Safe Speed Forums

Dosen't really address he problem then does it !

So obviously all the revenue will be spent on improving the road

I remember once travelling into Ayr along the A70, and that was a bloody awful road. I've never been on the A77, but if its anything like the A70 then I'm not surprised there's such a high accident rate.

I agree with greengoblin though, what's the point of using scameras as a deterrant if you don't even know you've been nicked?

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Safe Speed issued the following PR at 12:22 today:

PR213: A77 cameras - misinformation costs lives

News for immediate release

'Specs' cameras go live on the A77 tomorrow, according to reports, but they
want to keep operational details a secret. Safe Speed says misinformation
costs lives, and full details MUST be made public.

The cameras are concentrated in two clusters about 46 kilometres apart.
Although it may be technically possible to enforce the speed limit 'from end
to end', it is extremely unlikely that they will do so.

However they seem to want us to think that they will enforce from end to end,
claiming that 'operational details are confidential'.

Paul Smith. founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "Road safety absolutely depends on people paying
attention to the right safety factor at the right time. If we mislead people
into paying attention to the wrong safety factor then they will be less well
equipped to avoid crashes. It is deadly stupidity to try to conceal the method
of operation of these cameras. They clearly think they can improve road safety
by spreading fear and paranoia. How barking is that?"

Paul continues: "After over ten years of speed cameras we still don't have any
worthy evidence to show that they reduce deaths on the road. The camera
programme is grossly misguided and based on nothing more than false
assumptions and twisted statistics. We can't improve road safety if we don't
use the best and the most accurate information. We have to focus on real risks
and true data. Misleading data and misinformation costs lives."

Paul asks: "So which is it? Are they going to enforce from end to end or not?"

<ends>

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I had a long conversation with Andrew Wilkie (chief of all scottish cameras) imploring him to ensure that true and complete information was available. Instead all he could offer me was 'operational reasons' secrecy. I explain that misinformation was potentially deadly, he told me that that was my belief. Dead right. It is.

So out went the PR.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

As a publicly funded organisation can’t the freedom of information act be use to get the truth out of them?

I ride a motorcycle, so I couldn't give a flying f*ck for SPECS (or Truevelo)

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

But of course, you ALWAYS obay the speed limit, don't you Gixxer?

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Of course I do Sixy, I even have a sticker on the back of my bike that states clearly "Restricted to 150BHP, please pass"

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

Information withheld for "operational reasons"...............

Do me a facking favour.

So, what they are saying is, "Yes, there are accident blackspots on the A77. BUT. We aren't going to tell you where they are. The only way you will find out is after you have passed through it at a seemingly appropriate speed and been nicked by us because we have set a totally inappropriate speed limit.".

To every SCP in the land, I would table the following comment:-

"SHOW ME THE STATISTICS".

"DEMONSTRATE TO ME THE MECHANICS AND THE MATHS THAT ALLOW SCAMERAS TO BE INSTALLED WHERE THEY ARE."

If they are, indeed, sited at proven accident blackspots where speed has been DEMONSTRATED to be the major contributing factor then I will shut up. In the meantime, I will consider them government cash machines and stick 2 fingers up at them every time I drive past one at less than the posted speed limit. Since these devices have been installed in this country, I have never been snapped by one. I like that. It's a Very Good Thing. I am NOT going to fill Gordon Brown's pockets more than I already do. Bollocks to him, and I will travel in NSL's at a speed I feel is appropriate to the traffic and conditions.

Question. Why is there a scamera on the A34 between Yarlet and Stone (Staffordshire) on a long, straight, downhill stretch of dual-carriageway with a 60 limit and excellent visibility?????

S

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Safe yet Swift.

Is there any apparent reason why it's a 60 limit?

Ein,

It's a long, straight, downhill stretch of dual carriageway through the countryside with neither entries nor exits.

Strangely, half a mile down the road the road is still dualled but has blind corners, a pub on the left and a petrol station on the opposite carriageway with a central turning reservation between both. No scamera there

S

PS

Great handle Einion, nice to clearly see a citizen of the Land of my Fathers on here!

Nos da.

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Safe yet Swift.

Basingwerk is another, of course

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

If it is end to end, I can see it now, drive like crazy for 13 miles stop at a pub for a nice pint and foot down for the next 13 miles to record a low average and a warm glow.

Informed speeding?

Cameras are a menace!

Er.. it's in Staffordshire. There are sacmeras every 100 yards or so on most roads in Stafforshire. Only one in half a mile is thinly scattered, by those standards!

Yep, Staffordshire the Speed Camera County.

That particular road does have quite a few points where crossover accidents can occur, and it is well known that a vehicle pulling in front of you at a very low speed giving you no time to react is all your fault for not reading their minds.

In many ways it is quite like the A491, that was a nice 70 limit dual, then a 60 limit dual with an occasional nasty and completely hidden trap using under road sensors and a virtually invisible tripod mounted video camera. Now it is 50 limit for a large section and the dual has been reduced to single, and traffic lights have been put in despite all local residents and road users wanting a roundabout, and the camera positions have gone up to 3 with an additional 2 just down the road (in the still 60 limit single carriageway section), but due to a scamera partnership taking over from Police, the under road sensors are now plugged into talivans.

How many KSI accidents on this road involved vehicles exceeding the limit? Err.... none. Two of the accidents used to justify the changes were not even in the dual carriageway section (they were on the unchanged SC bit). The local ABD have a section detailing this on this page http://www.abd.org.uk/local/worcestershire.htm.

As a little bit of interest, the traffic lights are a major problem, and often back the traffic up into the DC section where it is often stationary in a twisty section, and until they cut the 4' high weeds back it was actually possible to not be able to see the stationary traffic until emergency braking was required to avoid it (at the speed limit).

More realistically, and back to the point, the only impact of unnecessarilly low limits with big brother watching for the lightest slip, will be to drive the regulars into much more dangerous back routes. Currently they just race between the known camera locations - which is what happens on the A491; those that use it regularly know that a Talivan has to be plugged in, so they have loads of time to slow down when they see it. On the A34 they are obvious Gatsos and are easy to slow down for.