zhoominator said:
I very much agree. People who say it's a victimless crime should probably have a talk to the millions of people who get injured or killed (or their families, whatever) every year. The two biggest causes of accidents, directly and indirectly, are speeding and frustration. Hell, frustration is generally caused by people wanting to go faster than those in front of them, and when said person is travelling at the speed limit this could be put down to a similar issue too.
So many people try to explain it away that they are in a hurry because they may, for example, need to get to work. But guess what? It is not the responsibility of the public to make sure you get to work on time, that's on YOU. If you weren't organised enough, tough shit. As a traveller of public transport (being currently unable to afford driving lessons), I find this sort of argument very frustrating.
Exactly, couldn't agree more. Get your disorganised shit together, and maybe you'll arrive at work on time.
It's really the urban and country road speeders that get my back up, though, I see motorway speeders as slightly less of a threat. Mainly because everyone develops a bit of a lead foot on the motorways here anyway, with the traffic mostly averaging out to about 80 MPH, rather than 70 (the speed limit on motorways here). Given that there's no pedestrians, everyone's going the same way and most people drive sensibly, that's not a particularly big deal. Even if there's someone stopped on the hard shoulder, they're at far more risk from a tired lorry/car driver drifting out of lane and swiping them, than they are the guy doing 80 in a straight line.
Given the choice between someone doing 80, driving sensibly, staying in lane, not tailgating or flashing their lights, and someone doing 70 and the opposite of all that, the cops here will go for the latter guy every time. Not that that will get you off if you're doing 80 and everyone else around you is doing 70, and there's no-one driving like an idiot, they'll still pull you.
Seeing a marked car or average speed camera signs makes
everyone slow down, though, regardless of how good they're driving. XD
Reiper said:
The issue is that these ANPR system which crosscheck license plates can be used to track your movement and patterns at all times. As these systems become more advanced, privacy will only be eroded further.
Sorry, gotta butt in here.
Seriously, what even is? ANPR is
not used to track your position. There is no positional data relayed back to anywhere, it simply contacts the DVLA database (or whatever the equivalent is in your country) to find out if there's any outstanding flags against the registered car.
What type of car is the license registered to? (For example: Audi A8, Black)
Who is the registered owner?
Is the car flagged as stolen?
Is it flagged as "off the road"?
Has it been involved in any crimes recently/has it got a criminal history?
Is it taxed?
Is it insured?
Does it have a valid MOT (or whatever your country's equivalent is)?
At no point is anyone actually tracking the locational data of this info. The worst you'd have to worry about is your car being mentioned in a police report, with the only reasons for that being you have been involved in an accident/crime, at which point, I think you've got bigger concerns. Applying any kind of counter-measures against speed cameras, most of which don't actually work, will get the attention of any cops behind you because either they've spotted it sat over your plate and it's aroused their suspicions, or it's screwing with the ANPR camera, causing it to go "I can't read this", and thus arousing their suspicions. Either way, you're drawing unnecessary attention to yourself.
Reiper said:
The issue is not necessarily a camera that takes an single picture of your car, though I don't really want that either.
Then don't move over here. Ours take two!
