A new design for a speed camera (Speed Cameras and Speed Limits)

Member Name: soundsexciting

Product:	Speed Cameras and Speed Limits
Date:	14/03/09 (157 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A much fairer way to treat motorists

Disadvantages: You tell me

Speed cameras are a necessary evil but I don't believe they are effective in catching bad drivers. I have 6 points on my licence and about to get another 3 but that's not the reason I'm against them.

I'm against them because they are not flexible enough. They do not adapt to the ever changing road conditions.

Driving at 50mph in a 40mph limit in good weather with clear visibility is not as dangerous in my opinion as driving at 40mph in a 40mph limit in a snow blizzard yet a speed camera would penalise a driver doing 50 in good weather and not do a thing about a nutter driving at speed in the snow.

Excessive speed on it's own is not a problem. Excessive speed that is inconsistent with the road conditions at the time is the combination that causes accidents.

I have an alternative design for a speed camera and the technology to build these exists now.

All you need is the following:

1x speed camera
1x computer memory
1x some clever software
1x Bright LED Screen at the back to display a 2 digit number

Such a speed camera would not only check how fast each car is moving but it would store its speed and store the speed of every other car that goes past it. Internally the software would at any given time know the average speed of all the cars that have gone past it in say the last 30 minutes.

The camera would still take pictures of cars that are speeding but the definition of speeding would be subtly different.

The camera would not simply go off when a car goes past at a certain speed above the limit for the road.

Instead it would go off at a certain speed above the AVERAGE speed of all cars that have gone past it in the last 30 minutes. This average speed would be displayed on the LED screen at the back.

So at any given time a road will have an average speed limit instead of a fixed speed limit.

My theory is this:

In good weather with clear visibility with perhaps few cars on the road, people will naturally drive a little faster than they would at other times because it is safe to do so. This would bring the average speed held internally in the camera to a value higher than normal. Hence only people speeding substantially more than every other person on the road would be caught. (say 60 in a 40 limit)

In bad weather, the safe drivers will naturally slow down and with their slowing down the average speed on that road will drop. Any person driving past at a speed much higher than the new average speed would be caught.

So taking my example earlier on a road with a 40mph speed limit:

In good weather, the camera might not activate until a car goes past it at say 60mph
In bad weather the camera might activate much sooner e.g. 35mph.

In both cases the AVERAGE speed would be displayed at the back of the camera. Anyone doing more than say 7 or 8 mph more than that average would be photographed.

On the same road with say road works on it, the same thing would happen.
Most careful motorists would slow down and as a result the average speed on that road would be reduced. Therefore anyone going past the camera at a speed substantially greater than the other drivers would be caught.

Exactly the same principle would apply at night. I would suggest that driving at 40mph on some 40mph roads at night is as dangerous as driving on the same road at 60mph during the day.

I think speed cameras designed on these principles would be much easier to sell to the public who see current cameras as simply cash cows for the authorities. Cameras such as these would automatically adapt to the changing road conditions because they would follow the adaptations that motorists make themselves to the conditions that they encounter on the road. Cameras such as these would be much fairer in those it targets for speeding.

If cameras designed along these principles were deployed then they would not be catching motorists who speed but motorists who speed irrespective of the road conditions.

I'd be genuinely interested in any opinions out there.
Am I completely barking mad ? Have I not thought this through? or should I head off to Dragons Den looking for an investment !!

Thanks
Soundsexciting

Summary: A new design for a speed camera