MMC Musings

Well, there’s a surprise. Since Oxfordshire County Council pulled the plug on speed cameras, speeding has increased. A bit. In a couple of places. Where the limit was too low anyway and the cameras sited on long, straight roads.

OCC’s media team has, predictably, gone semi-hysterical, with the headline “The number of drivers speeding…has increased by up to 88%”.

Chaps, it’s just a WEEK since the cameras went off. Can you not spot a desperate attempt to keep Partnership jobs when you see it? And there’s less cherry-picking going on in the fruit aisle in Sainsbury’s.

The camera in Woodstock, site of the claimed 110 drivers exceeding the 30mph limit (strangely, we’re not told by how much – wonder why?) is on a clear, straight stretch of A road that is perfectly safe at 40mph. And there were 90 doing it before. Wow.

The Watlington Road, Cowley, camera is also on a clear, open stretch with good visibility. 66 evil, kitten-eating drivers exceeded the limit there.

Strangely, but perhaps predictably, there has been not a single, solitary increase in crashes. Not even a broken fingernail.

It’s a real shame. The local camera partnership does some exceptional road safety training work with drivers. And I’m sorry to see some of the staff – who really give a damn about road safety – losing their jobs. But this sort of sneaky, weasely PR is just the reason that the partnerships have lost so much credibility.