Catseyes are set to become speed traps after Britain’s top traffic officer revealed plans to hide tiny cameras in the reflective road studs.Richard Brunstrom, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, says the Catseyes cameras will help trap persistent speeding motorists.The new cameras will sit inside the Catseyes and when a speeding car races over the device, it will break an infrared beam triggering the camera to snap the number plate.
Mr Brunstrom says the new devices are needed to help control Britain’s “lawless” roads and motorways.
“Its all about bringing road policing into core police work,” he says.
By law, speed cameras have to be clearly visible but the new plans could go against government guidelines.
Road safety groups have criticised the plan as a secret money-making scheme.
A spokesman for the AA said the public would see the Catseyes cameras as a “devious” ploy to raise money and the RAC complained Mr Brunstrom was using “Big Brother tactics” to police UK traffic.
Malaysia already uses similar technology where the cameras can instantly check if your car is taxed and insured.
I think describing the AA and RAC as “road safety groups” is stretching it a bit though.
Both those ‘trusts’ winge about almost anything, including the amount of lorries on the roads…
whatever next in their pursuit of stealth taxes - probably constant monitoring from satellites in space, they’ll be able to tell if your seatbelt’s on too!
makes me laugh when speeding fines are described as ‘stealth taxes’ though.
It’s hardly a tax, I mean a tax is something you cant avoid paying (well unless you have a good acountant! ) It’s easy to avoid paying speeding fines, dont speed in the first place.
It’s hardly ‘stealthy’ either, when you consider speed limits are clearly defined either by road type and or signage. There are even signs warning of speed cameras, sometimes even where there are no cameras.
Always a good thing if it’s going to catch idiots who drive round at stupid speeds in some rotten old death trap with no MOT or insurance.
Have i ever broken the speed limit? Well of course, who hasn’t at some point, either intentionally by a few mph or through lack of concentration. At then end of the day if i ever get done for it i’d only ever have myself to blame.
dennisw1:
makes me laugh when speeding fines are described as ‘stealth taxes’ though.
It’s hardly a tax, I mean a tax is something you cant avoid paying (well unless you have a good acountant! ) It’s easy to avoid paying speeding fines, dont speed in the first place.
It’s hardly ‘stealthy’ either, when you consider speed limits are clearly defined either by road type and or signage. There are even signs warning of speed cameras, sometimes even where there are no cameras.
Always a good thing if it’s going to catch idiots who drive round at stupid speeds in some rotten old death trap with no MOT or insurance.
Have i ever broken the speed limit? Well of course, who hasn’t at some point, either intentionally by a few mph or through lack of concentration. At then end of the day if i ever get done for it i’d only ever have myself to blame.
yeah i do agree dennis - and touch wood although i do speed i’ve had a clean sheet for nearly 10 years - what i mean is another way of getting money out of you, it’s wealth redistribution because the tax system is a joke, fine people who can “afford it” to pay for propping up the welfare system etc, same as importing foreign labour to work as traffic wardens paying taxes for example, to fine the middle and upper classes who can be blase about parking fines…
dennisw1:
Always a good thing if it’s going to catch idiots who drive round at stupid speeds in some rotten old death trap with no MOT or insurance.
Yes true, but on the same token it leaves no allowances for the one fundamental flaw that we all suffer from, that being that we are human beings who are not perfect and from time to time might for a few moments slip over 30mph to 34mph, realise what we’ve done, slow down back to 30 and carry on, very safe driving, made a concious effort to drive safely but hey presto, a fine and more importantly 3 points which is a totally draconian punishment for one of the most minor law infringements I can possibly think of.
If these speed cameras and the cops who sit in the back of vans would allow for humans to make small mistakes and overlook tiny infringements then I’d fully support speed cameras because then they really would be targetted at serious speeders and the true dangers on the road, not the innocent masses who have the misfortune of slipping over the limit on a downhill section of road whilst looking into their mirror or at a juction up head rather than on the speedo. I know this sort of thing happens to me all the time, I always make an effort to adhere to speed limits, espeically 30/40 limits, but I sometimes do fall foul of going a few mph over, then realise and slow down, I dont believe that this in any way should earn me three points, a fine maybe, but points, how the hell can anyone justify such a dramatic punishment for something so small, what next, public hangings for running a red light?
