Road Safety Bill [HL]

The noble Earl, Lord Attlee, combined two things: an alert driver and a warning device. They are inconsistent: an alert driver would know that he was driving at the appropriate speed within the speed limit. The noble Lord, Lord Monson, talked about having his eye on the speedometer all the time. If it takes a second to look at the speedometer, how long does it take to look at the rear vision mirror or the door mirror? I do not know. It is probably exactly the same amount of time. That argument falls. Regarding keeping to the 20 or 30 mph limit, there is a 20 mph limit in the City of London at the moment. There are cameras there, but they cannot be seen. They are a different type and are not painted yellow. They are SPECS. People are very careful, and everyone drives at 20 mph. The limit works very effectively. It is not impossible for people to drive in the appropriate gear for that speed. Finally, the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, mentioned speed cameras being painted yellow. I agree with him on that aspect. I always thought that they should be painted blue: they would tend to blend in with the scenery and could not be seen at night.