Camera partnership to invest in BikeSafe

The London Safety Camera Partnership has unveiled plans to invest heavily in road safety rather than just increasing the number of cameras on London’s roads.

“We are now allowed to put part of our budget in schemes outside the partnership,” explained Tom Duckham, Project Manager for the London Safety Camera Partnership. “So we intend to invest a large amount in the BikeSafe scheme in an attempt to tackle the large number of two-wheeled accidents in London. We are initially looking at investing £100,000 but this will hopefully be expanded.”

BikeSafe is a nationwide scheme set up by police and local authorities to provide additional rider training and education. The London scheme offers rider skills days at centres around the capital.

Duckham explained that the rule changes allow the partnership to invest in engineering and education measures as well as just putting up cameras. As a result of this the London partnership is now planning to put up 75 speed activated signs that flash up the speed limit if a driver approaches it too fast. These signs are to be placed in locations that would otherwise have been covered by new cameras.

Duckham admitted that the number of cameras will also be expanding but said that there is now stringent legislation to limit the location of new camera sites strictly to areas where there are a high number of serious accidents.

Responding to accusations that the partnership was specifically targeting motorcyclists he said that this was definitely not its policy. “We have a particular problem in north-west London with bikers filtering through slow moving traffic. Bikes are often seen moving between the two lanes of traffic at up to 60mph while the traffic is stationary. We are not targeting bikers specifically but in this case they are the only vehicles breaking the speed limit so they are the only ones getting caught.”

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