Speed Cameras

I don’t like speed cameras, not that I have ever been caught by one, but they seem such a blunt instrument to me. You can be pottering along a main road at 50 or so and decide to pass a lorry that’s blocking the view and if you are unlucky you can be nabbed by a Gatso hidden behind a signpost.

You can see the sites of Bexley’s static cameras at the Camera Partnership’s website. It says there are 24 camera sites but I don’t think it is up to date. If you enquire about the mobile cameras to Bexley council you get passed to the Safety Partnership, and if you enquire to the Safety Partnership they pass you back to Bexley council.

The cameras in Bexley all seem to be placed on downhill stretches and did you notice that the cameras in Bronze Age Way were installed before the road was opened in direct contravention of government guidance and have not been removed following a government statement that such cameras would be removed? I suppose that is a good illustration of Bexley’s contempt for the law.

North Cray Road, a nice straight dual carriageway with few houses alongside, and those that are protected by fences or walls, used to have a 60 m.p.h. limit. Now it is 40 enforced with a camera. The local residents don’t seem to like it much. See picture. There have been no fatalities on that road.

October 2009