Silvia Club of NSW

yup, how many speed cameras are not in black spots?
About the only speed camera that I can think of that is in a black spot is on the road going down to the spit bridge where the road is steep and has some blind curves.
Can understand them being in school zones (when they actually work - saw one going off like crazy one day during school holidays). Can also understand them on motorways since big open roads tend to entice people to speed up (but on the M4 again, the camera is just before or after the speed camera depending on your direction).

Yeah if they are in black spots only i'd love to know how they say a new road will be a black spot because they install one on every new motorway these days

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Personally I don't think the camera on the M4 is all that effective though, Nearly everyone who drives on the M4 knows where it is so they all slow down at that point & if your coming from the mountains there's alot of open road where people fly down and they then apply the brakes just before the camera & I can't remember one time that I've seen the camera actually catch someone speeding.

In saying that though the police are obviously aware because over the last 6 months or so there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people been pulled over by unmarked cars on the M4.

Nearly everyone knows 90% of speed cameras are put in places where they're hopefully going to pull in as much revenue as they can as opposed to actually making blackspots safer. Least thats my opinion on it

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So I said to the cop, No, your driving under the influence... Of being a jerk

in theory noone should really be caught by fixed speed cameras,and the road toll should go down after one is installed - IF it's been put in at a spot that actually is dangerous.

a lack of fines from a fixed camera would mean that people are slowing down at that point,and as such reducing the danger at that spot.


Justin...

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STI - Made in Texas,not Japan.

Honestly, I can't. If we are having a whinge about speed cameras, my personal gripe is cameras in school zones.

Why?

Because at 40kmh its nothing to go 5km/h over with a downhill section or a little more throttle. As a result, I believe that a sizeable proportion of drivers are watching their speedo,Not the road, where little children can run across and be struck by drivers more focused on their speedo than whats actually in front of them.

Ive no evidence for my argument, but then, Ive yet to see a single fucking study demonstrating that speed cameras do ANYTHING except raise revenue.


Strathfield council has chosen to put a new camera outside Santa Sabina school. Not 2000m up the road is an intersection that I have nearly been taken out at by blind, stupid or negligant soccer-mums numerous times. It NEEDS a traffic light. Yet, I can't see that happening any time soon....


Come the revolution.......

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[≡≡≡≡≡] \silvia/ [≡≡≡≡≡]

While this might be true in some instances, if I was a parent n my child was unfortunately hit by a car I'd rather them get hit at 40km/hr as opposed to getting hit by someone doing 60 or more through a school area that has no camera.

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So I said to the cop, No, your driving under the influence... Of being a jerk

Id rather my child wasnt hit at all, which is rather my point.

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[≡≡≡≡≡] \silvia/ [≡≡≡≡≡]

being someone who's hit a child at ~40km/h (don't ask,it wasn't my fault,and it wasn't pretty either),the only thing going faster is going to do is more damage,but the end result is pretty much the same - they're still going to be in a bad way.
hitting a child at 20km/h is still going to put them in hospital so speed is almost irrelevant.
if you hit them at all,they're going to be hurt,which is what needs to be avoided as your first priority.

if you're a parent,focussing all of your energy into preventing the child from ending up in a position where they can be potentially hit by a passing vehicle should be YOUR first priority.

double parking in a school zone and then letting the kids walk out onto the road and get into the car on the driver's side is NOT helping the situation,school zone with 40km/h speed limits or not. - my girlfriend sees this EVERY DAY at the public school down the road from us and has abused parents on many occasions who put their children at risk in this manner,but that's a story for another thread.


