War on "blippers" - new "offensive"
Discussion
[quote] From The TimesJune 5, 2007
Police chief calls for return of hidden speed cameras - Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent
Motorists face the return of hidden speed cameras after Britain’s top traffic policeman said that more lives would be saved if drivers were unable to predict where they could be caught.
Med Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire and head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers, has opened the way for forces to stop painting cameras yellow or informing drivers where they will be using mobile camera vans.
In an interview with The Times, he said: “I have always thought it strange that speed cameras were so easily identified. We need to think about whether greater compliance will be delivered by using technology in a less conspicuous way. I might put up Neighbourhood Watch signs but I don’t tell burglars when I am specifically running an anticrime operation.”
Mr Hughes believes that road deaths are not falling fast enough partly because too many drivers slow down only briefly as they pass cameras. He wants camera partnerships, run by police and councils, to take advantage of a change in the way that cameras are funded.
Until April, partnerships were allowed to keep a proportion of speeding fines. In return, they had to abide by a set of rules, including a requirement for cameras to be conspicuous and clearly signposted.
The Government changed the system after protests that police had a financial incentive to catch drivers. The partnerships now receive a fixed grant but they are no longer bound by the rules that stated that “camera housings must be coloured yellow” and be visible from 60 metres (197ft) on a road with a 40mph limit or less and 100 metres on other roads.
The rules also required partnerships to publicise the location of mobile cameras. Mr Hughes said: “The money is no longer linked to the rules and therefore we no longer have to abide by those rules. When you do get hit by hidden cameras you can blame those people who said cameras were cash generators.”
The partnership in North Wales, where Richard Brunstrom is Chief Constable, has already stopped publishing details of where it is carrying out speed enforcement. Inspector Essi Ahari said: “We will be enforcing anywhere and all the time, including using better lenses to operate at night.”
Another rule that has ceased to apply had required partnerships to focus almost all their enforcement on roads where there had been several deaths or serious injuries.
North Wales and Cumbria now focus on roads which they believe to be dangerous but where there have been no serious crashes.
Inspector Ahari said: “We used to have to say to schools that we could not enforce because no one had died yet. Now we can go and deal with the problem before the deaths happen.”
[b]
Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA, said that it would oppose hiding all speed cameras but would support trials in which signs were put up on certain routes telling drivers that hidden cameras were operating.
What he said
“ I find it weird that there is this idea that enforcing speeding law is somehow unsporting”
“ We need to discuss raising speed limits when people get used to adhering to the current ones”
“ We should be teaching 10 and 11-year-olds about their responsibilities when driving a car, not just how to be a safe pedestrian or cyclist”
[/b] edit -
“ Speed cameras have released officers for other duties by automating the enforcement process. They are like burglar alarms, which are just older and more accepted”
“ Reducing the drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg would make a valuable public statement that it’s impossible to have even one drink and be certain you would pass a breathalyser test”
[/quote]
How about something quaint und twee ... like a few more
s? 
to nab the tailgater from hell und the idiot who try to overtake on tightish bend. Good job I do practise the COAST I preach as I'd noted him through hedge on approach und just - don't know how I knew - but just knew he'd pull a dodgy on the bend 
But then this was NSL. Lorry at about 40 mph in my estimation .
Police chief calls for return of hidden speed cameras - Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent
Motorists face the return of hidden speed cameras after Britain’s top traffic policeman said that more lives would be saved if drivers were unable to predict where they could be caught.
Med Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire and head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers, has opened the way for forces to stop painting cameras yellow or informing drivers where they will be using mobile camera vans.
In an interview with The Times, he said: “I have always thought it strange that speed cameras were so easily identified. We need to think about whether greater compliance will be delivered by using technology in a less conspicuous way. I might put up Neighbourhood Watch signs but I don’t tell burglars when I am specifically running an anticrime operation.”
Mr Hughes believes that road deaths are not falling fast enough partly because too many drivers slow down only briefly as they pass cameras. He wants camera partnerships, run by police and councils, to take advantage of a change in the way that cameras are funded.
Until April, partnerships were allowed to keep a proportion of speeding fines. In return, they had to abide by a set of rules, including a requirement for cameras to be conspicuous and clearly signposted.
The Government changed the system after protests that police had a financial incentive to catch drivers. The partnerships now receive a fixed grant but they are no longer bound by the rules that stated that “camera housings must be coloured yellow” and be visible from 60 metres (197ft) on a road with a 40mph limit or less and 100 metres on other roads.
