Cash Cow

I got my new car about two years ago and in the time that I’ve had it, I have managed to fall foul of the law on two occasions, both of which involved speeding.

Bearing in mind that I’ve been driving for more than 20 years, it is probably surprising that I have only got any penalty points on my licence in the last two.

The first occasion was a bit of surprise as I was caught approaching the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford.  This is the method by which one crosses the Thames from Essex into Kent, and the reason that it was such a surprise to receive the letter informing me of the fact that I’d been caught speeding was that this area of the M25 was normally at a standstill due to the tolls on the far side of the bridge.  In fact, I don’t think that I have ever driven straight over the bridge without a delay of some description on all of the times that I have crossed it.

Anyway, I had taken Alec back up to University in Hull in September 2014 and was driving back when I was ‘captured’ doing 57mph in a 50mph zone.  However, as this was my first offence, I was given the option of attending a half-day ‘Speed Awareness Course’, which I chose to do.  It was more expensive than paying the fine, but it meant that I wouldn’t receive any penalty points.

I knew roughly what to expect as Emma had attended one of these courses earlier in the year (yes, I did rip the piss and then regretted it when my letter arrived!) and I attended at a hotel in Maidstone in December 2014.

The course was useful and I did learn some things. At the end of the course we were informed that if we were caught speeding in future, we would be unable to attend another course for three years and we would have to take the points, so with that I decided to make sure I stuck to the limit.

And generally, I have.  However, last summer I was on my way to Aldershot on the M25 when I was ‘captured’ again.  I have to say that I still feel that this one was a little unfair as the M25 has a variable speed limit.  As I approached one of the gantries, the speed limit was 50mph, but just as I was going under it, it changed to 40 mph, I saw a flash, and a week later I received a letter informing me that I had been photographed travelling at 51mph in a 40mph zone.  Even if I’d braked as soon as the speed limit changed, I would probably still have been over the limit!  So this time, I had to send all of my documents off and pay a £100 fine online.

And the reason that I think that this is a bit of a cash cow is because when I travel back and forth along the motorway every Tuesday, I have witnessed some appalling driving behaviour that will never be caught using a camera.  Apart from the usual people using their mobile phones whilst driving, which is illegal, as well as people reading books and work, or people using laptops, I think that one of the worst things I saw was a woman driving with her knees whilst holding a bowl in one hand and shovelling her breakfast in with the other and although there was a speed restriction in place at the time, she was still travelling at 40mph!

As I’ve said, these offences will never be caught on camera, the perpetrators will only be caught if there is a Police Officer in either a marked or unmarked car catching people in the act, but that is an expensive way of policing.  There is the cost of the fuel, the wear and tear to the vehicle and the wages of the officer driving, which will all add up and he or she will not catch all of the miscreants.

Compare this to a camera that can take countless pictures that will bring in £100 a time.  And yes, there is still the expense of administering all of this, but it will be far less expense for much greater reward than an officer on the road.

When I first started travelling to Aldershot, there were roadworks between junctions 5 & 6 in both directions on the M25, with a speed limit of 50mph.  There was also a camera on a gantry on the anti-clockwise side that, as I approached going clockwise at the usual 10-20mph, would be flashing like a strobe light at the cars that were passing in the much freer moving opposite carriageway.  And at £100 each, you can’t tell me that the camera didn’t pay for itself after its first day in use, or that Kent Police didn’t greatly increase their coffers.

Or am I being cynical?