Safe Speed Forums

I suggested to Paul last week that he should start an online petition, but I guess he has been a bit busy (not that I'm not). So anyway, I moseyed on down to PetitionOnline.com, and it wasn't exactly rocket surgery, so I've set one up myself:

http://www.petitiononline.com/scamgo/petition.html

If there's anyone here who thinks that Speed Cameras are a bit on the evil side, please sign and e-mail your contacts to do so too.

Ta, Arjuna


To: UK Government

Research and investigative journalism have, over the past few years, proven that not only are Speed Cameras mainly a revenue-raiser rather than a safety device, but also that they are actually detrimental to road safety, and are responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths on UK roads.

We thank all those investigative journalists who have exposed the great speed camera scam, especially road safety researcher Paul Smith, of the Safe Speed campaign.

We note with disgust that the government has acted in a dishonest manner, both in application of laws, and in publication and interpretation of statistics.

We applaud those brave souls who have risked their liberty to destroy speed cameras, in acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

We call upon the UK government to immediately abandon a fatally-flawed road safely policy almost exclusively based on speed camera enforcement, and to admit their mistake before any further lives are lost.

We pledge that if we are sent a speed camera Notice of Intended Prosecution, we will NOT send a cheque, but will fight it in court, not least on the basis of its now-proven incompatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights, Section 1, Article 2, "Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law".

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

These two clauses are a barrier to signatures in the otherwise excellent petition. Indeed the first makes it impossible for me to sign, given my position.

Any chance of getting them deleted?

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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

This last bit made me unwilling to sign.

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

Done, but the petition isn't editable, so I've created a new one at
http://www.petitiononline.com/ukscamgo/petition.html

I'll delete the old one tonight.

Eh? It seems to think I signed it twice! I hit preview ONCE, and send ONCE, but I did reload a page at one point (not sure what point) due to a dodgy cellular connection. Sorry.

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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

I've signed the new one. Shall I start spamming, er informing sites I go to regularly of the new one?

IT'S now at 9 sigs.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

No it's not - it's at 10

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Wake me up when the revolution starts
STOP the Toll Tax http://www.traveltax.org.uk

Yeah, that's be great. I'm a bit pressed.

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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

My Bold

I personally do not think we have any more evidence to support this statement than the Partnerships have to claim lives saved.

In my opinion it weakens the petition's credibility.

In the interests of honesty and accuracy I cannot sign the above

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Would it perhaps be worth making sure the petition represents the best statement we can come up with (collectively), rather than cast it in stone and start collection signatures and THEN start suggesting improvements?

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Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

It's up to 38 signatures. Is it too late? Does anyone think we really need to come up with revised wording?

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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

Too late now - suggest we sit tight ( and don't scream too much - Steve C could be listening and watching) and hope.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

The comment about loss of trend is in the Mind Driving book so at least we can quote a reasonable source

Well as I said, I wont be signing it because I do not believe that speed cameras are directly or even indirectly responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths in any way which can be scientifically proven so I'm not about to make myself look stupid by signing my name to that notion.


I too think that the statement and wording need to be correct, accurate and defendable if you want it to carry any weight.

As it stands it's as bonkers as suggesting "speeders are murderous".

In my opinion the above statement reduces us to the level of Transport 2000's efforts.

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The idea of a petition is a very good one, but making it up on the fly without a proper discussion and consultation is not a sensible approach.

IMO, the text needs revising.

Good god!..

What a bunch of pointless comments..Activists with no cause or plan..

How bizarre..

Eh? What makes you think we don't have a cause or a plan?

The cause is to force the government to replace a failed road safety policy.

The plan is to wage a war in the media until they can't afford not to act. They must be made to face up to the fact that they are talking rubbish.

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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

I do apologise.. I have read so much on this topic I am just getting wound up.

As the stats say, less than 5% of fatal accidents caused by 'speed' yet ALL of the goverments attention is on that that section due to how easy it is to automate the penalty collections.

All we seem to do is write and moan about it with not being actually being done about it.

There, I am guilty of what I just moaned about. Writing about it and doing nothing about it.

Arrgh!


edit - (I signed the petition too)

Speak for yourself!

I've just spent over a month on the road seeeing people and doing broadcast. (got back yesterday and feeling very frazzled; I think three weeks next time!)). And just look at the media stuff:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=16

One way of 'doing something' is to support the campaign. See:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/join.html and
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/associates.html

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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