You’ve Been Shamed

BARELY a week goes by without us reading of another way of trapping motorists who break the speed limit.

The latest way is to shame the driver into slowing down. The Times has seen a new pilot scheme by a set of road works on the M42 near Birmingham.

If the cameras catch a driver breaking the speed limit, rather than being photographed and sent three penalty points and a bill in the post, they are shamed.

A camera snaps their number plate and flashes it up on an electronic sign. And, amazingly, it seems to work. Britons do not like standing out in the crowd, and having everyone know that Y317MPU has broken the law of the land is undesirable.

Of course there are exceptions to the norm and we worry that drivers with personal number plates will see these cameras as a chance to further advertise the fact they are driving “SAD 1”.

But, in the main, it works. Research by the Department of Transport shows that whereas “many” drivers speed up after passing a speed camera by a set of roadworks, “hardly any” did so when shamed.

But there are problems with the system. The paper reminds its readers that last month South Yorkshire police celebrated the fact that a speed camera on a stretch of roadworks on the M1 had triggered more than 1,000 fixed penalties in just four days.
That is good money. And before embracing the new system, the police will surely wonder about how they can go without such windfalls.

And we wonder how things could go further. Surely divers would be more shamed if their photographs were also flashed up and captioned for additional punch.

“AD69YHP – Interesting outfit. I can really see what you were trying to do”; “H62YONY – Is that your nose, or are you eating a Banana?; “YGH94 – It’s Mel Gibson.”

Posted: 4th, August 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink