Speed Cameras

[DUANNE]

I think everyone recognises that a cop car with light flashing lights on every street would have a massive impact on speeding. I think everyone also recognises that it isn't remotely realistic to think such a proposal could actually be applied.

Your comment indicates to me that you might be the type of person to say "Why aren't you out catching real criminals?" when pulled over - and yet here you are applauding the force's abject waste of limited resources in order to further a political position (essentially taking food from a citizen's mouth at the same time). Defending this action seems pretty self-serving to me.

i think you missed my point,i didnt say i approve of the industrial action by the police but merely that it is further proof that the cameras are a revenue raising device and not a safety device at all. remember the car load of kids that crashed on the westgate last year and killed themselves? they had passed a speed camera a couple of clicks before and crashed less than 1 k from the next one doing 200 or so ks an hour. cameras do not work. im on the road 10-12 hours a day and would say that from what i witness a fair majoroty of speeeding cars know were the fixed cameras are and slow down for a couple of hundred meters from the camera then just plant the right foot until the next one. same deal applies when a mobile camera is spotted in time, wich is most times they are on the road. all these cameras really achieve is to rip in more money for the govt of the day(also taking food from somes mouth) from some poor soul who does a whopping dangerous 3ks over the limit.funnily enough on roads where cameras have been removed in britain accident rates have remained unchanged.

 

[bum]

My apologies if I've misrepresented you.

May I ask you a question (and this is an open question to all - uh, except for the anarchists suggesting that their speeding is fine and **** every other prick) - what is it your propose that a Government or enforcement body might actually be able to do apart from impose and enforce punishments for what any reasonable person would have to suggest is, at the very least in some cases, a dangerous and anti-social behaviour? I see that you're saying that it doesn't stop speeding from existing but see no evidence to suggest it has no impact at all. In fact, as a younger bloke I was regularly copping fines from camera cars, got a bit tired of it and changed my behaviour. I very much doubt I can be the only one in a similar position.

There are all sorts of laws and none of them are about stopping bad things from happening. The police do not exist to stop bad things from happening. Both exist to slap us on the wrist when we are naughty boys and girls. What was it you might tell your kids when they carry on when in trouble? Stop being a sook? Something like that?

 

[DUANNE]

unfortunatly i believe a stronger police presence on the roads would be the best answer, its amazing how nobody speeds when there is a cop car in close vicinity. the problem is no matter witch side of politics gets in to power they all have the same attitude that making money on a serious problem is preferable to actually spending money and having a greater impact to fixing the problem once and for all.if the current govt spent half as much money on increasing police presence as it has on reviewing every little thing that comes up they could have saved a lot of lives. the real problem is the previous mob were just as bad, and the next mob will be as bad again.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

FTR, I give every fixed / hidden speed camera the forks as I drive past. Feels good man.

 

[bum]

unfortunatly i believe a stronger police presence on the roads would be the best answer

I'm not going to pretend that I think speed cameras are the be all and end all but if I sit back and try to think about the logistics of implementing your idea above it becomes apparent pretty quickly that it just can't work. I completely agree that a visible police presence would have a more dramatic effect (I think I may have already admitted this earlier) but to have enough cops out on the road to make a significant impact is just impossible. How many roads are there in your local area? Which ones would you prioritise for most coverage? How long would it take for people to work out which ones are least patrolled (if at all)? What do victims of other crime say when there's cop cars trawling the streets but they feel like nothing was done for them? And, the most difficult of the problems, how much does it cost and where does that money come from? It just can't be implemented in any sort of universal fashion. Great idea for known problem spots but next to useless in general because they just can't be everywhere at once - a camera on the otherhand, they can be anywhere and that should have us thinking about our actions at the very least. And for me, that's the real issue - we simply don't think about the effects of our actions beyond our own needs.

 

[proudscum]

Bastards..

where were they when scum broke into my house, no revenue in rounding up filth that break and enter :angry:

in all honesty i can say that i didnt do it.....but have had the same happen to me 8 times in the 23yrs living in oz.We even found out who did it on 2 occasions and the copper did SFA.


regards SCUM

 

[Bribie G]

If you haven't done anything wrong, been a good citizen, paid your taxes, brought up your kids right and have obeyed the laws of the country then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

 

[bum]

DIDITROLLTHEMGOODGUYS?!

 

[Bribie G]

DIDITROLLTHEMGOODGUYS?!

I prefer to troll newspapers

Only got one bite so far

 

[bum]

So what you're saying is that the Final Solution actually is comparable to a photograph of the back of your car when you know you're breaking a well known law?

 

[thelastspud]

Back home in the Hawkesbury one of the local roads used to be a 80 zone, then some poor bloke/idiot going 130
managed to crash and kill himself, so they lowered the speed limit to 60.

I don't think someone who is going to drive 50kms above the speed limit is going worry much about 70kms above the speed limit.
I don't think the lower speed limit would have prevented this accident. Bad drivers are just bad drivers.

