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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:25 
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http://www.tamworthherald.co.uk/display ... K=11596890

FURY AT ATTACK ON SPEED CAMERA MAN

10:30 - 06 January 2005
The letter from Steve Hounsham, of 'anti-car' Transport 2000, (Herald, December 23) was misleading.

There is no 'proof' that speed cameras or 20mph speed limits save lives. The evidence supporting Mr Hounsham's view relies on ignoring the long established statistical principal of 'regression to the mean' or 'bias selection', which allows for the natural fluctuations in the numbers of accidents on our roads in the absence of control sites.

If only half of the fixed and mobile speed cameras on UK roads saved just one life per year, road fatalities would be virtually eliminated.

In reality, fatalities are rising rather than falling, and there is evidence that casualties have actually increased at many camera sites.

The letter also attacked Paul Smith of SafeSpeed. It said he is a 'one-man campaign' but he is not. SafeSpeed has a fee-paying membership, which includes myself. I have chosen to help fund his work, but nobody voted for the Government to fund the un-elected bureaucrats of Transport 2000 out of our taxes, in order to promote the bus and rail industries.

Mr Smith is a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists so I feel that his road safety credentials should not be questioned by those who have failed to declare their own.

Long may Paul Smith continue his work to expose the failure of a 'speed only matters' road safety policy that has resulted in falling numbers of traffic police officers and rising numbers of fatalities on our roads.

The fact that Transport 2000 deems it necessary to attempt a character assassination of Mr Smith must be seen as a measure of his success.

Paul Biggs, Association of British Drivers (ABD), Staffordshire Co-ordinator and member of SafeSpeed (Vva email).

***

ATTACKING SafeSpeed's Paul Smith, Transport 2000's Steve Hounsham's letter to the Herald was carefully constructed but simplistic and misleading.

Transport 2000 is a pressure group, extremely well funded by the Public Transport Industry.

Their main sport is to bash private driving.

No doubt Transport 2000 is still smarting from Paul Smith's successful Radio 4 trial and expos?? of Transport 2000.

Staffordshire - by far the county with the most traffic calming and speed cameras in the whole of the UK - had a 26 per cent INCREASE in deaths last year!

Slower speeds and speed cameras do NOT save lives; traffic calming does NOT addressing real road safety issues.

Some people are not safe at any speed!

There is simply no space to argue figures and statistics in a letter to a newspaper - one reason why Transport 2000's absurd propaganda sticks.

But I do recommend SafeSpeed's website (www.safespeed.org.uk) for a scientific, referenced, detailed and meticulously argued refutation of Transport 2000's dangerous, pressure group activities.

But what really angers me about Mr Hounsham's letter is his reliance on children's 'views' on road safety. Humbug!

Is that before or after their young minds have been fed his organisation's propaganda?

Or after have been carefully taught that humps and speed cameras do indeed 'saves lives'?

Of course children will have those views - that is what they are taught to believe. And as they get older they'll perhaps fall on web sites like safespeed.org.uk and suddenly realise they've been conned!

Paul Biggs in another letter to the Herald (December 23) told the truth. He said parents driving children to school in the safe, supervised car environment was the real reason child deaths have fallen dramatically in recent years.

Care, commonsense and courtesy - by everybody - children included - saves lives.

Cllr Chris Cooke, Tamworth (Via email)

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Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:23 
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I've been looking into this. Here's the original article, published 4th November 2004:

http://www.tamworthherald.co.uk/display ... K=11244272

THINK SAFE

10:30 - 04 November 2004

Transport 2000 and Safespeed (ed: !?!?) have published a report entitled: 'Stop, Look and Listen: children talk about traffic'.

Safe Speed says emotional appeals won't save lives on the roads, and a cold hearted, rational, and above all scientific approach to road safety is required.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "It's all about the right information. If we base our approach to road safety on the opinions of children we won't be effective and more will die. Instead we need to look at the vital psychological factors that underlie our system of road safety - it is after all the best in the world. It's facts, facts, facts that we need. Nothing less will do."


The we have T2000's reply, published 23rd December 2004
http://www.tamworthherald.co.uk/display ... K=11524828

YES, CHILDREN'S ROAD VIEWS COUNT

10:30 - 23 December 2004

Further to your article on the new report Stop, Look and Listen: Children Talk about Traffic, by Transport 2000 and Barnardo's in the Herald of November 4, it is necessary to challenge Paul Smith's claims in the piece that if we base our approach to road safety on the views of children, more will die.

This comment is patronising. Children have very clear views about where local road dangers lie - they know which roads are difficult to cross and why, and they know which streets have fast traffic and which don't.

Therefore, Transport 2000 and Barnardo's believe it is essential that local authorities seek the views of children to determine where the danger spots are.

The report was based not only on interviews with children but also on an extensive literature review, which was able to demonstrate which mechanisms in road traffic management are the most effective at saving lives.

Time and time again it has been proven that 20 mph speed limits save lives and so do speed cameras.

Evidence shows that 20mph speed limits reduce deaths and serious injuries amongst child pedestrians by an average of 70 per cent and widespread use of speed cameras has reduced deaths and serious injuries amongst all road users by 40 per cent at camera sites.

So how can Paul Smith claim these measures are based on "cheap emotional appeals" and do not save lives?

He himself needs to look at the facts.

Paul Smith's SafeSpeed 'organisation' is a one-man campaign. Smith claims to be an engineer but doesn't reveal what sort of engineer. It is certainly not clear whether or not he has any training in road safety.

He is part of the libertarian movement, which believes people should be allowed to do exactly what they want, regardless of the effect on others, the environment or even themselves.

He seems to believe drivers should be allowed to drive at whatever speed they want and that this 'freedom' is more important than the safety of others. Like similar campaigners, he is something of a conspiracy theorist, believing that motorists are being secretly persecuted by the Government as part of some sort of totalitarian master plot.

Paul Smith has a clear agenda on driving behaviour but his SafeSpeed organisation is much more about "speed" than "safe".

Thankfully his irresponsible views are not shared by the majority of motorists.

Steve Hounsham, Transport 2000.

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Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety


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