Safe Speed Forums

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Where is the speed camera evidence?
10:20am Monday 6th September 2010

WE can’t agree with the AA that lives will be put at risk if speed cameras are scrapped because of funding cutbacks.

The motoring organisation says that the "views of motorists are not being reflected accurately" and that switching off cameras, as some authorities have already done, risk the lives of drivers.

We don’t believe that that majority of motorists would agree with this.

And we have yet to see any compelling evidence that speed cameras save lives.

What speed cameras do is make motorists slow down on approach and then simply speed up again once they are out of range.

We do not condone speeding but it is a fact of life that many motorists do not stick to the legal limit.

Some residents in Oxfordshire, where cameras have been switched off, say children’s lives are at risk as a result. Why?

We don’t understand the logic in saying that because an area is no longer covered by a camera that children - or anyone for that matter - are suddenly at greater risk.

The majority of drivers view speed cameras as nothing more than cash cows.

Many millions are earned each year through them, which police forces say is money then spent on making roads safer.

Until we see any proper statistical evidence that many hundreds of lives have been saved since the introduction of thousands of speed cameras across the country then we remain as cynical about their use as the majority of drivers.

The AA has shown itself to be out of touch with the average motorist on this issue and we are surprised at its naivety.