Posted on 08/01/2010 7:24:39 PM PDT by Stoat
Britain’s network of 6,000 speed cameras could be dramatically reduced after a raft of councils looked set to follow Oxfordshire’s move and switch theirs off.
The county’s entire network of 72 cameras will be switched off at midnight tonight after the coalition Government pulled the plug on their funding.
The change of heart could usher in a different landscape for Britain’s 33million motorists two decades after the first network was installed.
Already, neighbouring Buckinghamshire said it is ‘very likely’ to switch off its cameras, while Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Derbyshire have launched reviews.
(edit)
The moves, however, could be just the tip of the iceberg as councils battle to deal with huge reductions in central government funding while expecting further cuts. Under the terms of the new budget, the road safety grant for 2010-11 has been slashed by 40 per cent
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Earth to the UK - Speeders are most definitely not good, but Muzzies are much, much worse.
It looks like Britain is TRYing (to slowly) move away from Authoritarianism while we in America are speeding toward it!
I hear they’re adding speeding cameras in the USA, so maybe Britain could make a profit out of these, LOL!
Darn...fewer targets. The Brits have shooting, burning and painting them for the past few years.
My understanding is that it was great sport in the UK to light a fire under them and destroy their expensive internals. With few guns, this was the best that they could do.
Indeed, speed cams are becoming more and more popular on this side of the Pond. Here, however, the speeding fines go to the local governments and so the situation is a bit different.
I have no doubt that there are many American towns that will be talking to UK Councils about buying up their unused cams.
"sigh"
The most popular method was to hang a tire on the camera and set it on fire.
Is that true ?? If so I have renewed respect for the British...maybe all is not lost in the UK
Interesting - the key point being the money. Here in NC, cameras were installed with the understanding that something like 75% of proceeds would go to county education funding. The counties understood that to mean 75% after costs - paying the contractors who ran the system and billed the fines - but the education bureaucracies wanted 75% of gross receipts and sued.
In some places, the cameras are still sitting there, but they’re not turned on ... and the money has gone down the schools’ bottomless pit of declining results at higher costs.
frozen paintballs...
WOW....astonishing that such a misunderstanding occurred over such a very basic structural point of the agreement.
It seems that once again, the losers will be the taxpayers and the kids, as I’m sure that whatever bureaucrats were responsible will get raises and promotions instead of being shown the door (at minimum) as they should have been.
On an only marginally-related note, as it relates to driving, a couple of weeks ago I returned from a 10k mile stoatmobile tour from Seattle, through the South and back again. I LOVED the Great Smoky Mountains of NC and I do hope to visit again. The trip made me truly fall in love with the South even though I have always been a big fan. Even though there is tremendous natural beauty, rich history, magical culinary delights, gorgeous architecture and much more, I will surely be visiting again because of the tremendous warmth and friendliness of Southerners. The difference is truly remarkable and really made me not want to return home. Southern Hospitality is very real and it makes a HUGE improvement upon the quality of life in a given region.
“sigh”
That's what I was thinking too.
The British still have some backbone.
They are going to use satellites now to catch speeders in the UK. Much more cost effective!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7608153/New-speed-cameras-trap-motorists-from-space.html
Speeding Tickets Now Coming From Outer Space
The cameras, which combine number plate reading technology with a global positioning satellite receiver, are similar to those used in roadworks.
The AA said it believed the new system could cover a network of streets as opposed to a straight line, and was “probably geared up to zones in residential areas.”
The Home Office is testing the cameras at two sites, one in Southwark, London, and the other A374 between Antony and Torpoint in Cornwall.
The `SpeedSpike’ system, which calculates average speed between any two points in the network, has been developed by PIPS Technology Ltd, an American-owned company with a base in Hampshire.
Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled “number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day”. It also referred to the system’s “low cost” and ease of installation.
The system could be used for “main road enforcement for congestion reduction and speed enforcement”, and could help to “eliminate rat-runs” and cut speeds outside schools, it added. It could also reduce the need for speed humps.
The development of speed cameras has raised concerns about expanding state surveillance.
The Home Office said it was unable to comment on the trials because of “commercial confidentiality”.
The AA said it would watch the system “carefully” but it did not believe there was anything sinister. “It is a natural evolution of the technology that is out there,” a spokesman said.
Awww heck! I hadn't heard about that.
Odd also, that they didn't mention anything about it in the Daily Mail article, and even made the point of reminding readers that the Police will still be looking out for speeders.
On top of that, one of the UK's most heralded automotive celebrities, Jeremy Clarkson from the Top Gear show, is quoted:
Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, who lives in the county, told the Sunday Times: ‘It will make no difference to the speed that anyone travels.’
One would think that "some" mention would have been made of the satellite system as picking up the slack left by the disappearance of the earth-based cams.
Very strange indeed.
Albeit I use cruise control an follow the speed limit I use a little data logger that records my speed acceleration etc with a DTG signature for 90 days an the I print it out. Start new on the chips flash memory.
Had a local motorcycle cop say he clocked Me doing ten over the limit.... Traffic court was a hoot !
Scroll through the first three pages at the link. You'll see that not only are these cameras being burned in the U.K., now they're being *blown up* as well. Another popular method is to decapitate the damned things, probably with a cordless Sawz-All. Good show!!
I think many British have looked into the abyss, and did not much like what they saw there.
Some Americans, alas, can not yet see the gaping maw of collectivism waiting and eager to devour them. Our mission in November 2010, and going forward to 2012 and beyond, is to make sure we drag America from that particular pit of Hell--if we can.
We need to remember that most people simply don't know why collectivism is a really, really, really bad idea.
They just know that it sounds really good in sound-bite format. But we on FR know that's all it is--a bumper-sticker ideology, designed to convince people who don't want to think about things like politics and their unalienable rights to give up those rights, for a bit of momentary comfort and security.
Be patient but persistent with your fellow Americans. Educate. Teach. Bring them along--slowly sometimes, but always towards liberty.
Now is the time to convince. To educate. Collectivism is failing in the USA right now. Everyone who's paying attention sees that. What people don't know is that there is an alternative.
Freedom. Liberty.
Maybe, after over a hundred years of the "progressives," we should try something new.
After all, as Einstein said, one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Great site !! Thanks, FRiend...like weeds growing up in the cracks of concrete...freedom will find a way.
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