SPEED CAMERAS

[FJmonkey]

speed cameras simply generate revenue for the MAN.

I couldn't agree more, bastards got me earlier this year for $75 !
Nothing against my driving record...just cash outa my pocket!

$260 in AZ, the photo tickets don't get sent unless you're at least 11mph over...... Got mine last Oct.   

You forgot to wear your mask and then later claim it was not you driving the vehicle....

[RichBaker]

That, and the damn process server caught me the day after christmas with the flu..... Thought it was my parents, didn't even check before I opened the door.   

[FJmonkey]

That, and the damn process server caught me the day after christmas with the flu..... Thought it was my parents, didn't even check before I opened the door.   

I guess the guy with the mask has really stirred the pot and put boots on the ground to collect revenue.....Major bugger!!!

[NJona86FJ]

Not having a rev at anyone or having a go, just my .20 c ( .2c currency no longer exists here, but can still remember buying 5.00 of .1c lollies as a kid, but i digress....)
  Yes speed cameras suck  yes i got pinged the other day, probably doing 80 in a 60 on my way to work in the wet, and yeah it was sillly through a 4 way intersection on the edge of Mayfield... corner of maude st and mayfield rd if your interested....and yes they are just a cash cow. BUT! When i got my licence i  signed up to the government to use THEIR  roads and THEIR  systems and basically promised to obey the RULES and regulations that they have imposed on these said roads. You guys liking your Firearms ( yes i like em no i dont have any but thats a different story) i put in akin to a guy buying one, promising to lock it away and keep it safe and not do stupid shit with it. so if he then goes and uses it incorrectly and kills someone would it be ok for someone who is appointed ( like having a copper say no he was speeding but i dont think it was dangerous) to say no his accident was justified?
I would like speed cameras removed but to appoint someone as  the be all and end all of speed monitoring..... power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely....where would you draw the line?
I like the idea stuart, of a tv licencing system ( worked on radio, the amount of paper work to make sure the artists get their royalties is a pain in the keister)  main reason i dont watch tv is the ads.... i consider it an insult, if i want something i will LOOK for it when i WANT  it not be force fed shit and drivel every 4 minutes of tv time.... its bloody annoying!!! that and no offence to our us counterparts but your tv shows suck.... same old drivel over and over again on here...( simpsons two and a half wankers, repeat repeat adnauseum.... but thats just probably because im in the lowest common denominator bracket.... compare some BBC shows to the US shows.... you will see what i mean, tho i still do watch SBS they put some very interesting stuff on,no not just the late night porn)
Basically what im trying to say is the licence thing.... you signed up for it.... you dont like the rules build your own roads.... simple reallly.
And for the record ..... 130 in a 60 zone gets you a 700 buck fine and loss of licence for 6months and a court appearance.... get caught whilst disqualified and its another 600 bucks and another 6 months suspension... when you do get your licence back you have 1... yes 1 point for a year. let me tell you that you ride to the letter of the law then, i m saying this to point out that i had to learn the hardish way.....
I noticed the other post someone mentioned "loud pipes save lives" and the reply was "BULLSHIT "..( agree) and " learning to ride properly saves lives" (agree as well). isnt obeying the road rules riding properly? being able to control your machine ( which has the potential to kill a few people more than just you) riding properly?
As posted above, i can also agree that riding at high speed and cornering with it leaned well over knee out and still being smooth is control as well ( i know that i love doing it... see 130 in a 60.... still stupid) but shouldnt that be confined to a track? have to remember its not just us that it affects... how pissed would you be if a car was (legally) speeding and wiped out you and your mates even tho you were riding properly?
perhaps another option would be to designate safe roads with an open speed limit. but then if they did that there would have to be more training, different licence classes, more monitoring systems and as far as i have seen, although they suck arses, MOST speed cameras are in potential if not proven black spots.... look for the little crosses on poles and posts etc....bit of a give away.
I m not saying whos /whats right or wrong... these are just my thoughts, now days every time i see im more than 5 over the speed limit in built up areas i verbally call myself a dickhead and slow down to the limit OR the speed of the traffic around me...( dont want to get run over)
it just annoys me that people whinge about the sysytem they signed yp for, complain when it doesnt work, whinge when it does work, and dont come up with a viable good strong alternative.
what would you replace police with?
martial law?
and no im not a cop, dont like 'em.... but wouldnt do what they do for quids..
wow.... .20c gets you more these days huh? chuckles
ride safe fellows.

