Dont Smile - You Are Not On Camera ( Or Are You ? )

[Bazile]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20309794

//Mr Clinton said speed cameras helped to save lives because speeding "significantly" increases the risk of an accident happening//

Should they find the funds from other budgets ?


//Some inactive cameras will be kept to act as a speeding deterrent to drivers//

How can it be a deterrent , if they are all going to be switched off ?

[FredPuli43]

Switching some off can still mean they're a deterrent. Years ago, I saw one and braked too late, only to discover much later that it was a dummy, put up for deterrence only. Didn't stop other drivers from treating it with caution though; nobody was going to take any risk.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm not convinced about this significantly increased risk. How do they monitor all the speeding that didn't result in an accident ? I recall cameras going in at the flyover on the M4 and police apparently being amazed at the number of motorists that were speeding there. Clearly their risk assessment was assuming a far lower and flawed number. Surely there must be some increased risk but how much ?

And I would be interested in knowing the latest results from places where they switched the cameras off. Did Bedlam break out overnight ?

[Old_Geezer]

Didn't get someone hitting you in the rear then Fred ?

[Bazile]

fred

It says that there are plans to swith of - all - fixed cameras .

But it then says that ' some inactive cameras will be kept to act as a speeding deterrent to drivers '

My question is if they are all going to be switched off ( and removed ) - how is keeping some inactive cameras going to act as a deterrent ? . Drivers will know that they are inactive .

[FredPuli43]

Agree, switching them all off at some publicised date, will soon be no deterrent at all thereafter. Switching some or many off might still work.

Don't get how it saves £1 million overall. What happens to the fines? Some cameras "earn" vast amounts, surely, in all, more than £1 million ?

[gness]

Northants speed cameras were turned off two years ago. Roads deaths in 2011 were 19 and in 2012...when we had become used to not having the cameras.... road deaths were 36. There is no connection, we are told.

[bookbinder]

There's a camera in Leeds, that was switched off at least 10 years ago, but it's still there, and some drivers do brake when they see it. You can't tell that it doesn't work: you have to know about it. It was switched off when the guidelines for installing them were changed. The new guidelines said that a camera had to be visible from (I think) 60 yards or metres, and this one is just around a bend, so it can't be seen from a distance.

[sigma]

gness, are you saying that the additional 17 deaths were down to excessive speed and that a road death on one road was due to a camera on another road being switched off.

[ummmm]

They are all switched off where I live but people still slow down I think 'Just in case'

There are other cameras though.

[ummmm]

I also live in Northants.