THEY rank alongside parking attendants and traffic jams in the list of motorists' pet hates. Speed cameras have been lambasted as "hidden traps" sprung on unsuspecting drivers and as "cash cows" designed to raise extra taxes rather than save lives.
But now the number of fines being dished out in the Lothians is falling – and research even suggests most of us approve of having them dotted along our roadsides.
The Lothian and Borders Safety Camera Partnership which operates the region's 119 fixed and mobile speed cameras believes they are making our roads safer, and that most motorists recognise the fact.
There are major doubts, though, about how much our behaviour has really changed. Growing familiarity with the positions of cameras, coupled with the increasing use of satnav systems to alert drivers to their looming presence, has been blamed for the emergence of "camera surfing" – where drivers simply slow down for cameras then speed up again straight after.
The answer to this may be staring drivers in the face whenever they drive on the city bypass between the Old Craighall and Sheriffhall roundabouts.
There, for a full kilometre, lines of cars uniformly slow to the 40mph limit. The average-speed camera – which records vehicles at either end of a stretch of road and checks how long it took to cover the distance – are seen as the way forward.
Victoria Edmond, a spokeswoman for the Lothian and Borders Safety Camera Partnership, says: "I do think that more and more people are becoming aware of safety cameras and are in support of them.
"You're always going to get a hardcore of drivers who will drive as they want, and we'll never win them over. But people are much more aware of where the cameras are now and stick to the speed limit."
She conceded many drivers simply slowed down to avoid detection. "It's not ideal. I think in the future we might see more average-speed cameras. But if we can make people slow down where there has been a history of collisions, then it's all for the greater good," she said.
"I believe cameras save lives. There are people whose lives have been terribly affected by speeding vehicles, so it's really important that we stick to the speed limit."
Research carried out by the partnership last month showed 83 per cent of Edinburgh drivers were in favour of the cameras.
That comes at a time when the number of fines have fallen by more than a quarter in two years to around 30,000 last year.
Steve Stradling, a professor of transport psychology at Napier University's transport research institute, said while drivers were slowing down in the city centre, the same could not be said for motorways and dual carriageways.
He said: "The number of drivers exceeding the 30mph speed limit by five mph has reduced from a third to under a fifth from 2000 to 2006."
It does appear, not surprisingly, that as drivers are clocking up more points on their licences, they do begin to worry more about being banned and they do slow down – at least around areas where there are cameras.
However, Bruce Young, Lothian and Borders co-ordinator of the Association of British Drivers, dismissed the idea that the number of speeding fines were falling because motorists were changing their ways. "I totally disagree with that," he said.
"All across the country the camera partnerships are showing less activity. They used to be a great money-making proposition because they kept the money they made from fines. Now the money goes to the Treasury, so the incentive has gone.
"The idea that speed kills is a fallacy. Drivers exceeding the limit are a very small factor in road accidents. It's more about inappropriate speed – where the driver doesn't pay attention to the road conditions."
But all in all, the figures do appear to be stacking up in favour of the camera operators.
It looks as though we'll need to get used to those roadside camera boxes, as well as those uniform queues of obedient motorists driving under the watchful eye of the average-speed cameras.
The full article contains 720 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
