Safe Speed Forums

Be careful with following a camera about warning people, some people have gotten in trouble for that one.

What a fabulous success and where next indeed?

The event was covered by all national, some international and many regional TV & Radio. It has gained massive publicity for the cause, the counter-argument and for the website [shame we cant use it again...?]. It also reinforced for me how much support there is for the campaign from the general ‘non petrol head’ public – not a single negative response whilst out leafleting in the car parks - apart from one Mrs ‘slightly late for lunch’:wink:

It was great to see that our crowd attending were definitely not there because they immaturely wanted some carte blanche to speed, or had some grudge against the roads being policed properly - didn't spot a single boy racer which was fab!. We were there because we refute the simplistic ‘safety’ argument [particularly the one centred on quango’s ‘profit or die’ principle] and also refute the huge big authoritarian ‘one size fits all’ stick that continually bashes us over the head whilst real road issues and tangible dangers are ignored.

As just one individual I feel rewarded with what I achieved – this included tentatively leafleting the constabulary that were preparing to police us and receiving a quiet nod of understanding from one or two of them (as many of us do ‘off camera’ – they were also totally cool on the day btw).
Hearing back on the radio my line about “the governments response to a massive 560 deaths due to drunk drivers [in 2003] being a doubling of speed camera sites - despite the tiny fraction of accidents caused due to excess speed alone” WAS FABULOUS!!! Tens of thousands must have heard that as well as others’ remarks and importantly the airtime given to Paul Smith’s calm, credible and extremely well researched comments.

By now we have all the ammunition we need to discredit these scameraships via this site and via enhanced 'single-point' co-ordination. I think this is where our energies should lie - in better co-ordination, greater PR, more time to organise and the odd megaphone or two on the day to make sure we all have our headlights on!. We need that killer shot for the media and to build on the contacts made within it.

Here's to the next one; what can I do to help???

D

PS the stickers came off the bonnet leaving the paint where it was - phew!!!

Glad to hear that, I did ask the guy that made them to make sure that they were of the "low tack" variety.
It was good to meet you on the day D - and I'll definately be in touch when we know where we're going to go from here.

Del
(Red Impreza)

I read in last nights Bath Chronicle that the Wiltshire police will have a big problem if we try another protest as they seem to blame us for an accident that happened in lane 3!!They are threatening arrest for public order offences.Seems we got up some noses?If we were in France we would be burning tyres and blockading the motorway!Lets do it again.....

Hi,

I did not know about the first protest until a few days ago or I would have joined in!

I have been reading through some of the messages in here and had a few thoughts...

First the protest really needs "a message". Why are the x hundred people protesting? Something simple which could be used by the media.
"We are protesting against speed cameras"
"We are protesting against the mis-use of speed cameras"
"It's all lies, speed cameras have nothing to do with safety!"
"We want safer roads, speed cameras do not help"
"'safety' cameras are unsafe"

Something like that which sums up why there is a protest, something everyone can agree to support. "Today I went to the M4 to protest about..."
"Why should I go on this protest? What will I be saying?"

There should be some rules for everyone protesting to follow. Nothing too complex, things like...
* All protestors should aim to drive at 56MPH. No faster... HGVs max speed etc.
* We will only be using lanes 1 and 2, keep lane 3 clear for anyone who wants to get past.
* Leave a safe gap between you and the vehicle in front! This is about safety after all.
* Don't have anything hanging off the vehicle which could break off or be dangerous (thinking about flag poles and things 'for show')
* Make sure you are fully awake, alert and not tired.
* Make sure your vehicle is 100% road legal and you are legally allowed to drive it, check tyre pressures, lights, fluid levels, etc.
* Do nothing that would cause bad publicity. Asume everything you do is being filmed by the press so don't give them anything bad to show.
* There will probably be 'other' people driving dangerously, if this happens... keep calm... do all you can to be safe... memorise numberplate and report it later... don't be tempted to use your shotgun out the sun roof... etc.

Some other ideas I have had...
PMR/CB radios could be used for communication with the entire group, although having hunderds of people on the same channel could make it un-usable. And althoguh I believe it is legal to use a push-to-talk radio while driving it should only be encouraged if safe. (eg. passenger) I'm thinking more for fun than anything.
Maybe if some of the police officers attending had PMR/CB radios we could report bad driving straight away and get them followed and pulled to show that having real traffic police helps. "A speed camera would not have caught this person's dangerous driving, however he was noticed and pulled over by a traffic police officer and cautioned/fined/etc"

If you have a passenger and a video camera, have them ready to use it to video anything interesting, or any dangerous driving as happened last time. Could be useful to get videos of dangerous driving to the media, "the convoy was doing <=56, well under the speed any camera would activate at, so it would not and did not catch any driving like this: <show clips>" But make it obvious that they weren't part of the protest!

Everyone could flash their headlights (twice, at 0.5 second intervals ) when aproaching a bridge with people and hopefully the press with their video cameras on.

I'm not saying any of this should happen, these are just ideas, hopefully some are good and useful. I know some aren't so good but I'm throwing them in anyway because it might prompt someone to think of something simillar but usefull. Safety should of course be the most important thing for everyone taking part. That is, after all, the point.

I'll join in on the next protest if I can, and I'm pretty sure I could get time off work for something as important as this!

--

Andrew.