SPEED CAMERAS

There is no need to quote the entire post directly above yours – Moggy

i agree with your commrnts, however these road traffic officers who ply up and down the motorways are simply causing mayhem by their actions stopping by a broken down vehicle on the hard shoulder then causing holdups by coneing off the area when it doesnt require this action, blocking the lane with the ensuing snarl up the result and al;so stopping on the hard shoulder observing traffic its enough having the police to contend with and their convoy antics let alone these people its like a circus at times.:mad:

The main problem I have with speed-cameras is that it seems to be traffic-policing on the cheap. Sure, it catches a lot of speeders, and those that are caught (well the ‘law-abiding’ ones) simply pay their fine, get their points and curse the government.

Of course a significant number, who don’t register their cars properly, get away scott-free. The cameras have no ability to catch them and the police (or the government) no inclination as it’s not ‘cost-effective’.

At the moment the speed-cameras just seem to be criminalising a large, otherwise law-abiding, section of drivers while letting those guilty of far worse offences off the hook.

I’m all in favour of road safety, every ‘good’ driver is, but to achieve this the police need the vast majority of drivers ‘on side’ but I think that the current speed-camera culture is having exactly the reverse effect.

These days cars are cheap but MOT tests, maintenance costs, tax and especially insurance are very expensive.

It is estimated that there are a million drivers who regularly drive without any insurance (that’s about one-in-twenty of ‘us’)!

Government figures estimate that these drivers are:

10 times more likely to have been convicted of drink driving.

6 times more likely to have been convicted of driving an unsafe vehicle.

3 times more likely to have been convicted of driving without due care and attention.

Insurance company figures estimate that 10% of UK drivers have been involved in an accident with an uninsured driver and on average an individual uninsured driver causes two accidents a year!

Insurers also reckon that for every fatal road traffic collision involving an uninsured driver, the taxpayer foots a bill of about £1.6m dealing with the aftermath.

The number of drivers without insurance is increasing and some analysts blame this for a surge in the numbers of ‘hit-and-run’ accidents in recent years.

Figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimate the cost of uninsured drivers adds £30 to average insurance policy.

Also according to the ABI the average fine for driving without insurance is £150, despite the fact that the maximum fine for the offence is £5000.

I am in favour of technology being used to help improve road-safety but that should mean useful numbers of properly equipped traffic-police on the roads not a roadside-robot and an office full of bureaucrats.

At last, after decades of dithering, the government finally has linked computer databases that holds data for every vehicle as to whether that vehicle has a current MOT, is taxed and is insured. Unfortunately these databases rely on the ‘honest’ individual driver correctly registering their vehicle.

Traffic patrol cars now have on-board cameras to detect any vehicle that is being driven without current MOT, tax and insurance. This vehicle can then be pulled-over by police officers and the driver questioned on the spot (and if necessary arrested).

I think the vast majority of drivers will support this sort of traffic-policing and will feel better about the increasing cost of obeying regulation if they see that there aren’t people getting-away without paying. And of course there would be the deterrence factor for those who think that the law doesn’t apply to them.

Interesting to see how much of ‘our’ money is spent ‘picking-up-the-pieces’ and prosecuting those who end up in court through accidents.

Also an interesting point that very little is put into prevention and more is spent on picking up the pieces. Seems to be a problem we have in the UK at the moment in a lot of areas.

As far as tax goes road tax is like most taxes -it is not hypothecated out so that it only pays for roads.

As I said before it is a tiny proportion of the total raised in taxation of the motorist, and it has been so for a long time, and long before speed cameras were even invented.

Figures from the ‘Road Users Alliance’ (who admittedly have an axe to grind) for 2006 are as follows:

Fuel tax £23.3 billion

Vehicle excise duty £5.0 billion

VAT on vehicles £7.0 billion

VAT on fuel £6.6 billion

Company car tax £2.7 billion

Grand total: £44.6 billion

Again the RUA claim that “…only £7.3 billion is reinvested for the benefit of the road user.”

Plus this ignores any revenue generated by the treasury from economic benefit of car use.

So as you can see the £115 million generated by speed cameras is a negligible amount. Also is this just the total of all the fines paid (or does the running costs of the speed-cameras have to be deducted)?

So in summary:

Speed camera fines: £115 million

Total road budget: £7300 million

Total ‘profit’ from cars: £37300 million

Even if these figures are accurate – which they may very well be for all I know – it’s still the case that those who break the law deserve punishment.

Whether some of us like it or not, driving at a speed higher than the legal limit is against the law. (I’m perfectly aware that Creaking Door isn’t saying otherwise, by the way. 🙂 )

The ultimate disposal of the funds collected as fines is irrelevant.

As I said before it is a tiny proportion of the total raised in taxation of the motorist, and it has been so for a long time, and long before speed cameras were even invented.

Figures from the ‘Road Users Alliance’ (who admittedly have an axe to grind) for 2006 are as follows:

Fuel tax £23.3 billion

Vehicle excise duty £5.0 billion

VAT on vehicles £7.0 billion

VAT on fuel £6.6 billion

Company car tax £2.7 billion

Grand total: £44.6 billion

Again the RUA claim that “…only £7.3 billion is reinvested for the benefit of the road user.”

Plus this ignores any revenue generated by the treasury from economic benefit of car use.

So as you can see the £115 million generated by speed cameras is a negligible amount. Also is this just the total of all the fines paid (or does the running costs of the speed-cameras have to be deducted)?

