Speed camera boss in 100mph drive

He is, of course, expressing “deep regret” over the incident – of course he is, he got caught

Speed cameras do not really do much for road safety/ Before they were introduced road fatalities were dropping year on year to around about 3,000 deaths on the roads; after they were introduced, the road death figure has remained at roughly 3,000 a year, i.e. speed cameras halted the decline of road deaths – nice going, Big Brother.

And now we learn that the number of tickets issued per year has doubled under Labour and that the ZaNuLabour stasi want to introduce more cameras that will

take digital pictures and link to a control centre wirelessly, are set to be approved by the Home Office within months. The proliferation of cameras renews fears of “Big Brother Britain”.

Ah Labour, the party of Big Brother, unfair taxes (sorry, fines), double-dealing, hypocrisym unfairness and incompetence – when’s the General Election so we can ditch this shower?

H/T The Telegraph

First, a disclaimer: I don’t speed through villages, I don’t speed where unsafe, but I occasionally go over the speed limit in other areas where it is safe to do so. A good hypothetical example of this would be road that was previously a 60mph limit (for years) and was then reduced to a 40mph limit (and had a speed camera slapped on it).

There’s a worrying trend that many roads are having their limits reduced and a speed camera placed on them, purely for the point of raising revenue. Yes, speed cameras can reduce accidents in accident blackspots, but I suggest you read about regression to the mean for an explanation why placing them in such spots is flawed.

Anyhoo, back to the cameras: they will be placed at entrances and exits to various estates and zones to make sure you can’t escape by rat-running (but that won’t stop people from trying). As previously stated, I don’t speed through villages, but this will lead to drivers watching their speedometer instead of watching the road and the environment around them, which is unsafe. What’s worse is road speed limits will be downgraded before the cameras are installed, i.e. from 30mph to 20mph – tell me again that cameras are not revenue-raisers?

Sigh – it’s just another part of the Government’s panopticon project, where you are measured, weighed, surveilled, judged, monitored in everything you do…

34.5 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

Fatalities were falling year on year until the introduction of speed cameras, and they’ve fell markedly less after that. Speed cameras only catch people who are exceeding (usually financially-motivated) speed limits; they don’t catch drink drivers, drug drivers, people on their bloody mobile phones, uninsured drivers, untaxed drivers, drivers who are being idiots, etc…

Let’s hope this a start of something…

Picture 1

Picture 2

It’s now in the hands of the insurers, as it’s a total loss

In a nutshell, the proposed scheme would monitor people’s cars and their journeys, and charge them per mile. An in extremis (rush hour, city centre) cost could be as much as £1.34 a mile. Even at £0.30, a round trip to visit my mother would cost me £120, more than 3 times in what I pay in petrol in total (not just tax, which is still a disgusting 75% or so of fuel cost).

The horrendous cost of travelling for pleasure or work aside, the truly insidious nature of the scheme is this: to work out how much you’ll be charged, a “black box” will be installed in your car to monitor where you’ve been (and how fast you were going, I’m sure). Are you happy with the Government, police and third-party monitoring company knowing where you’ve been, how fast, at what hours of the day?

Ah, but I forget: “If you’ve not done anything wrong, you’ve nothing to fear”; bullshit. Whatever happened to guilty until proven innocent? A right to privacy?

And just because we can be tracked by Automatic Number Plate Recognition, and our mobile phones does not imbue the government to foist yet another intrusive surveillance system on us.

So, find out more about road pricing from the Association Of British Drivers, and don’t forget to sign the petition!

After a while, I get a bit annoyed and flip him the bird, only to be shouted at by my good lady wife. A few minutes later, after this plum is still behind me with his full beam on, my good lady wife is ready to take a picture of this berk. I brake (safely) and let him overtake, and he – wait for it – flashes his fog light on and off! I KNOW MY FOG LIGHT IS ON – IT’S FOGGY!

The guy continues on his way, merrily flashing all drivers who have their fog lights on, even though it was foggy, gahhh…

Ah well, I’m sure someone else will punch his clock for him… If you get flashed by a Volvo, reg OY04 WKA, tell him I said hi

1. lower the age at which you can start driving to 16,
2. increase the number of lessons to around about 100 before the driving test can be taken,
3. include night-time and motorway driving in the lessons.

Whilst I disagree with the number of lessons (100 x £20 = crapload of money for a 16 year old), I certainly agree with the principles. There are an obscene amount of drivers on the road who do not have a grasp of of even the basic principles of diving, e.g. indicating, lane positioning on roundabouts, hogging the middle lane, ad nauseum. Increased education can only be a good thing: lack of education is a cause of many ills in the world, but more on that in another post…

Unless, of course, the idea is to deny the use of cars to those who can’t afford it, but surely not