I had a quick check for articles in response to release of speed camera data.
Remember, this is against the background of rapidly reducing road casualties
anyway due to recession, rocketing fuel and insurance costs (particularly for
younger drivers), improving car safety, engineering improvements, etc. There's
some nonsense in some of these stories but they basically say the same thing:
cameras don't prevent accidents, and often cause them. Seems like everyone knows
this now, except one or 2 people in Dorset Road Safe, and maybe some of the
other "safety" partnerships:
We must now immediately and urgently stop mobile
speed camera operations in Dorset at least and remove fixed cameras. It can only
be a matter of a short amount of time before those who allow speed cameras to
continue to be used to be considered responsible for deaths, even if by
just consuming resources that could otherwise be used on useful road safety
activities.
I had another quick look for articles about this
this morning, and I was not surprised to find some going back many years (see
below).
Heads should roll. EVEN TODAY Dorset Road Safe (and
the councils that support it and gain from it) refuse to acknowledge the
negative effects of speed cameras and fails to provide any evidence whatsoever
of any road safety benefit. How can it ever have made any decision on a
balanced, competent basis if this major factor has never been considered (more
like deliberately excluded)? It should have know this from the start, it's just
common sense, this is not just incompetence, it now looks much more like
serious negligence. How many have died due to the inflated opinion of speed
cameras by those whose jobs or balance sheets depend on them, over all this
time? Speed cameras must be withdrawn immediately, at least until an
independent and credible case is made for them on a ROAD SAFETY basis.
"Speed cameras 'do not cut accidents'... they create them, study finds"
"The MP said he was aware of one camera at Queensway in Hemel Hempstead that had
caused rather than prevented accidents."
"SPEED cameras installed to stop accidents are not doing their job, according to
national figures"
New statistics from the Department for Transport have
today revealed what has been believed about speed cameras for quite some time.
Namely, they regularly fail to cut accident rates and can
even increase them.
"SINCE mobile speed cameras were introduced at some of Bristol's worst accident
blackspots, there have been more than 4,000 crashes on the roads they watch."
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=24013
"Three speed cameras in Preston that pulled in £18,000-worth of fines in 2010
actually bore witness to an increase in the number of accidents since they were
installed."
"Not only is it scandalous that cameras where casualties have increased have
been kept in operation for many years, it is even more disturbing that the
authorities have hidden this data and authorised continued operation whilst
being in possession of this knowledge"
"Accidents rise despite presence of speed cameras"
"Casualty rates at some speed camera sites have worsened since their
installation, figures out today showed."
"SPEED cameras in South
Bucks are failing to cause accident
rates to drop despite successfully bringing
average speeds down."
"In Midsomer Norton and Radstock, none of the areas where mobile camera vans
operate has seen a significant fall in accidents since their introduction."
"Speed cameras have little or no effect on reducing road accident on roads in
the West Midlands, statistics released today suggest."
http://www.transport-watch.co.uk/transport-speed-cameras.htm
Prior to 1995 deaths per
vehicle-mile were falling at 7% per year. After that date, instead of
accelerating under the impact of the cameras, that beneficial trend collapsed to
2.5%. Had the previous trend continued there would have been 10,000 fewer
deaths that actually occurred. There is also a remarkable correlation
between those extra deaths and the number of fines
Older articles:
(2002)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2212479.stm
"Speed cameras can cause accidents
rather than prevent them, according to research carried out in Leeds.
Researchers found seeing a speed
camera can distract drivers and cause them to slam on the brakes.
Accident rates were studied on two
of the main roads in and out of Leeds.
In both cases, accidents have
increased since cameras were installed."