Random thoughts - road toll

[dhunt]

Was reading a crypto newsletter and came across this in it.

The RAC Foundation yesterday called for an urgent review of the first
fixed motorway speed cameras.

"Far from improving drivers' behaviour, motorists are now bunching at high
speeds between junctions 14-18 on the M4 in Wiltshire, said Edmund King,
the foundation's executive director.

"The cameras were introduced by the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera
Partnership in an attempt to reduce accidents on a stretch of the
motorway. But most motorists are now travelling at just under 79mph, the
speed at which they face being fined."

In response to automated speedtraps, drivers are adopting the obvious
tactic of driving just below the trigger speed for the cameras, presumably
on cruise control. So instead of cars on the road traveling at a spectrum
of speeds with reasonable gaps between them, we are seeing "pelotons" of
cars traveling closely bunched together at the same high speed, presenting
unfamiliar hazards to each other and to law-abiding slower road-users.

The result is that average speeds are going up, not down.

Now with stats like this coming up I'm of the opinion that stopping people speeding is just a bandade (sp?) solution. Looks good on the outside but underneath it is as bad as ever and getting worse.

That got me thinking up much money does our government spend on speed cameras, police to monitor them and to catch speeders and acc in pay outs for people that have accidents etc.

What if all that money which I guess is fairly significant amount were spent on DRIVER EDUCATION?? My thinking was before a person got a full license be they kiwi or international they had to go through a free drivers education program. Also on top of that when your license came up for renewal you had to go through a similar program. What would happen?? Would that make our road stats go way down??

Now I'm not trying to bring up our speed cameras being good, bad or ugly that's beside the point... but what can we do to prevent the problem.

THE PROBLEM IS TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE GETTING KILLED ON OUR ROADS!!!

Now I really got thinking at this point (Too much coffee before I went to bed ) What can we do about this problem, is it worth sending letters to our MPs? Another thought I came up with was as it is electon year this year how are the different political parties standing on this issue? Is this an issue worth deciding who you vote for over?

Just some random thoughts I had :spudwhat:

[SuperDave]

That got me thinking up much money does our government spend on speed cameras, police to monitor them and to catch speeders and acc in pay outs for people that have accidents etc.

But you have to lose some to gain some. Are they not making a hefty profit through the ticketing?

[Skyryder]

Was reading a crypto newsletter and came across this in it.


Now with stats like this coming up I'm of the opinion that stopping people speeding is just a bandade (sp?) solution. Looks good on the outside but underneath it is as bad as ever and getting worse.

That got me thinking up much money does our government spend on speed cameras, police to monitor them and to catch speeders and acc in pay outs for people that have accidents etc.

What if all that money which I guess is fairly significant amount were spent on DRIVER EDUCATION?? My thinking was before a person got a full license be they kiwi or international they had to go through a free drivers education program. Also on top of that when your license came up for renewal you had to go through a similar program. What would happen?? Would that make our road stats go way down??

Now I'm not trying to bring up our speed cameras being good, bad or ugly that's beside the point... but what can we do to prevent the problem.

THE PROBLEM IS TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE GETTING KILLED ON OUR ROADS!!!

Now I really got thinking at this point (Too much coffee before I went to bed ) What can we do about this problem, is it worth sending letters to our MPs? Another thought I came up with was as it is electon year this year how are the different political parties standing on this issue? Is this an issue worth deciding who you vote for over?

Just some random thoughts I had :spudwhat:

I doubt if any potical party would consider altering the speed camera regime at present. There was a guy Alan Wilkinson posting here a while back on speed cameras' and their usefullnes or of lack of.
Don't think he was making much headway on the issue even though he could prove that the speed camera and its related issues were not working, in respect of the New Zealand road toll. If you feel strongly on this go too http://www.fastandsafe.org/. Good luck

Skyryder

[James Deuce]

I doubt if any potical party would consider altering the speed camera regime at present. There was a guy Alan Wilkinson posting here a while back on speed cameras' and their usefullnes or of lack of.
Don't think he was making much headway on the issue even though he could prove that the speed camera and its related issues were not working, in respect of the New Zealand road toll. If you feel strongly on this go too http://www.fastandsafe.org/. Good luck

Skyryder

That whole scenario was weird. The majority of us would probably support what AW was trying to achieve. His attitude sucked is why he didn't make any headway. Plus he wanted straight roads.

[Skyryder]

That whole scenario was weird. The majority of us would probably support what AW was trying to achieve. His attitude sucked is why he didn't make any headway. Plus he wanted straight roads.

Nothing wrong with a straigt road at 140+.

I thought AW he had some solid stats but his solution was road tolls. That's ACT's philosophy and those freebooters..............less said the better.

Skyryder