They are wrapping up the time of Magistrates -- thus delaying more serious cases -- and causing massive inconvenience for those appearing in court.

As a result, there are calls for people who admit "minor'' speeding offences to be able to pay their tickets on the spot or to mail in their fines, something which already occurs for some other traffic offences.

There is no question that the time being taken to deal with these cases, some of which are for comparatively minor speeds, makes due process in the courts almost impossible.

Nor is there any question that it is not the best use of people's time when they have to put aside an entire afternoon to go and wait at court in order to pay a fine which is fixed in law and could be dealt with more easily by a direct payment.

But it is not as simple as that. Many of the people now appearing in court are there because they were caught in a Police crackdown earlier this year which was begun in response to the public outcry over the spread of dangerous driving on the roads.

It can be argued that the inconvenience resulting from the offences is part of the punishment.

And it also has to be remembered that not everyone who is caught is a first time offender -- it would be onerous for the Police to track down every last offence whenever someone is stopped.

Nonetheless, there is a need for a review of the way we deal with traffic offences. The Tumim Report highlighted the problem of people ending up in prison for repeated disqualified driving offences and the dangers of offenders then "learning'' to become more serious offenders and being marked for life because they have had a prison term.

As a result, the penalties for driving offences were lowered and it could be argued that this has resulted in contempt for the system and the decline in driving standards.

The idea that Bermuda is a genteel place where everyone drives at 25 mph or 30 kph is just that; anyone who drives today knows that consistently keeping to the speed limit would cause massive gridlock.

But the time is long overdue for a stricter approach to speeding and perhaps an introduction of a points system whereby repeat offenders end up with longer fixed bans and heavier fines.

Of course, the long term answer to the problems on the roads does not lie entirely with the courts. Better driver training and people driving more slowly are the real answers.

The fixed speeding cameras (planned by the Police but not yet implemented) would go a long way to slowing traffic in the areas where it is easy to speed as would the speed deterrence features being implemented by the Corporation of Hamilton on city streets. Why not put some of them on the roads outside of Hamilton as well? In the meantime, making completion of Project Ride a condition for 16 year olds getting their first licences would improve road manners. Alternatively, all students could be given an incentive of lower licence fees for completing the programme.

Similarly, repeat offenders could be made to take driver remediation courses as a condition of getting their licences back.