Which?

An article on the speed camera "debate" appeared in Which? magazine of October 2004. The article is a very balanced account, with figures and quotes form most of the usual suspects, particularly Paul "SafeSpeed" Smith. The article rightly notes that the reduction in the fatality trend which Smith attributes to cameras is observed mainly on those roads without cameras, and is exhibited primarily by motorcyclists. It also points out that SafeSpeed's logic is faulty, noting that there were only 21 cameras in 1992 and by 1996 this had risen to just 102. Smith comes of generally rather badly, the writer has noted that he tends to dismiss arguments he doesn't like, for example calling them "fraudulent" without providing justification, and suggesting that TRL are "contracted by the Government to tell lies". There is a nice quote regarding the coverage ABD and SafeSpeed get for their arguments: "there is a distinction between coverage and credibility". Just so.