Safe Speed Forums

'Cash cow' speed cameras will be named for the first time in transparency drive
By Kirsty Walker - Last updated at 4:16 PM on 26th June 2011

Britain's most lucrative speed cameras will be named for the first time, under a new transparency drive launched by ministers today.
Motorists will be given access to previously hidden statistics showing the number of speeding prosecutions and accidents at camera sites.

The information will enable drivers to build up a 'league table' of Britain's busiest speed cameras as well as judging their effectiveness in saving lives.
Gatso speed camera on the M11 southbound between junctions 5 and 4 in Essex where there has been an increase in accidents

Up until now, authorities have been reluctant to publish admit which cameras were the biggest money spinners, with details having to be prised out of them using Freedom of Information laws.
There has been mounting criticism that the cameras - also known as gatsos - are being used to raise revenue rather than save lives.

One camera at the southern end of the M11 in Essex, which raises over £1million-a-year in fines, has been found to have increased the numbers of crashes and injuries at its site.
Accidents have doubled since the machine was installed on the M11 at its junction with the North Circular A406 near Woodford, Essex.
Police said crashes happened because motorists slowed down ahead of the camera and then speeded up once they were clear of it.

Another traffic camera at a yellow box junction on Battersea Bridge Road in South London has been dubbed 'money box' after fining 2,000 drivers a month - raising over £1million a year.
Critics have pointed out that bad congestion caused by engineering works meant that many unsuspecting drivers found themselves trapped in the box.
Anyone who stopped in the box for longer than five seconds was issued with a fine of £60 - which could double if not paid immediately.

Now, however, local authorities will have to publish the numbers of accidents and casualties at camera sites - both before and after they were installed - within weeks.
Mike Penning MP said the government don't want information about speed cameras to be hidden any more
Mike Penning, the Road Safety Minister, will order police and local authorities to stop treating drivers like 'cash cows'.
Mr Penning said: 'We want to stop motorists being used as cash cows. For too long information about speed cameras has been hidden in the shadows.
'This new data will end that by clearly showing whether a camera is saving lives or just making money.'
The information on collisions and casualties which local authorities will have to provide will date back to 1990.
The number of cameras on Britain's road started to mushroom in the early 1990s. By 2010, they were understood to have generated more than £100million in fines.

Research has suggested that speed cameras have triggered at least 28,000 crashes since 2001.

The devices are found to have caused motorists to drive erratically, to not concentrate on the road and to brake suddenly when one comes into sight.

More than 80 per cent of drivers say they look at their speedometers rather than the cars in front when they approach a speed camera.
The new information will add to already-growing pressure for many cameras to be scrapped.
Although minister fear the move could lead to a wave of vandalism targeting the motorist's nemesis.

Mr Penning said: 'This will expose where cameras are and are not doing their job. It is all about empowerment. We can only do what we do with road safety if people believe it isn't just about raising money but is about saving lives.
'What this will show is where there weren't any accidents before, and accidents afterwards are minimal, or may even have gone up because people have reacted differently. But it will also expose where accidents have dropped.
'The police are concerned that certain cameras may be vandalised more than they are now, but that's not a reason not to do it.'

Peter Roberts, of the Drivers' Alliance, said: 'Speed cameras don't improve the safety of our roads. They're often placed to generate the maximum revenue.
'Speed is to blame for only 4.7 per cent of accidents.'

The SCPs probably identify low earning sites (i.e. few speeding motorists) and never install the camera in the housing at these locations.