On one of the longest simmering issues Mr. Hammond promised to “end the way the country's 33 million drivers have been targeted by an array of speed cameras,” and “stressed the coalition government would abide by a Tory manifesto promise not to fund any more fixed-position speed cameras.  Councils could fund them if they had the money and could justify their use — but the money raised would go to the Treasury.”

 

The effectiveness of the nationwide network of speed cameras in reducing fatalities has long been questioned by many led by [the late] Paul Smith, an engineer turned road safety expert.  In 1999, as income from speed camera recorded offences approached £100 million a year, the previously downward trend in the number of fatal accidents had reversed. Nevertheless the government continued to focus its road safety strategy on speed, citing a government report to the effect that "excessive and inappropriate speed" contributed “far more than any other single [factor]…to casualties on our roads." The report, however, didn’t actually say this. It identified many other factors from “driving without due care and attention to the influence of drink; from poor overtaking to nodding off at the wheel” and ranked "excessive speed" as a cause of crashes at only 7.3 per cent.

 

Mr. Smith was so shocked by the government's misuse of its own statistics that in 2001 he set up a website—www.safespeed.org.uk.  Mr. Smith contended that speed cameras had created “a nation of drivers concentrating on compliance rather than safety.”  He said that safe drivers learn to adjust their speed to remain safe in the prevailing road, weather and traffic conditions and that this adjustment is “an output from [the driver’s] own internal risk management system.”  Yet implicitly the Department of Transport [DfT] was regarding speed as an "input" and denying that drivers were capable of managing risk.

 

Mr.Smith charged the DfT with feeding the driving citizenry “a false dogma to justify its policies” that has infected our road safety industry, with millions now believing that the only way to safer roads is slower traffic.”

 

Another group, Drivers Alliance, started in July 2008 to oppose road pricing and congestion charging—congestion being measured by speed of travel—is calling for the new government to mandate that speed limits on main roads respect the internationally recognized 85th percentile principle for setting optimum safe limits—the speed at which 85% of the traffic travels on a roadway.  Arguing that under the Labour government many speed limits were set too low for political and ideological reasons, Drivers Alliance says that “speed limits should be set to keep traffic moving, minimize journey times and keep the roads safe.”

 

And the debate goes on.