Roadside Speed-Cameras: Arguments for Covert Siting
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X0107400406 |
| Date | 01 November 2001 |
| Author | A.H. Reinhardt-Rutland |
| Published date | 01 November 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DR A.H. REINHARDT-RUTLAND, AFBPsS
Reader in Psychology
ROADSIDE SPEED-CAMERAS:
ARGUMENTS FOR COVERT
SITING
The Home Office is considering criticisms from motorists regarding
speed-cameras hidden from view. The suggestion is that such covert
cameras are not primarily concerned with the motorist learning safer
behaviour, but rather with massaging conviction rates and raising
finance from fines. Instead, speed-cameras should be overt and in
locations believed to be especially hazardous. In this article, I argue
that these attitudes are spurious. Motorists are poor at detecting their
own speeds and in responding generally to hazards: learning under the
influence of fines at easily identified locations is unlikely to have a
general effect on these problems. Such issues and a consideration of
wider transport policy suggest that the imposition of overt placement of
speed-cameras should be resisted.
Introduction
The poor old motorist: not only are the roads becoming ever more
crowded, but he or she is paying ever more for using them. Now the
media (for example, Wintour, 2001) tell us that motorists are angered
by speeding fines. Speed-cameras are being introduced in ever-greater
numbers, so detection is becoming more automated and efficient. Motor-
ists particularly dislike speed-cameras that are covert, that is, hidden
from view. One motoring organisation, the AA, argues that cameras are
located to obtain easy convictions, without promoting safety. Instead,
all cameras should be at points of apparent hazard and be overt, easily
noticed by all. This appears to be part of an AA campaign for a
selective relaxation of speed limits (Freeman, 1999).
The Home Office is said to be taking the concerns regarding
covertness seriously in its future directives regarding the siting of
speed-cameras. Is it right to do so?
Speed and Casualties
Road casualties have always been high, but only gradually has this fact
come to impinge on public consciousness. British roads contribute
3-4
thousand deaths per year, much greater than any other transport mode
(Transport Statistics, 2000). In Northern Ireland, political violence for
all its reputation entails less than 10% of the injuries and deaths due to
the roads (Flanagan, 2000).
Vehicle speed contributes in a major way to these statistics. For
example, evidence has been obtained in conjunction with altering the
312 The Police Journal, Volume 74 (2001)
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