Currently reading: London 'worst for speeding'
Report says motorists face postcode lottery for being caught speeding

Motorists face a postcode lottery when it comes to being caught for speeding, according to a new study.

London was identified as the worst area, with twice as many camera locations as the next most policed county. The study, commissioned by Roadpilot, found that Greater London has 16 per cent of the UK’s roadside speed cameras – more than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

The West Midlands, including Birmingham, has the second-highest proportion of the country’s speed cameras with 7.4 per cent of the total, followed by West Yorkshire with 6.7 per cent, Lancashire with 5.7 per cent and Staffordshire with five per cent.

James Flynn, CEO of RoadPilot, said, “It is perhaps to be expected that London, as the UK’s largest city, would have the highest concentration of speed cameras, but the extent of the differences in number of speed cameras around the UK is very surprising.”

Data from 2009 showed that the 14,856 fixed speed cameras and mobile speed gun sites at the time were not distributed evenly across England and Wales. There were 844 in Lancashire, compared with just 29 in neighbouring North Yorkshire.

Join the debate

Comments
19
Add a comment…
gregor60 5 August 2010

Re: London 'worst for speeding'

Do It wrote:
It's not as simple as revenue gathering, that is a ruinous argument and one that is wheeled out every time this issue comes up.

Yes. If people really agree it's about revenue gathering we could get rid of speed cameras in a year by simply agreeing to spend that year not speeding. If cameras are only there to bring in revenue and don't bring in any, they will be unsustainable.

I'm interested in the psychology of the signs that flag up if you're speeding but don't trigger a camera. They almost always work for me. The original ones only flagged up if you were speeding and told you to slow down. The new ones thank you for being at the correct speed. This reminds me one of the biggest leaps forward made in behaviour management when I was a teacher. I spent nearly two decades telling kids off when they did what I didn't want them to do. Someone pointed out that I would get the same result and create a better ethos by praising those who were actually on task. People like attention, and if the only way to get a reaction from a road sign is to do something wrong, there are some people who will do something wrong to get that reaction.

Also notable is the way the speeding signs tell you your speed up to a few mph over the limit but no further, so drivers can't use them to brag that they got 90 from the sign outside Hamilton and so forth.

Lanciaman 5 August 2010

Re: London 'worst for speeding'

A previously banned member wrote:
You misquoted him in your rush to have a pop. You missed out the 'etc.' after 'old people'. Maybe an apology would be the polite way to resolve this?

Thankyou.

Dan McNeil v2 4 August 2010

Re: London 'worst for speeding'

A previously banned member wrote:
You misquoted him in your rush to have a pop. You missed out the 'etc.' after 'old people'. Maybe an apology would be the polite way to resolve this?
When (in the near future) you return under yet another name, it'll be fun to refer to you as the previously banned member known as A previously banned member.