Best comments: Are you for or against speed cameras?

Paul – It’s impossible to say without conducting a realistic test. Did you do that, just for reassurance?

Speed camera vans don’t usually advertise themselves very prominently; they tend to have innocuous wording on them along the lines of “Somewhere Road Safety Partnership” but could be completely unmarked.

I don’t think they try to catch genuine motorists, who are well-known to obey the Highway Code at all times, but they certainly try to identify bad drivers and penalise them.

There is no need for the engine to be running when a speed camera van is in use and although the window covering the camera is usually open when in use, that does not seem to be essential.

All the speed camera vans I have seen have been conspicuous, but helpful oncoming drivers flashing a warning might distract your attention.

All the speed camera vans I have seen have been conspicuous, but I might not have seen those that were not conspicuous and lurk under the trees over the crest of a hill where the speed limit changed from 60 to 50 mph.

Out local white speed camera van parks on the grass verge, black inside so you cannot see the camera, no warning sign. It catches speeding motorists on a residential – one side – rural road. I don’t think it is a bad thing. We should observe the speed limit for the safety of others and to mitigate the harm if their is an accident, particularly involving pedestrians.

I was once told that motorists warning oncoming motorists was an offence. Is that the case?

Yes but you would be unlucky to be charged. https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/967936/driving-law-UK-flash-car-headlights-fine

A lot of rural main roads in our part of the country have multiple changes of speed limit as they pass through settlements and villages, so along a twenty mile stretch of road the limit can go up and down quite frequently with 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 mph limits but their transitions are not uniform and there is a lack of repeater signs. This gives rise to many complaints, mainly from people saying the limits are generally too low. But residential areas do need protection from speeding vehicles so that people can go about their normal activities relatively safely. Returning home along one such single carriageway road recently as it was getting dark, and with no street lighting, poor road markings and missing cats-eyes, it was patently obvious why the limits were set as they are. In daylight visibility is good, but after dark it is bad because of the nature of the road, the level of traffic and the surrounding countryside; and there were not many opportunities to drive on full beam. It would be impractical to have different speed limits for daytime and night-time so, for safety’s sake, the lower limit must prevail.

I welcome the progressive decrease in speed limit approaching a village because going straight from a 60 to 30 mph limit can result in sudden braking or people not starting to slow down until they reach the 30 sign. What annoys me most is long stretches of road that have no repeater signs to show whether the limit is 30 or 40 mph. If I am not familiar with an area the sat nav can fill in the missing information.

Some villages have two warning signs that you are approaching a 30m/h limit. They work well for me and seem more sensible than actual decreasing speed limits. The cost of setting a new speed limit seems excessive; a 30 limit on a road near mine was extended by 100yards It cost £10 000 to implement, I was informed, mostly in legal costs in publicising the proposed change.

Many speed limits on rural main roads in Norfolk drop from 60 to 30 mph with about 200 yards visibility in good daylight.

The cost of making and giving statutory notice of traffic orders has sometimes been cited as the reason for not making a change. At about £300 – £500 per sign installed [which can sometimes be reused elsewhere] and about £100 for a painted roundel on the carriageway the physical infrastructure is relatively economical.

I have occasionally attended the county council highways committee meetings and heard lengthy debates about these things. Even the highways engineer’s reports to the committee run to several pages including description, consultation results, cost estimates for implementation, maps, and other formalities.

While there are not many pot holes on Norfolk’s roads, and there has been a £60 million resurfacing and improvement programme, the placement and condition of signage leaves much to be desired.

Do speed camera vans operate at night? The national lockdown and the upcoming second and third tier movement restrictions should have a beneficial effect on road safety and reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths. Single vehicle collisions with immoveable objects like trees account for more deaths on the roads than other causes in our county.