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Village speed vigilance
John Redwood has a confession to make.
He is a motorist, and enjoys driving. But he is fed up with speed cameras that are there to make money.
“Five years into the camera madness,” he says “deaths are up on our roads.”
“The government is targeting speed but its own figures show that speed is not normally the cause of accidents.”
Divided opinion
The “Gatso speed camera” was invented by a racing driver, Dutchman Maurits Gatsonides.
The Department for Transport (DfT) say his device for recording two images of a passing vehicle, and thereby automatically determining its speed, has saved more than 100 lives in Britain since the first camera was installed in Britain.
And the number of people killed or seriously injured at speed check sites has fallen by 40%, according to the DfT.
But the speed camera provokes deeply divided emotions. Some hate it, yet others see it as a lifesaver.
Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, said the vast majority of cameras had brought “real benefits in safety and prove that they are justified”.
Village vigilance
The New Road Safety Bill proposals include graduating speeding fines (with two-six point penalties) and the banning of speed camera jammers and detectors.
The bill has cross-party support.
The Government is also putting the emphasis on local action.
standing nice and close to a post box – get them NIPs out folks…..Twenty-two volunteers in the West Sussex villages of West Hoathly and Sharpthorne have been trained and equipped by police.
They will report on drivers travelling above 37mph.
Offenders get a ticking off from police but cannot be prosecuted based purely on this data.
But putting police radar guns in the hands of volunteers is just one way forward.
Computer aided fines
At the other end of the scale the latest digital speed trap uses two cameras set some distance apart.
A computer recognises individual cars and calculates average speed between the two points.
The first a motorist knows of his offence is the £60 fine in the post.
It are the fines that provoke most anger, with claims the cameras are simply a money-raising exercise.
The number of fixed penalty fines issued in England and Wales has increased seven-fold from about 260,000 in 2000-2001 to 1.8 million in 2003-2004.
The revenue has risen too, from £10m to £68m to £112m in the last three years. After costs are removed the Treasury will keep £20m from 2004’s fines haul.
Safety or revenue
A Royal Automobile Club poll found that 72% of motorists thought speed cameras were “more about raising revenue” than safety.
Half of motorists surveyed admited to regularly breaking the speed limit.
Which is why the Conservatives will be campaigning on the Speed camera issue at the next election.
They want to abolish the organisations set up with the profits from cameras, the Safety Camera Partnerships, and carry out an audit of all camera sites.
They also want speed limits reviewed, with an 80 mph motorway limit, some 30 mph zones changed and a reduction to 20 mph in others.
Redwood ridicules
Residents will use the same speed guns used by police officersLike Mr Prescott, Mr Redwood is a fan of Jaguar cars. But One-Jag, if we can call him that, has a very different view of our roads to Two-Jags.
John Redwood says the place of the car in society should be celebrated, and increasing regulation slashed back.
Mr Redwood said: “Motoring is being regulated to death by people who do not understand that, if you live in the suburbs or the countryside, you need your car to go to school with your young children.
“Or to go to the shops or to get to work because there is no bus or train running past the bottom of your garden.”
The government is trying to reduce the Big Brother feel of the cameras that it believes to be life-savers.
They are giving local communities, like the ladies of Sussex, greater control over road design, and looking again at variable fines – to better ensure the penalty for speeding matches the danger caused.
LOVE IS GIVING SOMEONE THE ABILITY TO DESTROY YOU, THEN TRUSTING THEM NOT TO.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, Vodka in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming…….WOO HOO, what a ride!
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