Safe Speed Forums

I don't think so...

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/ ... speed_van/

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

On Meridian News tonight they mentioned that "safety cameras" had caused more accidents at some sites than when the cameras weren't there.

Nuff said.

Edited to add: it's on the ITV news now too.

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Prepare to be Judged

Noticed front of the Torygraphy this morning had an aritcle on Speed Cameras. Apparently Mike Penning is trying to force local councils to release their stats so that the public will put pressure on them to get rid of cameras that have no effect or worse cause accidents and those that are just used to bolster the end of year budget or pay for their Christmas party.




That is very sad. As a biker I can sympathise. I realise many will point out he was 28 mph over the speed limit but without seeing the road in question or the conditions on the day I can't say whether that was an appropriate speed or not. I realise some will consider it his own fault for exceeding the limit but he may have been doing so in a perfectly safe manner. Regardless almost certainly had the van not been there he would still be alive. RIP.

This is the conclusion of an earlier item within a thread here.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Good point about needlessly low limits and the levels of enforcement in the other thread, Steve. You would think the police would have better things to do or places to enforce speed limits than on these stretches. Yet, no, apparently not. From the street view it does seem too low. There are a lot of places in London like that - dual carriageways that are nearly always at least 10mph too low. Some sections are more than that. Meaning no one crawls along at that speed. I remember the Westway when they put the 30mph limit on it - most people were still doing 70 as even though it is usually a 50, depending on the time of day, conditions, traffic density, NSL can be appropriate. Generally, the more out of keeping with reality the limit, the more people break it and then the more the police will try to enforce it. Something is wrong with that pattern methinks. Tragic that it cost a biker his life and worse that people will probably try and blame his use of speed, which was - forgive the conjecture - in all probability entirely appropriate and he would have made it home that night had he not been more concerned with his licence than his life. That is the natural reaction though on seeing a camera van to break. What is more tragic is that judging by that article they hadn't even finished setting up the equipment so he probably would have got away with exceeding the limit. Not that he was to know that.

Not to mention the fact he was able to strike a crash barrier upright at all. Exposed crash barrier supports are lethal to motorcyclists and cyclists. Crash barriers with exposed uprights are still being put up all over the place, despite the known and very real danger they pose.

Trafpol were out near here yesterday with a speed trap on a short stretch of 30 MPH dual carriageway, early afternoon, very light traffic, there is nothing much on that stretch, the central reservation is 30 ft wide and full of trees, there is a pavement but I'm not sure I've ever seen anybody actually walking on it ... from the point of view of any safety measure ... why the speed trap? Oh I can imagine it will be a good spot to catch people over the speed limit, but is it actually contributing anything at all to road safety? or is it just to tick some boxes, show some results, and fill the coffers?

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

Very sad. I imagine Greenshed will be along shortly to tell us what a wonderful job speed cameras do in making our roads safer - unless, of course, you're exceeding the speed limit (OR THINK YOU MIGHT BE) and you brake suddenly for one. Maybe it would be truer to say that speed cameras can work effectively as a contribution to road safety if you're not speeding...

Mole - that is true, scamera vans make an excellent contribution to road safety if you are not speeding!

Zippo - this particularly annoys me. The attitude of the powers that be is that the road is 30mph so under no circumstances should anyone exceed that. That to be is fascism. They either aggressively enforce stretches like this to ascert their authority, because they are genuinely misguided about the possible effects of people exceeding the limits sensibly or because it is lucrative to do so. There are quite a few places like this where the limit is set ludicrously low and the natural instinct of the motorist is to drive above it. Quite safely for the most part in my opinion. Obviously I advocate driving according to conditions and not merely limits. Instead of reaslising their efforts would better be spent on a stretch of road that poses a genuine threat authorities seem to react hysterically to what they believe is a genuine attempt to subvert authority and endanger life. Madness.

As for upright barriers - they aren't as bad as the cheesewire ones. Thankfully they are not that prevalent but still make me shudder when I ride past them.