3 new speed indication devices have been obtained for use by Community SpeedWatch Schemes (CSW) on the Isle of Wight.
Isle of Wight Council purchased the devices for local schemes to borrow, and one has already been gratefully received by the CSW co-ordinator in Shorwell.
CSW enables members of the public to volunteer their time alongside Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary to identify vehicles that exceed the speed limit.
The work of CSW volunteers is educational only, but provides crucial support to the police’s ability to identify speeding motorists, develop the broader intelligence picture around the prevalence of the issue and hotspot areas, and therefore compliments the police’s enforcement work.
The valuable information these volunteers obtain feeds into the Force’s wider roads policing work more broadly under Operation Mile. Op Mile is an collaborative effort to tackle dangerous driving habits and involves input from Neighbourhoods and Response Policing colleagues, alongside the existing work of our dedicated Roads Policing Unit (RPU) officers, and dual-skilled Roads Policing and Armed Response Vehicle officers (RP/ARV).
The CSW scheme in Freshwater is already seeing results, with the local co-ordinator commenting that motorists noticeably slow down upon seeing volunteers in their high-visibility jackets.
A total of 16 volunteers have been trained up for Freshwater, and in their 1st year they ran 116 monitoring sessions on 12 roads, checking the speeds of more than 13,000 vehicles – 6% of those were exceeding the speed limit by at least 10% + 2 (i.e. 35 in a 30 mph zone).
Lewis Campbell, Road Safety Officer for Isle of Wight council, said:
“The CSW scheme is a great way for local communities to monitor traffic speeds within their area, complimenting the enforcement activity undertaken by the proactive Roads Policing Unit, and I’m pleased that we can support local groups with our new speed equipment.
“Speeding is simply not worth the risk, and educational approaches like CSW help to share that message. We urge all motorists to drive responsibly, within the set speed limits and to the conditions of the road.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the community champions who currently lead CSW in their local areas.”
Tactical Firearms and Roads Policing Sergeant Neil Corby said: “We fully support the CSW as it offers another resource in our relentless objective of making the Isle of Wight roads a safer place to be for all users.”
If you are interested in setting up, co-ordinating and leading a CSW scheme in your local area, email [email protected].
Would be nice if this was used for warning people who drive too slowly as well!
IKR, 5 below should leave you 6 below.
The island roads are used as a racetrack. Zap and ticket the speeders.
Civilian Speedwatch volunteers can’t issue tickets
I would be interested in what some of these devices show as to the speeds of some bikes?
Under UK law, the Road Traffic Act and the Highway Code stipulate that speeding limits are only applicable to motor vehicles. Therefore, speeding laws apply to cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks and other vehicles, but not bicycles. I know stupid and daft isn’t it??
Exactly, a speeding bicycle usually kills someone every decade. This can’t be allowed to go on.
Most cyclists cycle side by side holding each other’s hands
annoying motorists who pay to be on the Road.
The highway code states it is safer for cyclists to ride side by side, less time for a car to get around them. Motorists pay to have a car, not to be on the road.
Not for the safety of vehicles
Cyclists are morons, they would not do that in front of Royal Vehicles
driving along.
You pay VED, not “to be on the road” – a car like Tesla pays same as a cyclist.
Pedestrians (we have many places on IOW with no pavement), skaters, cyclists, horse riders and drivers all have the same right to use the road unless it is a specific road with restrictions such as highway.
Riding side by side is safer because it actually forces driver to do a proper overtaking manoeuvre by switching to a second lane. This was actually supposed to always happen but instead drivers passed cyclists closely in a very dangerous manner and so it had to be codified that cycling in the middle of a lane / two-abreast is legal because bad drivers had no common courtesy to vulnerable road users… you can thank them.
Cyclists are I D I O T S on 2 wheels
Thank you Terry! Road users should be single file! Bicycles or cars. 2 wide is unacceptable.
Exactly. Speeding and dangerousness only applies to motorists. Cyclists riding fast and along narrow footpaths and on pavements, and the wrong way along one-way streets is apparently okay!
Should be concentrating on the number of untaxed vehicles driving around the island first. One well known family in Alverstone Garden Village drive a number of different vehicles as various times that are either untaxed or no mot, don’t know if they are insured. Even their Bohemian surfing friends turn up with untaxed rust buckets that are obviously unfit for the road. But I suppose they feel that they are privileged.
Do something about it put stickers on the windscreen warning them the cars are illegal.
Inform the authorities, you can check insurance on the internet.
I have been doing this for a year it takes a bit of time but all the cars are now legal or have disappeared.
There is a van parked down Great Preston Road
It’s been there for months
IW COUNCIL
ISLAND ROADS
AND RYDE DISTRICT STEWARD ARE AWARE OF THIS AND NONE OF THEM ARE BOTHERED
ABOUT IT!
