COMMUNITY SPEEDWATCH
13 April 2006 - Safe Speed

A red herring and a dead duck

There''s news today of a community speedwatch scheme in Cheshire. Safe Speed says community speedwatch schemes are sad, mad, misguided and ineffective.

The issues are:

Issue 1: We don''t want vigilantes. Let''s leave policing to the police.

Issue 2: They just end up catching their neighbours. The expectation is that
they will catch ''lunatic drivers'' speeding through THEIR village. The reality
is that many of those caught are friends and neighbours.

Issue 3: Having caught their neighbours, they get bored and the schemes are
short lived

Issue 4: Community speedwatch sets members of the public against one another -
to the point that there''s a risk of violence.

Issue 5. If there''s a safety issue, community speedwatch is toothless and
ineffective. Where there is a real source of danger we need proper road safety
treatments.

Issue 6: Community speedwatch schemes only arise because the government has
''over hyped'' the danger of traffic in general, and traffic speed in particular.

Issue 7: Members of the community do not have the required degree of
impartiality. What''s to stop them issuing a complaint about Mrs Jones at
number 16 because they simply don''t like her?

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: ''Community speedwatch is a red herring and a dead
duck. We should not set members of a community against one another. We should
not leave policing to members of the public. And we should NEVER misinform the
public about road safety issues.''

''Community speedwatch is an ugly side effect of a misguided road safety policy.
Reducing vehicle speeds is not a general answer to road safety problems.''

www.safespeed.org.uk

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