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Why the hate for speed cameras? I love speed cameras because they make the roads safer for everyone. (And yes, once in a while I get a ticket as well, which is

• erikb 8y ago
  I'd guess: They are symbol of order and a source of income for the police.
• Bayart 8y ago
  They're not located at areas where lower speeds would improve safety, they're located at areas where they make the most money. At least that's how people feel. I'm personally generally dubious on speed limit based policies.
  • megaremote 8y ago
    Rubbish. This is just a complete lie, spread by people not wanting to drive safely. It is up there with speed doesn't kill, and I drive better when I have had a few drinks.
    • Reelin 8y ago
      Nice one, trying to discredit your opponent by claiming they don't want to drive safely instead of actually responding to their (IMO legitimate) complaint. I imagine it depends on the jurisdiction, but personally I don't recall ever seeing a speed camera next to a school, near a city park, or across from a row of dense apartment buildings. Instead they always seem to be in fairly irrelevant places such as along highways where you cross from one jurisdiction into another. I'm sure that has absolutely nothing to do with revenue though.
  • arkh 8y ago
    The Montpellier area : 2x3 ways limited to 110km/h + 2x3 ways limited to 90 km/h. Road in perfect state. So let's put an average speed radar system.
    • adrianN 8y ago
      Sometimes speed limits are there to reduce noise.
    • PunchTornado 8y ago
      are you a road engineer? a safety specialist? have access to the stats of the area? know that ppl didn't complain for noise?
      • arkh 8y ago
        No stats: it's 1 year old. For the noise complaints, enjoy the view from the A9 and A709: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Montpellier/@43.5591054,3.8714913,13.25z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x12b6af0725dd9db1:0xad8756742894e802!8m2!3d43.610769!4d3.876716 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Montpellier/@43.5591054,3....
• chrisper 8y ago
  They would make the roads safer if they weren't used so often as money machines. Do they stand at schools? Nope. They stand at the bottom of the hill at the exit of a town.
  • rikkus 8y ago
    They used to be positioned like this in the UK but all the ones I’ve seen like this have been removed or moved over the years to places where they could be regarded as more for safety than easy money making.
    • suvelx 8y ago
      This was intentional, the chief of police wanted to stop them being used as revenue generation, and actually used as a safety device. As such, they're now bright yellow.
      • Reelin 8y ago
        As someone who hates speed cameras, I would actually like them if they were more like what you've described. * Clearly marked, by law. * Placed for safety, with some clearly defined legal criteria. * No data retention, by law.
      • Balero 8y ago
        They also have abundant signs pointing to where they are. I even saw one that had a blue flashing light on top, with a large speed limit sign next to it. If you get caught by that, you really need to pay more attention.
      • emileokada 8y ago
        If I recall correctly, they are now also only allowed to be placed where road accidents have happened before.
    • cs02rm0 8y ago
      I've never seen a UK camera moved or removed.
• dijit 8y ago
  Technically not true. There are accidents caused by those who slow unexpectedly because they only just realised there's a speed-trap. It adds an element of unpredictability to the road. This almost completely offsets any positive safety gain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3861844/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3861844/ Which makes me think it's a cash-grab.
  • seren 8y ago
    I have looked at the study you linked, I don't find it very convincing because it is only counting the number of incidents (or MVC), but not the seriousness of the resulting collision. I would assume that if speed cameras decrease the average speed (which might or might not be true!), even if you have the same number of incidents, you should see a reduction in the seriousness of injuries.
    • dijit 8y ago
      I think that's fair, but if it had been on a nation scale you would have debunked it by saying that it was too broad and would be impossible to control all variables, or that it didn't take into account how $your_country does it. There are other studies which cite this one and they're linked from the page I posted, I invite you to read them. The data is at best inconclusive that speed-traps are functional at preventing collisions and deaths.
  • adrianN 8y ago
    The solution seems to be to put of more of them so people constantly expect their presence. More modern designs are also capable of calculating average speeds over longer stretches of the road.
