There are over 5844 speed cameras in the United Kingdom and 2500 of them being mobile speed cameras, given that there are 245,000 miles of road in the country that means that every 40 miles of road has a speed camera on it on average. That is a staggering number of speed cameras on the roads, but are they really needed? [John Henry. net] The first speed camera was conceptualised in 1905 when a patent for “time recording camera for trapping motorists” [Wikipedia).
But it wasn’t until 1958 when Maurice Gatsonide’s Company produced the Gatsometer, the invention was originally created to record the speed of a race car around a track but by 1960 the cameras were already being sold to law enforcement. The first Gatso cameras worked on film but in 1971 Radar cameras were in operation. In the late 1990’s digital variations of speed cameras were being introduced around the United Kingdom. There are 2 categories of speed cameras, mobile and fixed position, the latter of which is the most common.
Fixed position cameras can be implemented alongside the road whilst mobile cameras can be placed on board vehicles, the VASCAR (Visual Average Speed Computer And Recorder) is a device capable of calculating the speed of an automobile whether it be moving in the same or opposite direction. It was first introduced in 1966 by Arthur Marshall and was then used by police officers in the USA. VASCAR devices can be used from any vehicle and even on board helicopters.
Mobile devices are more accurate at range as they utilise laser technology to measure how fast a vehicle is going as opposed to fixed devices like the Gatso, Truelo, SPECS and VECTOR which use digital cameras linked to a computer to calculate speed. [Speedcamerasuk. com] Research For my research I primarily used websites and research papers to gather my information on the different types of speed cameras and their uses, I also viewed several online debates on the subject to get more of a view from the general public.
I used the Wikipedia entries of both the traffic enforcement camera and speed limit enforcement to research the history of speed cameras and who original invented them. Although Wikipedia can be amended by anyone it is usually a very reliable source of information due to the amount of people who use it and add information to each page. The information I found on Wikipedia was mainly quantative as it showed numerical information such as number of speed cameras and when they were introduced.
To get a more in depth view of speed cameras I went to the ROSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) website in order to obtain more data for speeding offences and accidents. ROSPA is a trusted charity in the United Kingdom and has been active for 99 years now, this means their information is very trust worthy and I can use it in my report. The information on ROSPA’s website was all quantative as it shows hundreds of figures speeding and collisions. I also used http:// www. monash. edu/data/assets/pdf_file/0008/216854/ muarc242. df to get an insight into how people feel about speed cameras in different parts of the world and how speed cameras are both perceived as a negative impact on motorists but also how they save lives. This paper gives a very detailed look into the public perception of speed cameras and how in different countries e. g. the UK and the USA see speed cameras very differently such as in USA people complain that speed cameras are placed in the most lucrative spots so that the camera can make the most money. Whereas in the UK people are most concerned with the rising fines that have come in the previous years.
As this paper is very long it has a very large amount of quantitative and also qualitative data as well. Discussion Speed cameras save lives, in 2013 1,713 people lost their lives due to road accidents in the UK [Gov. uk]. In Figure 1 below shows the deaths from road accidents and breaks the deaths down to the type of vehicle the accident involved [Charts. dft. gov. uk]. This graph shows that over the past 16 years fatal road accidents have nearly halved, this must be due to introduction of digital speed cameras in the late 1990’s.
A massive 46% of motorists surpass the speed limit on 30 mph roads, whereas 50% exceed 70 mph on motorways and 14% will go over 80 mph. [Rospa. com] These figures show that speeding is abundant on the roads of Britain and combined with the fact that you are almost 5 times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident when going 40 mph compared to 30 it shows that something needs to be done about excessive speeding. Around the world speed cameras have become more and more common, yet there are more effective ways of stopping traffic from exceeding the speed limit. One study in the UK has shown that other forms of speed control, such as speed bumps and speed indicator signs are much more effective at reducing accidents. ” [Cameras] Whilst another study shows that “no significant difference was observed in the Personal Injury Accident rate for sites with and without cameras” [Thenewspaper. com]. These 2 studies show that not only have speed cameras been a nuisance to motorists but that they have been actually harmful to them as they have been known to create accidents.
This is especially the case with older models of the Gatso camera as it often flashed and disorientated anyone travelling in the opposite direction to when it flashed a motorist. A study in the USA has shown that speed cameras are placed in locations not where they would prevent the most accidents but in places where they would earn the most money from catching speed limit breakers, equally some local governments have been known to shorten the length of time amber lights show on traffic lights from 3. 85 to 1. 7s catching more people not being able to stop in time and therefore making more money.
Cameras and Pettinger] Conclusion There is no doubt that speed cameras have saved thousands of lives since their introduction in the mid-20th century but I feel as though the way in which they have been implemented has been imprudent. Instead of having increasingly large fines for motorists who brake the speed limit and more tighter restrictions about how the camera catches the motorist, shouldn’t speed cameras revenue at least be reinvested into making the roads better quality or even safer instead of being given straight to the government?
