Gotcha!

Aha! So speed cameras aren’t so safe after all.
It’s been obvious for years that speed cameras – personifying Britain’s surveillance-obsessed, control-freak government – are more about raising money than safety, but some new figures suggest the safety angle is based on some very dodgy stats.
The general rule: if a stretch of road has a spate of crashes, that’s the main ‘driver’ for installing a speed camera on it. Since a spate of crashes is statistically unusual, OF COURSE the crash rate will go down afterwards – whether a cam’s been installed or not. And when the £60 fines start rolling in, a proportion goes to both the camera operator and the local authority. In other words, cameras are installed by statistical anomalies and kept there by sales commissions.
Speed cameras hit a roadbump about two years ago, when local authorities misjudged the mood of motorists; there wasn’t any sudden realisation, but somehow during 2003 it dawned on the UK that these cameras weren’t being put there primarily for safety reasons. Now, it seems the network of cams is contracting a bit – and good riddance. How much safer can a road be if every motorist on it is looking down at his speedometer every two seconds?