Thread: Speed Cameras

was once involved in a road traffic accident where a driver pulled out of a side turning straight into the path of a queue of motorcycles. Roads were wet, it was mid winter, we weren't speeding. There was a clear view of us approaching - we were in staggered formation so would have presented a reasonably broad spread to anyone who had actually looked.

I was lead motorcyclist and somehow ( to this day I don't know how ) got round the front of the car ( on the wrong side of the road avoiding the ditch). Second motorcyclist hit the car amidships as the driver panicked and basically blocked the road ( I accept the argument that he could have been a bit further back ). his pillion went flying through the air over the top of the car - broken ribs etc and a nice stay in hospital.

For me the interesting thing was that no-one wanted our statements ( I wrote mine out and sent it into the police station anyway ). The driver ( who coincidentally turned out to be a wealthy and respectable member of the local community) wasn't breathalysed - despite it being after lunch on a sunday afternoon.

If the driver gone up to the pillion rider in the street and rammed her at speed with a supermarket trolley she'd have quite rightly been prosecuted for assault. Attack someone with a car and it gets treated totally differently. Why? Am I missing something here?

My pet hate is people who drive holding their phone. I have to wait at a major junction four times a day as a pedestrian and I watch people trying to navigate a corner in the wet with their phone up against their ear. I don't know about you guys but I can hardly walk down the street and hold a phone conversation - all of a sudden you realise you just crossed a side road without looking properly. If we get a dob in a driver on the phone hot-line I'm going to have it on speed-dial for my walks to work.

Originally Posted by johnmc

Next time I drive in Vic I shall be extra cautious.

John

John,

Be especially weary of cars parked on the nature strip with the rear jacked up and without the back tyre. :eek:

Saw one the other day and as someone was sitting in the car I stopped to see if they needed help. Trouble was he did not need help instead it was a speed camera operator who was annoyed that my car stopped him taking pictures. :mad:


Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

John,

Be especially weary of cars parked on the nature strip with the rear jacked up and without the back tyre. :eek:

Saw one the other day and as someone was sitting in the car I stopped to see if they needed help. Trouble was he did not need help instead it was a speed camera operator who was annoyed that my car stopped him taking pictures. :mad:


Peter.

Classic - I guess he was counting on the fact that very few people stop to help these days. Good on you for stopping - you should've called the RACV to report a breakdown. That would've really p***ed him off.

I think it's about time I gave my two bobs worth here. I work for a Transport Research company and we have a fair bit of capability in road safety issues. I've also been a public servant previously and I don't appreciate the PS bashing!

1) :mad: :mad: Stop thinking that it's only idiots that have accidents. Idiocy is not a fixed state. Today, hes the idiot, tomorrow YOU won't be paying attention. To all those who think that only other people lose concentration on the roads, you're heading for an accident.

2) The idea that governments use speed cameras to collect revenue is a moot point. The speed limits are set, so follow them! It's cheaper to enforce them with cameras than with trained cops on patrol.

3) The amount of government bashing in this country appalls me. They do not raise revenue for their own purposes, every cent goes back into the community!!!!

4) Speed cameras raise millions and millions of dollars, roads cost billions. Every cent from camera revenue would not pay for a resurface of a parramatta road. So forget that argument

5) Back to the original thread. Tracking speeders. Currently underway is the Intelligent Access Project where all oversize and hazardous trucks will be GPS tracked to ensure that they stick to their assigned routes, time windows and speeds. The amount of fannying around our company has done to design this system makes GPS tracking of convicted speeders unworkable. Not from a technology point of view but from a privacy and administrative point of view.

6) If you're stil lreading well done!

To conclude Stop bashing the cops and the government, from my experience the public servants working in the police depts, offices of road safety and transport departments have the community's best interests at heart. They are the people who deal with this, not politicians. Forget the politicians, the mean nothing in the context of road safety.

PS Insert witty comment here to mitigate the venom unleashed above.

Fart Tax??? I'n need to work 135 hours a week to pay for my taxes!


Speed DOES NOT kill. INAPPROPRIATE speed MAY kill....Game Over!

I still think that everyone is entitled to an opinion regardless of the nasty comments.

