Monday 5th December 2005

Speed cameras rejected

Onward march of scameras takes step backwards

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Locals said 'no'.

Speed cameras took a step back in a town in Rhode Island, USA. Cranston's mayor Stephen Laffey has abandoned his plans to deploy mobile speed cameras in the town, following intense criticism of the award of a contract to start a trial.

Laffey cancelled the contract when the city council opposed the measure and questioned the legality of such tickets in the state. "Traffic enforcement is a community effort, and the council clearly is not yet willing to explore automated speed enforcement as a viable option, and so I will end further efforts toward evaluating this technology," Laffey said in a statement quoted by the Providence Journal.

There's a political angle to it too. The contract was awarded on a no-bid basis to photo enforcement vendor Nestor and, according one source, US election commission records show that individuals tied to the camera company made substantial campaign donations to Laffey's Republican primary challenge to Senator Lincoln Chafee.

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[jazzyjeff]

Typical American way of dealing with things.

Political and cronyist reason for appointing the contractor.

Political reason for abandoning the scheme - governor afraid for his career

lol

JJ

[james_j]

I think you'll find crony-esque activities in the UK; I am thinking in partucular when it comes to attempts to "ignore" the scandal of laser dodgyscopes and the appalling ineffectiveness of the speed camera fiasco.

When you think of the time, trouble and expense all round involving the courts, drivers' time wasted and so on and no safety improvement and yet nothing about this is raised in parliament (is it?). It makes one wonder...

[peter450]

cronyism is rife in this country there just more vocal against it in america, here we seem to somehow accept it as ok

[07rathetr]

i think the camera's are stupid

[trev r]

peter450 said:

cronyism is rife in this country there just more vocal against it in america, here we seem to somehow accept it as ok

Yes I noticed that. I for one don't "accept it". We also have the longest working hours and worst debt levels in Europe. Maybe the idea is to keep us all really busy earning enough money to survive, so we've no time left to dedicate to being vocal about the many injustices that exist in the UK, not just regarding speed cameras!

The only people with time are retired or too rich to care.