Friday 27th July 2001

ABD Offers Postive Suggestion

Ideas for more constructive safety ads

---

[cjn]

Common sense at last!! CJ

[catse7en]

Any thinking individual cannot but agree with the ABD proposals. Government has persistently shown a blinkered approach. I believe that the crux of the problem is that government can easily use speeding as a revenue generating exercise, and this factor informs their activity. In BBC Spotlight (South West Local News) programme (Tuesday 17th July at 1.30 pm) there was a report on the success of a test undertaken in Plymouth by Devon & Cornwall Police to improve road safety. The scheme involved the conspicuous marking of Speed Cameras. the outcome was a reduction in vehicle speed. This suggests that by marking cameras vehicles will travel slower. If the above summary is correct it prompts the reaction that all speed enforcement should be conspicuous, since it will produce the desired result. Lower vehicle speeds. In view of the foregoing it would seem that any cameras, (or other means of catching motorists exceeding the arbitrary speed limit) that can be regarded as covert are not intended to reduce speed - and thus by implication reduce accidents, but are in fact being used to produce revenue. Incidentally only about 4 sites were highlighted. In my frequent travels round the Duchy and Devon, there are plenty of hidden cameras. Now D&C police have identified the benefits of conspicuous cameras, It will be interesting to see if they take note of their own findings. As a cynic I'm not hopeful. Time will tell

[nmilton]

I like the ABD's approach, but sadly it would be far too sensible for anyone in Government to take it up and help fund the advertisements. Now if the AA / RAC would get up off their backsides and do something for the motorists then helping to fund such a campaign would be a fine start.

[Don]

I'd love to see ads like these. But the problem is the target audience. I'm afraid not everyone who drives brings the same enthusiasm and interest to it that readers of this site will. These ads might affect us, remind us to drive carefully..but will they bring home any message at all to Joe Public? Discuss....

[PetrolTed]

That's precisely how I feel. I'm pretty sure these types of ads and the paranoia about speeding have positively affected my driving if not always my enjoyment of driving. All it's done to the motorists with no enthusiasm for driving is convince them that people in 'fast' cars are the problem without paying any attention to their own habits.

[big rumbly]

It all started some years back, with the introduction of Kill your speed signs, since then these have proliferated to allmost all villages and towns, and coupled with the onslaught of speeding propoganda from government, local councils, and any other organisation that does'nt know any better,the uninitiated majority are now effectively brainwashed into thinking that only Speed Matters (not our understanding of it). I was talking to a friend in my village who is a motor racing nut, a good road driver, and all round enthusiast. He actually believes speed kills, not inapropriate use of it. If I can't convince this man of the errors of his argument, then what chance of the great unwashed, read brainwashed, being educated. I'm afraid that it must start from the top i.e government, and that organisations such as the ABD are the only chance of getting intelligent media attention. The AA and RAC are effectively insurance associations, who happen by the way, provide a recovery service. They need to become the voice of the motorist again, but I think this is unlikely to happen. All we can do is keep campaigning, and hope some of it rubs off. Edited by big rumbly on Thursday 20th September 13:36 Edited by big rumbly on Thursday 20th September 13:37

[smeagol]

I think this kind of campaign would work. The speed kills adverts are cr*p because everyone thinks they drive fine. I remember an advert a long time ago where a woman gets hit by a car, turns into a ghost and says the driver was at fault because she didn't look. It went on for about a week and was taken off because everybody was sympathetic about the driver not the woman. The above adverts could be done such that the driver seems fine until something happens.