The Motorist Is A Cash Cow?

[mushroom25]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2428873/Councils-pin-hopes-new-super-Gatso-catches-FIFTY-times-drivers-standard-traffic-cameras-boost-coffers.html

Surely not? isn't the obvious answer "if you don't want to pay the fine, don't speed/make illegal right turns/pass no-entry signs, etc"??

or are these cameras just there to infringe the motorist's inalienable right to break the law?

[Gromit]

I have never had to pay a fine from a camera, but then again I have read the Highway Code recently and obey the rules.

[mikey4444]

I have never understood the opposition to speed cameras, espoused by the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and others.

Presuming that they are all working accurately, surely these devices only catch drivers who are exceeding the speed limit and therefore breaking the law ?

More speed cameras, not less is the answer !

[Graham-W]

The cameras are supposed to be "Safety" cameras and there are guidelines as to where they can be installed. They cannot be installed at random just to generate income. http://www.speedcameras.org/speed_cameras_guidelines.htm
Mainly about accident prevention but also for consistent speeding by drivers.
Section 9 is interesting.

[tonyav]

Yes mushroom 25, the motorist is and always has been seen as a cash cow by successive governments, and I believe it will always be the same.

[ummmm]

All the speed cameras in Northampton have been turned off.

[tonyav]

So have the ones in the West Mids ( my area anyway ) they say that wet film speed camera's are to expensive to run !.

[Graham-W]

The cameras around Stratford upon Avon were most certainly turned ON in June this year.
£80 for a speed awareness course :-((

[ummmm]

Same reason, too expensive to run.

[mikey4444]

What I find especially interesting about speed cameras is how many people still continue to get caught by them.

Here is South Wales we have three police forces, all of them rather keen on the use of speed cameras. The fixed ones have been in place for years and yet they still detect 10,000's of people each year. The mobile ones are mostly situated in the same places, but they too are hugely successful in catching people who drive recklessly.

You would have thought that peoples driving habits would have changed but as a person who drives about 35,000 miles a year, I see people speeding, using Mobile phones, etc, etc every day I go out.

I was caught doing 50 in a 40 mph zone 9 years ago, and have never had a speeding conviction since ( touch wood ! )

[THECORBYLOON]

I think the Mail's maths is wrong and it's nearer a hundred times more effective than fifty. Would the same folk complaining also be complaining if a new initiative meant a hundred times more employers were fined for hiring illegal workers or selling counterfeit goods? Would they be mumping if another scheme meant a hundred times more tax were collected on smuggled alcohol and tobacco? What about if there were a hundred times more folk fined for having illegal drugs, would that be wrong? Why do motorists think they are special?

[ichkeria]

Speeding should be as socially unacceptable as drink driving.

[hawksley]

If they had these in Spain or Portugal,with the standard of driving there,all the fines, would lift both of them out of trouble within six months.

[mushroom25]

//Would they be mumping if another scheme meant a hundred times more tax were collected on smuggled alcohol and tobacco? //

that's not a very good example to pick TCL - there are probably as many who benefit from cheap tobacco as motorists who speed, and they'll be just as aggrieved if their supply were to be switched off.

[THECORBYLOON]

You are saying the ones mumping are also the ones buying the smuggled tobacco, I am not.

[THECORBYLOON]

Sorry, you are saying the number involved is similar but what I am asking is would complaining drivers be against a similar increase in the the number of fines imposed upon others who break the law in other circumstances?

[bookbinder]

As a matter of interest, the inventor of the Gatso camera was caught by one of his own devices, and he had to pay a fine.
http://www.velocetoday.com/maurice-gatsonides-p2/

No exception for him!

[pixie373]

I have been caught speeding, pretty much once every five years (one off license and one on) although last time about nine years ago. But do agree we probably need more speed cameras. Was entirely my own fault each time and i would hate to hurt someone. Seeing a speed camera does make me think.

[ludwig]

// I have never had to pay a fine from a camera, but then again I have read the Highway Code recently and obey the rules. //

Do you never break the speed limit gromit?

[tonyav]

LOL, wonder if he ever tows a caravan.

[youngmafbog]

I think the main opposition to them came about because they were sited in places where signage was somewhat lacking and where people would be likely to speed albeit unintentionally. eg a duel carriageway long and straight but suddenly dropping to 50.

I try not to speed but sometimes it is difficult especially if you are not familiar with the area and speed limits, just been down to Devon and the 'A' raod actually dropes to 20 mph at one point!

The other problem was people accumulating enough points to be disqualified on one journey. I know from experience that if you got stopped by plod and recieved a dressing down at teh roadside only the most stupid would have sped again. This does not happen with cameras.

We have also seen camera's switched off: because they dont generate enough revenue. Proof that is is cash not safety as the driver.

Camera;s have also killed people. A motor cyclist was killed round here due to skidding on seeing a camera. So there is one man who would have been living if it were not for cameras. Of course I am sure many of you will argue it was his fault, and indeed it was. But the death penalty for speeding effectively?