Comments on: Texas Bans Speed Cameras!

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:56:20 +0000

Most of our citizens wouldn’t agree to having speed camera’s everwhere. Where does agreeing to it even come into it though, the government does, whatever the government freakin’ wants.
What Australia’s citizens want and what they don’t want never really comes into it.
It no wonder that most people are completely disillusioned with their government.

No say.

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:12:43 +0000

Except that car manufacturer’s in Australia only have to adhere to a 10% tolerance in regard to speedometer’s. That combined with tyre wear and other factors, could put your speedo upto 15-20% out, and then through no-fault of your own (in VIC Police allow a 3% tolerance) you get caught. That’s alright with you though it seems……?

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:11:40 +0000

It has been proven by an independent study AND a government study performed in NSW here in Australia, that Speed Camera’s have absolutely no effect on speeders whatsoever.
Therefore the only reason to keep them in are revenue raisers, and they are not even using that revenue raised to find or implement anything that does work.

By: Yonny

Yonny — Sun, 02 May 2010 04:29:59 +0000

I exceeded the speed limit once, and my brain caught fire. No, really, just how silly are the people who have swallowed the whole speed kills line that the various governments are pushing?

It’s all about money, people – you can see that just by looking at government budget papers, and the increasingly common tactic of increasing speeding fines to fill budget shortfalls in other areas.

Just imagine for a minute that there was a new road rule that required you, when driving, to keep your left front wheel completely within a ban of white painted onto the road, with drivers being fined for letting the wheel drift slightly out of the band. Now, you know that not having your front wheel precisely within the band at all times is not intrinsically dangerous, but you get fined anyway. That seems to me to be a reasonable analogy for the current approach to speeding – driving is a sort of imprecise game at the best of times yet the government demands of you perfect accuracy that not even your car’s instruments are capable of giving you.

People like to think Australians are anti-authoritarian – not so, Australians are deeply conformist and seemingly willing to bend over for any line of BS the government cares to spin them.

Time to wake up, Australia. If Texas can defeat speed cameras then so can we. And for all those concerned about the road toll, perhaps the government could start focusing on the factors that really matter – little things like driver competency, poor roads, drink driving, drug driving.

By: jack lawson

jack lawson — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:41:11 +0000

good for texas arkansas has banned speed and stoplite cameras for years

By: h0t fuzz

h0t fuzz — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:32:02 +0000

If speed was the main factor in road fatalities, then i guess pretty much all the race car drivers would be dead by now. Seriously for all of u ignorant brainwashed fools out there, the only factors that cause casualties on the road are; lack of attention (i.e. checking out some hot chick in the other car), if ur totally pissed off ur face, or if ur just a plain shit driver. The only way speed would be the reason for a fatality is if some idiot in his/her fully sick modified yulleh car trying to show off and doing 100km/hr over the speed limit in a narrow residential street and loses control. Banning speed cameras is probably the only smart thing the rednecks from texas have ever done!

By: beally

beally — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:22:50 +0000

If you look at the australian crash statistics, which can be found with a simple search in google, you will find, that all road deaths including pedestrians, old farts who have heart attacks in car parks, motorcyclists, passengers including those under the age of 17, truck drivers, bus drivers, etc

Equates to, out of every 100,000 australians, 7.7 people die in a road accident, that 0.07%, your more likely to die in a house hold accident, or by being transferred an infection from a local hospital. Its a minuscule amount, a number not even worth worrying about. You will also see that death rates have steadily declined at around 5 to 6 percent since the late 60s, until around 1995, when the decrease slowed to around 1%, basically it can be surmised that speed cameras etc are not causing an increase in deaths, but a slow in the rate of decline, so it can be said by the government that a decline is occurring, but not a good one. This also has to be taken into account that every year there are more motorists, a significant number too, so the number of deaths are always going to increase, but the percentage relative to the population stays roughly the same. So police etc can use the argument that there is a record number of deaths and there needs to be more speed cameras, and also the argument that since the introduction of speed cameras, deaths have been declining, but they always have….

By: todd

todd — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:15:21 +0000

A point many people miss here is the danger speed camera’s place at intersections.
NEW LICENSE TEST QUESTION .1
When a driver/rider is approaching almost any intersection here in the nanny state of Victoria, are looking at
A. The road
B. The other cars
C. The speedo
Answer- NONE OF THE ABOVE. They are looking at the sky for camera’s and flash’s.
REMOVE THESE THINGS FOR BETTER SAFETY.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:48:25 +0000

Sorry guys… speaking about the U.S. in my post above.. not AU… can’t believe I have to read an AU publication to learn about what is going on in my country… but that’s how the Press is these days here.

Cheers.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:46:17 +0000

Nick,

What planet are you from?

First off, what do you mean by “3ks?” 3 km/hour?? If so, then your math is off as that would equate to 1.8 mph.

Have you ever tried to drive exactly the speed limit for more than a few seconds? You think you don’t move that needle 2mph over without trying? How about going downhill? What if your speedo is off by 2mph? What if the camera is off by 2mph.

It’s clueless people like you who clog up the passing lanes on the highways in this country. This problem causes many more unsafe road situations than anyone speeding (of which the latter is nearly everyone at one time or another).

If we had realistic speed limits instead of artifically low speed limits, in addition to many poorly trained motorists who pay more attention to their cell phones than their driving behavior, then I might agree with you.

The key is to implement realistic posted speed limits based on road conditions, road construction, and today’s cars’ capabilities. More than anything else, what we need in this country is a complete overhaul of the driver training system, which is inexcusable. For starters, there should be federal requirements so that all states are on an equal base.

Then let’s talk about requiring drivers to read English. I can visit the local DMV and take the tests in Chinese or Spanish. Yet, I only see road signs in English. How does that make sense to anyone?

Get a clue people. Look around you at what is happening – how 90% of us truly drive. Trying to enforce laws which no one pays attention to with a heavy hand is not the way to make our roads safer. That does not address reality. It simply seems to further a system which clearly does not work.

If you want to see a system that works, take a look at Germany’s transportation and driver training infrastructure.