[Travis398]

wow.... .20c gets you more these days huh? chuckles
ride safe fellows.

yes .20c is 10 times more than the usual .02 cents

[movenon]

Ok, I am for the speed cameras. I have seen the difference before and after. They do work. If they didn't, speeders wouldn't be complaining. Do I speed ? Yes of course. Even cops speed at times. I got a LOT of tickets in my life.  Was I speeding ? Yes. You just need to know that road markings, signs, lights etc. are not opinions or put there just to piss folks off. Its the law of the land.
Often I will ask myself going down the road mindlessly just enjoying the day "whats the speed limit here, right now". Quite often I really don't know, I am just following the traffic or thinking about getting to my destination. Its hard on a bike because we are in a different performance level and for the most part enjoying the ride. When we as a group "zip" cars, split lanes, pass in no passing zones etc we foster a bad image to the public and police and get the press that is deserved.
I'm all for having a little fun and laying a bit to it once in a while but if I get caught then its on me not the system.
If your going down a strange freeway and you see the locals putting the binders on or you are closing fast, think about it. Why are the slowing.... speed camera, cop in front or along the road. If for nothing else it jogs there memory to slow down.
Some folks what to max there fun level out and forego having any fun for the rest of there life. If they are lucky they "pass on", hurting no one else if they are not, then there is a life of grief, wheel chairs and bed pans.
Ride to stay alive there's a lot to enjoy tommorrow.
P.S. Think I seen a test of the speed cameras once and at about 220 mph it can't catch you. Shutter speed must be slower........ Let me know if it works or how much it cost you.

[rktmanfj]

[fj1200d]

Ok, I am for the speed cameras. I have seen the difference before and after. They do work. If they didn't, speeders wouldn't be complaining. Do I speed ? Yes of course. Even cops speed at times. I got a LOT of tickets in my life.  Was I speeding ? Yes. You just need to know that road markings, signs, lights etc. are not opinions or put there just to piss folks off. Its the law of the land.
Often I will ask myself going down the road mindlessly just enjoying the day "whats the speed limit here, right now". Quite often I really don't know, I am just following the traffic or thinking about getting to my destination. Its hard on a bike because we are in a different performance level and for the most part enjoying the ride. When we as a group "zip" cars, split lanes, pass in no passing zones etc we foster a bad image to the public and police and get the press that is deserved.
I'm all for having a little fun and laying a bit to it once in a while but if I get caught then its on me not the system.
If your going down a strange freeway and you see the locals putting the binders on or you are closing fast, think about it. Why are the slowing.... speed camera, cop in front or along the road. If for nothing else it jogs there memory to slow down.
Some folks what to max there fun level out and forego having any fun for the rest of there life. If they are lucky they "pass on", hurting no one else if they are not, then there is a life of grief, wheel chairs and bed pans.
Ride to stay alive there's a lot to enjoy tommorrow.
P.S. Think I seen a test of the speed cameras once and at about 220 mph it can't catch you. Shutter speed must be slower........ Let me know if it works or how much it cost you.

Buy me my MTT Jet Bike and i'll try it out. 

[Arnie]

Neil (NJona86FJ),

You make some interesting points, but one thing that must be pointed out is that the roads are NOT owned by the govenment. they are owned by you and me, the public who pay taxes, levis, and speeding fines to finance them.  If I'm exceeding the speed limit by 3kph (about 2mph), that doesn't mean I'm speding.  When the speed limit changes 8 times in a 4km zone, then that has got to be intended to entrap you.  And the speed cameras are rarely set up in "black spots", most all of them are on major roads that will net the greatest number of fines/victims.

Cheers,
Arnie

[Klavdy]

Do speed cameras work?
Yes, of course they do.
They work extremely well at giving tickets to people for exceeding an arbitrary speed limit.
Nothing more, nothing less.
They do not reduce the road toll.
They cannot.

