Speed cameras and traffic infringements

I have decided to bring this subject up as our Queensland State Government has made some big changes to catch people out to get more money out of us suckers, our Govt. is broke and they have been investing a lot of our money on new ways of making more money off us, speed cameras and traffic infringement is one of their biggest money earners of course they say its for road safety but we know better and they have changed a lot of rules to hide their money earners, when they brought the camera cars first time out they had to display a sign to say its a speed camera, they no longer have to, they are even setting up old bomb cars for camera duties, mobil trailers that can pic up anyone speeding from a long distant, radar guns that take your pic so no need to pull you over they just send you a ticket in the mail, they changed the rules so you only need to be 1km over the speed limit to get a ticket, have put up fines for having a mobil phone in your hand while driving from $250 to $1000 and a lost of 4 points.
40km over the speed limit they take your car or bike off you for 30 days as well suspension and more than 3 times you don't get them back, strict hooning laws are the same, they are changing the rules and they don't have to tell you, its up to you to go to the transport web site to check on the rule changes, there are so many changes to every road rule in the book, there has also been big changes in the Transport industrial rules.
Off course do the right thing and you have no problems but some of the changes are catching people who have always done the right thing and have never got a ticket in their whole life, there is no leeway as 1km over the speed limit is a bit unfair as speedos can be out even on new cars and bikes.
We get 12 points on our licence and if you lose any points it takes 3 years to get them back.

So what other unfair road rules or traffic infringements that most on here think and some of the rule changes are a bit silly, we all got to follow rules but some are just plain unfair all for the sake of making money and have nothing to do about road safety, so what do you think.

Ashley

Red light cameras. They do not know what transpired seconds before the pic ..... thus a picture is out of context regarding the situation. Example: I entered an intersection on a green light, pulling a 12 ft trailer. Midway thru the intersection, a pedestrian stepped off the curb. In some jurisdictions, that requires an immediate stop. I stopped, the pedestrian signalled to proceed, by this time the light had changed to red. My choice: back up with a trailer and someone behind me, or pull thru the intersection. I pulled thru and the camera flashed. I think the trailer blocked the cameras view of my plate so i never received a ticket. But this illustrates why a camera cannot determine guilt.

Here in Texas, our legislature has recently outlawed red light cameras on the grounds that everyone is entitled to question his accuser in court. That is not possible of a camera.

Whoopee for Texas, but I agree many jurisdictions are in it for the money. Not only generating revenue from traffic violations but also from any form of code violations, example: failure to cut your grass.

Slick

Similar history here in NZ Ashman, and now we have a government which seems to be controlled by a pack of lentil eating sandal wearers.
Their latest brainwave is that rather than spend money upgrading the roads to match increased traffic volumes (resulting from their immigration policy importing 50,000 people a year) they will instead reduce the speed limits on a large proportion of the roads. There is already a section of State Highway 1 in the Sth Island with a 60km/hr limit and a number at 80kph. One local authority recently announced a blanket speed of 60kph on all gravel roads. And the 40kph over penalties apply here too.
It will soon be more exciting to dig over the garden than to go for a ride.
The only slight positive is that my 16H will soon be safe to ride in traffic as everyone else will be coming back to its speed!

They are doing the same here lowering the speed limit in suburbs from 60kms to 50kms and now they are thinking of dropping it down to 40kms all because these stupid people walking and crossing roads with their heads and eyes stuck on their mobil phones without paying attention or with music blasting in their ears and not hearing the traffic and because of these stupid people us poor motorist have to pay the price of their stupidity or just another money grab by the local GOV.

Ashley

As Slick says, the only route open to you is to challenge the accuracy or calibration of the camera in court - especially with a 1kph variation. Prove that the speedo was indicating 40kph and challenge them to go after the manufacturer for producing an inaccurate speedo. Obviously this would be a pain for an individual but a motoring organisation would have the clout (and lawyers) to force a change to a ridiculous law.
In the U.K. the generally accepted interpretation is limit plus 10% (ish) so for 30mph you need to exceed 33/34 mph to set the camera off and you need to be a lunatic to set off the Motorway cameras as the official limit is 70 but traffic is at 80 when clear and not setting off the camera!
The biggest pain is average speed cameras - not very well understood by the average road user who accelerates between cameras and slows down as they pass the next camera, mystified as to why they receive a fine.

The Gov. knows that most average people will not fight a unfair ticket in court as that cost money and if you lose you have other big cost as well so most people just cop it sweet and paid the fine. When I was young 18 years old I had my new Norton for just over 8 months and had just replaced the rear tyre and being a bit of smart arse I got pulled over by a motorcycle cop and I knew I hadn't done nothing wrong and I let the cop know it but he booked me for a bald rear tyre and just laughed at me and said to take it to court, as soon as he gave me the ticket I rode straight to my local police station and got the duty officer out and showed him the ticket for the bald rear tyre and the time on the ticket which was only 10 minutes from being wrote and said there is no way I can replace a tyre in that time, lucky the duty officer was a friend of my dad and said to leave it with him, found out a few days later the cop that wrote the ticket got a good kick up the arse for it, so there are still some good cops around but that was over 42 years ago.

Ashley

You can't beat them, and you're never going to join them.

When I was living in South Africa, every speed camera was shot to pieces.

In the UK, malcontents hang a tyre filled with petrol around a camera and set light to it.

