Monday, April 12, 2010

Fake speed camera slows motorists down.

I don't know if you caught this story recently - fake speed camera slows motorists down. Essentially, retired police officer Bill Angus built a bird box that looks like a generic yellow speed camera, and mounted it on a post in his front garden that looks like a generic speed camera post.
Speed cameras are the scourge of modern motoring, especially in England where they serve no purpose other than to take money off unsuspecting road users. There are plenty of studies that prove they don't work (I even have an entire write-up on this topic on my page speeding facts vs. fiction). For this guy to make his bird box deliberately look like a speed camera is nothing short of a despicable act of hatred towards road users. I'm sure he's very proud of the fact that his deception is slowing motorists down on his street, but he's apparently not very smart. Now he's got national and internet attention, any driver worth his salt will know about this fake box, and simply ignore it. Worse - being in England - the chances of his 'speed camera' being hooped (ringed with an old tyre full of petrol and being set on fire) have gone up tremendously. Now I'm not in PETA or the WWF or any nature-loving organisation for that matter, but even I would frown on destroying the nesting box for a family of birds. The problem is that Mr. Angus is inviting just that by his actions. Mr Angus needs to get some facts about the lack of relationship between speeding and accidents before taking the law into his own hands. He's a retired police officer - he should know better.