There were some good ideas but it looks as though most people think that it is not their responsibility to obey the speed laws, rather it is up to the authorities to catch them. This, of course, is the general attitude of today, do not take responsibility for your actions and where ever possible blame someone else for the actions that get you into trouble.
To answer one question: the boxes could be speed calibrated by a remote signal, a device that would be similar to the camera costs. I don't know. As far as knowing who was in the vehicle at the time of the offence the same applies to speed cameras where the car is photogaraphed and one would be stupid to borrow a car from a repeat offender with a black box fitted.
The suggestion, in the first instance, was just to get a reaction and it did. I am not backing out of the concept for I feel that with the amount of repeat offenders that the present system is not working and if it stopped them it would be worth a try on other uncaught speedsters.
How much more 'Big Brotherish" is the idea to the manacles for home detainees that read their movements.
The boxes could default to 60k after exiting a specified speed area and if the remote calibraters were not as overt as speed cameras the onus, and guesswork, would be on the driver to know if they are in a speed monitored area, then it would be simpler and less expensive to stay within the limits just in case.
It is trite to say if you don't want to be booked, don't speed, but it is true. The same applies to drink driving. In my opinion a drunk that kills someone is a murderer the same as a drunk that shoots someone, and the responsibility stays with the perpetrator.
I have seen a speed camera set up in Coffs Harbour with a cop sitting on a little canvas chair in the bush beside the highway on a down hill slope with the sign "Speed Camera" placed about 50m past the cop - it should have read "Gotcha!". Now if we behaved he would have made nothing on the day, but I reckon he got a motza.
If you speed and get to work or your appointment on time without being pinged it is good luck - If you speed and kill or injure someone it ain't so lucky.
If someone can come up with stopping the criminal use of a motor vehicle, and think about what is criminal use, I reckon he should recieve the highest acolades of the country.

Peter R.

Originally Posted by LineLefty

. They do not raise revenue for their own purposes, every cent goes back into the community!!!!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

Bollocks!

Originally Posted by LineLefty

I've also been a public servant previously .

Nah..... really....would never have guessed.

Al

I guess I need to clarify my position here.

I'm not for wholsale lead foot driving or open slather on speeding, and I agree %100 percent with the lowering of residential speed limit to 50 kph. It doesn't add hardly any time to the journey and it slows people down in an area were we are most likely to need to stop quickly.

But in my view the system isn't really fair.....

To say that someone who's caught doing 60 in a 50 zone is as dangerous as someone caught doing 120 in a 110 zone (on a road designed specificaly for high speeds, and a car designed for (at least) twice that speed) is crazy.

I also believe speed limits on roads change to much. Nowdays it's far to easy for the powers that be to change limits willie nillie, with the resulting constantly changing (even variable) limits confusing and difficult to adhear to. They don't even follow their own guidlines when choosing the speed limit (ie. brown roads 50, orange roads 60, etc), and the old Australian Design Rule 60, 80, 100 systemwent by the board ages ago.

Throw in the unique system of speed cameras we have here in Vic. and it's hard not to look at the whole system as a joke.


That said, if you look back at one of my previous posts, you'll note that I had this to say....

"I've only had one speeding fine, about 4 years ago, and I was caught fair and square by a real person."

If I'm caught doing anything by a real Police officer then I have no problem.
I respect the Police and the job that they do. I consider them overworked, underpaid and largly disrespected (I think you'll find most of the thread participants believe the same, and arn't having a shoot at the cops in any way. They don't even run the cameras anymore).

I'm not having a shot at your or your company Lefty, but speed cameras in Vic. stopped being about road safety a long time ago, and to believe otherwise is foolish. You just have to look at the way they run things down here to see that.


I love driving and don't mind having a bit of a squirt.
But I don't do it in the burbs, and have found a few twisty country roads that are perfact for this (and still limited to 100, so I'm not breaking the law), and I'd hate to have that taken away because to many people blindly followed popular (and usualy ill infomed) opinion.


I also believe that people get their licenses to easliy, and we have a dangerous culture were everone "needs" and gets a license.
There are some things I'm not good at, never will be. Art for example.
It's the same with driving, some people should never be allowed to get a license, there never going to be safe on the roads. But that's a whole nother argument.


