Following the government's anounced cut to the nation's road safety budget, i.e. the money that it forwards to local authorities to spend on road safety, Oxfordshire have said that they will switch off all their fixed 'safety' cameras. These are the yellow 'Gatso' cameras that strike fear in every motorist's heart. Other local authorities say they will follow suit. Road safety campaigners are appalled, saying that accidents will rocket, but motorists' groups say that they were merely a money spinner for the government and didn't save lives at all.
There is a test case; Swindon council switched theirs off six months ago, and say that in that time accidents have remained about the same.
Oxfordshire's argument is pretty much in line, saying that only 6% of road accidents have been due to speeding.
As a motorist, my opinion is obviously biased, but it does seem to be an awful coincidence that these devices are all too often at the bottom of a hill where speed is most likely to temporarily exceed limits. They are less likely near schools where other speed prevention measures are adopted.
Given the potential alternative, those horrible speed bumps that are wrecking car suspensions around the country, give me the gatso every time. If you live on a busy route with speed bumps then say goodbye to a good night's sleep as HGVs crash over them.
I don't understand this story.
If the speed cameras are a money spinner for the government why do they have to switch them off as their budgets have been cut? Shouldn't they be moving them a bit nearer the bottom of the hill or something.
Well, it's only the motorists' groups that say they're a money spinner for the government. It's a bit complicated anyway, central government allocates cash to the local authority to spend on road safety. But all income from speed camera fines go to central government so theoretically there is little incentive for the LAs to locate cameras in the most lucrative positions (Nevertheless they seem to gravitate in that direction). The fines are presumably frittered away by CG in pointless administration costs. But you have the crux of the matter, Furbs, will this cost cutting exercise actually save government money, and more importantly, will it cost lives? It'll certainly save motorists the cost of paying the fines, so maybe this will amount to a small amount of "quantative easing"?
That's an odd one, but on the whole I doubt the cameras save many lives so I guess it's about how cost effective it all is. If what makes people drive sensibly is the fear of being caught then maybe we're better off with random checks and really serious penalties.
I didn't realise that those who position them are not the ones making a profit from them. In that case I have a theory about why they are positioned that way. Whoever decides will look as though they are doing a good job if the cameras they control catch a lot of people. That is their personal profit.
Creature drives by 2 speed cameras on the Winchester road going out of Romsey quite often. The first one is facing 2 road junctions on your way out of Romsey, and it quite easy to break the speed limit when approaching these junctions, but the Speed Camera Warning before the junctions gets folk to slow down by the time they reach the junction. The second one is partway down a hill about 300 metres after the first one, but it faces traffic coming into Romsey. You come into Romsey on a very straight road where it easy to bomb along, and then you come to 40mph speed limit just before a downhill. Where it starts going uphill there is the Speed Camera, a few metres before a road junction.
So these cameras are there to slow traffic down at road junctions. Creature has seen the aftermath of accident at one of them, it not a pretty sight, and he thinks the cameras there are a Good Thing.
So save money with dummy cameras and warnings?
Good Plan.
They have ruined it all now by letting the cat out of the bag by saying they will swtich them off.
They are already there so at no cost they could stay there and just be switched off. All that is needed is to stop people in the know from blabbing which I do accept is almost impossible in todays culture of leaks.