Recently I drove along some well lit, kerbed and guttered, six and eight lane divided highway in the UK which despite its excellent visibility and wide merging lanes was considered dangerous judging by the number of accident black spots marked by speed cameras.
Obviously they were at the top of hills where overtaking lanes close, behind bridges and at the bottom of long clear straights and have claimed many lives because their speed tolerance was set at virtually nil.
Placed every 10 or so kilometers, it was also obvious that this sedate-looking, clean and wide stretch of divided highway must be a virtual slaughterhouse for poor, unsuspecting motorists to the point where I spent more time looking at my speedo than the road.
Which explains the high accident rate I guess.
I set the sat nav to give me directions with an eight-inch colour screen in the centre console showing a map to follow and highlighting the next three exits.
I glanced at that every now and then in between looking for speed cameras. That was when I wasn’t catching the LCD arrow from the other sat nav indicator in front of me on the dash giving more immediate instructions accompanied by friendly verbal commands.
When I wasn’t watching the arrow in front or the sat nav map in the centre, or looking out for speed cameras, I was keeping an eye on another LCD screen which showed the speed limit for that piece of road because the speed limit varied so much it made using cruise control pointless.
I then compared that figure with the number the needle was pointing to on the speedo and cross checked that with the roadside speed limit sign to make sure they all matched within the near zero tolerance so that those black spot cameras I was looking for didn’t flash to remind me what a dangerous piece of multi-lane divided highway I was on.
A few things were missing – the joy of driving, awareness of other road users and ultimately, being in control of my own car.
Commencing on 19/7/10 Australia will introduce a motoring tax, which the government describes as a new initiative to reducedeaths on our roads. We have speed zones scattered around the country, which change with blurring frequency. These have limits of 30,40,50,60,70,80,100,and 110 klm/hr.
These new cameras have the ability to scan 6 cars, over 6 traffic lanes (both directions simultaneously), and are conrtacted to a private company. They were no doubt deemed necessary because in just one state, N.S.W., revenue from speding fines was $A38 million below the BUDGETED estimate.
Our motoring organisation, the NRMA, is critical of the scheme, as also are the police, not to mention the disgust of the motoring public. All agree the best deterrant for speeding drivers is police cars, in full colour, patrolling our highways, but cameras are justified on the basis there aren’t enough police to man patrol cars.
On a drive down our south coast only last week I did actually see a police patrol car. It was snuggled into the embankment, in the shadow of a tree, on a feeder lane accessing our hume highway! But yes, of course, these new cameras are to prevent roar deaths, they’re nothing to do with revenue raising at all!!!!!