A retired inventor has researched GATSO camera accuracy and is planning to challenge the legitimacy of the evidence they deliver in court after being prosecited for speeding...
iGav's Patented Rinky Dink Link
iGav's Patented Rinky Dink Link
Blue Velvet said:Although I find this interesting and the scrutiny probably overdue, I find the site's statement "Let's make speed cameras as unacceptable as drink driving" abhorrent.
On my street are 2 schools and an old persons home, it's narrow with cars parked on both sides, it's a rat-run between 2 major London streets and yet, people drive down this street at well over 50mph sometimes-- it's a wonder that no-one has been killed in the 6 years I've lived here...
Every day, on my way to work, outside Tube stations or at bus-stops, moronic white-van-men and speeding boy racers refuse to stop at pedestrian crossings, often blithely ignoring the speed limit.
Near my office is a sharp corner in the road and the amount of scrapes on the lamp-posts and bent railings testify to the stupidity of some people.
Sorry for this rant but it's one of my pet peeves: the Daily Mail'ish Jeremy Clarkson fuelled agenda of opposing speed cameras.
robbieduncan said:If everyone drove correctly, using the lanes as they are meant to, signalling their intentions and driving to the conditions then we could all go faster AND be safer.
Blue Velvet said:
Chip NoVaMac said:Would you rather pay a "real" person for speeding? And pay he fines to support such am effort?
robbieduncan said:There are conditions when it's simply not appropriate to travel at 70mph on the motorway, even if there are no other cars apparently around.
Amen, I have a problem with the 4x4 and AWD drivers here in the states that think that driving the speed limit is OK during a snowstorm.robbieduncan said:Well, I'm as guilty as the next person of travelling at "reasonable" speed! But I do use the lanes correctly. I do signal before changing lanes. I do slow down if it's raining/foggy/busy. What really annoys me is that people seem to think that it's always safe to travel at the speed limit due to the way that the government has promoted and polarised the issue. There are conditions when it's simply not appropriate to travel at 70mph on the motorway, even if there are no other cars apparently around.
robbieduncan said:Yes, as many times a real traffic police officer will not stop a motorist for travelling a bit over the speed limit if the conditions allow it and the driver in question is driving safely. It's this lack of discretion that make GATSOs (and the like) massively unpopular. The Police themselves appear to know that many speed limits are not appropriate. Look at the number of them who have been caught speeding in the last couple of years!
CorvusCamenarum said:...in GBR where gas prices are the victim of socialist taxes.
Blue Velvet said:It's those 'socialist' taxes that help pay for the hospitals, nurses, doctors, surgeons and therapists who put people's lives back together after a car accident...
robbieduncan said:That and the massive taxes on tobacco, alcohol, the Road Fund License (which, on it's own brings in much more than is spent on the roads every year), insurance tax (so as premiums go up to cover all the uninsured drivers, who no doubt claim they can't afford insurance, the government rakes in even more)...
It's amazing that anyone still lives here
Blue Velvet said:It's those 'socialist' taxes that help pay for the hospitals, nurses, doctors, surgeons and therapists who put people's lives back together after a car accident...
millar876 said:I love the things. Just after the 9-11 tragedy i was working on a militry base in South wales (here in the uk) and due to the hightned security state, names and times were being logged every time you entered or left a building within the base. That weekend i decided to go home to Kilmarnock, 411 miles from where i was in wales, and after the LONG drive, i was woken up py the postman who wass kindly delivering a speeding ticket i had to sign for.
As the letter was addressed to me and i was curious i opened the envelope, and to my amazment, it was from Grampian police force for a speeding ofence some 200 miles further north than i already had travled, midweek (wednesday) and at what would have been 20 minutes into my lunch break in wales.
At this point in time I had a 1 Litre Vauxhall Nova saloon that strugled to chug along at 70, yet according to the police, their infalible speed cameras had caught me doing 95mph in a 50 zone 650-750 miles from where i was working within 20 mins of stopping for my lunch break. Which is an impresive feat by any standard, ecpecialy when i would have had to traverce 20 miles of country roads to get to a motorway, and negotiate the M5 and the M6 (busy roads at the best of times) during the lunchtime rush hour.
needless to say i faught the ticket, and one. It did however take a letter from my workplace superviser, His boss (an officer on the base) and a security statment from the Milatery Police at the base.
Just to reitterate, I LOVE THOSE SPEED CAMERAS THEY'RE GREAT.
CorvusCamenarum said:I say socialist because we pay for our own health care over here instead of it going through the government. Something as notoriously inefficient as government should not be in charge of something as important as health care.
VincentVega said:"Socialist"? What a simplistic argument. Presumably, as the Bush administration continues the Medicare and Medicaid programmes, it is socialist as well? (Not to mention the booming deficit - whatever happened to good ol' conservative fiscal awareness?)
....
Oh, and read this. How many of the countries in the top ten have state-provided health? Most of them, I'd wager.
VincentVega said:"Socialist"? What a simplistic argument. Presumably, as the Bush administration continues the Medicare and Medicaid programmes, it is socialist as well? (Not to mention the booming deficit - whatever happened to good ol' conservative fiscal awareness?)
How many millions of people in the US are without health insurance because they don't have the money to pay for it? Forty million or more? In the UK, everyone has the right to health care, regardless of whether they can afford it. Access to health care should be based on a person's need, not the depth of their wallet.
Something as important as health care should not be entrusted to the fickle, profit-motivated free market. An individual's health should not have to fight with shareholders' desires for profits and CEOs' desires for fat bonuses and company yachts.
Oh, and read this. How many of the countries in the top ten have state-provided health? Most of them, I'd wager.
Blue Velvet said:Every day, on my way to work, outside Tube stations or at bus-stops, moronic white-van-men and speeding boy racers refuse to stop at pedestrian crossings, often blithely ignoring the speed limit.
Earendil said:Except that under the *current* system the medicare laws are becoming to complicated for Doctors to deal with. If things keep up rural doctors will go out of business, because they do not have the staff, or the money, to higher the lawyers needed to keep themselves "legal" under Medicare.
Medicare may pay for the treatment, but they also dictate WHAT treatment the patient gets, and takes control away from what the Doctor may think is best.
It would be great if we all put money in a pot, that was divided out evenly to pay for everyones Bills, but that isn't the case.
Also, and this may not be true of all countries, but from what I've heard those top countries that had a Government run medical system are almost impossible to get an appointment at. You end up waiting forever, weeks, maybe months to get in. Here in the states you can basically walk into a hospital.
~Tyler