Road deaths are a tragedy. So are speeding fines. I have had my fair share of the latter in my time but I can safely say its through no fault of anyone other than me. We get complacent and know where the radars are more than likely to be. The radio stations even broadcast the location of the radar thanks to Andrew Denton making a complete idiot of the police commissioner on triple M years and years ago. I remember listening to him as he got the commissioner so befuddled and contradicting himself he had no choice but to bless the practice of broadcasting their locations. I was a fast young driver only because the risk of getting caught are minuscule and manageable.
It used to be (and I suspect still is ) illegal to notify others to the presence of a radar. Flashing lights at oncoming traffic used to be the norm too, until tickets started being issued. I still do it though. Not only to save an absent minded driver of the impending fee but also to slow them down. I have in the past flashed at obviously speeding cars and faked them into slowing down. I'm not what you'd regard as overly community minded and the civil libertarians shit me big time. I just think there's no need to rocket along when there's other cars around. If you are alone though, go for it.
I have a solution though. To minimise the frequency of speeding and bring to the forefront of every drivers mind the fact that a radar is near by. My idea is to privatize the capture and issue of infringement notices.
Stay with me here.
A private citizen owns a car and may or may not be frequently on the road. A fully sealed and tamper proof speed camera is located in the car maybe behind the grill or on the rear parcel shelf. It is powered from the car and that's it, no other interface. The box will communicate via the phone network and send the images of cars caught speeding off for issuing to the driver by the government.
BUT, I hear you say, that will cost a fortune and who will do it?
I love the word "self funding". It answers so many questions.
The car owner has to lease the camera from the govt thus becoming a small income stream to manage the system. The driver gets a percentage of the fine as his incentive for doing so and to fund the lease payments. The fined parties are the ones paying for it all in the end. Police can be retasked to criminal matters and know that should someone decide to speed, chances are there will be a radar enabled car in the vicinity hoping to catch them. The more people trying to make an income from being on the spot when speeders occur, the more chance the speeders will be caught. Just imagine for yourself if you knew there were hundreds if not thousands of radars on the street, would you even consider speeding for a minute? It would be a generational and cultural wholesale change in the psyche of the community. Eventually, the numbers caught would reduce to make the scheme not viable for too many drivers but by then, the norm of driving slowly would be in.
The argument against may include an increase in carbon emissions form people driving more often than they would have otherwise. That is offset by the reduction in all the other cars driving more slowly. Self uncarbonunding!
Anyone citing civil liberties or some such guff can go explain their point to the next parents that have to bury their teenage son or daughter through speeding.
I know its weird me writing about this in this particular forum but maybe this is where the initiative starts? maybe someone will cut and paste this and send to a politician and get it on the agenda in years to come. What we have been doing so far really hasn't worked so I'm up for the change. I would LOVE some critical appraisal or ideas thrown in tho the mix about this. I'm not sensitive about its success as there may well be a big issue I have not considered yet so feel free to comment. I do however consider it My brilliant Idea.
What an original concept Justin. Anything that can persuade drivers to slow down and be safer has to be a good idea. I think your angle is so inventive - the speeder would not know where the 'trap' would be. Clever! Good on you
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