RE: MP calls for more traffic police not cameras
Monday 9th October 2006
The entire speed camera argument was encapsulated recently, as a local MP and a regular local motorist criticised the installation of a speed camera on the A14.
MP calls for more traffic police not cameras
"Bad driving causes crashes not speed"
It was set up on the westbound carriageway just before the junction for Quy at a cost of over £100,000. The local MP for South East Cambridgeshire, Jim Paice, said that the principal cause of crashes was bad driving.
He told the local Cambridge Evening News (CEN): "We all see examples of horrendously bad driving when we're out on the roads and the cameras just don't pick it up. I think trying to automate the system (by adding more cameras) is the wrong way round. What we need are more police officers or other forms of road safety officers."
A spokesman for the local speed camera partnership said: "The figures speak for themselves. Speed does kill. It determines the severity of the accident. If you make a mistake at speed you haven't got time to correct it."
Meanwhile, a local motorist said that he'd driven the road for years and had never seen an accident.
According to the CEN, Cambridgeshire County Council's road safety Web site shows one fatal and two slight injury accidents near the new camera between 2003 and 2005.
Discussion
This one was a surprise to me when approaching it for the first time. Luckily I was behind a numpty who sowed me down so I was *safe*.
What doesn't surprise me is in the 10 years I drive down the same road ever day, there has NEVER been a accident there. All of them are further on down the road between Histon and Bar Hill where here are.... no cameras. Why are there no cameras? Because all times of he day and night, traffic is so heavy you cant get above the limit and they wont make any money.
What doesn't surprise me is in the 10 years I drive down the same road ever day, there has NEVER been a accident there. All of them are further on down the road between Histon and Bar Hill where here are.... no cameras. Why are there no cameras? Because all times of he day and night, traffic is so heavy you cant get above the limit and they wont make any money.
V8 EOL said:
This one was a surprise to me when approaching it for the first time. Luckily I was behind a numpty who sowed me down so I was *safe*.
What doesn't surprise me is in the 10 years I drive down the same road ever day, there has NEVER been a accident there. All of them are further on down the road between Histon and Bar Hill where here are.... no cameras. Why are there no cameras? Because all times of he day and night, traffic is so heavy you cant get above the limit and they wont make any money.
What doesn't surprise me is in the 10 years I drive down the same road ever day, there has NEVER been a accident there. All of them are further on down the road between Histon and Bar Hill where here are.... no cameras. Why are there no cameras? Because all times of he day and night, traffic is so heavy you cant get above the limit and they wont make any money.
Totally agree, well said! Our village spent £400K last year on "traffic calming" to curb the speeding through-traffic, all it did was create high speed chichanes and ramps for everybody to use. So now providing the driver gets enough speed up they can jump over the children coming out of the primary school instead of ploughing them down!
When are these numpties going to learn that these measure don't do anything for safety they just compound it or move it down the road a bit!
EDUCATION IS THE ANSWER!
I've been thinking along these lines for a while, since I've been driving the standard of other road users has deteriated (could just be London drivers though!). Although I was thinking of re-training traffic wardens as traffic cops, gives less money to local governments and more to the police, and do away with speed camera's. I am sick of other people slowing to 10mph below the speed limit when they see a camera! Driving with undue care and attention...hmph.
Should adjust driving behaviour enough, but I doubt this will happen with this governments 'big brother' spy camera attitude.
Should adjust driving behaviour enough, but I doubt this will happen with this governments 'big brother' spy camera attitude.
A fatal flaw in our law making process is the appointment to the Commons Transport Select Committee of MP's who have no grasp of vehicle and driver behaviour, including its leader, Gwyneth Dunwoody, when MP's such as Jim Paice are available to make an essential contribution.
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
Utter madness that has cost lives.
Gwyneth Dunwoody, smiling
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
Utter madness that has cost lives.
Gwyneth Dunwoody, smiling
mybrainhurts said:
A fatal flaw in our law making process is the appointment to the Commons Transport Select Committee of MP's who have no grasp of vehicle and driver behaviour, including its leader, Gwyneth Dunwoody, when MP's such as Jim Paice are available to make an essential contribution.
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
In addition to the absurdity of having a "history professor" in charge of a road safety project (
), you are aware that the renowned road safety expert Gwyneth Dunwoody does not have a driving licence? Edited by flemke on Monday 9th October 14:41
apache said:
A spokesman for the local speed camera partnership said: "NAH NAH NAH I CAN'T HEAR YOU NAH NAH."
Edited by apache on Monday 9th October 11:59
...while he's thinking "...oh sh1t, even more bad publicity for my cushy job, what can I do...clamper, traffic warden, road sweeper, envelope licker...."
Now, forgive me for some extrapolated conjecture here, but it's my impression that the government is run on the basis that if you have a group of people who don't know the slightest thing about a subject, it doesn't matter, you just add more people until they come up with a consensus.
This leads to the problems where anyone with an agenda can come along and get a response of, "Oh yes, sounds reasonable, don't see any problem with it" because the people in charge simply do not know enough about the subject to make a sensible judgement and happily take the easy route of having the decision made for them.
IT projects? They don't need focus groups, extensive research and mission statements - they need one person who understands what computers are, what they can do, what they can't do, and how to manage an IT project in the first place. (Hint: continually changing the requirements mid-stream is not helpful.)
