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Although I do disagree with many of the speed limits in the area's I drive and that I think they are safe roads with just pillocks driving at unsafe speeds that cause the accidents .. I also believe that if you break the speed limit (no matter how ridiculous) then you deserve to get fined and points added.

There are major roadworks happening on my main road which will turn a dual carrigeway of 70mph limit to a single carrigeway of 50mph with two speed camera's along thwe route. The reason they are doing this is because of all the pratts driving 70mph+ in icy or very wet conditions, and those that don't take care when turning off at junctions.

So rather than remove the problem junctions and add a island every so often to allow drivers to safely turn onto the carrigeway, drive a little way down and then do a U-turn on the island they are just doing to slow the whole ething road down.

But going back to my previous point, even though I disagree with it, the limits they put up are law and I have no sympathy for those that break limits and get caught. And yes I have been caught once myself and gave myself no sympathy at all

Also, whatwhat raises a good point, I find myself concentrating more on doing less than the limit when I see coppers and speed camera's than the road itself, that itself is very dangerous.


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I do get the impression that they just make roads slower to appear safer so it appeases the campaingers who complain about the road being unsafe. What they never seem to realise is that in the majority of accidents, speed is the factor, so rather than deal with that and make a junction or road safer like blocking off a access point in the middle of a dual carrigeway they opt to slow the whole road down. Thing is, is that the poeple who want to drive 90mph down that road are going to try and do so regardless. So your slowing down traffic and causing tailing traffic which agrivates drivers to overtake more dangerously as they have few opportunities to over take.

I wonder if my view would be different if I worked for the Highway agency. If anyone on dakka does, then I'd love to hear your take on this

In Japan if you go over 70mph, whatever that is in Kmph, a little bell goes ding, ding, ding in the dashboard.

Well, I know what wire I'm cutting first if I ever live there.

Firstly, starting this thread had me jynxed well and trully. Secondly, just learnt the hard way today them feckers can get you half a mile away. Got caught by some coppers speed gun contraption 750m away. We have no chance.

We have speed cameras, because people can't drive at the speeds we have now
See here

Well, in my experience, people drive faster as the cars created today "seem" to handle it. Well, it only takes one little thing to make you run off the road and either die or get someone else killed.

The roads aren't built for speed. If you hit a dead animal, tire, bump, rubbish or whatever lying on the road you are goooooone. At high speed you won't see it.

Suspension in a normal car is not built for high speed. Hit a bump before a corner and you could run right off the road.

In saying that, most people get booked for doing 10 or so over the speed limit. Its a small majority that get hit doing some crazy speed.

whatwhat wrote:sub 70 speed limits and countless toll roads, that's my experience of driving in the US. Suppose it's a state by state thing though.

Indeed, the further East you are, the more congested the roads, and the more tolls. As you go west, everything opens up.

bsohi wrote:
I never understood the big hooplah over speed camera's. You nay-sayers seem akin to saying "how DARE they want to punish me for committing a crime, even though there was no police officer there!"

It's because in many cases, the speed cameras aren't there to enforce laws, they're there to generate revenue. There is one street near my house, where the speed limit is 35MPH for one block. This isn't for safety reasons, it's to generate revenue for the town based on catching drivers unaware. It's a five lane road with full shoulders on each side. The block directly west has a speed limit of 45MPH, the one east has a limit of 45MPH. Other than a single sign (in each direction), there are no visual cues that would alert a driver that they should change speed (such as a narrowing of lanes, reduction of shoulder, etc.) This one little stretch has the lower speed limit (and camera) as a money grab.

It's the same with red-light cameras. At first, towns installed them due to promises of increased safety at high-risk intersections. But, then they ended up selling contracts to private firms to run the cameras and collect the fines. All of a sudden, the yellow-light time at many of these already-risky intersections was lowered, often below the federally recommended minimum duration. Why? To catch more people who get caught as the yellow turns red when they'd realistically expect to be able to clear the intersection safely.

This is being challenged in courts across the US at the moment, BTW. A quick google search can get you references.

As long as police departments and villages depend on traffic tickets to generate revenue, no one will trust them. Maybe if the government was interested in safety, and set appropriate speed limits for safety, rather than artificially lower limits to generate cash, I'd accept that cameras would be a useful tool to punish law-breakers. But at the moment, that's not it at all. It's a money grab, plain and simple. Towns are strapped for cash, and want to make up budget shortfalls without raising taxes, and tickets are one way to do that.


Speeding is a crime, one that puts lives at risk. Don't bleeding do it. These camera's aren't getting people who go 5-10 kmh over the limit, they're getting people who were going 20 kmh over at least.

The main problem with these things is as Redbeard points out; they get out-sourced to private contractors who see them as a source of revenue rather than a public service.

Redbeard speaks the truth.