RE: Cameras to watch the cameras?

[antispeed]

M.A.D. Can you come down her, plenty of targets, but mind out for the scamvan parked in layby on 3 lane carriageway as you enter our taret town!!

PS KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

[deeps]

There was a cctv camera watching the gatso on the A303 in Somerset for years.... Then one night it got torched just the same.

Who the hell gets paid to think of these ideas and worse actually believes they'll work?

[V8 Archie]

Pigeon said:

...and bonxies for human-operated ones.

Nah! Airlift a cow using a helicopter and deliver a real message with the payload.

[Deltafox]

This threads turned to shit.

[bluepolarbear]

One in every five cctv camera's in the World are installed in the UK. You watched in the UK by 300 seperate CCTV camera's every day. They want to install GPS satellite tracking into every vehicle. They want to store your biometrics and use it to record every time you leave the country, every time you use a service, everytime you fly, everytime you make a financial transaction.

It is not the bloody camera's they are watching it is YOU!

[SimonD]

I was bought up in Banstead and lived there for 24 years (my parents still to) and used to travel past this cameras several times away. Having known the A217 like the back of my hand it used to be a 70mph limit in many places, but of course many years ago they lowered it to an unnaturally low 40mph, which is quite frankly too low for many of the sections.

I've seen many serious accidents on the road, but nearly always and without exception they were at the junction of the A217 and Reigate Road, by the Shell petrol station. It was always caused by someone going throught the red light and so would've been the perfect place for a red light camera which would've actually helped do some good there. But rather than that they obviously only saw pound signs by putting the camera 0.5 mile further up the road towards Tadworth.

The other fatality that sticks in my mind was the biker many years ago who went through the Banstead crossroads southbound at such a speed that he lost control on the gentle curve just the other side of it and hit the lamppost, dying almost instantly. A camera would never have stopped him regardless.

The final insult was the lowering of the speed limit at the 0.8 mile stretch leading up to the M25 junction. It's arrow straight with only one junction just by the motorway, and yet has gone from a 70mph to 40mph, which quite frankly is a joke as ignored by me and most others with carefree abandon. Time for some sensibly limits on that road me thinks, and I applaud MAD for there direct action against the cameras that are only there to make money. If they really cared about 'saving lives' they'd do something about the bad drivers on the road, not the quicker ones...

Simon

[pppppp]

This is a Tony Government weakness. The Tory pary should promise to:

Reduce speed cameras
Improve driver training
Fine call centres that leave you hanging on......
***trate traffic wardens who are sneaky


And hey presto - the "Labour" government is gone

[apthomson]

apache said:

Can anyone think of any other example of the public showing such displeasure at an enforcement system? I can't

A thought provoking question. I for one, have failed to think of anything quite like it. The only thing vaguely similar I can think of was the old poll tax. Not an enforcement system, but something that our government was doing on our behalf for the good of us all. But most people didn't like it.

I'm not sure what conclusions the analogy may bring but there it is.

Adrian

[matmoxon]

If only the chavs that hang around in shop doorways would trask scameras instead of bus stops, i'd certainly buy them a bottle of cider.

and on topic, Well in MAD keep up the good work.

Matt

[leadfootlydon]

SimonD said:

I was bought up in Banstead and lived there for 24 years
Simon

Here's an irony. I am, of course, anti-scamera. However, my Great Grandfather was killed on that road by a speeding motorist. Some time in the 1950s, he was on his bicycle crossing the main carriageway. I don't know the full details.

I wonder if it would be any different today?

[LongQ]

leadfootlydon said:

SimonD said:

I was bought up in Banstead and lived there for 24 years
Simon

Here's an irony. I am, of course, anti-scamera. However, my Great Grandfather was killed on that road by a speeding motorist. Some time in the 1950s, he was on his bicycle crossing the main carriageway. I don't know the full details.

I wonder if it would be any different today?

Speeding motorist in the 50's may well have been doing little more than 40 mph anyway. Despite the much lower levels of traffic (or perhaps because of them) the accident stats were much worse back then than they are today.

On the subject of cameras watching cameras - 3 Truvelo's near me on a 200 meter section of road, 2 on one side, one on the other. The two on the same side have been decorated a few times so another pole has appeared mid way between them with, presumably, one of those fish-eye sort of cameras installed. Or something that can be panned around. Can see all 3 cameras.

Or could. It being the time of year that trees grow leaves...

At least one of them must obscured these days. No doubt they will cut the trees down soon. So much for ecology then ...

Edited by LongQ on Monday 26th June 11:51

[dilbert]

This seems to reenforce the concept, that they only have one idea.

[havoc]

Radio 1 News today reported that 75% of drivers are against speed cameras, how you get treated is a complete lottery depending on which county you are in, and the use of cameras is damaging the public/police relationship. Oh, and that 2m tickets were issues last year (their words).

Not exactly new news, but if the BBC are reporting it, then it's becoming a mainstream backlash. Only a matter of time now before things change...lets just hope it's for the better, and not a thinly-veiled switch to something more oppressive!

[Peter Ward]

SimonD said:

....The other fatality that sticks in my mind was the biker many years ago who went through the Banstead crossroads southbound at such a speed that he lost control on the gentle curve just the other side of it and hit the lamppost, dying almost instantly. A camera would never have stopped him regardless....

It seems to me that many of the KSIs used to justify lower limits are in exactly this category. Leaving aside the debate on whether speed itself is the cause, I would have thought that "they" could only justify lowering the limit from say 60 to 40 if the KSIs happened where a vehicle was travelling at a speed between 40 and 60. If they were over 60 then reducing the limit is irrelevant. Am I missing something?

[LongQ]

Peter Ward said:

SimonD said:

....The other fatality that sticks in my mind was the biker many years ago who went through the Banstead crossroads southbound at such a speed that he lost control on the gentle curve just the other side of it and hit the lamppost, dying almost instantly. A camera would never have stopped him regardless....

It seems to me that many of the KSIs used to justify lower limits are in exactly this category. Leaving aside the debate on whether speed itself is the cause, I would have thought that "they" could only justify lowering the limit from say 60 to 40 if the KSIs happened where a vehicle was travelling at a speed between 40 and 60. If they were over 60 then reducing the limit is irrelevant. Am I missing something?

Not really, though of course the lower speed allows for more 'cost effective' self-financing enforcement ...

The other aspect is that roads subject to 30 limits (maybe 40 as well?) attract maintenance funding for the local authority - indeed some may pass to local authority control rather than Highways Agency or whatever they are called these days. We know how good local authorities are at juggling the funds - who cares about roads anyway, they won;t notice the potholes so much if we slow them down because the surface is dangerous ... etc., etc.

[Darth Viper]

dhampton said:

Ahh the sight of a burnt out gatso! Gives me that warm fuzzy feeling!

Maybe someone can produce a calender compilation of the best!

[apache]

havoc said:

Radio 1 News today reported that 75% of drivers are against speed cameras, how you get treated is a complete lottery depending on which county you are in, and the use of cameras is damaging the public/police relationship. Oh, and that 2m tickets were issues last year (their words).

Not exactly new news, but if the BBC are reporting it, then it's becoming a mainstream backlash. Only a matter of time now before things change...lets just hope it's for the better, and not a thinly-veiled switch to something more oppressive!

I've said it before, there is no other tool of oppression, I mean legislation I can think of that has caused so much ill feeling and damage to police reputation for so little in return.