    • IneffablePigeon 8y ago
      Yeah - here in the UK most long roadworks segments on motorways have a speed limit of 50mph, with average speed checks. It works remarkably well - I barely ever see anyone speed significantly through these segments, as opposed to segments with periodic cameras where people will speed and then slow down for the cameras.
• c1sc0 8y ago
  Because many see it as a tax. Especially when safely matching the actual speed of traffic will consistently get you the lowest ticket of about 50 EUR for being 5km above the limit.
• toolslive 8y ago
  Some of these cameras are hidden: positioned so that you cannot spot them from afar (and not advertised by a sign neither). If the sole purpose would be to help people to drive safely then you should advertise them, make them really visible aso.
  • megaremote 8y ago
    How can anyone say this seriously? This is the stupidest thing I keep hearing from certain people. The idea is to stop you speeding EVERYWHERE. Not just where speed cameras are. It is to penalise people who constantly break the law, and make the road dangerous for everyone.
    • coldtea 8y ago
      How can anyone say this seriously? This is the stupidest thing I keep hearing from certain people. The idea is to make money for the police department and the municipality. https://www.leg33.com/maryland-speed-camera-fraud/ https://www.leg33.com/maryland-speed-camera-fraud/ https://steemit.com/technology/@doitvoluntarily/are-traffic-cameras-rigged-against-drivers https://steemit.com/technology/@doitvoluntarily/are-traffic-... http://time.com/3505994/red-light-camera-problems-tickets/ http://time.com/3505994/red-light-camera-problems-tickets/ https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/617207/Speed-cameras-safety-no-way-make-money-police-admit https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/617207/Speed-cameras-safet... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-410449/Undercover-probe-reveals-buckets-money-speed-cameras.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-410449/Undercover-p... https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/red-light-camera-controversy/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/red-light-camera-controve...
      • seszett 8y ago
        French speedcam fines don't go to the police department or the municipality, they go to the interior ministry and mostly fund infrastructure maintenance (including the speedcams themselves).
        • 8y ago
• Traster 8y ago
  Do they? Because quite simply it doesn't seem like the evidence backs that up - let alone the brutally obvious fact that if you stand next to a speed camera you'll notice all the cars just slow down for the camera. If what you meant to say was 'Speed Cameras make the 30m of road that they're focused on mildly safer than it was before whilst mildly increasing the likelihood of accidents due to unexpected braking in the local area at the cost of introducing a regressive tax' I would totally agree.
  • Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    There's a rise in speed cameras that record average speed over a longer span of road - on the A2 highway here it's very effective, a twelve lane highway where nobody goes above 100 km/h.
  • lb1lf 8y ago
    The trick here is to use a pair of speed cameras for measuring average speed over a stretch of road. Everybody and their dog knows just where the three local speed cameras are, and drive accordingly (sigh). The average measurement in the subsea tunnel we drive to get off the island? Hard to beat, unless you want to go for less enlightened tactics like driving like a bat out of hell until you approach the next speed camera, then pause until you've waited long enough for your average speed to be under the posted speed limit before proceeding past it...
    • llampx 8y ago
      Highways are exactly where a little higher speed makes the least difference in safety. I'd rather that drivers match each others' speed than have congestion enforced by cameras.
      • lb1lf 8y ago
        A bit late to reply, but today the Norwegian Broadcasting Co. ran a story on how effective average speed cameras were; they are currently deployed 27 places, and overall, the number of deaths and severe injuries is halved compared to the situation prior to average cams being deployed on those same sections of road. I guess it could be argued that the increased safety of highways is taken into account when the speed limit is determined - and perhaps also that the idea that safety is excel leads people who speed to exceed the posted limit by a larger margin? Edit: also, the average speed ones perhaps unsurprisingly led more drivers to observe the limit - on average sections, 1 driver in 7000 was caught speeding; single cameras? 1 in 1680.
• cm2187 8y ago
  I wish there were also minimum safe distance cameras.
• tomp 8y ago
  If you actually wanted to make the roads safer, you'd build physical "traffic calming" obstacles like speed bumps or chicanes [1]. Switzerland is full of these, and they're very effective. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicane#Traffic_calming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicane#Traffic_calming