Topic: IIHS report says speed cameras lower incidents of deaths and injuries

[Autos_Editor]

IIHS says speed cameras lower deaths and make the roads safer. What do you think?

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[johngenx]

BS - hasn't done a thing here and the city write HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of tickets per year.

[rrocket]

Funny..saw this today:  http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/09/corrupt-red-light-camera-company-sued-chicago-300m/

[Fobroader]

BS - hasn't done a thing here and the city write HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of tickets per year.

Exactamuando!!! Cash cow of the highest caliber

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[NormT]

This is coming from an insurance company?

[Bubba]

A load of hooey.

[rrocket]

This is coming from an insurance company?

Yep

[northsparrow]

It is very brave of Autos.ca to post news of this IIHS study on the effects of speeding. Self-policing of appropriate driving velocity
is so deeply ingrained in almost every review published on this site that any suggestion to the contrary is bound to provoke.
 
The last major survey in Ontario concluded a clear, working majority are in favour of speed cameras however the vitriolically vocal minority will probably
keep the cowardly politicians from bringing them back.

Enforcement of speed limits would also greatly reduce carbon emissions as virtually all vehicles are about 20% more efficient at
100 kmh than at the 'accepted' cruising speed of 119.9999999999 kmh.

[johngenx]

a clear, working majority are in favour of speed cameras

Which doesn't mean they are effective.

Enforcement of speed limits would also greatly reduce carbon emissions as virtually all vehicles are about 20% more efficient at
100 kmh than at the 'accepted' cruising speed of 119.9999999999 kmh.

Even though I'm an auto enthusiast, as I log a lot of kms on my cars, I tend to drive quite slowly in order to conserve fuel and minimize emissions for the kms I do drive.

[tpl]

Speed cameras in school zones good. 
Speed cameras on wide suburban roads to raise revenue   bad.
Speed cameras on expressways.   Should be coated with thick black paint or just stolen and destroyed...or just set to 160 km/h


Worst of all. The average speed cameras being installed in some places in the UK  that log you in an out of an area and compute your average speed.   The politicians who allow these should be fed their own balls deep fried with hot sauce.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Speeds on the Ring road here are way down since the introduction of speed cameras. Morons and out-of-towners get nailed, but the locals have clued in. There are signs posted, so there really isn't an excuse.

They're like any other tool. They can be abused and even at best they are never going to be 100% effective. But they can be beneficial if used properly.

They should never be contracted out though. There are lots of instances where companies involved have lobbied to have speed limits lowered or the length of yellow lights shortened to boost corporate revenues. That's irresponsible at best and dangerous at worst.

Speed fines are a voluntary tax. A person can about it all they want, but they are the ones ultimately responsible for their actions and the resulting consequences.

[mlin32]

You can't drive more than 10km in any direction in Germany or France without running into one. Some are signed, many are not. Some higher-risk areas in France as signed "Contrôles radar fréquents" and in Germany there *might* be a tiny sign with "Radarkontrolle". Many of them aren't turned on permanently, rather at random.

I don't mind them if there is a substantial reduction in the "hide-and-seek" method of police enforcement.

[Fobroader]

Speed cameras in school zones good. 
Speed cameras on wide suburban roads to raise revenue   bad.
Speed cameras on expressways.   Should be coated with thick black paint or just stolen and destroyed...or just set to 160 km/h


Worst of all. The average speed cameras being installed in some places in the UK  that log you in an out of an area and compute your average speed.   The politicians who allow these should be fed their own balls deep fried with hot sauce.

I completely agree, in school, playground and secondary suburban streets, sure....put them on major roadways, thats BS and nothing more than a cash cow.

[PJungnitsch]

BS - hasn't done a thing here and the city write HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of tickets per year.

They don't do much here really, not enough to calm people down. Medicine Hat they do, and traffic speed is way more even.

[johngenx]

They don't do much here really, not enough to calm people down. Medicine Hat they do, and traffic speed is way more even.

Look at where they use them here - they pick places where the speed limits are lower than the traffic flow.  With the Whitemud flowing at 90-100 and limits set at 70-80, they're going to take lots of pictures.  Where 137 ave ends in the west, the road is a massive divided road and it's a 60 zone, traffic flows at 80 - so they park the camera on top of the overpass and take pictures like crazy.

In St. Albert it's horrid.  They installed red light cameras and found few people were running the lights so the private company that was contracted wasn't breaking even.  So they had the city shorten the amber phases to create more red light infractions.  The same for our speed limits.  The main road running through the city used to be an 80 zone.  Then it was reduced to 70, but we still weren't speeding enough to generate enough tickets, so now it's a ridiculous 60.  Six lanes, divided, all controlled intersections. 

