THE RABBIT AND THE HARE. (Speed Cameras and Speed Limits)

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	Speed Cameras and Speed Limits
Date:	08/04/06 (271 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sometimes a slower driver is a safer one.

Disadvantages: You get fined if you are caught.

I have been reading reviews on this site about the cameras that have been installed all over the UK. I don't personally live in the UK and it is only recently that speed cameras have affected my driving experience here in France.

There are many roads in my area of France that are dotted with a sinister black cut out of a man which signifies that someone has died on a particular stretch of road. They even had one made in the shape of a child, and flowers were strewn at the foot of it.

Speeding is something that will always happen whilst cars are made that exceed the limits of roads, and I would be a liar if I said that I totally respected every speed limit. I do not, and it really is not intentional. You get to know a road, you travel it regularly and you get an apathy that is not a healthy one. "Everybody does it", comes the outcry from the public, and even though this is true, does it make it right ?

Recently, not far from where I live, they introduced speed cameras on a very dangerous stretch of road, where many fatal accidents had happened, and people were not outraged by it. Of course news of the new speed trap travelled the length and breadth of this area, and were even publicised in the local newspaper, but what this achieved was that people slowed down on this particular stretch of road, thus making it a safer place to be.

The camera works. Believe me, when you have been flashed you know about it, and in France, you are fined according to the number of kilometers that you are over the speed limit, which to me is wise.

I believe that speed cameras save lives, though to some degree feel that even if these were dummies in many of the areas near where I live, the fact that they were there at all would make drivers slow down on roads where problems had occurred.

In England, perhaps what happened to make people argue about the validity of cameras was the extent to which they were used, almost policing areas all of the time, rather than being selective as to where they are placed. In France, or at least in the area in which I live, this is not the case, and cameras are placed on dangerous roads that are known to have a bad record of safety, in an effort to improve the record of that particular stretch of road, rather than line the pockets of the government as I have read to be the case in the UK.

They have roadsigns here that I find remind me of my own stupidity if I approach them at speed. I live in a rural area, and chances are that if someone is killed, I will know a member of their family, or someone who is affected by the tragedy. We have signs as well which say "Speed does not always kill", and a picture of an invalid motif reminding us that keeping our speed at a reasonable level will not only save lives, but will help to lessen the chances of someone being handicapped for the rest of their lives by one moments' stupidity.

Do I object to the cameras and would I be offended by a fine ? I don't object. I have seen what motoring accidents do first hand, and anything that improves my road experience and that of other road users has to be an added plus. If I was fined then I would pay and feel stupid, because if we do the crime, we should never object to being pulled up on it.

Drive safely, and think of others. It matters.

Summary: Speed kills.