Removal of speed cameras

bice

Has anyone - particularly riding in Oxfordshire, which has switched off its speed cameras - noticed the effects of this? Apparently speeding has gone right up in some parts of Oxfordshire as a result of the county council decision to stop paying for the cameras. other couties have scaled down as well. (The fines go to central government).

In London speed cameras and cameras to keep cars out of bus lanes have added to cyclist safety hugely. (Far more useful than the daft and expensive Boris bike scheme.)

Not that I like them ... I have just opted to pay £74 for a driver awareness scheme in Basingstoke rather than be fined £60 and have three points on the licence for driving at 37mph in a 30mph zone in Hampshire.

CiB

I drive a lot in Oxon, icluding travelling the whole width of the county on Sunday not on the A34 (dual c/way) and have to report that the vast majority of traffic obeyed the limits, like it always does even on the 50 limit route to work that I take when in the car. Nothing has changed from where I sit.

People will always speed a bit; most that I encounter stick to the limits.

Worth a note - that famous stat revelaed the other week that speeding had gone up 85% on one road in Oxford where the camera had been switched off. Apparently this is outside the Mini factory and is a dual c/way, normally it's chokka with works traffic & large lorries making deliveries to & from. The stats were generated in the 1st week of the plant's annual 2 week shutdown, when the roads were suddenly clear compared to the previous week. Stats don't always reflect what the people presenting them would like you to believe.

The real test is not whether more people are breaking an arbitrary limit; it's whether KSI stats increase by any significant amount.

kettrinboy

In Northants they are switching off a third of the 35 or so cameras here but unlike Oxon they are not revealing which ones, so the councils save money and hopefully dont see an increase in speed on the red routes.