Mobile Highways

Sorry if today it seems like I’m putting the world to rights today. I promise tomorrow I’ll stop ranting.

I make no apologies for the fact that I hate speed cameras. Most people immediately reply to that comment with something along the lines of, “ah yes, but weren’t you caught speeding once?”. Yes, four years ago. Although I never understood why a dual carraigeway with a usual limist of 70 had been reduced to 30 for roadworks (other than to generate revenue for Gwent Police), I held my hands up and said, yes I was doing 41, fair cop (although I filled in the Welsh version of the form to be obtuse). It slowed me down. The system worked. It’s just the constant persecution of motorists I don’t like. The hidden cameras placed in stupid speed limit areas designed purely to catch people out.

The trouble is, my argument isn’t in favour of less cameras, it’s in favour of more police officers. Speeding is by no means the only traffic offence. Today I drove 88 miles along the M4. In those 88 miles I saw 13 people using their mobile phones without handsfree sets, and 3 people not wearing seatbelts. I wasn’t deliberately looking out for it – I did have to keep one eye on where I was driving. Each of those offences is illegal, carrying a minimum £60 fine up to 6 penalty points and £1000. Arguably, they are more dangerous than a motorist travelling at 77mph on the motorway instead of 70.

Imagine a police car patroling that section of motorway. By my statistics that’s one offence less than every 7 miles, and less than every ten minutes. Surely that’s worth putting a couple of patrol cars out there on the M4? Ah, but why bother with that when you can put a camera van on a motorway bridge, catching those travelling at 77mph, and a few Highways Agency vehicles along the motorway to clear-up the carnage caused by those with only one hand and 50% of a a brain left to control their cars whilst their brain is slowly microwaved by their Nokia or Samsung?

Me? Cynical? Never.