A temporary speed camera installed on the M62 in Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire has generated £1,080,000 (US $1,913,000) since it was installed in September 2003. The camera enforces a speed limit lowered from 70 MPH to 50 MPH and, to date, some 18,000 have received tickets earning 50,000 license penalty points that allow insurance companies to raise rates.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign, points out that a government study of speed cameras in similar construction zones caused a 55 percent increase in accidents.

"Speed cameras increase danger because of the way that they alter driver behavior," Smith explained. "They cause traffic to bunch and some drivers to panic brake. They also cause excessive concentration on the speedo at the expense of concentration on the road ahead. But speed cameras also undermine our road safety system in subtler ways. Drivers are learning to trust the speedometer as a barometer of safety when in fact of course it is no such thing."