Road Safety Bill [HL]

We have got criteria, so we know the basis on which cameras should be installed. My noble friend will recognise that there is an interaction between the law and the way in which people behave. It is that interaction that we are concerned about getting right. There has been great anxiety about people adjusting to what we all recognise is a much more rigorous monitoring of road traffic in recent years, a process which—irrespective of views on transport issues in general—is bound to go on with the increased traffic on British roads. Whenever anyone indicates to me that a road improvement ought to indicate that we have made a significant breakthrough which will liberate the motorist, I am conscious of a significant statistic: that within a decade the number of cars on our roads is expected to be almost a third greater. It is bound to dictate increased discipline in the way in which we use cars to us. That is inevitable. Given that we have a limited amount of space in this country to create roads for cars, we all know that the pressure is bound to be there. The speed cameras are a reflection of that pressure in recent years. Against that background, we want to make sure that people are responsive to what the cameras and speed limits represent. We are aware that there has been a hostile response in some quarters and we shall soon debate an amendment on cameras raising revenue. Such anxieties among the public, and the development of devices to detect speed cameras and so on, must be taken into account. We must take public opinion with us on this, because the best way of achieving road safety is through careful drivers. All the restrictions in the world do not work as well as the intelligent man or woman behind the wheel behaving themselves. That is why we have to take the public with us. All that we are saying is that the road safety cameras are doing their job. My noble friend testified to that fact. We accept those statistics. We must also have an understanding of public tolerance an acceptability of them, and a realisation of the job that they are there to do. Compliance will then become more general, driving standards will improve and our safety will be enhanced on that basis.