At last! Yellow vultures are taken down from M-way
Published Date:
11 August 2008
THE 'yellow vultures' that have been hovering over one of the area's main roads for months have finally flown away.
The speed cameras – which have picked up the nickname because of their colour – have been catching speeders on the M27 while work takes place to widen the road.
But the cameras, which measure a vehicle's average speed over a set distance, have now been removed from between junction 11 at Fareham and junction 12 at Portsmouth.
Four of the five cameras were removed on Sunday, and the last one, on a sliproad at junction 11, was removed yesterday. The cameras were put up in January.
But the Safety Roads Partnership won't say how many speeding tickets have been issued while the work on adding extra climbing lanes took place.
Julian Hewitt, of the Safer Roads Partnership, said: 'We are cautious about issuing site-specific data whilst the roadworks are ongoing because motorists may make inferences about the likelihood of being detected speeding.
'For camera enforcement to be truly effective there must be the perception that the chances of being recorded are high at all sites.
'We would normally be happy to publish figures after the roadworks were finished. However, in the case of the road works on the M27 at Junction 11 and Junction 12 this is complicated because there are still roadworks and average speed cameras in place at junction three and junction five.
This means that issuing figures for junction 11 and 12 would reveal the figures for the ongoing road works at junction five and junction three.'
Markings for three regular width lanes have been put down but the speed limit of 50mph has not yet been removed.
Highways Agency spokesman Roger Jones said: 'This is good news for motorists, and we are ahead of plan.
'It has been about trying to manage the traffic flow. We don't desire to delay people more than we have to.'
The climbing lanes are expected to be opened in September, but a date has not yet been fixed. Work had originally been expected to last until October.
The full article contains 359 words and appears in The News newspaper.
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Last Updated:
12 August 2008 10:06 AM
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Source:
The News
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Location:
Portsmouth