Speed scameras
Discussion
This article is from "Honest Johns " column in todays Telegraph, 250807.
Being a retired senior Police Officer with 36 years Service I could not have put it better myself.
"Sergeant purpose…
I am a retired police sergeant and have extensive road safety and traffic accident investigation experience. I have followed the debate regarding speed cameras and would like to add my opinion. Speed cameras have nothing whatever to do with road safety. They are a blunt instrument with which to criminalise drivers who stray several mph above the speed limit - something that clearly isn't dangerous per se, unless changing or prevailing conditions render it so. Cameras are not able to determine this. Traffic police officers could, but they have mostly been diverted on to other uniform duties, mainly to persecute members of the public for other trivial matters in order to fulfil their "performance indicators", which are hated universally by police officers.
This is a cynical ploy by the Government to fool the electorate that detection rates are up, but you score as many points for solving a shoplifting case as a murder. If the Government was remotely interested in road safety, it would invest more of the excruciating levels of tax it extracts from the road system. Instead, we are forced to endure increasingly dangerous road surfaces, neglected signs and ridiculous levels of congestion that have deliberately been engineered into our transport system. The clear objective is to make motoring such a miserable experience that people will be forced to take public transport.
With speed cameras, the authorities have simply created another dangerous hazard. Where people are unfamiliar with an area, they now spend far too much time with their eyes off the road looking at their speedos, and this has undoubtedly led to an increase in accidents. Fortunately for the Government there is no way of identifying from accident statistics where this has happened, as drivers, while admitting privately what really took place, will not do so officially. Straying over the limit by a few miles per hour does not make a bad driver. Poor governmental policy does.
P.F., Scots Gap"
A perfect summary.
Being a retired senior Police Officer with 36 years Service I could not have put it better myself.
"Sergeant purpose…
I am a retired police sergeant and have extensive road safety and traffic accident investigation experience. I have followed the debate regarding speed cameras and would like to add my opinion. Speed cameras have nothing whatever to do with road safety. They are a blunt instrument with which to criminalise drivers who stray several mph above the speed limit - something that clearly isn't dangerous per se, unless changing or prevailing conditions render it so. Cameras are not able to determine this. Traffic police officers could, but they have mostly been diverted on to other uniform duties, mainly to persecute members of the public for other trivial matters in order to fulfil their "performance indicators", which are hated universally by police officers.
This is a cynical ploy by the Government to fool the electorate that detection rates are up, but you score as many points for solving a shoplifting case as a murder. If the Government was remotely interested in road safety, it would invest more of the excruciating levels of tax it extracts from the road system. Instead, we are forced to endure increasingly dangerous road surfaces, neglected signs and ridiculous levels of congestion that have deliberately been engineered into our transport system. The clear objective is to make motoring such a miserable experience that people will be forced to take public transport.
With speed cameras, the authorities have simply created another dangerous hazard. Where people are unfamiliar with an area, they now spend far too much time with their eyes off the road looking at their speedos, and this has undoubtedly led to an increase in accidents. Fortunately for the Government there is no way of identifying from accident statistics where this has happened, as drivers, while admitting privately what really took place, will not do so officially. Straying over the limit by a few miles per hour does not make a bad driver. Poor governmental policy does.
P.F., Scots Gap"
A perfect summary.
Edited by runner911 on Saturday 25th August 09:33
Hi 
I heard recently that 6 MILLION people have points on their licence from cameras etc...
Asuuming 30 million drivers (a guess) in this country....eventually we will ALL be banned and no more income from drivers for the government....so as soon as this sinks in to the morons who govern us.....surely they will ban cameras....hopefully...
And I agree we need more Traffic officers.....they have eyes to see crimes as well as speeding and also have judgement.
All the best Brett
I heard recently that 6 MILLION people have points on their licence from cameras etc...
Asuuming 30 million drivers (a guess) in this country....eventually we will ALL be banned and no more income from drivers for the government....so as soon as this sinks in to the morons who govern us.....surely they will ban cameras....hopefully...
And I agree we need more Traffic officers.....they have eyes to see crimes as well as speeding and also have judgement.
All the best Brett
Everyone won't get banned.
The more points you have, the slower you drive. I'm on 6 points and I slowed down for about 6 months, but I also changed jobs so I wasn't driving 120 miles a day. (~20 miles a day when I start the new job )
The fact the insurance companies also ignore upto 6 points now is a clear message that due to speed cameras the points system now means nothing, and I wouldn't like to know how many people are driving around who are "banned" due to doing 34 in a 30 limit.
