Do speed cameras serve a useful purose?

[DavidS]

Driving along a stretch of dual carriageway recently, which in good conditions it is safe for a competent driver to travel much faster than 70 mph, I could not help but notice that all that happened at the location of a speed camera is everyone jammed on their brakes and slowed from about 90 to 60. The camera has been there since Adam was a boy. Every local knows about it. The only ones they ever catch are strangers. Do cameras in these types of locations serve any useful purpose? It use to be that before a camera site was installed, the police had to prove the area had a bad accident record. Probably because councils now have more say than the police, this no longer seems to be the case.

[davewells]

Yeah they raise money for the cops and government wankers.
But in reality I wonder how many lives they save ?

[Cerberus]

There was a huge thread on this very subject quite recently:

makes amusing reading if you have a while.

[Rude Boy]

I bloody hate the things personally and I'm convinced they are just a revenue maker in disguise. In my neighbouring village, Lavenham in Suffolk, they have a couple of dirty great electronic signs which spring to life and flash at you if you exceed 30 MPH which makes you slow down. They are a visible deterrant rather than a hidden camera which catches you speeding, how on earth can that be considered a deterrant?

If the cameras were so amazing at saving lives why aren't they outside schools rather than on the A roads obscured behind bridge supports so you only see the bastard when you've gone past it....some deterrant.

It might sound like I've got a grudge against them as I've been caught by them several times but I've never been caught by one. I just hate them as they are so obviously another form of government bullshit and probably do fuck all for saving lives.

Rant over!

[DavidS]

Not only do they not save lives but they may actually cost lives and increase crime in general. Many Chief Constables have cutback on traffic police because of the provision of traffic cameras. Cameras do not catch dangerous or drunken drivers, those without licences or insurance, or those driving stolen cars. Statistics I have seen show that in some police forces traffic officers have an impressive record of catching people who have committed serious non traffic crimes such as burglary and, hard as it is to believe, actually arrest more burglars than the CID!

[jj]

They keep manufacturers of speed-cameras in business.