Semi-rant - speeding etc.

[gemfyre]

Most of Roe Hwy is a 100km/h limit, except at lights where it goes to 80 (this I learned the hard way). However there is one section where it is 80 for seemingly no reason at all. Anyway, I can't afford another fine so I slow down to 80. Today 6 cars passed me in the less than kilometre that was the 80 zone.

I got to thinking, these advertising campaigns don't work because people don't give a shit if they cause accidents or kill people. What people care about is their money. Telling people to slow down because it's safer won't work because everyone thinks they are the best driver in the world and an exception to the rule can be made for them. However stick cameras everywhere and tell 'em you'll be slugged $100 for each violation and see how driving habits change.

Ideally you would have sequences of cameras so you could see if the speeding was a brief slip up by the driver or if they are consistently speeding and breaking the rules. But of course this costs too much money. Bah.

Comments

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

I remember recently that the WA police were thinking of putting a permanent speed camera in the Northbridge tunnel, and *raising the speed limit to 90*. This says to me that they've decided 90 is the safe speed, but have set it to 80 so that those who habitually sit at 10-over will still be within safe limits.

My pet peeve about the system is that they don't put speed cameras in the most dangerous areas, they put them in more highly trafficked areas so they can catch more people.

Personally, I think speed cameras should be like red light cameras: permanently placed in areas where there is a high incidence of accidents, etc, but in those boxes so you can't tell if it is active that day or not. That would be more effective than just using what they have and hiding them so it doesn't slow people down, only costs them money.

If you go through a speed camera, you can be fairly sure that there won't be another one for a while--so you know you can safely speed! So they're hardly going to do anything but raise revenue, are they?