Speed cameras: "More harm than good"

Speed cameras may have done more harm than good by replacing real traffic police, according to the organisation that does transport research for the Government.

Jeremy Broughton of the Transport Research Laboratory blamed a reduction in traffic policing for a failure to cut road casualties. He said: “When you drive home this evening, the chances of being seen by a traffic officer who’s actually out observing the traffic and trying to enforce the traffic laws… is really quite low and certainly much lower than it was 10 years ago.” 

Broughton said: “The cameras are in fixed and well known locations so in effect a lot of the road network is now monitored much less closely than it was before.” 
MCN has campaigned relentlessly against the reliance on camera technology, a decline in traffic policing and a failure to cut casualties in a series of investigations since 2001.

Broughton said that cameras failed to deter the most serious offenders such as unlicensed and drink drivers, who can evade capture by using false number plates. He said: “With the camera based systems now it means there is a financial advantage in having false number plates.”