Are average speed cameras necessary?

-For example, i feel its ok to go faster if a stretch of the motorway is empty or with a few vehicles on. But if there are average speed cameras they will not take this into account, and may get a speeding ticket, and it seems unfair. Im all for safety on the roads but if the motorway is empty or nearly empty then surely there is less risk by going on the average speed limit by a few miles per hour.



What say you?There appears to be a lot of confusion because right now average speed cameras are only used in roadworks. In such cases exceeding the speed limit is stupid and selfish (I admit there will always be times when the speed limit is unnecessary as it's about to be removed, but in such cases the cameras will almost always be turned off).



Your question suggests that you're talking about average speed checks being performed on most motorways as a standard. This doesn't happen (the permanent cameras on the M1, M25 and the M42 only do spot-checks). Despite the scaremongering you might see in newspapers and motoring enthusiast groups, there are currently no plans, resources or money to introduce nationwide average speed checks.



Come to think of it, there are very few average speed cameras permanently mounted on major roads at all. One of them is on a very busy road (A14) which benefits from people all travelling at the same speed, and another was a knee-jerk reaction to shut up whinging locals.



The only thing you might see is more static speed cameras on motorways with the roll-out of hard shoulder running and variable speed limits as a watered-down way of improving roads.Your speed in this is only being used for the Police to have better surveillance. All this crap about safety and accidents, boils down to the Green Party (who are Communists by any other name) backing a campaign the Police will thoroughly support. The Police want it because it makes their life eay for catching criminals, and any one not remembering to have their car MOT'd. Or arrested because they sold there car to a criminal, who still has it in your name, so that you carry the can?



The Greens back it because it supposedly save lives, of course nothing saves lives (we all die) it only extends your life living in misery having to worry about something one shouldn't be worrying about. But the Greens are miserable so they want you to be miserable, and take your freedom away in the same breath.
There is a speed limit. If you break it you are breaking the law and will pay the penalty howsoever the speeding is detected. If you want to campaign for different speed limits or variable ones then find a different forum. The average cameras were introduced because some people knew where the fixed ones are and drove at high speed at all other locations. I'm quite happy with current speed limits and I do drive close to them, not being a total crumbly, what I am not happy with is some boy racer 10 feet off my rear bumper and just itching to go. Where, I have no idea and also not sure why the hurry. Plan the journey and build in traffic problems. If you are late, you are late. When I was much younger I loved to drive quickly but it didn't take me long to realise this was not safe on public roads. So I took up motor cycle racing. That wasn't too safe either but at least it wasn't other peoples lives that I was playing with...........
You think it is unfair that you go over the speed limit, that you know full well about, and get nicked for it.

Well you can go a few mph over in a 50 they usually wont nick you at up to 56 and in a 70 they wont bother you up to 78.

You clearly have no arguement except that for some strange reason you think it is unfair - I reckon you must be a teenager or act like one.
The Green Party are not communists. Speed Cameras are necessary because otherwise people break the speed limit. In an emergency the faster you are travelling, the longer it will take you to stop, and the greater the damage done when you hit another car. How would you feel if someone you love was killed or injured in an accident caused or made worse by a speeding car?
No it not ok to go over the speed limit-speed-get a speeding ticket. If there is lots of traffic it is kinda hard to speed unless you jump from one lane to another. I got a camera speeding ticket in Maryland-yes I was speeding so I paid the ticket of $40.00.
So what would you do if you were tootling along at 140mph and you suddenly come upon a serious accident blocking most of the carriageway - and because of your speed, you are unable to stop in time. Boom, you're dead.
Basically, what you are saying is that you think it should be OK for you to break the law, if that's what you want to do.



Amazingly, you're wrong...
In my opinion NO.

Its just another way to make money for the govermant.



Money that wont be spent on sorting the destroyed roads or anything like that.
NO they are not necessary.
the point of the camera is to hold things in check all it takes is just one unsafe driver to tie up the system
It is Just another money making SCAM.
The way I see it, there are two separate issues here. The first is the law, and the second is safe driving. They are made to look like one and the same so that The Powers That Be have an excuse to fine people and generate yet more revenue. Nothing is looked at on an individual basis and that's the problem. For instance, if someone is doing 49mph in a 50mph zone but driving carelessly and not paying attention, they are far more likely to kill someone or cause an accident than someone who is doing 80mph on a clear stretch of motorway. This is not always considered by law enforcement officials, who have targets to meet, and the cameras themselves certainly cannot discriminate.



If the police use their initiative (and I'm not suggesting that none of them do), they will focus on the people who are genuinely endangering the lives of others, and not worry about pulling over someone for eating an apple on their way to work. This robotic mindset means that they follow the rulebook rigidly and can no longer think for themselves (again, I'm not including all police in this, just those who view their job this way).



As for average speed check cameras, these are there to keep us all in line, living in fear, feeling that even when we think we're not being watched, we are. Britain has more surveillance than any other nation (according to studies and statistics) and yet is it the safest? No. People are becoming increasingly fed up with be spied upon when they are doing nothing wrong, while criminals walk free.



Quite apart from all that, if safety were the real reason behind all these cameras, the money generated from penalties (not to mention road tax) would be spent on making the road surfaces safe instead of the pothole-riddled death traps that they have now become.