New Average Speed Cameras Emerge

B ig Brother will be watching motorists every move as new speed cameras emerge.

Clusters of speed cameras that will monitor driver's average speed on all routes across a wide area are to be deployed on hundreds of roads early this year. 

It will be impossible to evade detection because the digital cameras will cover every entry and exit point and, unlike the earlier speed cameras, will never run out of film. 

Drivers who slow down briefly or who make a detour from the main route will still be caught because up to 50 of the cameras will work together in a network.  They can be positioned more than 15 miles apart and will automatically read number plates and transmit data instantly to a penalty processing centre. 

The new cameras, known as Specs3, will cost typically £300,000 per network.  They are likely to be deployed first on long rural A roads, where crashes occur frequently but in many different places, making it impractical to deploy conventional speed cameras, which each cover less than 100 yards of road. 

The Transport Secretary Geoffrey Hoon says the traditional yellow Gatsos are arbitrary and unfair, he says the new cameras are fairer as they monitor motorists average speed over distances of up to thirty miles. 

Speed cameras result in around two million speed prosecutions a year in the UK; it seems that the Government has now found a way to increase this number and their bank balance.