Last year, 2 million drivers were caught by speed cameras, resulting in fines of around £120m. Campaigners claim many drivers are penalised for momentary lapses of concentration and that the sums generated by speed camera fines are essentially a 'hidden tax' against Britain's 34 million motorists.

 

Campaigners argue that the UK is one of the most difficult countries in Europe in which to maintain a clean driving licence. Nearly a million motorists are on the brink of a ban because they have racked up penalty points, a recent study found. Experts predict that if the challenge to section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is successful, the police's power to use cameras to catch speeding drivers will be severely curtailed.

 

With more and more cameras being sited not in accident blackspots, are they just another way of taxing the poor motorist.

 

Or do they really reduce the number of accidents on our roads.

i think they are a good way of targetting the speeders. ive hard many people not like about ''hidden road cameras'' but surely, if your not speeding, whats the problem.

 

police are really not that good for catching speeders either, so the more the better.

 

but another problem is that many who are caught speeding on camera drive cars that belong to work companies, so usually they arent fined, but is another problem altogether -_-

Edited September 24, 200618 yr by sab

Speed cameras are not the sole answer for accident blackspots in my opinion. They should take in consideration other factors. I was on a road in the North East with my grandfather on Friday, and he said that the main reason that there were such a lot of accidents was that it was hilly. Brow of hill, can't see anything coming until you reach the top as well as hidden dips. There were also a lot of turn offs on that road which you come across rather suddenly. My grandfather's opinion on that road is that there should just be a reduction in the speed limit the whole route and this would enable drivers to spot their turn offs easier. My grandfather I know is not part of this forum, but he has driven on that stretch of road for over 20 years whereas I am rather an infrequent visitor and not in a position to judge that particular road.

 

Another incident where speed cameras are just a tax on motorists was experienced by my grandfather some years ago. He was coming down a hill into a market town, the speed limit changed near the bottom to 30mph. Just round the corner from that were two policemen waiting to catch speeding motorists. -_-

I think that they are necessary to catch out the 'boy racers' and the joyriders, but I feel that too many local authorities are abusing them as a 'stealth tax' which detracts from the original purpose...

well the issue of speed has started to be debated heavily since the top gear crash:

 

Letters: UK roads

Published: 25 September 2006

Our Top Gear-led culture is to blame for the carnage on UK roads

 

Sir: Along with Sean O'Grady (23 September), I, like so many others, would wish Richard Hammond a speedy recovery. Yet this is the only form of speed I would wish on him, or anyone else. Why has it required a near-fatal incident to provoke a serious debate about our society's attitudes to speed and to driving and what does the delay in having such a debate say about us?

 

Television programmes like Top Gear ought to have provoked debate on questions long ago such as: why does our society have a higher risk tolerance for driving as compared to other forms of transport, given that the fatality equivalent of a Hatfield disaster occurs on our nation's roads every week? How many accidents are being caused by programmes like Top Gear through promotion of driving habits that are aggressive and speed-focused? Should TV not take some responsibility in promoting an awareness of the fact that a car is a potential lethal weapon, not merely a vehicle for bolstering a false sense of self-esteem and status? Should TV really be exploiting the middle-aged insecurities of men and women by encouraging the former to drive flash speedy cars and the latter to drive what are effectively domestic tanks (4x4s) in irony-rich attempts to keep their families "safe"? How much additional CO2 is unnecessarily being emitted through Top Gear-fuelled aggressive driving so much in evidence on our roads today? And can the UK continue to be a car-obsessed nation while it attempts to address the most serious issue of all, climate change?

 

It seems our society has completely lost the plot when it comes to road transport and has largely forgotten the meaning of the issue at hand; how to get safely from point A to point B. Mr Hammond symbolises the untold numbers of anonymous victims of our society's adolescent attitude to driving. I hope that we as a society can get well soon and recover some semblance of a more adult attitude towards driving and to transport, given that it is so critical an issue for us today and for the future.

 

ALEX M FORNAL

 

and also:

 

Johann Hari: It's time to send Clarkson to the scrapyard

So he can feel an adrenalin rush, there has to be a blood-sacrifice on our roads

Published: 25 September 2006

 

 

Ho ho. For Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and their army of Top Gear speedophiles, driving cars so fast they can smash a skull or kill a child has been a subject for uproarious laughter and acidic hate for years now. Clarkson has declared "speeding is no big deal" and shouldn't be punished with points on your licence. He has supported the gangs of thugs going around smashing the British speed cameras that have - according to independent studies - saved over 1000 innocent lives. And he has derided anybody who disagrees as a "health and safety Nazi". His acolyte "Hamster" Hammond said that because of these views, Clarkson should be made Mayor of London so he can "roar around London in a Lambourghini with a mayoral flagpole, shooting cyclists".

 

Now Hammond is lying in a hospital bed, lucky his life was not ended by this adolescent need for speed. I wonder if Clarkson, as he stared tearfully at the wounds of one of his best mates and comforted Hammond's wife and kids, thought back to all the times they have used Britain's massive death-toll from speeding as a glib punchline. Did he remember the column he wrote recently, in which he declared, "Of course, in France speeding is endemic and this means they have a far, far higher death rate than we do. But let's be frank here. You can't really judge a country by the number of people who don't die in car accidents"? Did he remember the snarling contempt with which he responded to pleas from the AA and some of Britain's most senior traffic cops to stop encouraging people to break the law? Does he see now why we "Nazis" try to slow cars down?

 

(full thing in the paper, you cant have it for free, well unless you find the paper on the train :lol: )

 

 

speedophiles!!! witty! wonder if that will end up in the next dictionary :lol:

 

Clarkson's a grade-A prick though, always has been, we do need speed limits, it's a known fact that if you drive a car at around 30mph in the city you're less likely to kill a child than if you're driving at 40.....

Clarkson's a grade-A prick though,

 

i think he's alright, even though suppose his persona will be hyped up for the show.

 

then again i am a car fan (however dont think even i would go to far as putting a toyota corolla picture on my wall :lol: :lol: )

Don't see why there was a need to go for the speed record. Hammond was very lucky. :)

simple solution, drive the right speed, it's not rocket science