Speed cameras switched off (Bristol,Bath,Somerest)

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Not an April fools but Safecam who operate cameras in Bristol Bath and Somerset have disbanded and all fixed camera have now been turned off.
All the "Wet" cameras ran out of film last week , and the contract with BT for the uplink of cameras expired last night.

Great news for Drivers :D

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12818337
 
Will Gill said:
I disagree with the red light cameras being deactivated, they are useful and people who shoot through them deserve a ticket or two
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Yeah but they're probably mainly catching people trying to sneak through a micro second after it turns red, therefore possibly not saving THAT many accidents, and just bringing in £££££?

I doubt many people go through when it's been on red longer than 2-3 seconds.
 
Thing is that the police are still going to operate mobile camera vans it says - and to be honest these are the only bad cameras.

Does anyone care about GATSO's? If you cant spot a GATSO you deserve a fine anyway, its the mobile vans that are a pain.
 
Mr Jack said:
Well, now we will finally get reliable information on how well Speed Cameras work.
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I heard on the radio this morning that Oxford are bringing their speed cameras back on line. The accident rate was up slightly after they were switched off, 18 dead compared to 12 the year before.
 
Tim said:
Yeah but they're probably mainly catching people trying to sneak through a micro second after it turns red, therefore possibly not saving THAT many accidents, and just bringing in £££££?

I doubt many people go through when it's been on red longer than 2-3 seconds.
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If it is orange you shouldn't be going through anyway, you should be stopping so you should not be crossing the line when it is red.

I often see cars going through on red though, I'll cross the line as it goes green to orange and a car a few car lengths behind me (plenty of time to stop) will follow and not stop, by the time they are on the line it is red, this is in a 30. :rolleyes:

Unfortunately there are no redlight cameras on that junction.
 
[TW]Fox;18806585 said:
Thing is that the police are still going to operate mobile camera vans it says - and to be honest these are the only bad cameras.

Does anyone care about GATSO's? If you cant spot a GATSO you deserve a fine anyway, its the mobile vans that are a pain.
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theres only a few though and the camera partnership publish where they are every day.
 
Morba said:
theres only a few though and the camera partnership publish where they are every day.
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Yes, but beside the point I'd rather have fixed cameras than cameras which can appear at any moment.

You *can* check it, but that means checking the website every morning, which is another thing I could live without!
 
Bill101 said:
I heard on the radio this morning that Oxford are bringing their speed cameras back on line. The accident rate was up slightly after they were switched off, 18 dead compared to 12 the year before.
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Yes, I saw that. This is from the BBC:

Data released by Thames Valley Police revealed in the six months after they were switched off there were 70 slight injuries, 13 serious injuries and no fatalities from a total of 62 accidents at fixed camera sites.

In the same period the year before [August 2009 to January 2010] there were 55 slight injuries, 13 serious injuries and no fatalities from a total of 60 accidents.

Away from camera sites there were 867 collisions with 982 slight injuries, 179 serious injuries and 18 deaths during the period the cameras were turned off.

In the same period the year before there were 885 collisions with 999 slight injuries, 160 serious injuries and 12 deaths.
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So since switch off there were 2 more accidents, involving 15 more slight injuries, and no more serious deaths or fatalities compared to the previous six months. I dunno, that doesn't look like it's anything other than random variation.

Meanwhile, away from the cameras, where I'd expect there to be no effect, there were 18 less collisions, causing fewer slight injuries and more serious injuries and deaths. That could reflect a difference in behaviour but it's more likely to be just fluctuation.

It's impossible to say from a simple comparison like that, but across the number of sites that the cameras are being switched off I'd expect statistically meaningful data to be collected.
 
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