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LadyEllen -> RE: omg!!! TRAFIIC CAMERAS SUCK!!! (7/5/2007 4:13:51 AM)
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Yet again..... you think you've got it bad!
We've had these things for years now and theyre all over the place. On my 200 mile trip to the office each month I must pass at least 75 cameras of various sorts. One of the companies that makes them started in my town.
We have GATSO - these are the boxes with the camera that flashes. We have average speed cameras that time you between two points. We have automatic number plate recognition cameras that can check in an instant whether you paid your road tax, have a roadworthiness certificate and/or insurance - and more ominously if the vehicle (or driver) is wanted (which is OK as long as we have a nice government) and so on. There are so many of these cameras that its quite possible to track the movements of any vehicle - and hence the driver too, because these cameras are clear enough to identify the person at the wheel. You go to fill up with fuel, and there's a camera that reads your number plate before the pumps are switched on. Parking too.
And all these traffic cameras are as nothing compared to the cameras watching the people not in cars.
And the best of it is that we also have a points system - get 12 points and you lose your licence. Speeding? 3 points (plus a fine) for instance - and thats if you admit it; you can still ask for a hearing but the penalty becomes higher when youre found guilty, which you will be (its on camera - irrefutable etc!). The only means I ever heard of to challenge these things is by way of querying their calibration or questioning by what authority they are being used - but that only works of course if they cant find the paperwork.
Now dont get me wrong. These cameras are important to help with road safety and with tracking down those who are unqualified to drive, have no insurance etc. But, the way they are used is a problem - the motorist (which is almost everyone) is being pursued relentlessly by them and it isnt always about safety or other viable motives, but a financial agenda - not only the fines but the huge increase in insurance premia that a conviction brings. Yes, have cameras outside the schools and fuck anyone to death who speeds past them during school hours - but does it make sense to convict if one drives 5mph too fast past a school at 2am? Yes, have cameras on the motorways (freeways) and fine for speeding during busy periods, but for speeding on an empty road?
And dont even get me started on this cellphone nonsense. How they can maintain that its perfectly safe for a 25 year old police officer to drive using a radio or cellphone, whilst I with 21 years experience am a menace for doing so, I dont understand. Again, we legislate for the idiots I suppose. If cellphones are such a distraction then we also need to rip out every stereo system from every car, and also stop people smoking whilst driving.
E
(no driving convictions whatsoever in 21 years)
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