[IP] New Risks of Automatic Speedtraps CRYPTO-GRAM, May 15, 2005
Begin forwarded message:
New Risks of Automatic Speedtraps
Every security system brings about new threats. Here's an example:
"The RAC Foundation yesterday called for an urgent review of the
first fixed motorway speed cameras.
"Far from improving drivers' behaviour, motorists are now bunching at
high speeds between junctions 14-18 on the M4 in Wiltshire, said
Edmund King, the foundation's executive director.
"The cameras were introduced by the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety
Camera Partnership in an attempt to reduce accidents on a stretch of
the motorway. But most motorists are now travelling at just under
79mph, the speed at which they face being fined."
In response to automated speedtraps, drivers are adopting the obvious
tactic of driving just below the trigger speed for the cameras,
presumably on cruise control. So instead of cars on the road
traveling at a spectrum of speeds with reasonable gaps between them,
we are seeing "pelotons" of cars traveling closely bunched together
at the same high speed, presenting unfamiliar hazards to each other
and to law-abiding slower road-users.
The result is that average speeds are going up, not down.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
main.jhtml;sessionid=NRVAJJYZDVRXVQFIQM F?xml=/news/2005/04/25/
ncam25.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/04/25/%3Cbr%20/%3E ixportal.html> or
<http://tinyurl.com/7my9y>
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
main.jhtml;sessionid=4BMMZNI41WICJQFIQM GCM5OAVCBQUJVC?xml=/news/
2004/04/23/nspeed23.xml> or <http://tinyurl.com/7eoz9>
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/