Its so easy to creep over the limit, thinking you're doing 30 (or 40/50/60/70...) and then get done. Noise proofing, stereos, quiet modern engines, the fact that 110 in a modern car feels like 40 in a Mk2 Escort.
The more points you have, the slower you drive. I'm on 6 points and I slowed down for about 6 months, but I also changed jobs so I wasn't driving 120 miles a day. (~20 miles a day when I start the new job
)The fact the insurance companies also ignore upto 6 points now is a clear message that due to speed cameras the points system now means nothing, and I wouldn't like to know how many people are driving around who are "banned" due to doing 34 in a 30 limit.
Its so easy to creep over the limit, thinking you're doing 30 (or 40/50/60/70...) and then get done. Noise proofing, stereos, quiet modern engines, the fact that 110 in a modern car feels like 40 in a Mk2 Escort.
Brett928S2 said:
And I agree we need more Traffic officers.....they have eyes to see crimes as well as speeding and also have judgement.
Aside from Scameras, the only other time I have been caught speeding was by a traffic officer, who was on his own and sitting on the bridge over the M23 on Xmas day. To catch me he had drive round a roundabout, join the motorway via a slip-road and presumably drive at 150mph to catch up with me and, as he had no monitoring system at all in the car, he must have been screaming up the motorway at excessive speed whilst keeping one eye on his speedo to clock my speed and possibly operating a radio at the same time."I was on the gantry Sir as you passed me at excessive speed". And what speed were you travelling at Sir?... 70mph you say? I think, Sir, that you were travelling at at least 85mph. Oh? 70mph you say,... Ummm, no Sir, I dont have a video of you speeding. Well, ok, shall we say 80mph then?".
I never received an NIP, which was nice... as I had been doing 130.
I agree.. we need more traffic officers.
I totally agree with all thats being said via the article and from our trusted friend,however until the Brits learn to embrace collective bargaining and trully protest -dn't hold your breath?
only our newly arrived friends without any insurance, driving license,tax and more likely somebodies else,s motor or a cheque from the governement ( our tax paid ) to buy it for them -
will be allowed to enjoy the road and xxxx your luck if you run into them.
Don't you feel lonely on the roads nowadays, just ful of serious headcases, who can't drive and the public only have the 33,000 or whatever the nos of "instant (dano) picture machine to save us from oursleves and the unbeliveable bad driving, by removing Police officers from the roads and inflicting league tables via replacement machines to police our roads and raid our pockets.
The country has gone to the dogs - I am afraid and the rest of europe is heading the same way through the EEC beurocrats.I would like to see more discussion on road speeds on motorways for example where we travel up to say 100mph if condition and traffic allows and slow us when neded ie 50 -60-70-80-90 etc is not a problem is it if managed by the information systems on the motorways - over a short period of time people might respect it more and and save lives not money,book people who do not follow it by all means but give it a chance, looking over your shoulder at 85mph is stupid when your own your own on the motorway and the weather is fine, yse there are quite a few times when this can happen and after being held up through bad driving and YES Bad Lane driving Middle Lane merchants and such like who I would like to ban, we can all get on our journey, safer and better behaved?
only our newly arrived friends without any insurance, driving license,tax and more likely somebodies else,s motor or a cheque from the governement ( our tax paid ) to buy it for them -
will be allowed to enjoy the road and xxxx your luck if you run into them.
Don't you feel lonely on the roads nowadays, just ful of serious headcases, who can't drive and the public only have the 33,000 or whatever the nos of "instant (dano) picture machine to save us from oursleves and the unbeliveable bad driving, by removing Police officers from the roads and inflicting league tables via replacement machines to police our roads and raid our pockets.
The country has gone to the dogs - I am afraid and the rest of europe is heading the same way through the EEC beurocrats.I would like to see more discussion on road speeds on motorways for example where we travel up to say 100mph if condition and traffic allows and slow us when neded ie 50 -60-70-80-90 etc is not a problem is it if managed by the information systems on the motorways - over a short period of time people might respect it more and and save lives not money,book people who do not follow it by all means but give it a chance, looking over your shoulder at 85mph is stupid when your own your own on the motorway and the weather is fine, yse there are quite a few times when this can happen and after being held up through bad driving and YES Bad Lane driving Middle Lane merchants and such like who I would like to ban, we can all get on our journey, safer and better behaved?
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