So, according to the BBC, it looks like fixed speed cameras across Avon and Somerset will stop working from the end of March. I, for one, don’t consider this to be a Good Thing. However, I am aware that there are many who regard speed cameras to be the work of the Devil himself, so when I posted this news story on my Facebook page, it came as no surprise to see my In Box fill with rants from my (it must be said) middle-aged male friends who are delighted to see the back of them.
Now, I know I’m a bit simple-minded when it comes to breaking the speed limit. I bow to the laws of physics and tend to agree that the faster you are going when hitting that errant pedestrian who stupidly stepped out in front of your (skilfully driven) car then the more likely you are to kill them. I’m also a bit radical in my view that driving under the (arbitrarily chosen) speed limit is a demonstration of your ability to control your vehicle and that, if you are unable to do so, you shouldn’t be driving it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming to be a better driver just because I hold these controversial beliefs. I haven’t yet been caught by a camera but I’m well aware that I might be. I can’t guarantee that I would never drift over the limit, but I do endeavour not to do so.
However, the rhetoric of the anti-camera brigade never ceases to amaze me. The comments on my post varied from the, frankly, moronic to the tortuous logic twisting variety (supported by the most dubious of statistics) that manage to apparently prove that speed cameras are actually the most dangerous thing out there. We had the ‘speed cameras are a weapon against the soft middle classes’ response; that one also seemed to claim that the ‘scum with no insurance’ are somehow exempt from speed cameras. Didn’t quite follow that particular argument, to be honest. We had the ‘saying that speed kills is like saying that guns kill when we really know its bullets’ diatribe. We had the ones about how the misuse of motorway lanes is the real problem ‘out there’. And, of course, we had the ones written by people who had been on advanced driving courses who had driven ‘perfectly safely’ along country roads at 120mph while sat next to a police officer. That proves its safe, that does.
Why is it every moron I have ever met has done some kind of advanced driving course? What motivates people to do these courses? Is it the thrill of sitting next to a police officer (while safely doing 120mph on a country road) that gets them going? I always remember a particularly charmless colleague of mine who always had an appropriate mate ‘he knew down the pub’ that he could invoke whenever an argument was leaving him behind. You know the sort: ‘My mate is in the army/police/merchant navy/air traffic control (delete where applicable) and he reckons (insert bizarre piece of logic to back up your argument)’. I’m pretty sure he’d done some kind of super advanced driving course that involved driving in excess of the speed of sound (perfectly safely) while sitting next to a police officer on a country road. I’m also pretty sure he didn’t like speed cameras.
Well I do like speed cameras. You can go on about safe driving all you like but at the end of the day, the faster you go, the more likely you are to kill someone and if you can’t keep to the speed limit (no matter how inappropriate you feel it is) then you shouldn’t be driving. If you are one those arch speed camera conspirisists who thinks that lazy local government workers are just using them to take your money to spend on a big caviar fuelled Christmas party, then you could really spite them all; try sticking to speed limit.
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