Speed camera cuts 'mean disaster'

[ymwoods]

Anyone have news about Staffordshire cameras? I can't find any news anywhere

[Hedders]

motco said:

Bucks County Council have said they will probably follow Oxon and remove them as joint main contributors to TVSP

That is excellent news! Having said that I can't remember the last time i saw a Scammer unit round here anyway. (MK)

[deeps]

MJ3 said:

Didn't think they would be scrapped seening as they could support themselfs from the amouint of money they make up. ( Am just guessing they are alot cheaper to run and generate more money than fixed cameras)

Exactly. If a business that has a licence to print (scamming £60 from driver after driver like lambs to the slaughter) is disbanded under the pretence of so called funding issues, you can be 100% certain that that business is rotten to the core.

They made hay while the sun shone for them, but it was always on the cards that such an enormous scam could not survive long term. I just wish they could be made to repay all the millions they've scammed, but of course that's asking too much. It's comparable to the current great global warming scam which will one day fall the same way I'm sure.

Next on the list to be axed should be the horrendous blackmailing scam of speed awareness courses. Driver education is a good thing obviously, but not when your customer base are those who creep slightly over a limit and are threatened with 3 points or take the course.

IMO it should be renamed 'safety awareness course' and be targeted at drivers who wish to lower their insurance premiums by voluntarily attending a course, and the fee should be halved to £30 or so. But no, it's all money money money scam scam scam.

[Hedders]

stitched said:

Mr_annie_vxr said:

Busa_Rush said:

We don't need more plod . . . they are not training them properly now and the modern ones are not as honest as the older ones.

We need a tiered driving test . . . give some encouragement to move up the tiers . . . right now everybody passes the basic test and thinks they're a good driver because they've passed a test . . . without realising that the basic test only means you've simply competent to start it and park it, not to drive it.

Never has so much crap been posted, I almost fell of my sofa at that comment.

You really haven't a clue about what went on 'back in the day' if you make comments like that.

Greater publicity of bad officers but far less of it going on or being endemic in units or forces as it was then.

As for your driving test idea it is in theory great but the stark reality of life is that the vast majority of road drivers have no interest whatsoever in making getting a licence harder or keeping it harder, they want the quickest and cheapest route into whatever vehicle they want. Even on this website very few of the members have had any further form of on road driver training.

Utterly unfair and untrue, I think most of the posters have completed a speed awareness course.

Indeed. I have also brushed up on my safety knowledge with a seatbelt awareness course at my own expense. I intend to further my training at every opportunity!

[Greeny]

Just watched the BBC news, higlighting the speed camera at Nuneham Courtney. They claimed that the road through there was a link between two dual cariageways. That is simply not true. The nearest one is in the Oxford direction, about 2 miles away, and traffic coming from this direction are not covered by the camera, as it faces the other way. There is no dual cariageway in the other direction, not until Bix Hill, some 10 or so miles away.

[jmorgan]

The same story was trotted out on the Welsh news. The reporters did not question anything. They even went on about the surveys that say they (us public from the surveys) accept the camera, then found the survey they mention.

http://www.gosafe.org/en/content/cms/faqs/public-o...

[mybrainhurts]

Brunstrom's successor was on the Beeb today, along with BRAKE, saying thousands of lives will be lost...

[dandarez]

mybrainhurts said:

Brunstrom's successor was on the Beeb today, along with BRAKE, saying thousands of lives will be lost...

Needs a new topic so I'll start one. see 'Giannasi' thread

Why is it these so-called top cops don't have run o' the mill names? Brunstrom, Dizaei, etc, and now, trying to make a name for himself... Giannasi!

[spaximus]

I heard his interview which was to be expected really. The police have enjoyed being able to palm of this role they previously had to others and for relativly small cost as the DOT picked up the tab. Now they will have to make some alterations to keep a prescence on speeding which will affect others.

Brake have to fight the cuts as they built there empire on speed kills so they have no option.

We need to keep lobbying the goverment that road safety is about much more than speed, drinking and drugs testing mproovments, compulsory eye tests advanced driver training, restrictions to power of cars for new drivers etc. All these with the sort of effort they put into speeding would have been much more effective in the longer term

[AshVX220]

Tycho said:

Well we will soon find out if they do save lives...


I don't think they do anything but raise money...

A while ago, I would have agreed with you whole heartedly, in fact I felt exactly the same. But (unfortunately) with all these councils now turning them off, would lead me to believe they don't raise much, or enough, to justify having them.

In these times where money's tight for all these councils, they would keep anything that makes money wouldn't they?

Or, does the money from camera's not go to the council that owns them? In which case everything I just said is bks!

