Safe Speed Forums

I was driving home from Cambridge last night on said road, heading towards Bury St. Edmunds.. noticed there was a new speed camera under covers ready to enforce a relatively straight section of triple-carriageway near the Cambs-Suffolk border. I was baffled as to the point of it - this will be a prime example of a camera where people slow down for the limit and then put their foot down when out of range.

Incidentally, I've never had a problem doing 80-90 down there, which isn't often as my primitive 1-litre AX gets too noisy for me to want to sustain that sort of speed (Edit: Btw when I'm travelling down there it's usually around 9:30pm on Tuesday nights, nothing more than a few HGVs and a couple of other cars about. My worst speeding is usually travelling to and from Ipswich games on another stretch of the A14 round Ipswich, where I more consistently reach 85-90mph and it's only a dual-carriageway and busier).

I don't know what was said in the debate but I have a feeling it was little more than a PR exercise and that speed cameras were the intention the whole time. Is anyone with any authority on the issue actually paying any attention to all this criticism of speed enforcement and speed camera road safety policy?

Nearly got cleaned up on the A14 a while back near the A6 turn. I was overtaking a truck (I was within the speed limit!) waited for a BMW to go blasting by. Just as I pulled out behind the BMW the guy must have seen a the camera beyond the truck and slammed the brakes on.

It was a close call. Emergency braking on a clear straight road. Didn't expect that one.

So much for camera safety.

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Speed camera policy Kills

I personally see no justification for cameras on long, straight stretches of road, they are little more than a distraction and as you've indicated create potential hazards where there might not have been one otherwise. If you can't drive safely in a straight line you shouldn't be on the road!

Similar thing happened to me a couple of years back. Straight NSL road, and an HGV was coming in the opposite direction. The BMW behind him (funny it's always a BM) sped up and overtook him - no problem for me, there was sufficient distance. But then, as soon as he got in front of the HGV the saw he was about to pass a scamera, and hit brakes hard! Then the poor guy in the HGV was all over the road trying to avoid running into the back of the prat, and by that time he was nearly on top of me. I hit brakes hard and tried to give him as much room as possible. He missed me, but it was close.

Cheers
Peter