[NJona86FJ]

Good point Arnie, and Klavdy, and Arnie as you know the vic gumbiment is a bit savage with the 'ol speed cameras....  so i have heard , havnt been down there yet, the QLD mobile speed cameras are a bit sneaky...( was always on the look out for white vans... chuckles...) I guess it s just a case of like what movenon says.... ride to the traffic and conditions, and be alert ( your country needs more lerts.... sorry.... ) and if you are going to ....ummm... be naughty... do it somewhere in the boonies.

[FJTillDeath]

Lol as far as these cameras go and their earning big bucks for the man - I don t know if we here at South Africa have a really stupid camera system or what but I have been photographed by these machines a number of times doing well above the speed limit (was testing a theory) and from what I have found these cameras only take shots of the front of the car and as we all know motorcycles only have a number plate at the back. So my conlcusion: either the cameras suck or the admin sucks. either way I never have to worry about speeding tickets 

[racerman_27410]

our city went to great expense to install "red light" cameras using a third party..... to catch people running red lights.

they were required to install signs alerting people to the fact that the upcoming intersections had red light cameras.

Needless to say the instances of people actually running those red lights dropped dramatically and after two years they removed the cameras.

no speed cameras ... yet.

doesnt matter to me i have my fun up in the mtns where there are barely lines painted on the roads and the only things taking pictures are the wildlife 





KOokaloo!

[mikeholzer]

In 2005, the City of Minneapolis, MN installed a "Photo Cop" system to catch people running red lights at selected intersections throughout the city. When activated, the system photographed the license number of the offending vehicle and "promptly" issued a $142.00 fine to the owner of the vehicle.

I can't recall the specifics (as it happend about (5) years ago), but as I recall, a prominent local attorney received one of these citations for a vehicle he owned but could not have been driving on the day in question as he was not in the state at that time. A lawsuit was brought against the state regarding this system, citing violations of certain traffic laws and civil rights violations (something about innocent until proven guilty, blah blah blah). The long and short of this is that in 2007 The Minnesota Supreme Court determined that this policy violated certain traffic laws and ordered the city to cease and desist. As a consolation for illegally receiving fines from approximately 25,000 drivers over about a (1) year span, the City and County decided to remove the violation from the records of those who signed the citations and paid their fines.

Sadly, as this is the United States, many of the drivers who blindly paid the fines began a class action lawsuit to recover the fines from The City of Minneapolis, as they felt the city was not entitled to those monies in the first place. They did eventually win, but the only group who came out ahead on that deal was the attorneys, of course. The saddest part of this whole deal to me, a resident and taxpayer, is that over $1 million was spent on this system, which wasn't completely automated. The reality is that the city used union police officers (on overtime) to monitor the cameras and manually copy the tag numbers to the computer which issued the citations. Additional labor cost for the year that the cameras were in use: $500,000.

Personally, I'm indifferent about whether local law enforcement chooses to use cameras to catch speeders or persons violating other traffic laws. It's not realistic to think that you are only breaking the law if you get caught: the reality is that if you exceed the posted limit (arbitrary though it may be), you are still breaking the law and subject to whatever the standard fine/penalty is for the municipality. It's a simple equation to me, but I religiously ride at the posted speed, I don't tailgate, and I signal all of my turns. It isn't a question of whether I (personally) am a nuisance on the road; rather, it's that I don't wish to suffer the penalties, and whether I'm in my car or on my bike I try to drive courteously and with respect to those around me.

Of course, that's not to say that I haven't amassed a certain number of moving violations over the last 25 years, but I was uber-guilty every time and I paid the fine without complaint. Even the $400 ticket in Wisconsin in 1989 for driving at over twice the posted speed limit (the officer couldn't prove how fast I was going as he claimed to be "pacing" me from about 1/2 mile back in the dead of night on a county road).

My $3.29.

[andyb]

My town tried putting redlight cameras in to catch those who go through lights a pinch late.

Oddly, they didn't last long.  It seems that when they're repeatedly found with .308 holes in them, the local magistrate decided to cut their losses and stop bothering.

My only problem with traffic law enforcement is that it's a stupid waste of manpower for something that really doesn't cost the public that much.  I do understand that routine checks like for speeding and such are how people are frequently caught doing other, greater crimes, but really I consider it to be small potatoes sort of things.  Any cop with a daughter needs to read up on sexually related crimes and then really think about which laws they need to be working to police.