Then, to make it worse, they retimed the lights on that road, calling it "traffic calming" so now you have to stop at pretty much all of them as you make your way through town.  They hoped (we know, duh) that it would encourage speeding as you can make the lights if you drive 80.  Also, it would help with increasing light running as people would push the ambers to try to not have to stop at every light.

Everything is done here in the name of creating violators.

[Fobroader]

They don't do much here really, not enough to calm people down. Medicine Hat they do, and traffic speed is way more even.

Look at where they use them here - they pick places where the speed limits are lower than the traffic flow.  With the Whitemud flowing at 90-100 and limits set at 70-80, they're going to take lots of pictures.  Where 137 ave ends in the west, the road is a massive divided road and it's a 60 zone, traffic flows at 80 - so they park the camera on top of the overpass and take pictures like crazy.

In St. Albert it's horrid.  They installed red light cameras and found few people were running the lights so the private company that was contracted wasn't breaking even.  So they had the city shorten the amber phases to create more red light infractions.  The same for our speed limits.  The main road running through the city used to be an 80 zone.  Then it was reduced to 70, but we still weren't speeding enough to generate enough tickets, so now it's a ridiculous 60.  Six lanes, divided, all controlled intersections. 

Then, to make it worse, they retimed the lights on that road, calling it "traffic calming" so now you have to stop at pretty much all of them as you make your way through town.  They hoped (we know, duh) that it would encourage speeding as you can make the lights if you drive 80.  Also, it would help with increasing light running as people would push the ambers to try to not have to stop at every light.

Everything is done here in the name of creating violators.

At least someone is noticing. Whitemud should be 100...thats where it flows at, thats where it should be at. This whole "traffic calming" is BS and its governmental code for, "brace yourself, we are going to bend you over in the name of safety but really it will only appease the ignorant few".

[PJungnitsch]

They don't do much here really, not enough to calm people down. Medicine Hat they do, and traffic speed is way more even.

Look at where they use them here - they pick places where the speed limits are lower than the traffic flow.  With the Whitemud flowing at 90-100 and limits set at 70-80, they're going to take lots of pictures.  Where 137 ave ends in the west, the road is a massive divided road and it's a 60 zone, traffic flows at 80 - so they park the camera on top of the overpass and take pictures like crazy.

In St. Albert it's horrid.  They installed red light cameras and found few people were running the lights so the private company that was contracted wasn't breaking even.  So they had the city shorten the amber phases to create more red light infractions.  The same for our speed limits.  The main road running through the city used to be an 80 zone.  Then it was reduced to 70, but we still weren't speeding enough to generate enough tickets, so now it's a ridiculous 60.  Six lanes, divided, all controlled intersections. 

Then, to make it worse, they retimed the lights on that road, calling it "traffic calming" so now you have to stop at pretty much all of them as you make your way through town.  They hoped (we know, duh) that it would encourage speeding as you can make the lights if you drive 80.  Also, it would help with increasing light running as people would push the ambers to try to not have to stop at every light.

Everything is done here in the name of creating violators.

Yeah, exactly. They don't do that much, so what they do they do with the aim of maxing revenue, not evening out speeds. So traffic behavior does not change and all it does is people off.

Medicine Hat sets radar everywhere, at 10 over. So you'd better believe traffic is extremely even, at 8 or 9 over. Which is reasonable IMO.

But it takes a lot of tickets, ie:

MH, with a population of 60,000 people, went from 45,000 tickets in 2012 down to 30,000 in 2014.

Edmonton on the other hand, with a population of 900,000 (1.3 million in the metro area), went from 220,000 tickets in 2008 up to 240,000 in 2012.

[Blueprint]

As a traffic engineer, I was invited to working groups on speed cameras whose final reports would lead to the QC pilot project with these devices.

I brought along a thick stack of documents proving that the IIHS studies are doctored, how officials were bribed (like an infamous police director in AB that got chauffered around by a hot blonde in an S-Class, paid for by a supplier), how cities jinxed yellow lights to raise revenue once the ticket flow dried out, etc.

Police services applauded my interventions.

I was kicked out of these committees.

Guess I hadn't understood the real objective.

[johngenx]

I was kicked out of these committees.

Guess I hadn't understood the real objective.

 

Of course not.  No one wants the truth.

[Noto]

BS - hasn't done a thing here and the city write HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of tickets per year.

Yeah, I noticed all those signs...while driving the GTI

The politicians who allow these should be fed their own balls deep fried with hot sauce.

Wait, why would you give them hot sauce?  I want their deep-fried balls (lightly, so that their balls are still undercooked and chewy) to be as bland as possible.  There shall be no enjoyment of their punishment.

Then, to make it worse, they retimed the lights on that road, calling it "traffic calming"

Worst title ever.  "Calm"?