NO TRAFFIC RULES EXIST ON THE ISLAND WHEN IT COMES TO BREAKING THE LAW RE
NO MOTS
The Island employ Useless I D I O T S who do not understand the rules
MP is Useslss
Council Leader is Useless
All are useless and clueless, hence nothing gets done
THEY are more concerned charging people 20p or 40p
to have a P * S S
and someone dropping a crisp wrapper
The Authorities on the Island are a joke.
MP does not even live on the Island
There is No Law and Order on the Island, if there why are vehicles
That are known to IW Council and Island Roads allowed to park along Roads
with NO Mot
Maybe they are relations of workers for such organisations or friends
The Island is a Gold Fish bowl and runs on an who you know basis, hence
many people getting away with things.
I have seen the Van
It’s been parked outside 117 Great Preston Rd for months
It will rot there.
IW Council or Island Roads don’t know what to do if a vehicle is parked on
an Island Road with NO MOT
Maybe they should ask DVLA about the £1,000.00 fine for doing so.
Do they work in the dark, cos they need to? Don’t tend to see the police speed vans at night either.
Are the readings these CSW people detect going to be used in prosecutions ??, and if so what is the law for this as they are not legally CSO’s or Police.
A quick google reveals:
These details are passed to the Police, who will issue a letter to the vehicle owner, advising them of the dangers of speeding, and reminding them of the law. If three letters are issued to the same vehicle owner, the Police carry out further investigation.
So, no I think is the answer.
For their speed recordings to be used in prosecutions a certificate of daily calibration would have to be presented.
I wonder whether they can use the readings in a prosecution at all…
No, they can’t.
Without the calibration they may as well say ” well I think they were going to fast!”.
Do they get paid
Only asking as wondering why my council tax goes up to pay for coopers, when some pensioner does it for free.
What’s Barrel makers got to do with it???
What utter sad sad people! Get a life you absolute losers!! Find your self a hobby instead of stitching up your fellow neighbours!!
This. Mind your own business, speeding never hurt anyone.
Speed rarely kills, inappropriate speed kills sadly all too often.
The genuinely sad people are those who are hit by speeding vehicles and their relatives A minority of road users set out to flout the law by driving at unsafe speeds. Any method of identifying them is a winner for the rest of the population.
They need to be caught and dealt with before they injure or kill someone or themselves.
I do understand that driving at speed is a buzz for some but there are private race tracks available to pursue this hobby. Not on public roads.
When someone is speeding and is reported they are not being stitched up , they are being reported for breaking the law – a very different scenario.
What if your neighbours are breaking the law and are Stopping their neighbours
being able to park their vehicles after an hards days grafting.
It’s not fellow neighbours though. It’s dangerous drivers.
Could someone let me know where they’ll be standing would like to see the if the top speed of my car is accurate
I think the saddest thing is that for some reason its normal in this country for the public to volunteer for this sort of thing and its seems to be viewed as a positive. We are one of the largest economies in the world but even with all the taxes we pay its acceptable for civilians to do the work that the police should have the resources for
Would be amazing if these volunteers got away with this in S London.
The enriching population would like shoot them
Let’s hope they wear a bulletproof vest if so
Suppose it give all the old biddys who shouldn’t drive anymore something to do now they have retired
Same idiots who voted brexit to take back control. Now they’re after your cars.
You have a point, but you are amongst the wrong crowd here….
And this is from a council who say they got no money and have to make cuts how much did they all cost us the tax payer
Why not have a fine for people driving at 38 mph in a national speed limit.
It is dangerous and unnecessary also promotes overtaking out of frustration and borne out of the need to get to where you are going within the speed LIMITS.
So penalise those who seem to stay at 32 – 39 in all areas as I have videos of all concerned
As far as I am aware there are no minimum speed limits.On the island there is so much traffic congestion and so many roadworks you ain’t getting nowhere fast.Just chill you muppet slow down a bit or depart earlier maybe buy some Oasis and chill with the stilll.
Yesterday there was a Police radar van stationed up by Compton Bay totally ignoring the illegally and dangerously parked cars on the both sides of the grass verge.
The parking along there (which is signed as a clearway) is a constant danger during the summer restricting the view entering and leaving the car park. Had to laugh as there was a car parked not 3 foot in front of them….
These radar vans are now manned by civilian staff, to save money and have no authority to deal with Road Traffic matters other than their task.
The Island is a joke, does not surprise me, even the van is breaking the law,
he should have been given a parking ticket.
Do they have such equipment that catches dangerous boomers that aren’t up to the driving standard?
These volunteers in Freshwater should spend time watching out for cyclists who ride their bikes fast along the pavement, the wrong way down one-streets, along narrow paths like Longhalves Lane and especially along the narrow tracks in the woods at Golden Hill Fort. They completely ignore No Cycling signs. I had a near miss on Sunday when a cyclist shot along the narrow part of Longhalves Lane, just before I turned onto it.
If it keeps the old farts off the roads then I’m in
Are these the same lot that then get in their cars and drive at 20 mph everywhere?