A RECENT editorial suggested that perhaps it was time for Jersey once again to explore the option of installing speed cameras on certain roads.
Our local road safety group (concerned with the approaches to St Clement’s church) recommended their installation to TTS for many years without any success.
Groups of school children were observed daily having to navigate an 18-inch pavement on a main road bend around which, from in front and behind, vehicles suddenly appeared unsighted without warning, often above the speed limit.
We received various excuses for the lack of action, one being that the police had just purchased a fleet of new motorcycles capable of entrapping and then chasing after offenders!
Another wildly exaggerated media story parroted by TTS was that, in the UK, they had been used simply as fine-raising ‘cash cows’ in places where they were only marginally necessary. Then we were shown an Island map highlighting numerous similar high-danger spots, the implication being that many projects rated higher, economically, than the safety of child pedestrians.
Those who have ventured to drive outside the Island will know (in whichever country they are driving) that ‘fixed’ speed cameras are highly respected, whether switched on or off, and that they slow traffic down as it approaches a specific known danger spot. Failure to do so results in an envelope through the letterbox with a hefty fine payment slip accompanied (in the UK) by three or more points on one’s licence depending on one’s speed.
Such fixed-point cameras are ideal for key main road danger spots which are in abundance in Jersey but not so effective, as was suggested, for long straight roads such as the Five Mile road or Victoria Avenue since, although drivers will slow down at the point at which they are sited, they tend to speed up again immediately afterwards. Average speed cameras are used elsewhere on long road stretches but usually those with no entry or exit points.
Given the number of fixed-point cameras required, I have sympathy with the view that there would be an increase in unsightly road furniture but it is my strong opinion that, with today’s growing number of vehicles frenetically rushing backwards and forwards on main roads originally designed for a much smaller population and a more peaceful existence, ‘fixed’ cameras are a price that we have to pay for doing this.
