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Interesting that they're coming here. They are a common form of speed camera in the UK I believe, where they are generally hated. I'd love to see some data about their use and reducing crashes.
My concern is you could speed through an area, realize your mistake and pull over for 5 minutes, and avoid any fine. Perhaps this is an unwarranted concern, however.
Doing the math:
Lol, fair point mate
😄
You could, but you will likely remember what the limit is next time.
No one who is going to baulk at this as an attack on their "right" to speed is going to stop to average it out.
Stopping is even more anathema to them than driving under the limit.
They'll just whine about it being "bullshit" to the rest of their mates.
Very true.
The idea I think is for people who "normally" drive at 10 or 20kph above the speed limit, encouraging them to normally drive at the speed limit instead.
I guess we also don't know the threshold (1kph over probably won't get you a ticket, but will 5kph?)
Yeah the threshold would be interesting.
If we could normalize doing no more than the posted speed in this country, driving would be much more pleasant. Especially long trips.
It even right there in the name "limit".
It saddens me how many people think it's the lower limit.
I remember them in the UK when we visited as long ago as 2012. My main recollection was that they seemed very effective at causing you to think very carefully about your speed, because in a long line of traffic nobody wants to be the person who drives extra slow to make up for accidentally going too fast a few seconds earlier.
I'm curious to know the reasons for them apparently being hated.
They’re hated because they’re seen as more intrusion, and make drivers stupid. Drivers will speed, and then slam on the brakes and go past the cameras slowly.
The UK is very different when it comes to speed cameras.
They also changed the rules (semi) recently; so that they will only install speed cameras in places where speeding has caused accidents. Which is reasonable imo.
That assumes they're actually making a mistake, instead of habitually driving too damn fast because they think they're more in control than physics is.
I think it's more likely to lead to people slowing down and not doing stuff like weaving in and out of traffic so they can keep going fast.
Whenever I feel like traffic is moving too slowly for me, I think about how long it would take me to walk instead. And then I chill out and enjoy my private climate controlled capsule and maybe turn up my music.
Nice.
On the Road to Zero point. The only way to reduce crashes to a near zero quantity is to reduce the number of cars and car trips. Which can only be achieved by providing viable alternatives to driving. Which would ideally be intercity, regional, and city trains that don't just cater to the 9-5 work day commuter.
I would take trains if there were reliable services between cities I want to travel between.
If this happens in my lifetime I'd be stoked.
At minimum I want intercity services on our existing train lines.
I don't want to drive between home in Whangarei and mum/family in Auckland. There already exists a train line, let me pay for tickets.
This. This this this this this
I just want to add that viable alternatives to driving means that those who don't want to drive, or are unable to drive, or who should not be driving, they then do not have to drive.
The people who scraped through and eventually passed the driving test, but even after a number of years driving are barely competent then don't need to be driving.
When driving isn't necessary for personal mobility, then the licensing and testing can be much stricter, or, as strict as necessary for safety without as much backlash.
This is quite common in Australia I understand. Much better idea
This is a very good idea on bridges and some tunnels especially, where there is little room to pull over and rescue services would have a harder time reaching a collision scene.
I encountered one visiting New Orleans not too long ago, the visitor guide said that you have to take something along the lines of 1 minute per mile of the bridge, if you cross much earlier than that you will get ticketed.
In-laws in the UK moaned about these a bunch when they were first introduced over there - their problem being "everyone is staring at their speed rather than paying attention to the road", as if:
Realistically, most cars these days have cruise control. If your car doesn't, the car in front of you (or in front of them) probably does. So it's unlikely you'll be unable to get the speed right.
A much harder thing is the mental hurdle of driving at a speed lower than it seems the road can handle (because our assessment is based on everything going right).
Driving with cruise control enabled tends to reduce situational awareness and increase response times, particularly if it also enables the driver to be distracted by other things.
I would argue that an attentive driver who ignores posted limits and instead adjusts their speed to be appropriate to their situation is a far safer driver than a distracted driver with their cruise control set to the limit.
Nice, glad to see more countries adopting these. We've had them in NL for a few years now. In the beginning people of course complained, but seeing as they're always clearly signposted it's become not as socially acceptable to complain about as regular speed cams.
You can also always immediately tell when you've entered one. Suddenly even the BMWs are driving 100. Especially on big roads like the A2 it's funny, six lanes of cars driving the exact same speed.
Since NZ is almost certainly modeling off overseas implementation, I'm curious; do you know if there's a threshold, like if the average works out to be 1kph over the limit, do you get a ticket?
Well yes, there's a 3 km/h correction. But that's a blanket rule, so it's also for old speed cams and mobile equipment. I don't know how other eu countries do it