MEDIA RELEASE
18 March 2008
SPEED CAMERA RIP-OFF CONTINUES
The Government has installed flashing lights at 100 schools in NSW to improve road safety. It has also installed speed cameras at many of those sites, to improve Government revenue - over $70M pa.
The Roads Minister claims that if motorists don't speed they won't get booked. What he fails to point out is that at many sites there are up to 3 sets of traffic lights between the flashing 40kmh sign and the speed camera, for example at King Georges Rd Beverly Hills. That guarantees that many law-abiding motorists will forget that it is a 40kmh zone and as a result will help swell the Government's coffers.
What the Roads Minister also fails to realise is that when driving through school zones with speed cameras, motorists spend much of the time looking at their speedo rather than at the road. That actually reduces child safety.
The Roads Minister claims that the money raised by the speed cameras will be used to fund future flashing lights. Why is so much money being ripped off motorists to make a small number of private companies very rich?
Reliable flashing lights can be installed for under $1,000 as has been proven. The 8 sets of flashing lights that I installed in the St George area in 2006 have been operating perfectly for over 18 months and the technology has been given to the RTA to use free of charge. Why then is the government spending up to $58,000 per sign installing lights that the RTA's original 3-year trial proved were less effective than those that cost under $1,000?
With the speed camera revenue raised in the past 12 months the Government could have installed flashing lights at every school in NSW ten times over, yet they have been installed at less than 1% of school zones.
Alternatively the Government could have installed high fences and pedestrian overpasses over every main road near a school, allowing the 40kmh speed limits there to be removed. But of course that would merely increase child safety, not revenue.
In other words the government intends to spend 5 times as much on lights that are less reliable than the lights used in the original 3-year trial.
(Only one type of flashing lights achieved 100% reliability during the 12-week evaluation period - the ones that cost $350 each...)
For more information contact:
Peter Olsen
13/55 The Grand Pde
Brighton-le-Sands 2216
0414-538-404
9012-5298 bh
9599-1811 ah