Unsafe speed cameras

Sometimes I wonder whether the powers that be and the people making certain decisions actually live in the real world.

In the run-up to the 2008 general election we were promised that the Nationalist Party would be reducing the price of new cars if re-elected. The long-awaited announcement regarding the new prices was made, and amid much confusion and revisions the naked truth was sprung on the ever-suffering Maltese driving population!

Prices did come down in some categories but reductions were, to say the least, insignificant. The price of an average family car was reduced by just around €1,200, keeping car prices at a much higher level than those in the EU. On this class of car we are paying over €3,000, more than our fellow EU citizens pay in Italy, UK and France. Other categories of cars actually registered an increase in their prices.

Some genius also decided to increase registration tax on motorcycles over 800 cc. This has resulted in an increase of over €2,400 in the price of this category of motorcycles.

One particular 1050 cc motorbike which in the UK sells for €8,986 can be bought in Malta for the mindboggling price of €14,209. That is over €5,000 more. Can someone please explain this to me? Why should a 1000 cc motorcycle cost more than a 1200 cc car ?

The government has set a new registration tax based on length and CO2 emissions of vehicles. Now a motorcycle is much smaller than a car and emits less CO2. In the real world the very size of a motorcycle means that it spends less time on the road as it can bypass traffic easily ... you never see a motorcycle stuck in a traffic jam, do you? Less time on the road means less pollution. A lot of people might argue that scooters have become cheaper. This is of scant consolation to motorcycle enthusiasts. As for the roads, well, a lot has been said, and little done. Our roads have become an arena of frustration. Bad design, bad tarmac, potholes and now a plague of speed cameras which are serving to further slow down the traffic flow. I frequently pass through the Sta Venera tunnels and have noted that most drivers exit these at 45 kph despite the 60 kph limit.

This is causing traffic to bunch up even more, a recipe for frayed nerves, more pollution and more possibilities of bumper-to-bumper collisions. Whoever stated that these cameras are there for our safety has got his priorities wrong. Whoever has our safety at heart would first ensure that the basic road safety factor - decent road surfaces - becomes a reality and not another electoral promise never kept. The latest speed cameras are there for one reason and one reason only ... more income for the authorities.

After a little bit of research on the internet regarding speed cameras in the UK I learned one thing. Speed cameras have done nothing to reverse fatalities or accidents ... on the contrary they have actually increased (www.speedcameras.org). It has been scientifically proven that drivers approaching a speed camera check their speedometer over three times, allocating one second each time they do so.

Those are three separate seconds in which the driver's attention is not on the road. In one second a car at 48 kph would have travelled 13 metres further. With the worst roads in the EU, mushrooming speed cameras, exorbitant car and motorcycle prices, the poor Maltese driver has never had it so bad!