Road safety? Don't get in all these people who just want to stick an oar in to get themselves a safe job, or stop people parking in their road, or whatever other twisted motives they may have. All it needs is one road safety expert, one who drives 15,000 plus miles per year, holds an advanced driving qualification and preferably a degree involving fluid flow.
I firmly believe it's a nonsense messing about with "fairness" and "quoracy" in groups that don't represent public opinion in the first place. It would surely be cheaper and more effective to have an expert or two in each relevant field to come in and say, "Right, this is what we're going to do today because it makes the most sense," and leave it at that.
The job of the politicians should be simply to check that the experts are fulfilling the wishes of the public (the majority public, not the whinging pressure groups) or at the very least acting in the best interests of that public - not meddling in things they don't understand but somehow seem to have an opinion about.
This leads to the problems where anyone with an agenda can come along and get a response of, "Oh yes, sounds reasonable, don't see any problem with it" because the people in charge simply do not know enough about the subject to make a sensible judgement and happily take the easy route of having the decision made for them.
IT projects? They don't need focus groups, extensive research and mission statements - they need one person who understands what computers are, what they can do, what they can't do, and how to manage an IT project in the first place. (Hint: continually changing the requirements mid-stream is not helpful.)
Road safety? Don't get in all these people who just want to stick an oar in to get themselves a safe job, or stop people parking in their road, or whatever other twisted motives they may have. All it needs is one road safety expert, one who drives 15,000 plus miles per year, holds an advanced driving qualification and preferably a degree involving fluid flow.
I firmly believe it's a nonsense messing about with "fairness" and "quoracy" in groups that don't represent public opinion in the first place. It would surely be cheaper and more effective to have an expert or two in each relevant field to come in and say, "Right, this is what we're going to do today because it makes the most sense," and leave it at that.
The job of the politicians should be simply to check that the experts are fulfilling the wishes of the public (the majority public, not the whinging pressure groups) or at the very least acting in the best interests of that public - not meddling in things they don't understand but somehow seem to have an opinion about.
Edited by Timberwolf on Monday 9th October 15:10
mybrainhurts said:
A fatal flaw in our law making process is the appointment to the Commons Transport Select Committee of MP's who have no grasp of vehicle and driver behaviour, including its leader, Gwyneth Dunwoody, when MP's such as Jim Paice are available to make an essential contribution.
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
Utter madness that has cost lives.
Gwyneth Dunwoody, smiling
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
Utter madness that has cost lives.
Gwyneth Dunwoody, smiling
And they have the gall to say that speeding is criminal. Come the next election I hope there is a massive turnout of people....................spoiling their vote
Edited by apache on Monday 9th October 16:08
mybrainhurts said:
A fatal flaw in our law making process is the appointment to the Commons Transport Select Committee of MP's who have no grasp of vehicle and driver behaviour, including its leader, Gwyneth Dunwoody, when MP's such as Jim Paice are available to make an essential contribution.
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
Utter madness that has cost lives.
Gwyneth Dunwoody, smiling
The inclusion of MP's who know nothing about their subject leaves the Committee open to the influence of minority interest groups such as BRAKE and Transport 2000, who also don't know their subject, or have a subversive agenda. Not forgetting our deluded friend, Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, and Professor (of history) Oliver Carsten, who heads the project to develop satellite speed control for road vehicles, who also makes a nice living out of same.
Utter madness that has cost lives.
Gwyneth Dunwoody, smiling
Satellite speed control?
Cant say I will be staying in this country if that comes into play.
The probable reason that incompetants are employed to run various specialised areas, is that they they do not know enough about their subject to disagree with big brothers primary policies, of which the real objective is to raise more in the way of taxes. Obviously reducing speed reduces the severity of any accident, its that simple...not. Slowing the traffic down increases conjestion, driver inattention, driver impatience etc etc.
The left wing loonies still influence labour government policy, and they want to give away all of the ill gotten gains of our predecesours, to the poorer nations of the world. Not a bad gesture, but totally the wrong way to go about improving the lot of the poor. Meanwhile the general public, who have had no influence over any previous governments arrogant failings, have to pay for it.
The left wing loonies still influence labour government policy, and they want to give away all of the ill gotten gains of our predecesours, to the poorer nations of the world. Not a bad gesture, but totally the wrong way to go about improving the lot of the poor. Meanwhile the general public, who have had no influence over any previous governments arrogant failings, have to pay for it.
Timberwolf said:
IT projects? They don't need focus groups, extensive research and mission statements - they need one person who understands what computers are, what they can do, what they can't do, and how to manage an IT project in the first place. (Hint: continually changing the requirements mid-stream is not helpful.)
I have been technically responsible overall for delivering a 7+ million pound IT project in to a local authority (as a supplier you understand!). Most havent got the first clue what you are going on about. None can make a decisions. All spend their time covering their own arse. You spend most of your time managing your way out of deliveries and making decisions for them.
God only knows how much worse it is in Whitehall!
A spokesman for the local speed camera partnership said:
"The figures speak for themselves. Speed does kill. It determines the severity of the accident. If you make a mistake at speed you haven't got time to correct it."
I can't decide whether this bloke is misguided, incompetant or corrupt!
Maybe he's a poor inattentive driver who's landed himself a nice cushy job at the local camera partnership!
Edited by alphadog on Tuesday 10th October 07:50
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