Be warned, M4 speed cameras!!!!!!!!

[the rock doc]

NOW FOR THE MOTORWAYS 11:00 - 19 January 2004

Speed cameras are to be introduced on the busiest motorway routes around Bristol.

The Avon and Somerset Safety Camera Partnership will send out six mobile camera units within the next six months after calls from the Highways Agency, which is concerned about the number of accidents in the area.But the decision has been branded nonsense by a motoring organisation which says motorways are statistically the safest places to drive.The patrols will be sited on bridges over the M4 motorway from junction 18 near Tormarton, to the Almondsbury Interchange, and from there down the M5 to junction 19, at Portbury.

Fixed cameras could follow if the mobile units do not reduce the number of accidents. It will be the first time the Avon and Somerset Safety Camera Partnership has installed speed cameras on a motorway other than at roadworks. Only a handful of cameras are used on motorways around the country.

A speed camera on the M11 in Essex became notorious in 2000 after it caught 2,000 motorists breaking the law in the 24 hours after it was introduced.Dave Gollicker, spokesman for the Avon and Somerset Safety Camera Partnership, said: "The Highways Agency, as one of our partners, approached us with concern about the number of accidents and fatalities that there have been on that stretch of the motorway. We carried out our research to see whether it met the criteria and it does."We will be putting up signs on the motorway to start with to let people know what we are doing and we will be introducing the mobile units within the next six months."People may feel that they are safe on the motorway going at 75 to 80mph and that there are few hazards.

But when something goes wrong the problems are far worse and it is much more difficult to deal with it at speed." It is expected only three or four patrols will operate at any one time with cameras stationed on bridges across the motorways.Mobile units can only be placed within a kilometre of an area where at least two people have been killed or seriously injured in accidents during the previous three years.

Fixed cameras may only be used if there have been at least four deaths and serious injuries in the same period, or eight serious accidents.Edmund King, from the RAC Foundation, said the Department For Transport (DFT) should change the way speed camera partnerships work.He said: "Placing cameras on motorways goes against the DFT's own guidance which says motorways are actually the safest roads to drive on, and the statistics back this up."At busy interchanges like Almondsbury, traffic is slowed right down to 40 or 50mph, and the worst kind of accident you get is a shunt.

When the motorway is back to full speed, it is actually at its safest, so putting cameras on there is just a nonsense."I think the DFT should actually review the role of the safety camera partnerships because what they should be doing is actually targeting areas which have the most accidents, not motorways." The Avon and Somerset gives the locations of all its cameras on its website www.safecam.org.uk

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NO ALLOWANCES BY SPEED CAMS 11:00 - 19 January 2004

So now we are going to get speed cameras on motorways. Worse than that, we are going to get mobile speed cameras on motorways.And, of course, this has got everything to do with saving lives and nothing at all to do with raising money.Like hell it has.This is a further cynical act of exploitation.

A further way of emptying drivers' pockets. Another attempt to ensure that more people end up banned from the road.And it will do nothing to make our motorways safer.This latest move was prompted by the Highways Agency, the body responsible for motorways.Surely given the volume of traffic and the number of accidents, our motorways must be the safest roads in the country.And what is the one thing that can cause accidents on a motorway? It is when cars travelling along are forced, for some reason, to slow down. If that happens and one makes a slight braking error then a pile-up occurs.Inevitably if drivers spot a mobile camera on a motorway bridge they will start to pull up. That's because most people drive at about 80mph on motorways. It's a fact of life. Privately, most police will tell you that 80mph is acce ptable.But if the speed camera people get their chance, can you imagine them tolerating us driving at 80mph?Of course not.

They will clock motorists by the hundred and then tell us that the official speed limit is 70 mph. And that's the biggest problem, for the speed camera people do not seem to live in the real world.Furthermore their cameras, static or otherwise, record only the speed of a vehicle. They do not take into account the weather conditions at the time, nor the volume of traffic or what else is happening on the roads.

They are a crude measure, and therefore an inaccurate one.Sometimes speed is not only safe, it is essential. Sometimes, particularly on motorways, acceleration is the only way to avoid an accident.Yet these cameras and their operators make no allowances. They exist only to catch drivers who are breaking the speed limit.Few people argue with the principle of making our roads safer, but most of us contend that breaking the speed limit momentarily or by only a small margin should be tolerated.

We have already called for motorists caught speeding to be given a warning first and only to be fined on a second offence. We are today calling for a more intelligent application of speed cameras.Before they are even considered fit to record motorway traffic we need a promise that conditions will be taken into account as well as speed. There are already too many motorists driving around nervously looking for cameras instead of concentrating on the road.We cannot allow that to happen on our motorways as well. Otherwise, rather than saving more lives, speed cameras will be contributing to the loss of more of them.


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[STEVE G]

That'll be me not going to the westcountry for my hols then.
Steve G {-}
GE427-Rover 281ci.(300+BHP)

[Miket]

Steve

Come on down and stick to 70 mph, problem solved.

:tu :tu :tu

[graham]

Or buy an origin B2 GPS detector like me that maps all Fixed Cameras inc specs (M1 jct 7-6a) and an LRC100 detector/diffuser.


Graham

[plod]

Or.......do 171mph. You might actually get away with 156... tho your underpants might not take it:wewar

Paul