The RAC Foundation has today announced that eight hundred more people could be killed or seriously injured each year on Britain’s roads if all the fixed and mobile speed cameras operational before the road safety grant was cut this summer were to be decommissioned.
The apparent scale of benefits offered by speed cameras are detailed in a new report by Professor Richard Allsop of University College London for the RAC Foundation. The report claims that speed cameras have offered continuing road safety benefits since their widespread introduction between 2001 and 2005.
These benefits, Professor Allsop concludes, are not just to be found at camera sites but across the wider road network.
He also points out that a large majority of the public have consistently backed the use of cameras and also seeks to dispel the “myth” that penalties generated by cameras are a significant source of revenue, showing that in 2007 just £4 out of every £60 raised in penalties was net income to the Treasury and there was no surplus for local authorities or the police.
Commenting on the report, Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said:
“The current crisis in funding for speed cameras – and road safety in general – leaves road users at real risk. The clear evidence is that if speed cameras were to be decommissioned then around 800 more people are likely to be killed or seriously injured on the roads each year.
“The government has said decisions on speed camera funding must be taken at local level which is why we are sending this evidence direct to all highway authorities. Councillors are perfectly within their rights to use scarce resources on things other than cameras but they need to know what the consequences could be.
“Professor Allsop’s work suggests scrapping cameras would be a big mistake because the cash to install them has already been spent; they save life and demonstrate value for money; and despite the headlines, most people accept the need for them.
“Speed cameras should never be the only weapon in the road safety armoury, but nor should then be absent from the battle.
“Some politicians say there are more cost effective ways to save life on the highway. It is the responsibility of these people to demonstrate what these are.”
The RAC Foundation is sending a copy of the report to every highway authority in the country as they consider how best to spend their reduced road safety budgets.
The RAC Foundation
The Royal Automobile Club Foundation for Motoring Ltd is a charity which explores the economic, mobility, safety and environmental issues relating to roads and responsible road users. Independent and authoritative research, carried out for the public benefit, is central to the Foundation’s activities.
In 2009 the Foundation undertook or commissioned more than a dozen pieces of research, relating to such matters as the legality of wheel clamping on private property, the way road accidents are investigated and the future administration of the road network.
The Foundation also published the Car in British Society which revealed just how ingrained car ownership and use is in this country.
More details of the work carried out by the Foundation can be found in the research section of its website.