http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770
The road atlas that's putting speed cameras on the map
by PAUL MATTHEWS, Daily Mail
08:03am 27th June 2005
A book of maps published this week will include a new symbol - the little black camera.
More than 3,000 fixed speed camera sites are pinpointed in the 2006 edition of the AA Road Atlas.
The £14.99 guide also lists the thousands of roadside spots used by police for mobile speedtraps.
Motoring groups yesterday welcomed the publication as another weapon in the fight against the rising number of speeding fines.
But safety campaigners accused the organisation of encouraging drivers to break the law.
The AA estimates that 3million drivers are now caught each year in Britain by police cameras or speed guns. The cameras have also been blamed for a 13 per cent increase since 2003 in the number of motorists with penalty points on their licence.
Paul Smith, founder of the anticamera campaign Safe Speed, said cameras were a "huge distraction".
"Adding cameras to the road atlases is simply a response to a market demand. Drivers need to know where cameras are to protect their licences and their livelihoods.
"The real tragedy is that Government strategy has forced drivers to expend considerable mental energy in knowing camera locations. That same mental energy should instead be used to drive safely.
"We need drivers to be on the lookout for hazards, not cameras, and we need police to be on the look-out for bad driving, not speeding."
Cameras 'shifting accidents'
Latest figures for England and Wales show £114million was raised in 2003 from speed cameras.
A single camera on the A27 dual carriageway near Brighton raked in an astonishing £750,000 in two months.
Nigel Humphries, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, added: "Anything that highlights speed cameras will help motorists drive without being in a state of fear.
"Speed limits are being cut below what the reasonable person would feel is safe."
Earlier this month annual official figures revealed that road deaths at speed camera sites in Britain had fallen by 100. However, the total death toll rose by 77 - prompting claims that speed cameras are merely shifting accidents further up the road.
Some experts believe road users slow down for cameras but then accelerate to dangerous speeds.
Stephen Mesquita, general manager of AA publishing, said: "We hope that by providing this information it will make motorists aware of the blackspots on their journeys and be mindful of the dangers."
But Caroline Chisholm, from the road safety group Brake, said: "We would question the so-called safety motives of producing this map. After all, information on the camera locations is freely available, and speed cameras don't pose a threat to safe, law-abiding drivers.
"Rather than encouraging drivers to be on the look-out for cameras, it would be better to advise them to be watching out for children whose lives they risk by speeding."
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that the use of cameras in itself encourages drivers to look out for them instead of children. Every time a driver is fined sixty quid and moved 25% closer to a loss of licence that driver is encouraged to look out for speed cameras in future to prevent another fine and further points.
Sorry 'bout that, but despite having seen and heard countless similar emotionally-laden requests like this, this one really sickens me. I wonder if Ms C has ever driven so much as a golfball in her entire life, let alone had to put up with the stresses of driving around on roads populated with her beloved cameras? The insinuation that drivers who feel the need to be wary of cameras are therefore child-murdering speed demons is one which ought to alienate practically every motorist who might have shown her even the slightest amount of support. Show me a driver who doesn't keep a look-out for cameras AND is driving an insured, taxed, MOT'd vehicle traceable to them, and you'll be showing me a pretty unique specimen.
