Remind me the purpose of speed cameras again?

Tommy B

Tommy B

Tommy B

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Is it to raise revenue, or "increase road safety by reducing the number of accidents?"

In general, I don't really have a problem with these, except on the motorway where it is completely unnecessary and contradictory to what they are meant to do. However, this is ridiculous.

I've only been driving for over a year, but I have never seen speed cameras on the actual junctions onto an A road. This afternoon, I was entering a 3 lane A road between Orpington and Lewisham, speed limit was 50mph, and there were speed cameras exactly about 5 metres after the junction. Lacking experience, for all I knew it could have been a motorway because it certainly looked like one! It was only the passenger who warned me that it wasn't anything like a motorway, even though there were still people doing between 80 and 90mph.

How the hell do they get away with this? You quite often have to slam your foot to the floor on junctions to get into a space, and having a god damn speed camera is not comforting, especially when the speed limit if 50mph! If anything this surely breaks concentration and aids to accidents?

God only knows how they get away with it!
 
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surely if you were all doing 50 there would be no need to slam on your brakes to get into a space.
 
Yes, I was doing way more than 50mph, but that's not my point.

Sometimes when you join a busy motorway/dual way you either have to slam on the breaks to get in lane, or simply slam your foot to the floor and accelerate into the lane.

It doesn't help when the speed limit is 50mph, and there are cretins already in that lane doing about 70mph. They also then slam the breaks on when they see it, and it has the potential to cause a devastating accident.

It's a vulgar and extremely dangerous way of generating money and in this particular case it makes the road more dangerous not safe!
 
if posts like the above were true, then every driver in the UK would have at least one speeding conviction.
it's more to do with an inexperienced driver not being familiar with the road system and how it works.
 
That'll have been the a20, yes?

Stupidly low limits for the size of the road, bearing in mind that it does not pass through residential areas for much of it's length.
 
Tommy B said:
Yes, I was doing way more than 50mph, but that's not my point.

Sometimes when you join a busy motorway/dual way you either have to slam on the breaks to get in lane, or simply slam your foot to the floor and accelerate into the lane.
Click to expand...

No you don't. Try looking further ahead than the front of your car and you'll find it's easy to merge without having to slam your brakes on. In 10 years of driving I can't ever remember having to slam my brakes on to get into a lane.
 
Well, the one thing cameras aren't for is saving lives... If they wanted to save lives, they actually have to target the factors causing them to be lost in the first place.

So I think we'll go for revenue generation and reducing the safety of our roads as the primary reasons. Perhaps they're trying to make the roads so dangerous we all want to switch to public transport?
 
safety cameras do a good job at

A: catching drunk drivers
B: catching mobile phone users
C: catching people without tax/insurance
D: catching dangerous drivers (you dont have to speed to be dangerous)


..........not.
 
i have no problem with speed cameras in dangerous places. But they never are. The hide around corners, so sit just behind a 30 zone just after a 60 one has ended. Technically they are correct as you should be doing 30 in a 30 zone max no matter what, yet this means we drivers are constantly on edge and looking in hedges and lanes and at our speed instead of actually looking at the road.

here is how my dad got caught. doing 40ish in a 40zone..... you see a national coming up 50m away...... he starts to speed up to 60..... bam hes caught, the copper was sat behind the sign catching people. colelcting money and nothing else. Tbh im suprised that some people havnt got out of the car and given the policeman some crap.
 
What's with the "Oh look at me I'm awesome at driving" ego around here?

Sure, I'll just go and ask daddy to buy me an RS4. That powerful enough? :rolleyes:

Secondly, I have been in situations before where I've had to break to join a busy motorway. I don't think "driving skill" means much when the inside lane is SOLID with trucks and vans.
 
It doesn't help that with this particular junction, the entry road was a tight bend, and any views of the motorway were obscured by trees. As soon as you can see the inside lane, most people are already doing about 50-60mph.

Obviously the road is long enough for anticipation and a safe entry, but if the inside lane is solid with moving vehicles, it becomes difficult. I've seen other cars slow right down to about 10mph before to get entry.

It's a dangerous junction.

There will always be people who automatically reply "omg crap driver wtf" but tbh there are dangerous roads where you have to exercise more caution.
 
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Whether it is a three lane A road or a motorway is neither here nor there as there could equally be a 50 mph speed limit on either. Isn't there always a sign telling you when you are joining a motorway anyway?

Those automatic traffic management systems are the worst, where they have a 40 or 50 mph limit with cameras on gantrys every few hundred meters.
 
I thought the whole point of speed cameras is to give 'some' OcUK forum members the opportunity to say "If you don't speed then you wont have any problems " :D
 
I think the problem is more an issue that you are accelerating down the slip road to join the faster traffic, but instead of being able to look to join the flow, you are also trying to keep one eye on your speedometer so you don't creep above 50.

I know where you mean on the A20. There's a similar situation on the A2 at the Sun in the Sands...as you move down the slip heading eastbound, the camera is right at the end of the slip road. Usually I can anticipate it well enough, but the combination of a notoriously busy piece of road with traffic attempting to merge from the left is not helped when everyone is trying to watch their speed rather than each other.
 
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