This is an old idea that was planed for the A66 before speed camaras had to be clearly marked and was dismissed
so what has changed they cant be clearly so they would not be leagal
It’s hardly a tax, I mean a tax is something you cant avoid paying (well unless you have a good acountant! ) It’s easy to avoid paying speeding fines, dont speed in the first place.
It’s hardly ‘stealthy’ either, when you consider speed limits are clearly defined either by road type and or signage. There are even signs warning of speed cameras, sometimes even where there are no cameras.
Well I don’t agree with it at all. Nanny-state Britain here we come with our next stage of making life hell for everyone.
Years ago you used to have people driving about cars and trucks at sensible speeds, minding their own business and everyone was happy. Now all we’ve got is a highly frustated island full of driver’s all spending their time watching their speedo instead of what’s going on out of the window, hence the reason why there’s more crashes and fatalities now with the invention of speed camera’s of other speed-trap devices than there ever was. Yes, granted, there’s a lot more traffic on the roads but it isn’t in proportion by a long stretch.
Correct me if I’m wrong but East Yorkshire is the only county without any speed camera’s - or at least was until fairly recently. They have the lowest accident / fatality rate in the whole of the country. Need I say more? The figures speak for themselves.
Like many other normal driver’s who just want to get from A to B in a sensible sort of time and not go PC OTT by sticking rigidly to every speed limit on the road, I get highly [zb] off with vehicle’s in front of me dawdling along at 30mph (20mph when they see a speed camera 3 miles ahead) but no point taking my frustration out on them, they’re just keeping to the limit in fear of getting a ticket. No problem to me, I just overtake them and carry on doing my 50mph in a 30mph zone… yes, the 30mph zone that over the years has been put back further and further from the village it’s there for and now starts 16 miles away in the middle of nowhere with the village and any forms of life nowhere to be seen .
Now, show me a school then I’ll do 30mph - in fact not even 30mph if there are kids and mom’s about; whatever speed feels right, because that’s common sense, isn’t it ? Sadly people seem to be incapable of thinking for themselves nowadays and need a nanny state to watch their every move and control them. Well it’s not for me.
Speed limit signs are there for ornamental purposes as far as I’m concerned. Now either get out of my way or get your foot down.
I fear we’re railing against the wrong target here.
We all know the law and if we choose to break it, on our own heads be it.
We also all know that it’s not speed in itself that kills, it’s inappropriate speed.
Cameras are on the increase because there will always be idiots out there who drive at inappropriate speeds and cause accidents. All the powers that be can do to combat this is install cameras and enforce previously flexible laws.
Me? I blame the idiots as described above, not the powers that be. They are simply reacting in the only way they can.
Ps. Rob - The reason for the lack of accidents in East Yorks is simple…it contains Hull. Consequently everyone is heading AWAY from the area along the A63/M62…including the Police and Powers-That-Be.
Rob K:
Correct me if I’m wrong but East Yorkshire is the only county without any speed camera’s - or at least was until fairly recently. They have the lowest accident / fatality rate in the whole of the country. Need I say more? The figures speak for themselves.
As far as I know, North Lincolnshire where I live doesn’t have a single gatso either. Its only when you cross the border on the A15 south of Scunthorpe into Lincolnshire proper that they start.
Lucy:
Me? I blame the idiots as described above, not the powers that be. They are simply reacting in the only way they can.
I don’t know, the powers that be are still the ones who are ruining lives of people who get caught going 32mph, which by any stretch of the imagination is a long way from a lunatic going 65 past a school. The powers that be in my opinion are entirely to blame when they are criminalising innocent motorists for the most minor and un-intentional increase in speed. Its not like anyone sets out to speed through a 30 zone at 32mph, whenever I’ve found myself doing that, its always being by accident, not a pre-meditated attempt to be a menace to society in defiance of the establishment and monarch.
Correct me if I’m wrong but East Yorkshire is the only county without any speed camera’s - or at least was until fairly recently. They have the lowest accident / fatality rate in the whole of the country. Need I say more? The figures speak for themselves.
The North Humberside scamera partnership have 3 fixed sites, but as they are all within the boundries of Kingston upon Hull the are technically not in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
BUT the scamera partnership operate two safety camera vans and/or a safety camera motorcycle on most days throughout Hull, East Yorkshire & North Linconshire.
