Just heard this on the radio

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7685550.stm


probably too much to hope that it will spread

 

As long as the Chav's in Swindon don't go too mad!

Hopefully more councils will see sense and remove them.

 

I was just going to post a link to this story on the Register.

 

Careful, read the small print.

There are only 3 fixed cameras in Swindon.

There are 13 mobile ones, still operating.

"Wiltshire Police have said they may increasingly use hand-held, mobile speed cameras to enforce the law instead."

Personally, I prefer to have fixed cameras as one is unlikely to get caught by them, especially when driving locally. Add to that the satnav warning systems and you have to be driving poorly not to notice them in the main.

There is no defence against mobile cameras other than the obvious one of sticking to the limit of course.

 

Hopefully they've had their day. I have no objection to them being used to police the appropriate stretches of road, however it all went a bit crazy - particularly around here.

Unfortunately I think that they will continue to proliferate on motorways, particularly in their most insidious formats (i.e. mobile and the SPECS type surveillance systems). Without wanting to start a debate that has probably been had a trillion times, cameras do not prevent bad driving and if anything can encourage it.

 

Tory Council

They will pay for that decision under a Labour government

 

 

There is when the lazy, incompetent, civilian camera operator can't be arsed calibrating his equipment

And lies in his statement of evidence

And gets dismissed

Resulting in thousands of FPN's being withdrawn as the evidence was unsafe

As happened in Lancashire recently

 

Never mind the millions who have been successfully prosecuted by mobile cameras.

FWIW, there are two fixed cameras within a few hundred yards of where I live.

They are place just before a parade of shops used mostly by the elderly/pedestrians, as well as an old people's home and a two doctors surgeries.

I'm more than happy for them to be there as they are very visible and cause people to slow down as they approach the area. They are an effective deterrent and do make some sense in that context.

 

such logic does not apply around here

for reference, we now have a camera near a notorious blackspot (Hammerpot on the A27 for reference)

the siting is ludicrous - it is too far in front of the hazard (the bottom of a sharp descent, with a curve and a junction from which it is difficult to emerge safely)

as a result, it causes the inevitable bunching in the lead up to the camera

and a mad dash afterwards - where they encounter the hazard

I don't know anyone who objects to correctly sited cameras

but down here, siting is appalling, and often suspicious