[Politech] New study says speed cameras don't work [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Wed Oct 15 2003 - 05:36:19 PDT

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    From: me@private
    Subject: New study: Excessive Speed Enforcement (and Cameras) have Failed
    X-Sent-From: me@private
    Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 18:11:34 -0700 (PDT)
    
    X-UIDL: 288faaec3ceb6cfe289a78ab4ca88e4a
    
    A new study, released October 15, looks the effect of speed
    cameras and doubling of speeding violation fines in both
    Australia and the UK.  It finds that these measures, which
    are catching on in the US, have failed to produce positive
    results.
    
    -- The report finds that the introduction of cameras
    actually interrupted a downward trend in UK accidents. "If
    the 1966-93 trend line had continued until 2001 there would
    have been 825 fewer fatalities in that year than were
    actually recorded." The difference in trends before and
    after cameras were introduced is called the 'fatality gap.'
    -- "…there is an almost perfect linear correlation between
    the increase in speed camera tickets and the increase in the
    fatality gap."
    -- The report's author notes that his findings are
    consistent with those of a 2000 Canadian report 'Safe Roads,
    Safe Communities' which found their camera program "had no
    discernible impact on speed or on the fatal accident rate."
    
    British researcher Dr. Alan Buckingham conducted the study
    which appears in the journal "Policy" of the Centre for
    Independent Studies in Australia. It's too big to attach, so
    I put it online for your personal use, if you're interested:
    http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/buckingham.pdf
    
    Richard
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