Fresh from the Emerald Isle
Discussion
Some news lifted from The Irish News 'Yellow Vultures fail to trap prey.
I can't get to the online story 'cause I can't be bothered to register. Also, I can't be bothered to type in the full story but the precis goes thus:
The Specs system on the A1 outside Newry has gone live and in it's first week zero motorists have been zapped. The police say "this supports the reason the system was installed - to influence driver behaviour and encourage them to slow down and..." magically everyone will live for ever - or whatever the Brake line is.
The report also says that "in the last 12 months police speed cameras caught almost 27,000 speeding drivers across [Northern Ireland] - with nearly 2,000 drivers detected in the Newry and Mourne area". What that has to do with the price of fish I don't know. If you want to compare statistics try using the same stretch of road - or a similar one.
"[The police spokeswoman also said] people in the area had... told police they noticed drivers were keeping within speed limits."
SDLP [Stormont] Assembly Member said, "at the beginning of any initiative people modify their behaviour."
There is no mention of the number of collisions (K, SI, I or not) and how it might compare.
"In the past five years the stretch of road [covered by the Specs cameras] has seen 15 deaths and 32 serious injuries".
I can't get to the online story 'cause I can't be bothered to register. Also, I can't be bothered to type in the full story but the precis goes thus:
The Specs system on the A1 outside Newry has gone live and in it's first week zero motorists have been zapped. The police say "this supports the reason the system was installed - to influence driver behaviour and encourage them to slow down and..." magically everyone will live for ever - or whatever the Brake line is.
The report also says that "in the last 12 months police speed cameras caught almost 27,000 speeding drivers across [Northern Ireland] - with nearly 2,000 drivers detected in the Newry and Mourne area". What that has to do with the price of fish I don't know. If you want to compare statistics try using the same stretch of road - or a similar one.
"[The police spokeswoman also said] people in the area had... told police they noticed drivers were keeping within speed limits."
SDLP [Stormont] Assembly Member said, "at the beginning of any initiative people modify their behaviour."
There is no mention of the number of collisions (K, SI, I or not) and how it might compare.
"In the past five years the stretch of road [covered by the Specs cameras] has seen 15 deaths and 32 serious injuries".
deva link said:
Didn't the same thing happen when they installed SPECS on the outskirts of Nottingham a few years ago (the first in the UK?) - they caught very few people?
Yes that's what they all said. It caught no-one. However the reality was very different. They made 4.5 million in five years from the cameras. So, sorry, WRONG. See [url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/no[/url] for details.
Edited by IanReid on Friday 18th August 10:04
IanReid said:
deva link said:
Didn't the same thing happen when they installed SPECS on the outskirts of Nottingham a few years ago (the first in the UK?) - they caught very few people?
Yes that's what they all said. It caught no-one. However the reality was very different. They made 4.5 million in five years from the cameras. So, sorry, WRONG. See [url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/no[/url] for details.
That's interesting - I must be thinking of a different location. The one I'm thinking of caused criticism because it wasn't even covering its costs. I'm sure it was in a 40MPH limit. There was a big fuss about it because the Scamera people claimed it proved that it wasn't all about raising money, but the revenue shortfall had really messed up their business case.
Edited by deva link on Friday 18th August 12:24
deva link said:
IanReid said:
deva link said:
Didn't the same thing happen when they installed SPECS on the outskirts of Nottingham a few years ago (the first in the UK?) - they caught very few people?
Yes that's what they all said. It caught no-one. However the reality was very different. They made 4.5 million in five years from the cameras. So, sorry, WRONG. See [url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/no[/url] for details.
That's interesting - I must be thinking of a different location. The one I'm thinking of caused criticism because it wasn't even covering its costs. I'm sure it was in a 40MPH limit. There was a big fuss about it because the Scamera people claimed it proved that it wasn't all about raising money, but the revenue shortfall had really messed up their business case.
Edited by deva link on Friday 18th August 12:24
Talking about 2 different specs areas there chaps...40mph one is on the ring road (western blvd), 30mph one (that generates an obscene amount of cash on a wide road) is Nuthall Road, going to/from J26 of the M1 from the ringroad.
The ring road was the first one with cameras, and they're spreading like wild-fire. We now have them in many pretty residential areas, (parallel to the ring road) which suggests what I have often believed to be true, that people use alternative routes to avoid detection (and often cut through estates in doing say), so whilst "detected speeding" falls (and "safety" - pah! - improves), the actual effect is to make the local area more dangerous.
cptsideways said:
I passed through there last week, plenty of truckers breaking the 40mph NSL rule so maybe they did'nt catch any "car" drivers
I'm sure they didn't catch any drivers - as far as I'm aware there aren't any camera systems that trigger at diferent speeds for different vehicle types. Presumably that means that while 65mph (limit +8%) in a 1 ton car is dangerous, 55mph (limit +38%) in a 27 ton truck is not.
V8 Archie said:
cptsideways said:
I passed through there last week, plenty of truckers breaking the 40mph NSL rule so maybe they did'nt catch any "car" drivers
I'm sure they didn't catch any drivers - as far as I'm aware there aren't any camera systems that trigger at diferent speeds for different vehicle types. There most certainly are.
The A556, for example, from Northwich Cheshire to the M6 is a 4 lane single carraigeway with a 60MPH limit. The standard looking Gatso camera's flash HGV's at 40+ but ignore cars unless they're 60+. I don't know how it works - I've heard they use radar to assess the size of the vehicle, but the cameras look completely standard.
It crops up quite a lot locally because a lot of HGV drivers think the limit is 50 (simply because there are 4 lanes) but the Police are always at pains to point out that it's not a DC.
I believe the ones installed on the A77 between Glasgow and Stranrear have caught very few, maybe the figure was 77 offences detected in several months from initial installation. Many of those will have been Eire registered so not 'cash-collectable'. Thus the £750,000 cost of installation will never be recovered since the return is not even covering the lost interest on the investment. Have accidents reduced on this stretch. They'll use actual statistics to prove they have with no reference to 'regression to the mean' as usual.
Think how much road-engineering could be done for £0.75m. Now that's been wasted.
Think how much road-engineering could be done for £0.75m. Now that's been wasted.
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