Speed camera mega-thread ***Read first post before posting***

wrote:

LOCAL councils are to put up hundreds of signs across the country to alert drivers where the new network of mobile speed cameras will be located.

But the camera vans will move from location to location every couple of hours, so speeding drivers won't know the exact spot where they are likely to be caught breaking the law.

Thousands of speeding motorists face the prospect of being caught on camera from next month when the new system goes live.

Assistant Garda Commissioner John Twomey said yesterday that up to 1,500 roads across the country were being designated as speed enforcement zones as part of the roll-out of the mobile speed camera network.

Private company the GoSafe consortium will provide 6,000 hours of filming by the cameras every month, and the system will go live in November. But each zone will have a sign erected to warn motorists they face the prospect of being caught.

Hundreds of roads will be clearly identified as a location where the cameras may be located, and the list will also be available on the garda website.

"An analysis of data over five years shows the locations where speeding is a problem," Assistant Commissioner Twomey said.

"The cameras will be there at times and days when the accidents are happening. The sole reason for this is to keep people alive, and the best way to do that is to slow people down.

"They'll be rolled out in the third or fourth week of November. It's important the message goes out that this is in addition to the existing cameras we have. These will be visible. There will be no shock or surprise. You won't just see a flash, they will be clearly marked.

"Road signs will be erected at roadsides to inform drivers they are entering a speed enforcement zone.

Zones

"There's no excuse, you're being told to slow down. We'll tell you the location, but not the time or date (when the cameras will be there)."

GoSafe will be given a list every month of the locations where gardai want the units deployed. They will also be obliged to carry out surveys to find stretches of road where 85pc of vehicles drive above the speed limit. These areas will be added to the list of speed enforcement zones.

The cameras are operational 365 days of the year, and there will be a special focus at night-time and over the weekends when the most fatal and serious incidents occur.

Countries where mobile cameras have been deployed have seen a 50pc increase in compliance rates.

The commissioner insisted that the cameras were not a revenue-raising exercise, and that the GoSafe consortium was being paid by the hour.

"We're talking about saving lives. It's not a revenue gathering exercise. We want people to look at the website. We want to change behaviour and for people to stay alive."

The new cameras will be augmented by more than 100 garda vehicles which are already in place and the new traffic corps vehicles which were put into operation last year.

bazzachazza wrote: »

Best place to whine about "stupid" speed limits is on an anonymous internet forum. If people put the same effort into writing to their local councilor about out of date stupid limit's that they put in on MOTORS, then they might actually do something about them like review them.

GoSafe will be given a list every month of the locations where gardai want the units deployed. They will also be obliged to carry out surveys to find stretches of road where 85pc of vehicles drive above the speed limit. These areas will be added to the list of speed enforcement zones.

eoin wrote: »

I am saying that I would like meaningful enforcement. I agree that setting sensible limits is obviously the best thing to do in the long run, but that does not mean that enforcement has to be done in absurd locations in the meantime.

eoin wrote: »

It's not really which laws though, it's just when & where. There should be an element of common sense in most of their decisions, I would have thought.

As an extreme example, I think that most people would agree that getting points for doing 121km/h in a 120 stretch would be unreasonable. It is technically breaking the speed limit, but it's not a good application of enforcement. Similarly, you wouldn't want to see a pedestrian being done for crossing an empty street just because they didn't have a green pedestrian light. You wouldn't really question the law, you would question their decision to enforce the law in that scenario.

ART6 wrote: »

There is a dilemma for our government (???) in all of this. It is:

1. We need the media kudos in having reduced the "carnage on the roads".
2. We have severe recession and are approaching bankruptcy, so we need to soak the population for every red cent we can get without ever having to be honest and increase direct taxation.
3. We can get a lot of loot using speed cameras, but unfortunately we also enacted a penalty points system whereby a certain number of points means loss of license.
4. If we put too many people off the roads we will lose their motor tax and their fines.

It's a big problem, so what's the solution? Ah:

1. Appoint a private speed camera contractor (we then can't be blamed if he is too efficient and makes himself a few bucks).
2. Ensure that those private cameras move around a lot so that they don't catch the same people often enough for them to lose their licence.
3. Maintain and extend the illogical speed limits that change by at least 50% on blind bends, with a convenient lay-by for camera vans immediately beyond.
4. Announce a Garda crackdown on speeders in one county after another, so that the drivers in the counties not named will feel secure and will not be on the lookout for cameras and vans.
5. Spend money on "Speed Kills" signs on roads where there have been no accidents in living memory (other than Paddy Murphy who fell off his donkey in 1896), thus avoiding spending that money on correcting roads where there have been accidents. Such signs, however, give the impression that we are concerned and are doing something.
6. Appoint to the RSA a media personality who is revered by the public as a national treasure but who doesn't drive. Let him tell the proles how delinquent they are, because they will accept his word, will tell the Rosary, and pay their fines.

Ah! How satisfying politics is!