http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5041871.html
Confused drivers warned over A77 safety cameras
DRIVERS endangering other motorists by slowing to a crawl on one of Scotland's most dangerous roads were today urged to know their speed limits.
The call follows the introduction of controversial new average speed safety cameras on the A77, which have prompted confused motorists to cut their speed - by too much.
Hesitant drivers are being urged to study speed limits in the Highway Code and on the A77 safety group website.
The Speed Enforcement Camera System (Specs) - the first of its kind in Scotland - was launched last month on the Glasgow-Ayrshire road.
Forty cameras measure the time vehicles take to travel along various points of a 26-mile stretch of road and calculate their average speed.
The first a motorist will know they have been booked for speeding will be a statutory penalty notice in the post.
Specs is designed to cut deaths on one of Scotland's worst accident blackspots, with 20 deaths between January 2000 and December 2004.
The cameras - dubbed Yellow Vultures - go live this week but initial monitoring has revealed drivers are already slowing when they spot them.
Drivers who realise too late they are in a Specs zone often drastically cut their speed halfway along the route.
Motorists also slow for a number of miles to get their average speed down, causing hazards, delays and frustration.
Blair Wyllie, road safety officer for South Ayrshire Council and member of the A77 safety group, said drivers should be aware of speed limits.
He added: "For many motorists, a smooth and safe journey along the A77 is being interrupted by hesitant drivers who clearly do not know their speed limits.
"Such driving can be hazardous and may cause frustration to drivers following, leading to unsafe overtaking chances being taken.
"We urge people to brush up on the Highway Code."
The RAC Foundation called for improved signage, including advanced warning of a speed limit change.
Sue Nicholson, head of campaigns, said: "We suspected there'd be a problem with people worrying they had exceeded the speed in one area and slowing to compensate in another area.
"We back Specs but there is a lot of confusion and we need to beef up signage."
Neil Macgillivary, of the Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership, ruled out increased signage, describing it as "complex".
He added: "You've got to know your speed limit."
The speed limit on the A77 varies from 30mph to 70mph.
Mark McArthur Christie, road safety officer with the Association of British Drivers, said all motorists should know their Highway Code.
He said: "Limits on the A77 are up and down, it's a difficult and complicated road.
"Better signage would help - but it shouldn't be needed."
Chief Inspector Paul Fleming, head of road policing specialist services, said: "All drivers must understand the speed limits for their type of vehicle and the type of road.
"If anyone is in doubt, they should read the Highway Code or visit
www.highwaycode.gov.uk"
Specs will be assessed after a year and it could be extended to other accident blackspots.
=======================================
Safe Speed issued the following PR at 01:49 today:
PR225: A77 SPECS. Safety cameras are dangerous
News: for immediate release
Reports are flooding in about all sorts of careless and dangerous driver
behaviour caused by the flawed and misguided A77 SPECS speed camera scheme.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(
www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "Road safety depends on drivers paying attention
to their surroundings and behaving courteously and predictably. Under the
threat of SPECS enforcement on the A77, drivers are behaving strangely and
unpredictably. Clearly they are concerned about the threat to their driving
licences. Safety takes a back seat. A77 specs must be abandoned immediately.
People are going to die because these cameras are dangerous."
"It should be quite obvious to anyone who has examined the subject that strict
speed limit compliance is a much lower safety priority than paying full
attention to immediate hazards - yet in the distorted world of the speed
camera the opposite is true."
"After 12 years of speed cameras, 12 million motorists fined and £700,000 of
fines the roads have not got safer. In fact there's absolutely no worthy
evidence that speed cameras save lives or serious injuries available anywhere.
And the government hasn't even begun to consider the huge side effects of the
infernal devices yet - although a research contract starts in September -
that's about 15 years too late."
"The DfT called a moratorium on approving further sites because their evidence
is shaky. That moratorium is nowhere near enough. Speed camera enforcement
must cease immediately - it's killing us.
<ends>
The authorities will no doubt say equivalent to: "People ought to drive
properly". Well, excuse me, but this is the real world and we have to work
with the full range of real driver behaviours. the way they 'should' drive
doesn't come into it. It's the way they DO drive that matters.
New article in Glasgow Evening Times:
"Confused drivers warned over A77 safety cameras"
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5041871.html
Safe Speed PR on planned DfT research:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/41
Safe Speed PR on the DfT's camera moratorium:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafeSpeedPR/message/62
note: Does not apply in Scotland.