Are the UK Speed Cameras an Effective Deterrent
Speed cameras are now everywhere in the UK, and are usually preceded by a warning sign and the devices themselves are normally coated in a backing of reflective yellow.
They have many names, not all of them printable (!), but the most common type being referred to as a "Gatso", this being the nickname of their inventor, one Mr. Gatsomides.
More often than not, they are officially referred to as "safety cameras" with the implication that they are supposed to have some influence in calming traffic around known accident hot-spots, and maybe in the beginning that was the general idea.
In the beginning, you could also expect a high proportion of them to be non-functioning; this could have been for several reasons.
a) Run out of filmb) Flash gun working as a deterrent, but apparatus removed for processingc) Just a box to make you slow down
Nowadays they're installing hard-drive digital camera versions, or ones with a direct link back to the police station, so the old ways of recognizing a "paper tiger" can no longer be relied upon!
Yes, speeding IS an offense, but it's the indiscriminate way in which these things pick you off that hurts most, and let's not forget that in the UK, being caught not only makes a hole in your pocket but it sets you 25% along the way to getting banned for one year.
In the good old days, you were pulled over by a traffic cop, and depending on time of day, traffic density, light conditions etc, you were lectured, and then the cop would use his discretion as to whether you were a danger to yourself and other road users before deciding to issue a "fixed penalty notice". They still can, so it's a lucky driver who offends in front of a traffic cop these days!
Cameras, unfortunately, see everything as clearer cut. If you exceed the parameters (usually something like Speed Limit+10%+3mph) you are in trouble. For obvious reasons, the Police are loath to publish their actual parameters, and no doubt reserve the right to alter them at the drop of a hat.
You may well wonder what it is that I'm complaining about since I've freely admitted that speeding is against the law.
It's not the cameras as such, but the way in which they've been used to help the traffic cops totally abrogate their other responsibilities towards driving offenses. I can't remember the last time I saw someone pulled over for a dangerous car, perhaps with bald tires or no brake lights. This is because successive governments have decided that cameras are the way to making police force economies.
Also, there's a total lack of standardization how the penalties are doled out. Some local authorities offer you the chance of attending a "speed awareness" seminar in return for the penalty to be held over should you offend again.
Others just send you a letter of waffle about "safety partnerships, reducing accidents and thanking us for our (assumed) understanding" before getting heavy and threatening those that wish to contest the penalty with the possibility that the fine could be raised to 1,000 GBP from 60 GBP if we lost the case.
Therefore, almost everyone pleads guilty by post when they may even have a case, and there goes yet another nail in the coffin of democracy.
To make matters worse, there now seems to be evidence that as a safety measure, they are no longer working if indeed they ever did, and so have become discredited as mere revenue raisers for the police and the local authorities, something which the tabloid press just LOVE to get their fangs into.
As a further measure of how common speeding fines are becoming, the insurance industry, long known for its ability to spot an increase in premium when they see one, shrugs off a driving record with a mere one or two speeding fines as if it didn't exist.
And oh yes, I've got one!
