A43 - road safety campaign

Cambridgeshire police prove averaging cameras make busy roads safer...

The BBC and Cambridgeshire police show that averaging cameras reduce accidents and improve traffic flow on the A14 - this is exactly what we are campaigning for on the A43.  There is a good video clip at the link here.  In the video the policeman describes how people rush, brake, bunch up and tail back far less causing much better, calmer journeys.  The accidents are down 80%.  The BBC News article says:

'Serious and fatal collisions on a Cambridgeshire road have fallen by 80% after new speed cameras were installed.

'The overall rate of collisions on the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon has dropped by 21% in 2007-2008 compared with the previous year.

'Insp Clinton Hale said: "We have had feedback from motorists saying the road is calmer and journeys are safer.'

We can't understand why Northamptonshire County Council won't install these cameras on the A43

50 mph on the A43 - saves lives, increases capacity, reduces pollution

The Northampton-Kettering A43 is busy and dangerous - why can't the speed limit be reduced from 60 mph to 50 mph.  They do this on the M25 between Heathrow/M4 and the M3 - 50 mph is supposed to be the speed that is most efficient use of road capacity - ie at 50mph you get more vehicles on the road as they don't have to be spaced as far apar as at 70mph.  Speed is a major contributor to road accidents and subsequent injury.  This would have to be camera enforced of course.

Cars and lorries burn a lot less fuel at 50 than at 70 - a reduction in speed on this busy road would make a significant impact on air pollution and carbon emissions.

Lowering the speed limit from 60 (effectively 70) to 50 enforced by averaging cameras would cost a driver less than four minutes from Northampton to Kettering  - surely saving lives and a higher capacity road and better environment is worth four minutes - who can't spare that?

Average speed camera control to restore sanity

Averaging speed cameras covering the A43 between Northampton and Kettering are vital - such cameras have made a huge safety improvement on the A43 Lumbertubs Way in Northampton itself and on the A428 Bedford Road in South Northamptonshire. 

The evidence is quite clear: Lumbertubs Way was a dangerous dual carriageway with 63 people killed or injured in three years - (see the police view here) - the number of people killed and seriously injured fell by 85% in the three years after installation of averaging cameras  compared with  the three years before (see here for data).

This early 2001 experiment with averaging speed cameras was so successful that the police have repeated it on the A428 Bedford Road, South of Northampton - click here for police statement.
Police have made this investment even though there were less than half the number of people killed and seriously injured on that stretch of road compared to the A43 Northampton to Kettering - 13 versus 32.

The time has come to do this on the A43 - a major speed averaging camera investment  along  10 miles of dangerous road.

Speeding endemic and dangerous

The traffic on the A43 between Northampton and Kettering is fast and very heavy.  Since the opening of the A14 linking the East Coast ports with the M1 there has been a big increase in traffic using the A43 to move North to South and vice versa between the A14, the A1, the M1 and the M40 (which the A43 eventually joins). 

The A43 the 'Kettering Road' or 'Northampton Road' depending in which town you start, is predominantly rural, moving through rolling open countryside.  A single-carriageway in each direction is broad and open - technically the speed limit is 60 mph. If you try driving slower than 70 mph you find cars and lorries right on your bumper 'encouraging' you to speed up. 

Making a turn into a joining road or a farm or home entrance is a perilous affair with rear-end collisions common as following drivers don't believe you are turning.  Almost all the major intersections have had fatalities or serious injuries.

Urgent action is needed to control speeds on this dangerous road.