New Risks of Automatic Speedtraps CRYPTO-GRAM, May 15, 2005

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

   New Risks of Automatic Speedtraps



Every security system brings about new threats. Here's an example:

"The RAC Foundation yesterday called for an urgent review of the  
first fixed motorway speed cameras.

"Far from improving drivers' behaviour, motorists are now bunching at  
high speeds between junctions 14-18 on the M4 in Wiltshire, said  
Edmund King, the foundation's executive director.

"The cameras were introduced by the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety  
Camera Partnership in an attempt to reduce accidents on a stretch of  
the motorway.  But most motorists are now travelling at just under  
79mph, the speed at which they face being fined."

In response to automated speedtraps, drivers are adopting the obvious  
tactic of driving just below the trigger speed for the cameras,  
presumably on cruise control.  So instead of cars on the road  
traveling at a spectrum of speeds with reasonable gaps between them,  
we are seeing "pelotons" of cars traveling closely bunched together  
at the same high speed, presenting unfamiliar hazards to each other  
and to law-abiding slower road-users.

The result is that average speeds are going up, not down.


<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ 
main.jhtml;sessionid=NRVAJJYZDVRXVQFIQM F?xml=/news/2005/04/25/ 
ncam25.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/04/25/%3Cbr%20/%3E ixportal.html> or  
<http://tinyurl.com/7my9y>
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ 
main.jhtml;sessionid=4BMMZNI41WICJQFIQM GCM5OAVCBQUJVC?xml=/news/ 
2004/04/23/nspeed23.xml> or <http://tinyurl.com/7eoz9>



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