The rules also required partnerships to publicise the location of mobile cameras. Mr Hughes said: “The money is no longer linked to the rules and therefore we no longer have to abide by those rules. When you do get hit by hidden cameras you can blame those people who said cameras were cash generators.”
The partnership in North Wales, where Richard Brunstrom is Chief Constable, has already stopped publishing details of where it is carrying out speed enforcement. Inspector Essi Ahari said: “We will be enforcing anywhere and all the time, including using better lenses to operate at night.”
Another rule that has ceased to apply had required partnerships to focus almost all their enforcement on roads where there had been several deaths or serious injuries.
North Wales and Cumbria now focus on roads which they believe to be dangerous but where there have been no serious crashes.
Inspector Ahari said: “We used to have to say to schools that we could not enforce because no one had died yet. Now we can go and deal with the problem before the deaths happen.”
[b]
Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA, said that it would oppose hiding all speed cameras but would support trials in which signs were put up on certain routes telling drivers that hidden cameras were operating.
What he said
“ I find it weird that there is this idea that enforcing speeding law is somehow unsporting”
“ We need to discuss raising speed limits when people get used to adhering to the current ones”
“ We should be teaching 10 and 11-year-olds about their responsibilities when driving a car, not just how to be a safe pedestrian or cyclist”
[/b] edit -
“ Speed cameras have released officers for other duties by automating the enforcement process. They are like burglar alarms, which are just older and more accepted”
“ Reducing the drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg would make a valuable public statement that it’s impossible to have even one drink and be certain you would pass a breathalyser test”
[/quote]
How about something quaint und twee ... like a few more
s? to nab the tailgater from hell und the idiot who try to overtake on tightish bend. Good job I do practise the COAST I preach as I'd noted him through hedge on approach und just - don't know how I knew - but just knew he'd pull a dodgy on the bend But then this was NSL. Lorry at about 40 mph in my estimation .
I wonder if the government realised that the rules surrounding placement would be irrelevant when the funding model changed? Was it their plan to give carte blanche to partnerships to do what they liked, or did they just not think about it? Are they machiavellian or incompetent? Or both of course.
Using speed cameras as a visible deterrent (and source of revenue for the empire building scum) has thus far failed to make any impact on road safety. Why do I not find it surprising that these cretins think that hiding them will improve matters?
I honestly think that entry qualification into a scamera pratnership must include a mandatory IQ level of no more than 40.
I honestly think that entry qualification into a scamera pratnership must include a mandatory IQ level of no more than 40.
<devils advocate>
Because they think that if we don't know where they are we will all drive slower all of the time.
There is an upside you know. This will generate more revenue which will be channelled into more trafpol who will be able to nab the uninsured, drunk, tailgaters etc.
I'm all for it
Because they think that if we don't know where they are we will all drive slower all of the time.
There is an upside you know. This will generate more revenue which will be channelled into more trafpol who will be able to nab the uninsured, drunk, tailgaters etc.
I'm all for it
I couldn’t see the name blippers in the article. Are they people who normally drive some way over the limit but blip down into the 10%+2 area in the region of a camera? Or are they people who normally drive within the limit but in a bizarre twist of fate just happen to blip over the 10%+2 right in front of the camera?
Mad police bod said:
The rules also required partnerships to publicise the location of mobile cameras. Mr Hughes said: “The money is no longer linked to the rules and therefore we no longer have to abide by those rules. When you do get hit by hidden cameras you can blame those people who said cameras were cash generators.”
How does he work that out, then? Surely, when you get hit by hidden cameras, you should blame the people who sited them there in the first place, not the millions of people who correctly identified them as cash generators.Someone is trying to make those of us with any sense into the villains here.
Edited by SGirl on Tuesday 5th June 09:36
"Mr Hughes believes that road deaths are not falling fast enough"
Actually they're rising so he's wrong from the off. Next.
What makes him think this'll turn around their disasterous record all of a sudden? Before this focus on speed and the replacement of Trafpol with cameras we had Public Information Films, the Green Cross Code etc and cops on the road. Fatal accidents were declining and driving behaviour moderated.
Now we have every imaginable method of catching a motorist straying over a 40 year old speed limit, no police and no media information and guess what, fatals levelled off and then started to creep up again, who'd have thought it?
An accident is caused by a combination of events, similar to a recipe and focussing on one part of it is recipe for disaster, it's like asking for a Chicken Curry and getting a plateful of rice.
