Are we fed up of the credit crunch yet? I don't know about you, but I'm definitely tired of reading about money saving motoring tips; how pumping your tyres up will save you 8% fuel costs, or how riding a bike to work could reduce your travel expenses by £33.70 a week. However, it seems that in the cheap car insurance world is now gripped by a need to educate the driving community with pearls of wisdom on penny pinching at the petrol station and handy hints to reduce your car insurance quote.

For a while in the car insurance business there was relatively little news to tell about motor cover deals and car driving revelation, as all media interest was focused on churning out as many ways as possible of saying, "Money - we're stuffed!"

Now, several months into the financial furore of money munching cash catastrophe, and all alliteration spent, we're apparently possessed by a sudden urge to teach people how to drive in an economically prudent fashion, and suddenly it's a good idea not to get a motoring conviction because that will keep your car insurance quote down.

I'm sorry, but for me, it's always been a good time not to get a motoring conviction. Credit crunch or no credit crunch, the thought of having a policeman stop me and say, "Do you realise you just drove through a red light, madam?" fills me with legs-to-jelly dread.

There has been the odd occasion in my two decades of driving that I have mistaken speed cameras for roadside objets d'art and not taken my foot off the accelerator quickly enough, and this has inevitably been followed by several weeks of agonising as the postman approaches. I imagine that his thoughts of my social standing will plummet when he spots a letter from the police (or whoever it is that issues speeding fines) and there you have the crux of my point; on the three or so occasions that I have gone through a speed trap over the speed limit, I have not once been issued with a fine. Now is that luck, or are speed cameras just a vague governmental hope at deterring people from driving recklessly?

Anyway, it matters not as they are apparently being phased out in favour of "average speed" cameras, that will encourage drivers to travel at the appropriate speed for more of the time. And guess what, this will alleviate the environmental effect of the hard acceleration that occurs after the braking that inevitably happens before for a GATSO speed camera. So, it's a win-win situation for the government - slower driving and reduced fuel emissions all rolled into one revenue making scheme. I can see the slogan now - "Average speed cameras are good for our financial and your physical health."

Hurrah, our monetary worries are over and they've cured global warming to boot. So, drive on friends, and just in case you didn't know already, shopping around for your car insurance quote could also save you a few quid, or have we in the car insurance providing world already mentioned that one.

Labels: car insurance quote, cheap car insurance, credit crunch, motoring costs, speed cameras