UK Blazes New Trails In Orwellian Speed Enforcement

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer


How cruelly ironic is it that the UK, home of the world’s most vibrant sportscar cottage industry and some of the most notorious “petrolheads” in Europe, is also the world’s leader in automated ticketing and surveillance? Oh, and before you try to answer, understand that Old Blighty’s Orwellian tendencies have just hit a new high/low. The Telegraph [via Jalopnik] reports that Britain’s Home Office is testing new average speed cameras which combine license number-reading technology with a GPS receiver. In contrast to previous generations of speed cameras, the new system, named SpeedSpike, can calculate average speed between any two points in a network, rather than just in a straight line.



SpeedSpike was developed by PIPS Technology, an American firm with operations in Britain. According to company evidence obtained by the House of Commons and paraphrased by The Telegraph:

the cameras enabled “number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day”. It also referred to the system’s “low cost” and ease of installation.

The system could be used for “main road enforcement for congestion reduction and speed enforcement”, and could help to “eliminate rat-runs” and cut speeds outside schools, it added. It could also reduce the need for speed humps.

Britain’s Automobile Association calls the system “a natural evolution of the technology that is out there.” We call it creepy. Oh yeah, and cruelly ironic.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • BMWfan BMWfan on Apr 21, 2010

    I HAD always wanted to visit the UK. but a country that trains cameras on it's citizens all of the time and extorts money from already strapped motorists will not be getting any of my money.

  • Martin schwoerer Martin schwoerer on Apr 21, 2010

    So, the British are neurotics, for some strange reason overly concerned with traffic safety. Right? Wrong! It's fxcked up, dear TTAC, when you in reporting about UK traffic policy carelessly (or callously) omit the fact that the UK has been remarkably effective in reducing traffic deaths. Here's a quote from a book that was reviewed not once but twice, on this very blog (Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt): "In the 1990s, the United Kingdom dropped its road fatalaties by 34 percent. The U.S. managed a 6.5 percent reduction. (...) Had the U.S. pulled off what the U.K. did, it is suggested, 10,000 fewer people would have been killed." If you want to paraphrase Nixon and say you don't give a shxt about dead people (or rather, formerly alive people), then that's your right -- but please be open about it, and don't try to have it both ways.

    • See 2 previous
    • Joe_Gamer Joe_Gamer on Apr 22, 2010

      That's just natural selection at work, I say let em die there's too many people in the world anyway. You can't sacrifice civil rights/liberties for the sake of safety, better one should die than decrease the standard of living for thousands. "what about the people they hit? What about the innocents? Think of the children!" what about em? People die everyday, the worlds not fair, bad things happen to good people, you don't always get what you deserve, shit happens, etc.

  • Mrcrispy Mrcrispy on Apr 21, 2010

    How does anyone drive fast, or even just above the speed limit, in UK at all? Between this and what I learn from watching Top Gear/5th gear, it seems like every inch of road there (except some backwater A/B roads) is monitored. And yet people there buy more sports cars and BMW's than anyone else in Europe. Are the tickets they receive relatively harmless compared to here?

  • Uncle Mellow Uncle Mellow on Apr 21, 2010

    Speed cameras in the UK do not reduce accidents , but they raise a lot of money for the government.Thankfully there is an election due in a few weeks , and the current government will get fired.Things can only get better.

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