Pro-scamera group issues counter-blast

Road safety is all about speed, says group

By PH Staff / Monday, 16 May 2005 / Loading comments

While speed should be restrained here...

...it makes little sense here, on the M4, now undergoing a motorway camera experiment

Road safety campaign Roadsafe has launched a counter-attack against those who believe, like PistonHeads and many road safety campaigns, that concentration on speed alone over-simplifies the road safety message, and can make roads more dangerous.

The group, formed by industry and Government, said it believes that "eliminating excessive speed will save lives and has outlined some of the potential solutions, their benefits and the rationale behind enforcement methodologies that will significantly contribute to road safety."

The group has issued a briefing document whose key points are that:

Studies of individual drivers show that when exceeding the average speed by 25 per cent a driver is about six times as likely to be involved in an incident in comparison with a driver adopting the average speed. This is similar to the risk associated with alcohol at the legal limit of 80mg/100ml blood alcohol content. [This would appear to be conflating two entirely separate issues -- PH].
Studies of road sections show that for roads of each type, the number of crashes and collisions increases with increasing average speed – the effect varies on different road types and is strongest for the slowest roads. A ball-park figure is that each 1mph reduction in average speed is accompanied by a five per cent reduction in accidents. [If this were true, we find it hard to explain why motorways are simultaneously both Britain's safest and fastest roads -- PH].
Before and after studies of intervention measures. Traffic calming measures (such as road humps and chicanes) in 20mph zones have reduced average speeds by about 10mph and resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in collisions. Measures adopted in rural villages have reduced average speeds by about 5mph and resulted in at least 20 per cent fewer collisions. [Few argue for higher speeds through towns and villages and, although most drivers appear to do it, PistonHeads would argue that stricter controls in such areas are, in many cases, appropriate -- PH].
Research at Napier University shows that individuals are aware that speeds they normally adopt when alone are actually unsafe. For example, participants described situations in which they would slow down such as the presence of a speed camera or child in the car. This suggests that individuals know that if they see a camera they would need to slow down because they would be exceeding the limit. [Surely this shows awareness of the circumstances, and bolsters the road anti-camera campaigners' arguments that drivers are capable of regulating their speed according to circumstances -- PH].

Groups campaigning for more comprehensive methods of road safety enforcement than just revenue-raising speed cameras include the Association of British Drivers and SafeSpeed -- links below).

Links