Australian Police - Genuine Road Safety or Revenue Raising Publicity?

[kingswood country]

My opinion is, Fixed cameras are purely for revenue, most day to day drivers know where they are, I think the only cameras needed is sitting on a patrol car or roadside. You never know when they pop up or where.

Police officers are just doing they're job, although i do believe they have a quota to meet, how true, no one knows. You be smart to a cop he's Gunna get you for more, so just be pleasant, you never know, they may let you go. For those that think that the cop has been a prick about a couple kays over, and your nice like me and have a legit reason, he's not a prick, he's just heard it all before. No hard feelings.

Just my opinion

 

[PIR4TE]

It's a jungle out there, we're Australian FFS, take control of the situation, don't be subject to the burgeoning power of public service nannies in the State-funded SkyNet bureaucracy, invest in some stealthy protection.
Technology is your ally John Connor, we are at war with SkyNet's procurement and deployment budget.
Arm yourself with countermeasures that work. Integrate your lifestyle, Internet and recognise the law, not be raped by it.
One key word for all eastern State runs: Redline.
There are other forums to discuss countermeasures, seek them out and good luck.

 

[PIR4TE]

Careful John Connor... Big Brother has
silenced and removed the OP!!

 

[Jesterarts]

I don't feel any of the options are correct.

The laws are not revenue raisers, they are there to try and combat the amount of retards on the road. Example of this is speed limits. We are all forced to drive at limits that are aimed at keeping retards from driving in a manner not fitting to the road conditions. Most freeways could easily be unlimited, but there ate too many idiots on the roads who don't know WTF they are doing to allow higher limits.

The punishments are also not revenue raising, unless you're an idiot. The only way someone can be fined is when they chose to break a given road law. Personally, I love the speed cameras and the like. Because thanks to people who chose to be fined, I pay less rego and tax. If everyone stopped speeding, taxes would have to be increased, etc.

What I do find annoying is the propaganda about how speed is the biggest killer on our roads. This is incorrect, stupidity is biggest killer on our roads and the cause the majority of collisions on our roads. And stupidity is followed closely by ignorance and the assumpition everyone is somehow born with the ability to drive. This is not the case, just the same as I can't play guitar there are many people who can't drive yet due to our joke of a licence system, they are behind the wheel every day.

 

[kingswood country]

What I do find annoying is the propaganda about how speed is the biggest killer on our roads. This is incorrect, stupidity is biggest killer on our roads and the cause the majority of collisions on our roads. And stupidity is followed closely by ignorance and the assumpition everyone is somehow born with the ability to drive. This is not the case, just the same as I can't play guitar there are many people who can't drive yet due to our joke of a licence system, they are behind the wheel every day.

^^^I wholeheartedly agree with you^^^

 

[monkeys437]

I think your thread title is off the mark. Police enforce the laws, they don't set their revenue budgets or anything of the type. I think the state governments attitude towards safety vs revenue is the debate we need

In my personal opinion, most coppers are about safety and are too bloody busy to book people for pissy infringements but step in if they genuinely see something dangerous or concerning. The special Traffic unit coppers can be overzealous because their whole job revolves around road safety. It's like an OHS person at work, after a while they forget people are actually working and they see a hazard in scratching your arse without a SOP, JSI, Risk assessment, safety harness, and blocking off the whole area with bollards. Traffic cops seem to see a minor breach of the rules and engage Nazi mode

In general speed and red light cameras are probably 90% about revenue and 10% safety. The tolerances are too tight and they invariably seem to be used on very safe roads where they are likely to book people. They should be used more on dangerous roads where the risk of speeding is higher, but less people are inclined to speed.

 

[Brenno]

I believe many of the states fixed speed cameras are only revenue raisers, unfortunately the revenue they raise does not find its way back into making the roads safer, so is a moot point having them in the first place. Police however I am sure have better things to be doing, but at the end of their day just doing their job.

I only made it to your post reading this thread and had to reply..

Get your facts right..

Not sure about other states but in QLD every dollar raised from speed cameras goes towards the SRS (Safer Roads Sooner) funding for black spot road improvements..

So...

Do I think they are revenue raisers?

Hell yes..

But necessary.. Speed cameras work on being a fear campaign.. It gets drivers into a mindset that their could be one around the next corner..
So you check your speed..

Someone said speed doesn't kill?
Every km extra you are doing when when you hit a car/tree etc increases the severity of the accident probably to a factor of nearly two..

Every additional 20kmh you do can double your required reaction/braking distance for a hazard..

I don't agree with low range speeding fines (ie: up to 5kmh over).. However normal speeding fines and speed cameras are a necessary evil..

