BBC R4 'speed camera' program

[martine]

Not wishing to appear like yet another anti-speed camera nut (hence the posting in this closed forum) but the following program this Thursday might be interesting if it's handled intelligently...

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BBC Radio 4 - 20:00
The Investigation
19 April 2007
Simon Cox investigates the truth about speed cameras and transport policy. Before speed cameras were introduced the number of road deaths was falling dramatically, but this is no longer the case.

Why has this big downward trend stopped? In 2005 there were over 2 million successful speeding prosecutions. Is punishing so many drivers really making our roads safer or are speed cameras causing as many problems as they solve?
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[Big Err]

It would be interesting if there is research that shows an increase in crashes or casualties at Camera sites, or if there is proof of new cluster sites appearing in locations away from cameras where they were previously no problem. Bearing in mind that road conditions/new developments/changes in layout etc are taken into account.

After my trip down south I was just amazed how many camera sites there were and the fact that on average one Gatso camera costs three times the amount of annual budget I have for crash reduction works this year!!!

[jont]

<bump> Just a reminder this in on tonight for those who are interested.

There's a BBC news article about it here too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6571257.stm

Don't think there will be any huge revelations to those of us who are already sceptics.

[Nigel]

[martine]

Yes quite a reasonable program. I thought Paul Smith came across well (as always) and Captain Gatso not.

One telling stat I though was that even allowing for 'regression to mean' to correct the figures, the independent prof. said cams still reduce KSIs by 20%.

I support cams at genuine black spots - perhaps they should raise the threshold from 3/4 KSIs to be more focussed...and of course I support more traffic police as I'm sure do most people on this forum.

ANPR is about to be reintroduced in the Avon & Somerset police area and that can only be good...can't it?