10 Downing Street emailed me!..... and boiled my...
Discussion
Piss! 
You recently signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to
"Come clean about the FAILURE of Speed Cameras to reduce
accident rates and then abolish all forms of automated speed
detection."
The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and
you can view it here:
www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10844.asp
Prime Minister's Office
Petition info: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NoSpeedCam
Those of you not wanting your piss boiled, here is a summary of the links:
spin spin spin lies lies lies blah blah lies statistics damned lies blah blah couldn't give a flying feck... because WE are in charge... so there!
Fcuking wnakers!
You recently signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to
"Come clean about the FAILURE of Speed Cameras to reduce
accident rates and then abolish all forms of automated speed
detection."
The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and
you can view it here:
www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10844.asp
Prime Minister's Office
Petition info: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NoSpeedCam
Those of you not wanting your piss boiled, here is a summary of the links:
spin spin spin lies lies lies blah blah lies statistics damned lies blah blah couldn't give a flying feck... because WE are in charge... so there!
Fcuking wnakers!
who me said:
The ONLY petition blair will look at is one via the ballot box,handing him (or his successor ) a P45 GT -proceed straight to the Jobcentre,do not pass go ,please hand your deposit to the Chancellor as you ENTER.
Alas, he'll hold on until the magic 10 years in power, then I believe he gets an extra 30 grand a year after he quits. He's not in the job for our benefit.
The 'independent' evaluation report ignores regression to the mean at the scam sites so can be shot out the water by anybody with a modicum of understanding of statistics.
I also wonder how many of the extra 'dedicated traffic officers' taken on are based in N.Yorkshire and Durham, where they get the best safety results and shun scameras! You don't see many 'dedicated traffic officers' round here (Notts)!
Speed cameras are a self-financing and visible way of 'policing' the roads - 'Road Safety' on the cheap. A snappy slogan like 'speed kills' is enough to win over the inexperienced and 'A-B' driver. The number of prosecutions shows Joe Public the 'effectiveness' of the policy. It is merely part of a scheme to make driving as unpleasant as possible to try and reduce the strain on our creaking infrastructure, which is low down the government's list of priorities. Makes me mad when I see the things they do throw money at!
The annual DfT stats show a better picture as do surveys of the causes of accidents - Inattentive Driving being the main one. The speed camera is, of course the best solution to this.
alphadog said:
The 'independent' evaluation report ignores regression to the mean at the scam sites so can be shot out the water by anybody with a modicum of understanding of statistics.
One does not for a moment doubt what you say.
Do you know what is the basis for their assertion:
The independent four-year evaluation report of the National Safety Camera Programme assessed the effectiveness of cameras and found that after allowing for the long term trend, there was a 42 per cent reduction in death and injury at camera sites, including a reduction of over 100 fatalities per year.?
Are they simply taking the year-on-year national reduction, applying that % to their numbers for camera sites, and using that % adjustment as their baseline?
Cheers.
flemke said:
alphadog said:
The 'independent' evaluation report ignores regression to the mean at the scam sites so can be shot out the water by anybody with a modicum of understanding of statistics.
One does not for a moment doubt what you say.
Do you know what is the basis for their assertion:
The independent four-year evaluation report of the National Safety Camera Programme assessed the effectiveness of cameras and found that after allowing for the long term trend, there was a 42 per cent reduction in death and injury at camera sites, including a reduction of over 100 fatalities per year.?
Are they simply taking the year-on-year national reduction, applying that % to their numbers for camera sites, and using that % adjustment as their baseline?
Cheers.
The 'long term trend' in question is the national fall in KSI statistics. They are claiming that KSI have fallen 42% MORE at camera sites than they have on the wider road network. This is a good working method, as far as it goes. It's the factors they aren't allowing for that kill the claims stone dead.
- Regression to the mean. EXCLUDED from the headline 42% figure but estimated in appendix H to be 75% of the benefit. 42% immediately becomes ~10%
- Reductions in traffic at camera sites. IGNORED. (Who wants to drive past cameras if you have an alternative route?) Worth 5% to 10%. Estimated as 6% (from memory) by Dr Linda Mountain presenting to the Royal Statistical Society.
- Other engineering treatments applied at about the same time that the camera(s) were installed. IGNORED.
- Opportunity costs of the speed camera programme. IGNORED (i.e. could we have 'saved more lives' if we'd spent the same money on other road safety measures?
- Side effects of the speed camera programme. IGNORED (La la la - we're not listening, really really ignored. Side effects are everywhere. It's a complete minefield. I've got a list of 30 side effects, and some of them are very very serious, doing damage way beyond road safety. Damage to the Police/public relationship is one such example.
So the 'report' in question isn't worth the paper that it's written on.
groomi said:
alphadog said:
Alas, he'll hold on until the magic 10 years in power, then I believe he gets an extra 30 grand a year after he quits. He's not in the job for our benefit.
Will that still apply if he get's arrested immediately after standing down for selling peerages?
Don't know, but there must be a reason the government have suddenly gone so cool on people going to jail for "minor" offences
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