But now when you go 60 on this road people try to overtake you and its not a really great road for overtaking.
So did they make the road safer or more dangerous with a 60 speed limit?

 

[bum]

If those people were doing the speed limit? Yes, the road would be safer. Of course, I am more than willing to accept that most people don't but that is the central problem here rather than a compelling argument against regulation/punishment.

I don't know where Hawkesbury is but in Victoria (my main experience of traffic regulation) I do know that a single incident cannot possibly generate a change in a speed limit. First you need x amount of people to die to get a little "blackspot" sign put up, then x more people to die to think about putting in traffic lights or a round-about. Changing the speed limit? Bloody hell, I'd hate to think of how many deaths that might take.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Lucky, well for me, and many others, the NSW highway patrol do have some tolerance..

The Highway guys are not all that bad, depending on how you drive.

They will tolerate some speeding in the right conditions..

I have been flashed by oncoming HWP cars, somtimes they just wave the finger at me on the way past, but only when trafic is light and I am sitting on 110-120km

BUT... on the other hand I have been done doing 120km on the back road between Grafton and Casino...and was told... yep, you are the 5th bloke this morning

The guys are just doing there jobs. They hate speed cameras as well, but they also hate dickheads who think speeding is cool.

DISCLAIMER. I do contract work for the NSW Police... funny what you learn from them

 

[thelastspud]

If those people were doing the speed limit? Yes, the road would be safer. Of course, I am more than willing to accept that most people don't but that is the central problem here rather than a compelling argument against regulation/punishment.

I don't know where Hawkesbury is but in Victoria (my main experience of traffic regulation) I do know that a single incident cannot possibly generate a change in a speed limit. First you need x amount of people to die to get a little "blackspot" sign put up, then x more people to die to think about putting in traffic lights or a round-about. Changing the speed limit? Bloody hell, I'd hate to think of how many deaths that might take.

Must be different in NSW I remember once the local paper sent a letter to the RTA saying that a road
didn't meet the standards for a 100kmph road and the limit was changed within a week.
(Damn Paper I thought they were supposed to report the news not make the news).

So maybe this road didn't make the criteria for a 80 road either.
And your right if everyone did the speed limit there would be no need for speed cameras highway patrol or anything.
people get frustrated at going slower than what they are used to, overtake dangerously or tailgate and lowering the speed limits
won't change that it'll just make more people frustrated and stupid.

 

[pk.sax]

I saw someone mention how impossible it is to provide decent police presence on our roads...

Well, it's our problem. If we didn't insist on spreading our cities outwards all the time and actually embraced some higher concentration living we will have more cop presence, it happens in other places in the world. Funny how the CBD always manages to have cop cars hanging around. You wanna see cop cars around!!! People in oz hardly even talk to neighbours in suburbia, it's the I don't care about anybody but myself when I get outta work attitude. Suburbs are built remote for greater and greater privacy, making regular police presence harder.

 

[goomboogo]

Not truly understanding the potential consequences of our actions allows us to naively justify our own recklessness, or more often, be completely blind to it.

 

[Dave70]

Whats going on?
Most other discussions on speed cameras slump into the inevitable non-sequitur at some point. Allow me to play devil's advocate.

Drinking cleans up around 3000 Aussies a year and costs the community in the order of 15 billion. Not to mention the lives it makes a misery of along the way.
Smoking kills around 6000.
Road deaths are what, around 1800? and many of those are alcohol related anyway.

Drinking and smoking, both legal.
Speeding, illegal. How odd..

As tax paying revenue generator's you'd think the government would be more interested in prolonging our lives via banning ciggies and grog than collecting a fistful of fines for people doing 65 in a 60 zone.

 

[Kai]

I agree, its a voluntary tax that you can opt out of at any time. If you wish to contribute, keep speeding.

Cheers
Chris

My problem with fixed or hidden cameras is they don't discriminate. When I pull out of my driveway, speed up, overshoot the limit by a few k's for a fraction of a second, take my foot off the pedal just in time to cop a two hundred dollar camera flash, I don't call that a fair and equitable way of improving road safety.

 

[Airgead]

If you haven't done anything wrong, been a good citizen, paid your taxes, brought up your kids right and have obeyed the laws of the country then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.


View attachment 46666

Godwin's Law!

 

[argon]

snip... In fact, as a younger bloke I was regularly copping fines from camera cars, got a bit tired of it and changed my behaviour. I very much doubt I can be the only one in a similar position.

...snip..

Precisely what happened to me... now i just drive at or below the speed limit. The 2-3mins I may make up by driving at 10% or more above the limit instead of at the limit is just not worth the stress of either getting caught and fined, endangering myself and family... or having less time to deal with the large amount of inattentive oblivious imbeciles on the road.

If I ever get fined (which i haven't since modifying my behaviour)... it's because i was going faster than legislated... i cop it sweet. There's really no argument.

Anecdotally... when i was younger and driving like a dick, there seemed to be coppers and cameras everywhere... now i drive with more sensibility, i don't see them... probably because i don't need to be looking out for them.