[Puggit]

Greeny said:

Just watched the BBC news, higlighting the speed camera at Nuneham Courtney. They claimed that the road through there was a link between two dual cariageways. That is simply not true. The nearest one is in the Oxford direction, about 2 miles away, and traffic coming from this direction are not covered by the camera, as it faces the other way. There is no dual cariageway in the other direction, not until Bix Hill, some 10 or so miles away.

Saw this as well and also thought the same thing. However, to the south there is the shortest of short dual-carriageways as the road reaches a roundabout. So technically the BBC was correct, but there is no doubt they were deliberately misleading. Googlemaps linky

BBC 24 also invited someone on from Safe Speed who gave a very good account of herself, backed everything up with facts and was given a very hard time. Next up was some fluffy liberal from a local government safety organisation who used zero facts and was basically given free air time.

[Puggit]

AshVX220 said:

Tycho said:

Well we will soon find out if they do save lives...


I don't think they do anything but raise money...

A while ago, I would have agreed with you whole heartedly, in fact I felt exactly the same. But (unfortunately) with all these councils now turning them off, would lead me to believe they don't raise much, or enough, to justify having them.

In these times where money's tight for all these councils, they would keep anything that makes money wouldn't they?

Or, does the money from camera's not go to the council that owns them? In which case everything I just said is bks!

Yes, you just spouted!

[JMGS4]

An interesting item in todays Telegraph, about the stats which have been collected by BiB and others at accident and camera sites being totalyl unreliable and have a bias?!?!? Wonders? More here

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7935077/S...

[DieselGriff]

Puggit said:

AshVX220 said:

Tycho said:

Well we will soon find out if they do save lives...


I don't think they do anything but raise money...

A while ago, I would have agreed with you whole heartedly, in fact I felt exactly the same. But (unfortunately) with all these councils now turning them off, would lead me to believe they don't raise much, or enough, to justify having them.

In these times where money's tight for all these councils, they would keep anything that makes money wouldn't they?

Or, does the money from camera's not go to the council that owns them? In which case everything I just said is bks!

Yes, you just spouted!

Initially the camera partnerships were self funded by revenue raised from fines and very soon they started to grow - lot's of vans and cameras which meant more fines and then more money, plush new offices and greater propaganda and more vans and cameras......

Then all fines went to central government who in turn funded the camera partnership through the whole road safety budget - the camera partnerships had to justify themselves and very quickly councils realised they couldn't and closed them down instead.

[nelly1]

mybrainhurts said:

Brunstrom's successor was on the Beeb today, along with BRAKE, saying thousands of lives will be lost...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300830/Sp...

Stupid Boy indeed.

[paulrockliffe]

"The figures show that the camera programme has saved countless lives in recent years"

I'm sure the figures do show that you can't count the numbers of lives saved in recent years, but what exactly is your point?

Does anyone know whether cars are more safe or less safe than they were, on average, 13 years ago and, if you do, can you hazard a guess what the effect on the likelihood of you suffering death or a serious injury on the roads would do as a result?

[oOTomOo]

Dr.Doofenshmirtz said:

I actually quite like speed cameras. If you were an observant driver you could see the camera a mile off - so they were never an issue for me. I've never been 'caught' by one.

I've never been 'caught' by one either *touches wood* (not that kind), they are relatively easy to spot and I tend not to speed on non NSL roads anyway...

BUT I can't deny that whenever I am driving through an area with speed scameras, rather than spending 100% of my time looking at the road and generally observing my surroundings in order to drive at an appropriate speed to the conditions, I spend far more time looking down making sure I don't nudge over the limit...

So, I cant help but feel I'm a safer driver in an area without cameras, than an area with cameras.

[elster]

We have never had speed cameras in York, the money was spent on Traffic Police.

It works quite nicely.

[AshVX220]

DieselGriff said:

Puggit said:

AshVX220 said:

Tycho said:

Well we will soon find out if they do save lives...


I don't think they do anything but raise money...

A while ago, I would have agreed with you whole heartedly, in fact I felt exactly the same. But (unfortunately) with all these councils now turning them off, would lead me to believe they don't raise much, or enough, to justify having them.

In these times where money's tight for all these councils, they would keep anything that makes money wouldn't they?

Or, does the money from camera's not go to the council that owns them? In which case everything I just said is bks!

Yes, you just spouted!

Initially the camera partnerships were self funded by revenue raised from fines and very soon they started to grow - lot's of vans and cameras which meant more fines and then more money, plush new offices and greater propaganda and more vans and cameras......

Then all fines went to central government who in turn funded the camera partnership through the whole road safety budget - the camera partnerships had to justify themselves and very quickly councils realised they couldn't and closed them down instead.

Thanks for clarifying that for me.

[Funkateer]

We didn't see accidents drop dramatically as soon as the camera partnerships came into being. In fact the rate of decrease of annual fatalities levelled off for a good few years.

Also whilst N Yorkshire has a high level of accidents on its roads, it also shows the best improvements year-in year-out, despite no camera partnership!