Gatso's useful or not?

[jonesy]

I agree if, and it is an if as speed cameras are something I tend to ignore the existence of, a quick speed check is all that's required. Unfortunately all though that's all it should be a speed check & possible correction I've been driven & watched drivers become fixated on their speedo for a good 5 to 10 seconds. I've also had drivers bomb passed me well above the speed limit only to do a virtual emergency stop, forcing me to brake aggressively, then trickle through a speed camera well below the posted limit. I've had people 'randomly' jam their brakes on on the A14 every time they see one of the speed cameras (not that that'll do much good as they're average speed not instantaneous).

The problem, as I said before, is in the minds of most people the crime is getting caught speeding not the act of speeding & this is what causes the distraction, people are too busy trying not to get caught rather than driving at the speed limit & just making sure they've not slipped up.

Yet accident rates still fall when they are installed. Funny that...

 

[ufkacbln]

Fine idea, but you'd have to set the whole road at the lowest limit. And you can imagine how popular that would be.

Always a worrying argument - we have a typical road where it is changing two or three times locally, however when you look at the area it is because the dual carriageway has a series of junctions, a garage and other areas where accidents have occurred at the faster speed limits, slowing the traffic down makes these areas safer - shame the drivers couldn't have worked this one out for themselves?

 

[GrasB]

Yet accident rates still fall when they are installed. Funny that...

Sometimes they fall, other times they rise & there are a fair number of cases where the incident rate is approximately the same but with an mode changes. You're changing the risk balance & thus it's not a miracle cure.

I know of 2 speed cameras that raised incident rates with their installation & the incident rate fell again at the location where one was removed. I also know of another camera that produced no measurable change in the incident rate but appeared to cause an increase in injury rates.