Speed cameras save lives

[The Stranger:Me]

Well it's official.

"Speed cameras, long dismissed as nothing more than revenue-gathering devices, cut crashes according to new figures.

The number of smashes around the 10 busiest camera sites in the country dropped by half after they were installed."

How did this one slip through the KB net? Or am I blind?

[rainman]

Well, it makes sense: speed kills, so deterring speed could deter people from killing themselves.

[Morcs]

does that include people getting rear ended as they slammed the anchors on as they saw the camera?

[vifferman]

"The country's most lucrative speed camera, on East Coast Rd on Auckland's North Shore, last year caught more than 10,000 speeding drivers.Injury crashes at the site dropped from 11 in the five years before the camera was installed in 1996, to seven in the following five years."


FFS! Just over 2 per year, to just over 1 per year?!? That's hardly statisitically valid, and once again proves what bullshit it is to try to use simplistic causality to justify something that i going to vary by at least (if not more) as much, without any causal agent.


Why don't they just own up, and say, "The camera made more than $250,000 [a 'low-ball' guesstimate on my part], proving to be a good return on investment".

I'd like to see the crash statistics from all the other speed camera "accident black spots" (you know - the ones installed at the base of hills, or other places where people are likely to get caught, but the road's perfectly safe).

[CookMySock]

"The country's most lucrative speed camera, on East Coast Rd on Auckland's North Shore, last year caught more than 10,000 speeding drivers.Injury crashes at the site dropped from 11 in the five years before the camera was installed in 1996, to seven in the following five years."

FFS! Just over 2 per year, to just over 1 per year?!?

Farrrken arrrse, they saved some money there didn't they? Really, you think about it.. 10,000 fines a year at $100 a shot.. if you saved that up over two years with interest, thats a cool 2 mil saved, plus the interest.. I save hard, but Iwish I could save that much.

Steve

[Hiflyer]

Farrrken arrrse, they saved some money there didn't they? Really, you think about it.. 10,000 fines a year at $100 a shot.. if you saved that up over two years with interest, thats a cool 2 mil saved, plus the interest.. I save hard, but Iwish I could save that much.

Steve

Thats bloody 27 people a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want my own speedcamera!!

[CookMySock]

Thats bloody 27 people a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh, that doesnt sound very many does it. I imagined these things blinked their nuts off all day, but it looks like they do more thumb-twiddling than anything. Typical of any police department innit.

Steve

[Hiflyer]

Uh, that doesnt sound very many does it. I imagined these things blinked their nuts off all day, but it looks like they do more thumb-twiddling than anything. Typical of any police department innit.

Steve

I was going to say that it was heaps. Thats from one speedcamera.

[YellowDog]

If they were to take this seriously, they would put a speed camera just before every accident black spot. The problem with this is that they wouldn't make a lot of money as most people do slow down anyway.

I can see that in some cases speed cameras do serve some real purpose and contribute towards road safety.

But other times they are just a sneaky way of taking your cash.

[vifferman]

Thats bloody 27 people a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want my own speedcamera!!

Uh, that doesnt sound very many does it. I imagined these things blinked their nuts off all day, but it looks like they do more thumb-twiddling than anything. Typical of any police department innit.

It's a pretty busy road (a couple of kilometres from where I'm sitting now), that gets VERY busy at each end of the day. Thing is, the regular users / locals know about the camera (it's fixt, innit?) so that's 27 noobs a day.

[ManDownUnder]

It's bloody stupid.

Nature has proven what an effective deterrent is... and has done so for millions of years. Perception. If people THINK there's a danger (in this case the "danger" of getting a fine).. then they adjust their behaviour accordingly. Butterflys have big "eyes" on their wings to scare birds off, all manner of mimcry exists to be seen, and scare the crap out of things in order to maintain an effective change in behaviour.

The current "leap out of nowhere and take your photo" approach is much more akin to hunting something. It doesn't change the behaviour of an animal, it simply changes it from "free" to "dinner". Think of any lurking predator as an example. The other bugs or fish life nearby don't swim around thinking fuuuuccckkkkk... might be something here that's gonna eat me....". They have their eyes on their own prize (a destination or food or whatever)... go for it and accept the risks along the way. Some lose, most get away with it...

Sound even remotely familiar?

Speed cameras, especially hidden ones, are hunting. Over time people will learn to minimise their risk exposure but only coz we're clever... (Tui?), but they don't change behaviour. If anything people simply learn to speed where "it's ok".

If they want to slow people down they need to put visible "threats" out there. I don't care what the stats say, basic instinctive reactions to threats are such that anything "hidden" is not going to work. Cardboard cutouts or cop cars would work better then speed cameras.

End of story

We can argue about it till the cows come home - but the opposite has been proven in nature, time and again over the millenia

[Hiflyer]

It's a pretty busy road (a couple of kilometres from where I'm sitting now), that gets VERY busy at each end of the day. Thing is, the regular users / locals know about the camera (it's fixt, innit?) so that's 27 noobs a day.

Haha noobs. Yea I used to live just off Greville road. It used to flash quite often at night on a Friday cos thats a prime spot for idiots. not much traffic, long wide and prettymuch straight.

[The Stranger:Me]

If they were to take this seriously, they would put a speed camera just before every accident black spot.

The article that was published in the paper harold sets out a table which is missing from the online virgin.
The table lists the "black spots" you refer to at which they have erected a camera, one of them had 3 (another 6) injury accidents in the 5yrs preceeding camera installation. It appears they are already scraping the bottom of the barrel for black spots.

[swbarnett]

... not much traffic, long wide and prettymuch straight.

In other words, perfectly safe at well above the speed limit!

[Hiflyer]

In other words, perfectly safe at well above the speed limit!

Except for side roads and wayward Christians coming out of city impact church and wandering onto the road