Worksheet: Keeping Order on the Roads: Speed
Traffic problems are not new and speeding has always been seen as a threat on the road.
This photograph shows Police Officers at the beginning of the twentieth century. Two of the officers are in plain clothes preparing to mount a speed trap with stop watches.
- What information would they use to calculate a vehicle's speed?
- In the 1970's some police cars were fitted with a simple computer to carry out a similar task: how might this operation be performed using a single observation point?
- How does this technique compare with the modern ‘average speed’ camera?
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The first speed cameras were introduced in the early 1990s. This photograph and the one above can be used as a simple and straightforward way into questioning the role of the police: ask the students to discuss:
- Are the police the best agency to deal with speeding on the roads? If not, who else might do so?
- The police are often criticised for ‘picking’ on motorists. Is this criticism fair? What can the police do to prevent such criticism?
- Is it fair to say that many ‘good citizens’ are ‘bad motorists’; and if so, what can be done about it?
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Links to the other worksheets are:
Contents
Preface
Introduction
The Police Service
Definitions
Police/Public Relations
Order on the Roads
Equality and Gender
Work Sheets
Resources
Acknowledgements