So in summary:

Speed camera fines: £115 million

Total road budget: £7300 million

Total ‘profit’ from cars: £37300 million

Found some more interesting figures on the ‘BRAKE’ charity site:

Interesting to see how much of ‘our’ money is spent ‘picking-up-the-pieces’ and prosecuting those who end up in court through accidents.

very impressive, but one statistic is missing. How much of the money collected from motorists through fuel tax, road tax and traffic violation fines goes back into motoring, be it road maintanence,saftey or improvment?

Point taken . But a speed camera will not detect drunk or drugged drivers ! so the best deterrent is to put more traffic policing patrols on our roads.

Absolutely agree with that!!

Yes How much of the £115 Million goes back into road safety?

Found some more interesting figures on the ‘BRAKE’ charity site:

In 2005-2006 the estimated total spend by all local authorities on dedicated road safety schemes was £135 million and the estimated spend on education, training and publicity for road safety was £37 million.

In 2000, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) published a report on road safety spending in Great Britain. The report provided a breakdown of annual road safety spending activities, which can be seen below.

Public and Private Sectors £2,177m

Total Public Expenditure £944m

Ambulance and hospital services £474m (Health Service)

Enforcement £271m (£255m Home Office; £14m DETR direct; £2m DETR non-direct)

Local safety engineering £90m (£24m Las; £60m DETR direct; £6m DETR non-direct)

Driver and vehicle licensing £73m (£58m DETR non-direct; £15m DETR direct)

Education £29m (£27m Las; £2m DETR direct)

Transport of dangerous goods £7m (DETR direct)

Total Private Expenditure £1232m

MOT and other roadworthiness testing £683m

Driver/rider training and testing £469m

Driver licensing £38m

HGV/PSV operator licensing £27m

Enforcement £15m

The PACTS report highlighted that a large proportion of public sector spending was spent on measures relating to post-collision services, rather than prevention of incidents. This included Health Service expenditure on dealing with road crash victims, and Home Office expenditure on policing and court costs.

Interesting to see how much of ‘our’ money is spent ‘picking-up-the-pieces’ and prosecuting those who end up in court through accidents.

Point taken . But a speed camera will not detect drunk or drugged drivers ! so the best deterrent is to put more traffic policing patrols on our roads.

The UK still has the safest roads in Europe, statistics prove that.

I think you might be confusing relative with absolute there – we may have relatively the safest roads in Europe but we still number fatalities in the thousands and most of those could generally be avoided. Just because other countries are worse than us doesn’t mean we have a record to be proud of.

The UK still has the safest roads in Europe, statistics prove that.

88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot.

😎

I’m one of those who side with the speed camera, more as a deterrent than anything, as it does slow down or occasionally nab those drivers who think they can drive better than any one else ,and insist on going faster than the given limits.

The UK still has the safest roads in Europe, statistics prove that.

I think this country as a very good standard of driving, there are far worse take France as an example .

I think I’d beg to differ!! I used to travel quite a distance to work on urban roads and dual carriageways and the general standard of driving seems to be appalling. Strangely increasingly incidents I’ve witnessed have been buses however that’s another story..!! Speed cameras are justified as speeding kills. The faster you go the less chance you have to stop and when you do stop the deceleration forces are greater giving you more chance of serious injury or death.

I think the main way of reducing accidents is to make the driving test harder – it doesn’t seem to be producing adequate drivers. Maybe a revalidation test every 10 years as well:diablo:

I think speed/tax cameras are a good thing

At the moment they are largely situated in areas with some accident history.

Surely we all now have gps-based camera warnings in our car? So on getting near an accident spot we get a timely aural reminder and slow down – elsewhere we are pretty free to choose our own speed since traffic cars are almost a thing of the past.

The way in which it could be made better would be for the transgressors to be fined £100, but that fine levied as a charge for a compulsory 90 minute training in driving with an advanced instructor; one who has the power, having observed a driver for those 90 minutes, to order a retest within a given period if they didn’t meet a suitable basic standard.

Driving standards in this country are pretty appalling – this would be a way to improve them.

Moggy

I think this country as a very good standard of driving, there are far worse take France as an example .

I think speed/tax cameras are a good thing

At the moment they are largely situated in areas with some accident history.

Surely we all now have gps-based camera warnings in our car? So on getting near an accident spot we get a timely aural reminder and slow down – elsewhere we are pretty free to choose our own speed since traffic cars are almost a thing of the past.

The way in which it could be made better would be for the transgressors to be fined £100, but that fine levied as a charge for a compulsory 90 minute training in driving with an advanced instructor; one who has the power, having observed a driver for those 90 minutes, to order a retest within a given period if they didn’t meet a suitable basic standard.

Driving standards in this country are pretty appalling – this would be a way to improve them.

Moggy

Some sobering figures:

Revenue from speed cameras (2006): £115 million

Revenue from fuel duty (2004-2005): £23300 million

And no, I haven’t added a few too many zeros!

Anybody still think it’s all about the money? 🙂

Yes How much of the £115 Million goes back into road safety?

Maybe the government should scrap the fines and only put points on the licences of those who speed (and who register their car correctly of course). 😉

The ‘lost’ revenue could be recovered by a 0.5% rise in fuel duty but of course that would penalise everybody and not just the speeders.

Some sobering figures:

Revenue from speed cameras (2006): £115 million

Revenue from fuel duty (2004-2005): £23300 million

And no, I haven’t added a few too many zeros!

Anybody still think it’s all about the money? 🙂

They are their for our and the publics “safety” fellas. Remeber more accidents are caused with speed cameras then without but the goverment think it is the other way round. Anyway the money they take in is for the X-Mass party so they can get the best food,drink and venue.

If were so bothered then we should take a standhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEWwuxDIos0

…nor do local roads improve so where does the revenue go ?(we are talking 115 million last year)certainly not on our highways.:mad: 😡

Obviously not on proper interpunction, capitalisation and spelling education.