M4 speed camera protest is huge success
More protests on the way, says organiser
Protest car at Membury
Even though the protest had only been planned just ten days before and had barely had time to generate publicity, the high level of attendance shows the very serious concern about the practices of the local camera partnership.
Protest organiser declares a success
M4 protest organiser Robin Summerhill said, "What impressed me the most was the kind of people that turned up. They comprised a complete cross section of the population -- young and old, well-off and less well-off; some even brought their kids along for the ride, and it has already been reported to me how much some of the kids enjoyed waving back to the supporters on the bridges that lined the route.
"I think that the turnout for today’s protest finally lays the lie (that has been expressed by some of the opposition), that it was organised by and for a bunch of rich petrolheads with nothing better to do with their Saturday than moan about people trying to stop them speeding.
"I also feel that the way things turned out most certainly did not show us to be a very small minority - 95 per cent of my correspondents have been in support of the protests, and I take a good deal of satisfaction from the fact that I have managed to convert four of the opponents to our way of thinking.
"Furthermore, word has reached me today that four similar protests are now being considered in other parts of the country - North and South Wales, Yorkshire and Lancashire. Whether anything comes of these proposals is, of course, another matter; we shall have to wait and see what happens.
"A post-protest meeting will be held at the Sally Pussey Inn, 400 yards from M4 junction 16 going towards Lyneham (A3102) on the evening of Friday 6 May to decide where we go from here."
ABD says scamera partnership misses the point
The Association of British Drivers' (ABD) rebutted the the Wiltshire & Swindon Safety Camera Partnership's (WSSCP) justifications for the installations, which are:
That 12 per cent of all people being killed and seriously injured on Wiltshire roads happen on this stretch of motorway
The WSSCP is charged with reducing death and injury on the roads. If we ignore the motorway, we are ignoring a major part of that problem.
The ABD said it believed the Partnership's comments miss the issue completely. It pointed out that:
This stretch of the M4 carries far more than 12 per cent of traffic in Wiltshire, so this percentage does not show it to be a significantly dangerous road.
More importantly, the campaigners are certainly not asking Traffic Police to ignore the motorway. They want it policed properly, carrying out education and enforcement procedures against all manner of unsafe driving practices, not simply cameras criminalising drivers travelling at safe speeds for the road conditions.
ABD's Chairman Brian Gregory endorsed McArthur-Christies said, "The partnership has come up with no evidence that a significant number of crashes are being caused by drivers travelling above the speed limit, yet it ignores all the other accident causes, many of which can be exacerbated by forcing drivers to travel artificially slowly such as inattention, tiredness, traffic bunching and poor lane discipline. It's no wonder drivers are now taking to the streets in protest".
The ABD calls upon the partnership to listen to the public and to reconsider the practice of using speed cameras on motorways immediately.
Thanks to PHer Chris Brown for the photo.
I went over a small motorway bridge and the only jam I saw was caused by journalists and photographers parking their cars ON the bridge!
The impression I get from the comments by government and the scamera partnerships is that nothing will change because they will always use the argument "If you do not exceed the publised speed limit, you have nothing to fear". Not sure we will ever win the argument unless someone can win a legal case for entrapment.
Fact is I only found out ANYTHING about the protest on the day by actively going looking for it. Average joe public probably wasn't even remotely aware it happened.
I don't read the papers, so maybe there was more mention there, but from a TV viewpoint it was a non-event.
In my opinion it was doomed from the start be being far too British. The organisers bent over backwards to try to inconvience as few people as possible, even trying to pacify a whinging bunch of mini owning Nimbys. To get headlines the M4 should have been brought to a standstill.
You have to break eggs to make an omelette. To get prime time coverage you have to p*ss a lot of people off. All this protest came across as is "a few poeple are a bit upset about cameras, but not upset enough to make an issue of it".
This summer has to be a summer of discontent on the roads if we are ever going to get the publicity and knock on effects we need
I'm very heartened to hear that the protest was such a success. Authorities need to be brave enough to resist the lure of high revenues, and deal with road safety at it's root: proper driver training, and strict enforcement for ALL poor driving habits.
When I left Canada two years ago, no one was even really debating this issue properly. It was as if all sides (motorists, government, law enforcement) had just resigned themselves to the idea that speed enforcement was a kind of cat-and-mouse game, with police hiding in the bushes and behind bridge posts, waiting for the next big fine to cruise into their sights.
Driving habbits are apalling there as a result of law enforcement’s emphasis on only speed enforcement. There is no emphasis placed on good driving habits, or the rather large responsibility drivers have to themselves and other road users. All it means is that those who drive above the posted limit spend less time concerned about all the aspects of safe, efficient (and enjoyable) motoring, and instead are forced to choose between inefficient travel and pointless boredom, or the risk of being laser’d by a traffic cop hiding just beyond the crest of a hill.
I have been driving in the UK for quite some time now, and will only just be taking ownership of my first UK car. If there is another protest like the one that took place last weekend in my region, I will be there in support of a more holistic approach to traffic policing.
victormeldrew said:
I don't read the papers, so maybe there was more mention there, but from a TV viewpoint it was a non-event.
I don't know whether it made the Terrestrial BBC News, but BBC News 24 had an item on it, including quotes from Safespeed, interviews with 3 participants, and NO opposing viewpoint from the Scammers.
Nobody I spoke too even mentioned wanting to drive fast - it was all about the lack of police and driver education.
What was very cynical, is the amount of Police - I saw more police cars and bikes on Saturday than I have done on the M4 in the past 3 or 4 years! They have the equipment, but only limited budget to use it... One officer I spoke too, driving a fully marked practically new Mercedes 4x4, said she was "normally in the city as a 'beat bobby' driving a Diesel Astra but was seconded to traffic to provide a presence at the protest"! What a treat getting to use the 'big expensive cars'...
And let's not mention the appalling Lorry drivers who were tailgating protesters at less than 3 feet doing 50MPH blowing air horns and flashing headlights... The Police ignored them completely, but I guess they weren't speeding so it was completely safe!
fq330 said:
And let's not mention the appalling Lorry drivers who were tailgating protesters at less than 3 feet doing 50MPH blowing air horns and flashing headlights...
These would be the same lorry drivers who overtake each other at 0.001 mph faster and therefore take about 10 years to pass each other and so hold up cars for miles. Surely you are not saying that when they are held up, these same drivers don't like it and get upset ? I can't believe that to be the case for an instant !
We should be concentrating on driver training and education, regular re-testing and meaningful insurance premium reductions for undergoing advanced driver training. Personally I'd love to go through the police driver training course, but for the average joe there's no point so they don't bother. If there was some real encouragement (50% reduction in insurance premium, for example) to undergo regular training and testing maybe we would reduce accident volumes by ourselves. I mean REAL day-to-day driving training, not just training to pass your test. Skid-pan and motorway driving included. We could get rid of the outside lane-hogs and maybe even have variable speed limits for those with the advanced driving licence. It would be great, wouldn't it?
Small beginnings maybe but if we all did more, got off our arses and actually showed that there are thousands of people who DO give a toss about this back-door, no-brainer taxation policy then perhaps the messages might get into the mainstream.
If I could have made it down there I would have done. I would and will support any protest I can make in the SE.
However the truckers have annoyed me - when the fuel price crisis kicked off & they blocked all the depot's, did we car driving public swear and flash at them or did we help them ?
Of course we helped. Most drivers didnt realise that a win in that instance would only of helped Diesel truckers and not car owners, but the naieve public still backed them.
How about some return support.
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