Personalised transport

As the transport saga was unfolding last week, I was invited to play a bit-part of my own by the St Julians local council. They sent me a notice of contravention. It said that, while performing surveillance with CCTV cameras at the Regional Road, my car was detected in breach of traffic laws. The notice graphically detailed how. You drove at an excessive speed up to 15 kph above the speed limit, it told me. Used to potter along as religiously as I can according to the speed limit, I wondered what lapse had occurred in my concentration.

A photo and narration from the Joint Committee for Law Enforcement attached to the notice of contravention to detail the "speeding violation" brought me up-to-date. The narration said that the name of the site was the Regional Road Tunnel - San Ġwann side; that the sign speed was 60 km/h and that my speed was 62 - that's sixty two km/h.

Never mind that the photo did not show my car in the tunnel but well beyond it, and that common sense suggests that a margin of two km/h is within the margin of error of a machine, or if not that, of a driver. I am a firm believer in speed cameras as a deterrent to over-speeding and also to snap and bring to justice those who do over speed. What I resent is the crass discrimination that is rampant in this area.

Two also personalised examples regarding that.

I live in Attard, on a street whose sign speed is 35 km/h. Practically every single vehicle that passes through exceeds that limit by a substantial margin, some double it or more. I am not aware that many of them or any of them have been brought to book and penalised for over-speeding. Nor has any action been taken to encourage traffic calming. The excuse I was given by the local council is that public buses pass through the road and that ties the council's hands - even though elsewhere (say Lija, Naxxar and Qormi) that does not seem to be the case.

Also in Attard, there was a mighty controversy about a speed camera installed in Notary Zarb Street, which was subsequently switched off at the council's request.

Following strong pressure, including by this columnist, it was turned on again. I heard that when that was done, someone on the council insisted that the camera should be set to click at a speed higher than 50 km/h, though the speed signs would still say 50km/h.

The simple point is not that one is penalised for over-speeding - it is that there is no clear uniform practice in this regard. What I said about the street we live on applies to streets in many other towns and villages. I also see over-speeding regularly in Rabat and Qormi, for instance.

I remain convinced that there is a proper role for speed cameras and traffic wardens to play. I am far less convinced that the role is being played satisfactorily. Some of what went on during last week's transport bedlam offered further evidence of that.