Oh and if you are stupid enough to get a speeding fine from a fixed location camera (especially in QLD where we have to warn you the camera is there by placing 2 signs in advance of it) you need to just hand over your keys because if you knew the camera was there and you still sped you are obviously too stupid to drive a car..

 

[DAKSTER]

I only made it to your post reading this thread and had to reply..

Get your facts right..

Not sure about other states but in QLD every dollar raised from speed cameras goes towards the SRS (Safer Roads Sooner) funding for black spot road improvements..

So...

Do I think they are revenue raisers?

Hell yes..

But necessary.. Speed cameras work on being a fear campaign.. It gets drivers into a mindset that their could be one around the next corner..
So you check your speed..

Someone said speed doesn't kill?
Every km extra you are doing when when you hit a car/tree etc increases the severity of the accident probably to a factor of nearly two..

Every additional 20kmh you do can double your required reaction/braking distance for a hazard..

I don't agree with low range speeding fines (ie: up to 5kmh over).. However normal speeding fines and speed cameras are a necessary evil..

Oh and if you are stupid enough to get a speeding fine from a fixed location camera (especially in QLD where we have to warn you the camera is there by placing 2 signs in advance of it) you need to just hand over your keys because if you knew the camera was there and you still sped you are obviously too stupid to drive a car..

Thats all very well if you run off the road and hit a tree.. hit it at 100kmh and you are dead, hit it at 110kmh and you are twice as dead?

There are many circumstances that warrant allowing a higher speed limit. I dont advocate raising city limits, but on country roads and major highways fatigue kills, not speed. If you hit a tree asleep, it doesnt matter if you were doing 100 or 110, you still die.

I was raised in Darwin, with the glorious 'no speed limit' open roads we used to have up there. The three major factors that affected (and still affect) the road toll were fatigue, alcohol, and overloading. Fatigue being the biggest cause of accidents, and overloading skewed the statistics as well every time a troopy with 18 people on board crashed... something reasonably unique to the NT lol..

Interestingly, the NT resisted open road speed limits for many years, and eventually had no choice to impose them because the federal govt. blackmailed them by threatening to withhold road funding.

The road toll has not changed significantly at all since the imposition of these limits, because speed was never the problem !!!!

Fixed and well signed cameras in blackspots are fine in my view, although I prefer a point to point system rather than an instant speed system, and some intelligence used in the amount of cameras. In the Clem 7 tunnel in Brisbane there are 8 fixed cameras.. you can lose a clean open license from one end of the tunnel to the other, just by doing 83 in an 80 zone for the length of the tunnel.

Mobile car cameras are ok too, they have an operator who is able to judge road conditions, the condition of your car, your general driving behaviour etc, and most cops will use their judgement on whether to pick you up on a few kmh over the limit. Note of course I said most, there will always be the odd cowboy out there.

The portable roadside van cameras are a whole different story. Most of the roadside cameras parked in vans are not in 'black spots' they are in areas where its known that people will speed.. at the bottom of hills for instance. These are just revenue raising.

If they were serious about them stopping people from speeding they would paint them flouro orange and park them in very visible places.. but they dont, they park them as far off the road as they can, preferably hidden in the shade of a tree or something, and unlike fixed cameras, the signage is only visible as you pass them after they have already flashed you.

Thats not a deterrent, they are hiding because they want to catch you speeding.. not because they want to deter you.

A case in point...

My next door neighbour, when approaching intersections or school crossings etc, flashes his lights automatically as he approaches. He thinks it makes him more visible, and considers it a safety thing. He is over 70 lol.

He did this yesterday noon as he approached a school crossing (the school was closed but he didnt know that). There was a speed camera about 400m before the crossing, he saw it but wasnt speeding so thought nothing of it.

Within seconds of flashing his lights at nobody, a cop pulled out of where he had been parked in a driveway, and pulled the old feller up. He wrote him a ticket for 'using high beam in a built up area' (at noon !!) .. a euphemism for 'flashing your lights to warn other drivers of speed cameras', which is not actually illegal in this state (not sure about others).

Now, if its a safety issue and the camera is to make people slow down, it seems to me that the old feller was slowing people down (if in fact there had been anyone to warn in front of him) and the purpose of the exercise had been achieved. But no, in fact what he had done was potentially rob the govt of revenue, so he got a fine. Again, if anyone can tell me how in any way this old feller caused any safety issues by flashing his lights, I'd love to hear about it.

It wasnt so long ago I remember hearing about private contractors being employed to manage speed cameras. The footage on TV was laughable, they had 4 guys in one car watching cars go past and registering their speed. They didnt pull anyone over, just logged speeds with photos and times. They openly admitted that they had a target quota.

As has been stated earlier though, the original question was worded wrongly. Its not the police that make these policies, they just implement them as ordered.