M4 J14-J18 (Chippenham-Bath)

[pipme]

Motorway driving at over 70mph? You're on camera.
From tomorrow one of Britain's busiest motorways will be monitored in the first attempt to enforce the 70mph limit.

................. Click Me

 

[Sparky Jim]

Perhaps they would be better spending our money catching criminals rather than using our money to charge us even more with these pathetic attempts to raise revenue from the hard pressed motorist.

 

[planenut]

How about " if people drove sensibly, maybe at a reasonable mileage above the limit when safe, the police would not have to spend so much time chasing these law breakers allowing them to concentrate on the more serious crimes. "
Their aim is to improve safety and compliance with the current laws. Some people are killed or seriously injured every day by people who think they are above the law. The officers who try to enforce those regulations are employed to do just that; if so many people hadn't broken the laws in the past, then those police officers could be employed elsewhere.
There, i've said it now!

 

[pipme]

Planenut, I agree, velocity plays a large part in the severity of an accident.
But my gripe is that the whole burden of road danger is falling upon speed (be interesting to see actually what behavior is placed under the 'speed' heading), which on it's own does nothing 'cept burn more fuel.
So fiddle the stats a bit, show that deaths near a camera have gone down (pretty random, anything other surely points to bad road layout / design, condition etc) --- Justification !!
But overall the deaths are up ! And I am sure police managers will use the stats to reduce costs through reduction of road traffic cops, thereby adding to the uncontrolled 'bad driving' which fuels the accident rate which leads to more cameras ...... Why do they not show the real overall figures and make judgements from that ? Revenue collecting is all for this Gov !!

... latest figures showed 3,508 died on our roads in 2003 - the highest figure since 1997. And last year deaths and serious injuries actually increased at one camera site in seven, even though 2.2millon drivers were fined and had three points put on their licence..

Click for interesting view
I have checked some of the figures used at the DfT (Dept for Transp) as referenced, they appear to be correct.
One realises the importance of the data and perhaps how it is being manipulated by the very fact that the simple figures are not easy to find .. If they revealed 'good things' they would be touted more openly !!

Eight Motorists' Right to Silence Defence to be heard by European Court of Human Rights.
The European Court of Human Rights has accepted eight motorists' applications claiming that S172 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act breaches the right to silence implicit in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Given that 90% of applications are rejected at this first stage, this is an important step in a process which, if successful, will make the speed camera system unworkable.
The British government has been asked by the European Court of Human Rights to respond to these applications by January 18th and 19th 2005. The applicants will then be able to respond in turn and a court verdict is expected some time in 2006.

Don't hold your breath tho'
http://www.abd.org.uk/index.htm
P