You can't beat them and you certainly won't join them, but you can have great fun in antagonising them

It is all about revenue and votes. Politicians require both and they will never change. Part of the problem is we vote the same swine in again and again.
Well motorbike types maybe not but the "average" voter is poorly informed and votes on emotion and unchanging viewpoints.
I do find it amusing that speed on the lesser roads is 60 but routinely ignored by many as there are few cams and fewer road patrols. On the motorway where it is entirely safe to exceed 80 that is where you will get nabbed by the damnable speed vans perching atop the over passes.
BTW I understand that the Yellow Vests destroyed speed cams and caused a serious shortfall in income for the state!

Not a problem here in my part of the world yet, but I did get nailed by one in the UK 4 years ago. I was driving a rented car at the time so the fine was charged to the rental company who in turn charged it back to me on the credit card used to rent the car. Tried, convicted and sentenced without ever knowing it till weeks later.

One thing we are lucky here is our State as well our country is it vast and lots of long open roads outback so most revenue camera cars and mobil camera trailers are usually set up on our major highways and around our city roads, fix cameras there are signs on the side of the road letting you know there is a camera ahead and if you don't slow down for it then its your own fault, but now they are starting to hide cameras in steel safety rails or hiding the vans off the side of highways between sound barriers, they are becoming more sneeky about it and patrol cars and motorcycle cops have mobil radar units set up and now with cameras set up on their cars so no need to pull you up, a lot of the patrol cars also have rego reconition that can read number plates in any direction looking for unrego cars and suspended drivers and now they are even asking for your email address so they can send the infringement by email, my last ticket I got on my Thruxton I told the officer I don't have a computer and he wasn't happy about it as he has to send me the ticket by post, he said to me "old school hey" in a smart arse voice.
What also gets me is they still ask for your licence even when they have it already up on their computer even before they pull you up just using your rego number, I do miss the old days when coppers had to work hard to give you a ticket.

Ashley

Ash,
I still think your motoring organisations and action groups need to be more active and challenge cameras hidden or placed temporarily as fixed cameras need to be calibrated for each road where they are fitted - even in Australia!
Hidden or temp cameras will not have been calibrated so will be open to challenge.
John

texasSlick said:

and

Click to expand...

Panopticon is here

Your cell phone’s GPS can write you tickets now- if the state thought it could get away with it

Fixed location speed cams here in NZ are becoming networked. You can pass each one at/under the limit, but what most dont know is that they continuously record, and if for example you pass two consecutive cameras significantly under the time to travel between them at the limit, then you can receive a ticket.

gortnipper said:

Fixed location speed cams here in NZ are becoming networked. You can pass each one at/under the limit, but what most dont know is that they continuously record, and if for example you pass two consecutive cameras significantly under the time to travel between them at the limit, then you can receive a ticket.

Click to expand...

Sneaky bar stewards!

texasSlick said:

Red light cameras. They do not know what transpired seconds before the pic ..... thus a picture is out of context regarding the situation. Example: I entered an intersection on a green light, pulling a 12 ft trailer. Midway thru the intersection, a pedestrian stepped off the curb. In some jurisdictions, that requires an immediate stop. I stopped, the pedestrian signalled to proceed, by this time the light had changed to red. My choice: back up with a trailer and someone behind me, or pull thru the intersection. I pulled thru and the camera flashed. I think the trailer blocked the cameras view of my plate so i never received a ticket. But this illustrates why a camera cannot determine guilt.

Here in Texas, our legislature has recently outlawed red light cameras on the grounds that everyone is entitled to question his accuser in court. That is not possible of a camera.

Whoopee for Texas, but I agree many jurisdictions are in it for the money. Not only generating revenue from traffic violations but also from any form of code violations, example: failure to cut your grass.

Slick

Click to expand...

I used to live in Arizona and they outlawed speed cameras, these were run by Redflex. Turns out Redflex would issue the citation and the city, county or state would get a percentage. On top of that it was proven that Redflex was bribing the "officials" to get the contract. Before they were outlawed a person manning one of the camera cars was shot and killed on the 101.

They have also brought in a new law for undue attention while driving if you are eating food or drinking coffee or drink water or anything, brush your hair or apply makeup while at lights or picking your nose they can book you for it, when I first got my licence when I was 17 I been booked for only one hand on the hand bars and after building my Commando/Featherbed it had no indicators and being booked for taking my hand off the handle bars a few years before I use to stick my leg out instead of using hands singles and one day a cop pulled me over for that and asked me why and I told him isn't it illegal to take your hands off the handle bars, well he had no answer, in fact he was dumb founded and he sent me on my merry way still scratching his head.
Another funny story when speed cameras first came out some young fools decided to take their number plates off and run through the speed camera at speed a few times and then pull up brown eyeing the camera but the fools got caught and it was on the nightly news, stupid buggers had a for sale sign on the back window of the car with their phone number, it cost the driver and owner dearly.

Ashley

You are a source of income for their political ambitions and social hierarchy...
Politicians are not bright...they are greedy.
I never stop for the arbitrary traffic issue...I know if i F$%#@d up, I stop, if not, good luck catching me,

Red light cameras in St. L. (as LS would know) have been taken down after citizens refused to pay the fines. When it was revealed that an out-of-town 3rd party installed the cameras for a %age of the take, the uproar was too loud to ignore.

In 2013 new average speed cameras were installed on Cat and Fiddle road that immediately became obsolete because of a planning cock-up.

The £800,000 cameras were designed to catch bikers on the winding Cat and Fiddle between Macclesfield and Buxton.

But riders are taking a short-cut, making it impossible to prove how fast they were going.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c.../800000-speed-camera-on-cat-and-fiddle-855263

All our speed cameras, camera vans and red light cameras are all under the control of the police traffic infringement unit and any mobil units are maned by police officers from the TIU, there was talk about them being maned by other people other than police officers so more police can be put back on the beat.

Ashley