I beleive county Durham is the only force not to have a Safety Scamera Partnership
I started out reading Rob’s latest rant with a knowing nod to myself. But then I thought that, in common with several others here, the cause of road safety is not best served by inapropriate speed limits.
On my recent trip the less than 100 miles between ■■■■■■■ and Doncaster that I had estimated at about 2 hours took over 3. There were no serious holdups just loads of out-of-town speed limits. By the time we finally arrived I was in a real mood, not helped by the string of non co-phased traffic lights in Donnie itself.
So nice to get back here where, although in some villages it is 18mph in the centre, once back on the open road you can make up time.
Rob K:
Correct me if I’m wrong but East Yorkshire is the only county without any speed camera’s - or at least was until fairly recently. They have the lowest accident / fatality rate in the whole of the country. Need I say more? The figures speak for themselves.
Yeah…because they’ve turned half the county into 50 and 40 limits and during the summer, there’s so much traffic on the main routes that you can’t move. It’s got so bad that when I go from Driffield to Bridlington, I go down a single track lane that runs parallel to the A614 because it is quicker - even though I have to stop in passing places.
We have some serious problems though. There is one stretch of road that has been turned into a 40 limit from NSL from Burton Agnes to just outside Carnaby. It is a wide good quality stretch of SC A road yet every week from April to September, it is shut due to an accident. Even when the 40 limit was introduced, there’s still been a few times this year when it was closed by an accident.
There was one bend just outside Burton Agnes where cars ended up in a blokes front garden without fail at least twice a year. I’d love to know how because I’ve done that corner at 100MPH in a clapped out Rover SD1 with no rear shockers.
Conor, sounds like you’ve had the same speed-reducing brigade on your roads round there like we’ve got over here on the A58 Wetherby Road. A few years ago it was NSL all the way from the Leeds Ring Road up to where it joins the A1 at Wetherby, less the sensible 40mph speed limits for Scarcroft, Bardsey and Collingham (30mph). It’s a nice wide road, with long straights in places for overtaking opportunities of Rover driver’s.
Not anymore. Now it’s 40mph for it’s entire length, with all the villages now being reduced to 30mph limits with 8ft wide chevrons all the way down the middle from end to end, extra set of traffic lights that aren’t needed, cycle lanes, different coloured bits of tarmac - you know, that red topped stuff, and more roadside furniture that you can shake a stick at, oh and now a 7.5t limit as well.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with it as it was. It’s just one huge [zb] up road now .
Another bit of road which I go on a lot to visit my mate’s house in Bramley is the road from Bramley up to Gildersome. Just after you pass the Beulah pub you used to be able to turn left there without having to slow down as it was a left fork rather than a turn. Now they’ve built the corner up so that it becomes a 90 degree junction! Why?! [zb] me off.
I Honestly cannot see what the problem is with Speed Camera’s
A nice leisurely drive from Gateshead to Spalding adhereing to speed limits is a mere 4hrs 20 mins and you arrive there in a calm and relaxed state of mind.
Or
You can race down and get there in 3hrs 55 mins and feel stressed out
I think its just an Ego thing with Speeders, Ooooohhhh Looooook at me in my big truck going faster than you so I can impress my boss and crawl that little bit further up his ■■■■ (And still not be thought any better of)
Of course when the N.I.P drops through the letterbox it’s a different story of What If ■■? or Why Did I ■■?
Its not speed cameras themselves that are the problem, its the way they are used to criminalise the most minor infringements of speed which are of no real consequence apart from the misery of the three points for doing absoluetly nothing dangerous, especially as its not unknown for prosecutions of a 1mph speed infringement or infact faulty equipment when you weren’t even speeding at all!
I personally know that for me, one of the biggest headaches of driving is the constant worry of speed cameras, not because I have a habit of speeding, but the worry of slipping over the limit slightly whilst my mind is on other things, which is undoubtedly is when you’re driving hours and hours a day and then, bang, crash, flash, you’ve gone 34mph past a cop on a motorbike and you’re now receiving a punishment numerous more times harsh than a mugger or shop lifter may face for his or her crimes.
Personally I think Speeding offences for Truckdrivers should be dealt with by Vosa instead of the Police, as you say, it’s possible youve just had a lapse for that few seconds resulting in 4mph over the limit, but if Vosa Dealt with it, inspection of the Tacho Charts for that week would soon confirm if this was an habitual thing or just a one off
.
