Government's obsession with speeding..

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 3:08 pm

Interesting report on Pistonheads:

Commenting on the news, Paul Smith, founder of SafeSpeed.org.uk, said: "After 28 years of having the safest roads in Europe we have finally lost our crown."

"There's one reason and one reason only. We have had bad road safety policy since the early 1990s. At the centre of the bad policy are speed cameras and the oversimplified notion that 'slower is safer' - if only things were so simple!"

"An obsession with vehicle speeds has caused a gross neglect of road user quality - and road user quality is the true foundation of all road safety."

"Department for Transport policies have been based on dodgy statistics and false assumptions. No wonder they haven't worked. We need to scrap speed cameras to 'wash away' the layers of oversimplified thinking. Department for Transport must admit their mistakes and take full responsibility."

The entire article: http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default ... ryId=16373

More in this story too:

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default ... ryId=16368

j2 lot · Post by **j2 lot** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:11 pm

..it really is about time there was recognition that driver training is more important than speed cameras, and spending a bit of money on repairs and improvements to the road network would not go amiss either.
Keith

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:18 pm

j2 lot wrote:..it really is about time there was recognition that driver training is more important than speed cameras, and spending a bit of money on repairs and improvements to the road network would not go amiss either.
Keith

hendeg · Post by **hendeg** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:48 pm

I'm of the opinion that there is no real effort made to reduce speeding by the government. If they were committed to it, it would be a case of dishing out strict punishments that acted as a deterrant. Points and small fines are pretty much a nuisance factor.

That's not to say that I'm all for stricter punishment! Because speed is easy to measure (unless your lawyer can prove otherwise) it's an obvious choice for imposing. How do you measure bad driving?

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 8:00 pm

hendeg wrote:How do you measure bad driving?

Speed is not the cause of accidents, poor driver training and inappropriate appreciation of the road results in far more accidents than going 10mph over the limit

I could rant and bang my head off the wall all night on this subject.

It was mentioned in the media the other day about introducing regular re-tests for all, be it 5 or 10 yearly etc. I was all for this in theory until I thought about how todays government would carry it out in practice.

For the pleasure you would have to pay for it, it would almost certainly be done as a formality as centres would be inundated with people needing to do their retest, so it would inevitably end up being another motorist stealth tax. No measures to re-educate or remove the truly inept from the roads. Just another give us your £50 (or however much it costs these days) and piss off ta.

Speed cameras work ie they make money and provide statistics to be manipulated as the government sees fit, I doubt anyone here would have a problem with genuine driver training and education but thats not going to make money now is it.