I agree with crazee. I would prefer people be watching the road and going with the flow of the traffic around them than focussing on their dashboard and not seeing any of what's in front of them at that moment.

my girlfriend was walking down the street last week talking to me on the phone and three cars went nose to tail right in front of her. why? the guy in the back was on his phone...not paying attention to the cars in front.

a big part of why cameras do NOT help reduce accidents or lower the annual road toll is because people worry more about them and if their speed while they are anywhere near the camera is in an infringeable range than they do on the road itself - so they crash,and crash often. or at the very least,have frequent near misses.

who here drives through the various tunnels in sydney regularly? have you ever paid close attention to the other cars moving along in front of you and seen them wandering all over the lane where when they were on the open road previously and not under the constant threat of hidden speed cameras they could maintain a steady position within their lane?
that's what constantly looking down does. they're so scared of being fined that their ability to control the vehicle is seriously impaired by their attention being forced onto something that is really NOT as vital as the propaganda leads us to believe.

you will NOT be struck dead by a lightening bolt from the sky if you roll down a hill and end up doing 90 in an 80 zone for a couple of hundred metres. there's a good chance you'll be sideswiped by an oncoming truck though if you watch your speedo like a hawk whilst merging across from a blind entry into a tunnel doing 15km/h less than the posted speed limit and don't watch the road beside and in front of you.

speed cameras are about making money. anyone who seriously believes otherwise is horribly naive.


Justin...

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STI - Made in Texas,not Japan.

40kph speed limits in school zones aren't there to reduce the damage to a child if hit.
They are there so that if a child happens to run out on the road, you are going slow enough to hopefully react in time to avoid a collision. Same reason why areas with high counts of pedestrians (like around some shopping malls) have 40kph speed limits.

Kinda drifting off topic though.
I agree, the M4 camera is pointless but it obviously gets people otherwise they would move it (and clearly this is not a black spot).
I still think that cameras should be in school zones. Only because from what I've seen, the school zones with cameras are the only ones where people actually drive 40kph. However I think a police presence at school zones will be far more effective (and then they can book the fuckwit parents who double park and stop in no standing zones etc).
I don't get how people can be caught by speed cameras though. You get plenty of warning (3 big signs!) and the cameras aren't exactly hidden.
Try going to WA where there are no camera signs and the cameras are not so obvious (however radars are legal there, so it defeats the purpose of this really).

and now I again see the police powers going to great use....
From my office window I can see the GWH and there is an RBT station set up. It's 9:45am, there is next to no traffic and I highly doubt there are many, if any, people who have been drinking so far, yet the police see the need to put 2 cars (1 marked, 1 unmarked) and at least 3 officers (from what I can see) here to basically do nothing.
This really annoys me when you think that those resources could be used to you know, fight crime and save lives.

Yeah police seem to do this quite alot along the GWH, A few months back I'd be riding home from work at like 6:10-6:15am and I'd see 2 police cars on the side of the road with a radar gun & I even saw them pull in a couple of cars for a breath test (even though as i rode past they seemed to be more interested with talking to one another instead of checking people)
I could possibly see this being worth it on a friday or saturday night if people were out all night on the booze but they were there mid-week.

Although I guess its more productive than the 3-4 police cars I see sitting at mcdonalds in the mornings catching up over breakfast

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So I said to the cop, No, your driving under the influence... Of being a jerk

I saw a story on the internet about a 78 year old 'hoon' was caught driving at 170km/hr in a 100 zone in a Pulsar on New Years day while out with a car club and in his defense he told police "he raced cars because he believed he was a skilled driver" oh and there was a 35 year old man who also had his skyline confiscated, we all know there can't be a street race without a import involved

While the govt is thinking of all these rules etc to stop young people racing/driving dangerously does this mean that the police will now look at what age they should have as a cutoff point for elderly drivers?

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So I said to the cop, No, your driving under the influence... Of being a jerk

I'd say its both, but if the aim was to allow someone more time to react, if you are looking intently at your speedo to avoid a camera, your time to react is potentially hindered, which is why cameras in school zones annoy me so.

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[≡≡≡≡≡] \silvia/ [≡≡≡≡≡]

I've competed against this guy at a hillclimb and he is a good driver and his GTiR is well looked after. I didn't realize he was anywhere near that old.

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Nature abhors a straight line

It's funny because he was driving an import....

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meh