11 Apr 07
It is the same with speed cameras. Last year I was confronted by an accident on the A4 near Heathrow. The driver had spotted a speed camera and braked abruptly, only to be hit by the car behind.
Erratic driving is now an everyday feature of London life. Many drivers seem to spend more time watching their speedo, or looking out for the dreaded yellow boxes, than they do concentrating on the road ahead. It creates stress, which is surely the enemy of safe driving.
In the past month, I've taken a step towards alleviating this problem by investing in a speed camera locator. These devices are fully legal and use GPS technology to compare the location of the car with a built-in database of camera locations. The latest version of this database can be downloaded at any time from the internet. You're warned in advance of the arrival of a camera by visual and audible warning, and the device even measures your speed with a greater degree of accuracy than a traditional car speedo.
My device, a RoadPilot microGo, costs £149.95. Updates are free for the first six months and then £49.95 per year thereafter. It plugs into the Focus's cigarette lighter and then attaches to the windscreen using a built-in sucker cup. It's not the neatest solution - you have to put up with a power lead running across the fascia - but it works.
For some people such devices are the spawn of Satan, designed only to allow people to speed. But I'm not so sure. I don't drive faster with the device switched on, but I do spend less time worrying about whether I'm doing 43 or 40mph and more time concentrating on the road. More importantly, I'm less stressed, which can only be a good thing.
