The Department for Transport has urged councils to consider planting trees as an alternative to speed cameras after studies found them to be effective in slowing down drivers.

A trial in Norfolk showed that trees and hedges were effective in getting drivers to cut down on their speed, because they reduced a driver's peripheral vision and that they would also be more suitable than other traffic calming measures in rural areas as they would soften the landscape. The trial saw motorists cut their speed by an average of 1.5%.

Mike Penning, the road safety minister, hailed the experiment and said it showed that imaginative solutions can be used to cut speeds and said he hoped that other councils would look into similar programmes in an effort to reduce the number of casualties on the nation's roads.

However Roger Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Committee for Transport Safety, urged caution. He said: "They certainly have their case, but trees are not necessarily an alternative to speed cameras. Clearly you don't want people driving into them and killing themselves."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8368917/Trees-could-be-alternative-to-speed-cameras.html