Speed cameras 'massive mistake' - research

[Nick]

Tell me something I don't know....

 

http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2634500

[Pete]

# The major causes of crashes on the M4 freeway in Wiltshire, southern England from 1999 to 2004 were:

 

# Inattention: 28%

# Poor lane changing: 28%

# Misjudgement of driver's own path: 17%

# Fatigue: 14%

# Careless or reckless driving: 14%

# Excess speed: 14%

 

 

Given that putting up cameras has been put on hold for the moment, I wonder if that includes replacing ones that are ripped out and destroyed?

How much to hire a large lorry with an arm on it?

[Digsy]

I hear the other day that all new speed camera installations were on hold pending the results of some kind of survey. I doubt that this is the one they were talking about. I wonder just how much the "official" findings will difffer?

[Alex]

# Inattention: 28%

 

...to the road, cause everyone is transfixed on their speedo's.

[Elliot]

Good news.

 

I still fear they'll carry on with the cameras for the revenue and come up with some other excuse as to why they're there.

 

Does this research apply to the average speed cameras as well? They'll probably put all their resources into those instead, on every major road.

 

It's ridiculous to see some of the reasons why cameras have gone up (ie pedestrian falling off bridge etc)

[Wolf]

MCN just published some figures that show basically every police authority that uses cameras has seen increases in road deaths last year whilst the 3 who do not and instead use old fashioned men in cars (who can spot things like drunks etc regardless of speed) have seen significant falls in death rates (like 24% last year)

[Whitelightning]

If the government is true to its word of "seeking and solving the causes of road deaths" AND cameras are one of the new causes, then they should be removed.

[BrianBunning]

If the government is true to its word of "seeking and solving the causes of road deaths" AND cameras are one of the new causes, then they should be removed.

 

 

 

:clap:

 

Couldn't have put it better myself

[garethr]

The "evidence" in favour of cameras has always been dubious. They lump virtually everything under "speed related".

 

This is the text of an article in Motor Cycle News July 3 2002

 

"Take a look at the Transport Research Laboratory report TRL323, which lists accident causes according to police officers at the scene. It's this document which is behind the DLTR's claims that one third of all accidents are speed related, the prime justification for the plague of speed cameras.

 

The single biggest proportion of that "one third" comes from 'failure to judge another person's path or speed' at 10.7 per cent of ALL accidents. This is astonishing -- it means that when someone pulls out of a junction in front of you and has you off your bike, you have just statistically become a speed related accident used to justify more speed cameras, regardless of what speed either of you were doing!

 

There are lots more examples: "following too close" is, according to the Government, speed related too (even if the driver is following too close at 50mph on a a motorway with a 70mph limit, because the driver in front doesn't understand the 'keep left unless overtaking' rule).

 

Slippery roads are also counted as speed related by the DLTR, something to mull over as you slide off on a roundabout doused in bus diesel at 10 mph. So is bad weather, even though going too fast in bad weather is listed separately under excessive speed. Riding slowly in the winter but coming a cropper on unsuspected black ice is, for the DLTR's purposes, still a speed related accident fuelling the need for more speed cameras.

 

As for "excessive speed" itself -- TRL323 blames this for just 7.3 per cent of accidents. And that includes excessive speeds which might be below the posted speed limits, which speed cameras do nothing to address."

 

 

Eventually the government and camera partnerships (mostly) stopped using the one-third figure, but they still seem to be stuck on the idea that most accidents are caused by speeding.