone known by the victim.
FACT !
That's not the point we are talking about.
The "detect" is in relation "clear up" of offences. i.e. there is sufficient evidence to charge an offender.
Most murders result in the identification of the offender with sufficient evidence to charge (a point I was making to refute the original allegation that the Police don't do much about such offences, concentrating on speeding instead.) And the victim won't be able to identify their attacker when they've been murdered.
This is in contrast to the high number of speeding offences that happen on our roads, where no offender is idenetified & charged.
This was in reply to "Woodlands" comment
Woodlands said:
Has anybody realised that it is in the one area of traffic enforcement that the police show their greatest success rates. They have demonstrated time and time again that they are incapable of actually binging criminals to justice for crimes such as , rape, murder, burglary etc, but in the case of criminals committing the heinous crime of speeding, they demonstrate remarkable success.
>> Edited by vonhosen on Thursday 6th April 00:23
back to the topic of speed cameras I must say how disappointed I am that our Dorset SCP has reverted back to their old ways... The past 2 months they have very kindly put up a little warning sign about 200 metres prior to the van; "safety camera ahead". It obviously didn't do much for their revenues as it did their public relations as last night there was a black box and van tucked in behind a friggin bush on a dual carriageway 
personally I was only doing 65 as this was the speed traffic was moving at but it didn't stop some idiots panic braking when they saw the camera and nearly causing a pile up. This can only conclude that they really are chasing the easy buck.
personally I was only doing 65 as this was the speed traffic was moving at but it didn't stop some idiots panic braking when they saw the camera and nearly causing a pile up. This can only conclude that they really are chasing the easy buck.
Deltafox said:
Has anybody realised that it is in the one area of traffic enforcement that the police show their greatest success rates. They have demonstrated time and time again that they are incapable of actually binging criminals to justice for crimes such as , rape, murder, burglary etc, but in the case of criminals committing the heinous crime of speeding, they demonstrate remarkable success.
In simple terms, crime does pay, of course, the payer is the driver, and the payee is the Government.
Really ?
2004/05 saw a detection rate of 98% for murder (842 solved out of 859 offences).
What was the clearup rate for car theft?
Or Burglary?
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