The RAC Foundation has warned that the widespread belief that speed cameras have been switched off is not quite true. There are still 487 fixed cameras taking photographs out of a total of 2331 fixed camera sites. For those who are not fans of speed cameras, the main news is that there is not much money around to replace the old cameras as they get to the end of their lives. The RAC Foundation quotes an estimate of £20,000 to replace each camera with a digital one.

The one part of the country where speed cameras have almost disappeared is around the western part of the M4 – Avon & Somerset and Wiltshire & Swindon have switched off all cameras.Commenting on the figures, Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said:”Many people believe there has been a mass switch-off of cameras over the past couple of years. But the data shows that, overall, this is simply not true.

“The RAC Foundation’s best evidence is that if all speed cameras were turned off around 80 more people would be killed on the roads each year with 700 others seriously injured. Therefore we welcome these figures which suggest the majority of fixed cameras have been retained and housings are being kept in place to act as a deterrent…Recent figures showing that deaths on the road rose in 2011, for the first time since 2003, only reinforce the need to retain the focus on road safety.”

This argument never goes away. Could it be true that we will miss speed cameras when they are gone? What do you think?