Speed cameras?
Three times today I've had to listen to (male) correspondents advocating their removal from the armoury of the law.
The fact is all roads have a speed limit. All drivers (with certain limited exemptions related to emergency services and select individuals) are required to observe these speed limits at all times. These speed limits are absolute maximums; prevailing conditions may from time to time dictate that a lower speed is the safe maximum.
It is manifest that a campaign is underway in this country to remove speed cameras from our roads. The problem seems to be that they cause drivers to be too concerned, too abruptly with the presence in the near vicinity of a camera.
Intriguingly the proponents of the new camera-free world seem to advocate a return to placing greater emphasis on human patrolling of driver behaviour. It strikes me that human patrolling could be entirely random and unpredicatable and more tightly focussed on emerging hotspots than is possible with static speed cameras.
So let's abolish these static speed cameras.
Let's revert to a regimen under which drivers can only be caught breaking the speed limit on a particular stretch of road entirely unpredictably and randomly.
Yes human patrolling has a part to play in this but let us also deploy speed cameras (but without the advance promotion).
How the hell do speed cameras impact on the quality of driving skills? That's the latest hoary chestnut to be floated (do chestnuts float?) by this lobby group.
The fact of the matter is that these people lack the balls to set out what it is they really want which is the abolition of fixed speed limits. They know, and I know too, that the safe maximum on any given stretch of road fluctuates according to a variety of factors that includes: the skills of the driver, the vehicle being driven, the time of day, the light, the weather and the traffic conditions.
The fact they will not acknowledge is that the law cannot be drafted to account only for what might (for the sake of argumement) be referred to as "the highest common denominator".
So perhaps we should reset the speed limits for the maximum safe speed under the worst conceivable conditions (the M25 being a parking lot is exempt) and fine the complete and utter crap out of anyone who has the temerity to drive even a mile per hour over that maximum. Provided traffic plod in their supercharged mini metros can catch them. OK?
No. I for one will not stand (or even sit down and type) for a two tiered driving population.
The fact is all roads have a speed limit. All drivers (with certain limited exemptions related to emergency services and select individuals) are required to observe these speed limits at all times. These speed limits are absolute maximums; prevailing conditions may from time to time dictate that a lower speed is the safe maximum.
It is manifest that a campaign is underway in this country to remove speed cameras from our roads. The problem seems to be that they cause drivers to be too concerned, too abruptly with the presence in the near vicinity of a camera.
Intriguingly the proponents of the new camera-free world seem to advocate a return to placing greater emphasis on human patrolling of driver behaviour. It strikes me that human patrolling could be entirely random and unpredicatable and more tightly focussed on emerging hotspots than is possible with static speed cameras.
So let's abolish these static speed cameras.
Let's revert to a regimen under which drivers can only be caught breaking the speed limit on a particular stretch of road entirely unpredictably and randomly.
Yes human patrolling has a part to play in this but let us also deploy speed cameras (but without the advance promotion).
How the hell do speed cameras impact on the quality of driving skills? That's the latest hoary chestnut to be floated (do chestnuts float?) by this lobby group.
The fact of the matter is that these people lack the balls to set out what it is they really want which is the abolition of fixed speed limits. They know, and I know too, that the safe maximum on any given stretch of road fluctuates according to a variety of factors that includes: the skills of the driver, the vehicle being driven, the time of day, the light, the weather and the traffic conditions.
The fact they will not acknowledge is that the law cannot be drafted to account only for what might (for the sake of argumement) be referred to as "the highest common denominator".
So perhaps we should reset the speed limits for the maximum safe speed under the worst conceivable conditions (the M25 being a parking lot is exempt) and fine the complete and utter crap out of anyone who has the temerity to drive even a mile per hour over that maximum. Provided traffic plod in their supercharged mini metros can catch them. OK?
No. I for one will not stand (or even sit down and type) for a two tiered driving population.
posted by Enyo @ 11:29 pm
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