Lefty, if you have conclusive, thorough figures that prove that the majority of accidents are directly caused by speeding, I'll admit I was wrong, and back out of this thread humbly.



Ben, bracing for impact

From here

"Speed limits are intended to inform drivers of the maximum reasonable and safe travel speed. However, there is little agreement on what constitutes a safe speed. In a nationwide survey of current speed zoning practices, all states and most of the 44 localities reported using the 85th-percentile speed as the basic factor in setting speed limits. However, the posted speed is often set up to 10 mph lower than the prevailing speed based on a subjective consideration of other factors such as road-side development. The relative subjectivity of the speed zoning process points to the need to re-examine the criteria and procedures used in setting speed limits.

Properly established speed limits foster voluntary compliance and separate the occasional high-risk driver from the vast majority of drivers. On the other hand, speed limits which are set artificially low tend to be ignored and misallocate resources, apprehending and prosecuting motorists driving at safe speeds. Over time this could lead to a loss of respect for all speed limits and create the impression that traffic law enforcement and the judicial system are unfair. The same public when emotionally aroused demand and often get reduced speed limits by believing the lower limit will slow down traffic and reduce accidents."

Sorry to burst some bubbles here but there are already motor vehicles sold in Australia with "black box" recorders in them. Its a huge issue in the States, at least for the lawyers. At present it only records the last 30 seconds or so before an accident. However the legal beagles are going berserk because of the big brother thing. In the likes of BMW the recorder in conjunction with the GPS navigation system will clearly and accuratley record evidence of speeding. There are moves in Australia to make these recorders mandatory. The police support this for forensic analysis of accidents but you can see where it will end.

As I said, there are already vehicles sold in Australia like this. If people could learn to be responsible behind the wheel we wouldn't need crap like this.

Better get some spare spark plugs Al and keep the Ute.

Cheers

What drives me nuts in this country is the apathy we have.I was in cyprus a few months back and they where going to introduce them there, but everyone was complaining for the person rights and privacy.And you know why they didnt put them in, because the pollies over there where to afraid they where going to get a bill for speeding when they where with there mistress....

The next thet gets me is the RACV. what a bunch of gutless wonders.They always agree with what the goverment says.Who pays memberships to them, the car motarist of the goverment?. I have never seen them bag the cameras.

Next is the police.What a bunch of pussies they are.We all know the cameras are manned by privateers.But the police tell them where to place them.They have lost all my support that i might have had for them.I can see the strings pulled by the goverment , they are just puppets.IF public opinion has changed about them they deserve it.

Another difference between us and the europeans.Generally they dont ping you unless you doing more than 20 k over in most countries. Here a copper will ping you doing 5 k's over.Same with parking inspectors over there, they will blow there whistle wait 1 minutes to see you coming have a few words with you and let you go.Here its which parking inspector can get to you car fast enought to make that extra commission...

Unless the goverment eases up and it does what it should have done, put these cameras in blackspots, not down hills, on nice straight peices of road, then maybe then the public will support them again.

And to all those doo gooders who say this stops hoons..I wonder how many real hoons are caught by cameras.its mainly mums and dads doing a few kays over...

phewwwww...got that off my chest....

mixo

Al
What are you saying? We should do away with video cameras in banks, around shops and around vunerable places because it is BB watching you and you might get caught doing something that you shouldn't?
Are you saying that the police shouldn't collect crash scene evidence in case you are caught out with your mistress or whatever?
Are you saying that flight recorders, 'black boxes',shouldn't be in ariplanes in case it catches the pilot doing something wrong?
This thinking would stop people from having burgular alarms in their homes because we do not have the right to interfere with a person going about their daily business.
As I said, if people could be trusted to do the right thing, THEN and only then would we need none of this crap. Until that happens we deserve to be treated like naughty children and kept watch on by Big Mother. And as the country fills with those that feel it is their right to conduct criminal activity on a large scale we can only hope that a closer watch will be kept.

Peter R.

Please can we have speed cameras on every road, one Km apart.

Please can we have speed and red light cameras for all directions at every intersection.

Please can we have RBT patrols outside every Pub and Club.

Please can we get rid of the drivers who keep trying to kill me.

The only people against such a move would be the criminals who believe it is their right to endanger others.