Traffic Action Group - Speedwatch Results

Speed cameras are just about the best things there are.............
to start a heated debate amongst motorists and members of the wider public, particularly those who have collected points on their licences and paid hefty pecuniary penalties as a result of failing to notice them, about the pros and cons of these successful revenue collecting devices!

Speed cameras are not the only tool in slowing traffic down, there are physical measures such as humps in the road, speed activated warning signs. However a proper study needs to be undertaken to determine whether or not any or which of the above measures are needed.

Recently, on your behalf, members of the Barrow Traffic Action Group, aided and abetted by Mr Mike Wilson of the Community Speedwatch group, did just that and organised a series of spot checks, in several areas around the village where the speed of traffic is perceived to be a problem. The project ran from the 26th of February to the 23rd of March 2007.

As the document below demonstrates, the average speed at which traffic was measured was 37.8mph, the posted limit throughout the village, as everybody knows is 30mph.

Despite this apparent disregard for the law, thankfully no actual casualties resulted from the motorists who did so.

Obviously, the government has a duty to do what it can to protect the public from danger and as such has chosen to promote, through bodies known as "Safety Partnerships" and their spin off Community Speedwatch, a campaign to slow traffic down wherever the bodies decide. The fact that speed has little bearing on the cause of road traffic collisions is no obstacle to ensuring that traffic and the speed at which it travels is targeted.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

ps. Currently you may notice other villages, notably Cotes and Birstall are running similar schemes, so watch out!