Average Speed Cameras Could be Used on all Motorways
Source Telegraph, 25th January 2010
Average speed cameras could soon be installed on all the country's motorways in order to cut carbon emissions under new proposals drawn up by the Government's environmental advisers.
In a report published today, the Sustainable Development Commission called on ministers to bring in the cameras to ensure that motorists stick to the 70 mph limit. The Commission says this alone should achieve a reduction of of 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
Department for Transport figures have shown that the 70mph speed limit is being ignored by 52 per cent of motorists. therefore using average speed cameras which measure a car's speed over a prolonged distance, rather than at a fixed point, would be more effective than the gatso style camera because they prevent motorists jamming on the brakes as soon as they see a device and then accelerating as soon as they have passed.
The introduction of average speed cameras both on motorways and in urban areas, would encourage smoother more environmentally-friendly driving. Ministers say that where average speed cameras have been introduced in place of fixed cameras, both accidents and the number of speeding fines have fallen.
Normally used at road works, there are now also 10 permanent sets of average speed cameras on Britain's motorways.
Government approval is imminent for a new generation of average speed cameras which can measure how fast a car is going on a network of streets. These will be installed in urban residential areas where a 20 mph limit is in force.
The Commission's call for more average speed cameras comes within days of Boris Johnson, London's Tory mayor, announcing that he plans to introduce them on a 7.5 mile stretch of the A13 in east London - even though the party's official policy is to choke off funding for the devices.
"For any organisation to call for any car behaviours to be altered in favour of unproven carbon emissions shows what a total shambles Road Safety has reached in this Country. The arguments are unproven, are we to now be expected to offset road safety, against someone's misunderstood concept of Global Weather Patterns ? If so this would be a travesty." said Claire Armstrong, who runs the campaign group, Safespeed.
Other recommendations in the Commission's report include a call for all cars to be fitted with speed limiters to cut carbon emissions as well as a timetable for this to happen which could make it impossible for cars to break the speed limit. It is accepted that putting the devices in all cars could take several decades, but is could result in savings of 25 million tonnes of carbon as well as improving safety.
Additionally, it believes that "Intelligent Speed Adaptation" should be fitted on Government cars, including the ministerial motor pool. This would avoid a repetition of an incident in 2000 when the official car carrying Jack Straw, then Home Secretary, was caught travelling at 103 mph.
Its proposals are contained in a report called "Smarter Moves: How Information Communications Technology can promote Sustainable Mobility".
Other recommendations from the Commission include: -
- Promoting the teaching of "eco-driving" techniques -
- Encourage the growth of car clubs, where motorists share a vehicle rather than owning one.
- Better public transport
- Introduction of pay as you drive road charging
- Tighter parking controls.
- Promotion of video conferencing / work from home rather than commute.
Stewart Davies (Business Commissioner at the Sustainable Development Commission) said “While information technology alone won’t provide all the answers, it could go a long way towards making travel in the UK safer, more pleasant and more sustainable, Already, eco-driving technology can help motorists spend less at the pumps and reduce their emissions; better information can make using public transport easier, and videoconferencing technology can help business travellers avoid some journeys altogether. It can help provide a better work-life balance, ensure we have more time with our families and as well as more productive working time. Increased, reliable internet connections on public transport could transform journeys into time well spent in a moving office, or for leisure travel – a cinema."
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