Hi Terry,
Yes it is a UK thread because at the moment it is mainly a UK problem - I don't think our forum has topic rules does it ?
Sadly I think scameras have very little to do with road safety and saving lives.
The claimed speed / accident relationship based on average speeds is based on poor data.
Only five per cent of injury crashes involve any vehicle exceeding speed limits, including crashes caused by rogue drivers, nutters racing on the highway, reckless drivers, stolen cars, emergency services drivers and drunk drivers.
Northumberland has few if any cameras but the death and injury rates are within average levels. North Wales has a very strong policy on speeding but their numbers are no better for it.
Vehicle activated signs are more effective than speed cameras at reducing vehicle speeds in dangerous locations.
We earned ourselves the safest roads in the world long before we had speed cameras, but since we've had speed cameras we have been losing our world lead.
Road deaths are not falling as expected.
Road crash hospitalisations haven't fallen for a decade according to the British Medical Journal.
If it weren't for a sustained reduction in pedestrian activity, the road safety results would be considerably worse.
The Statistics Commission has warned Department for Transport that their 'serious injury' statistics are not a reliable series - and that's the only category showing an improvement.
At best it's a tax, at worst it's a govenment cash machine simple at that.[
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Cheers - John.