Hiding the cameras merely changes the Basmati to Pilau
Actually they're rising so he's wrong from the off. Next.
What makes him think this'll turn around their disasterous record all of a sudden? Before this focus on speed and the replacement of Trafpol with cameras we had Public Information Films, the Green Cross Code etc and cops on the road. Fatal accidents were declining and driving behaviour moderated.
Now we have every imaginable method of catching a motorist straying over a 40 year old speed limit, no police and no media information and guess what, fatals levelled off and then started to creep up again, who'd have thought it?
An accident is caused by a combination of events, similar to a recipe and focussing on one part of it is recipe for disaster, it's like asking for a Chicken Curry and getting a plateful of rice.
Hiding the cameras merely changes the Basmati to Pilau
Does it really matter who gets the revenue from the cameras, the fact that the government coffers benefit from the huge income of scamera fines will always label them as cash generators.
It's time these plonkers accepted that they will never win the argument that scameras are about road safety. The more they protest their role the more they promote the reality.
It's time these plonkers accepted that they will never win the argument that scameras are about road safety. The more they protest their role the more they promote the reality.
I'm just speechless!!
How stupid do those sanctimonious 2@'s think we are!!
How the f**k do they think that hiding the moneyboxes will make any roads safer? All it means is that drivers, whether they're obeying the speed limit or not, will be perpetually paranoid about where the sodding things are and NOT paying attention to the road!!
Plus, I thought that the whole idea of advertising the presence of the godforsaken things was to make those particular stretches of roads safer?
This makes me feel sick!
How stupid do those sanctimonious 2@'s think we are!!
How the f**k do they think that hiding the moneyboxes will make any roads safer? All it means is that drivers, whether they're obeying the speed limit or not, will be perpetually paranoid about where the sodding things are and NOT paying attention to the road!!
Plus, I thought that the whole idea of advertising the presence of the godforsaken things was to make those particular stretches of roads safer?
This makes me feel sick!
if they spent more time at driving test stage educating people on the art of driving rather than saying speed kills the road deaths might (only might) decrease. I personally think that road deaths have reach their minimum threshold and they will continue to happen at between 3-4K per year irrespective of the control measure c%^^s like barnstorm try and put in place
Only when they realise that speed is not a significant factor in relation to accidents, will they realise that cameras that are supposed to slow people down will not affect deaths.
They have the same facts as us (5% of accident are caused because the driver was beaking the speed limit), so why do they not put 2 and 2 together?????
They have the same facts as us (5% of accident are caused because the driver was beaking the speed limit), so why do they not put 2 and 2 together?????
There is only one acceptable form of covert traffic law enforcement, and it starts, "oh shit, that Octavia has suddenly sprouted a lot of flashing lights..."
People know that they're now free to tailgate along while dancing to the radio, jabbering away on the handy with one hand and waving a cigarette around with the other, the "safety" camera being completely oblivious to the safety implications of someone not looking where they're going and steering by kneecap.
Oh, and the locations will surely be uncovered, even if they use the super-sneaky cats' eye cameras it'll be worked out over time, so you'll still have the locals and the satnav owners going as fast as they please, it's not even effective on their ridiculous "speed kills" terms!
People know that they're now free to tailgate along while dancing to the radio, jabbering away on the handy with one hand and waving a cigarette around with the other, the "safety" camera being completely oblivious to the safety implications of someone not looking where they're going and steering by kneecap.
Oh, and the locations will surely be uncovered, even if they use the super-sneaky cats' eye cameras it'll be worked out over time, so you'll still have the locals and the satnav owners going as fast as they please, it's not even effective on their ridiculous "speed kills" terms!
Timberwolf said:
Oh, and the locations will surely be uncovered, even if they use the super-sneaky cats' eye cameras it'll be worked out over time, so you'll still have the locals and the satnav owners going as fast as they please, it's not even effective on their ridiculous "speed kills" terms!
Effect doesn't matter any more, only the soundbite and public opinion. Politicians have worked out that the electorate, on average, have an attention span shorter than a 3 year-old with ADHD. So as long as they SOUND like their doing the right thing, what actually happens is completely irrelevant!
Timberwolf said:
Oh, and the locations will surely be uncovered, even if they use the super-sneaky cats' eye cameras it'll be worked out over time, so you'll still have the locals and the satnav owners going as fast as they please, it's not even effective on their ridiculous "speed kills" terms!
I wonder what the working distance of a cats-eye camera will be? Presumably a little less than an LTI in a van?Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff