Mobile Speed Cameras are the new “Tax Collectors”?

Having lost a loved one to a road fatality, I am appalled to see the NSW government use road safety as a pretense to earn an extra buck. The government recently decided to remove mobile speed camera warning signs so drivers won’t slow down in time to avoid a fine.

Not only is the government removing the signs but, Nanny State Wales is going a step further by also removing the reflective markings on the speed camera vehicles. Having seen the lowest road toll in the state in 97 years, we should wonder why the government is implementing these measures now. 

Enforcement through stealth won’t increase road safety. When drivers can clearly see mobile camera vehicles (and don’t have to look behind bushes as the NSW Police are so fond of doing), they slow down. 

Effective law enforcement is transparent. Jumping out and shouting "Aha!” doesn’t help anyone, even sneak attacks by traffic cops do more to slow down a driver than a fine in their mailbox 3 days later.

The UK adopted a more visible approach and has since boasted some of the lowest  road death rates in the world. They paint cameras bright yellow and place clear warning signs ahead of them. This deters bad driving and points out dangerous sections of the road. They aren’t simply trying to catch people out. 

Policymakers in the UK  also debated hidden police cameras but eventually rejected the idea on the grounds of civil liberties. They realised setting cameras up in such a way was simply another form of taxation or fund-raising through fines, and wasn’t about safety at all.

In fact, removing these warnings can even be dangerous. Many drivers see a camera at the last second and brake hard, losing control of their vehicles and causing accidents. Some of these people drove within the speed limit, but the sudden sight of the camera tricked them into thinking they had missed a speed sign and they overreacted.

Hiding speed cameras defeats their purpose. Cameras are placed to tell drivers to slow down in locations with a crash history. Instead, the government seems to think we should all be scared of our speedo ticking over the line at all times, rather than paying attention to the road and driving appropriately to the conditions.

Instead policymakers can improve road safety by increasing the number of real visible mobile police meant to catch bad drivers, providing better training for new drivers, and, ironically, by increasing speed limits to more accurately reflect international standards.

Australia has one of the lowest speed limits in the world. Instead of teaching young people to drive well they have set the speed benchmark to accommodate the worst drivers. 

These “poor drivers” are a result of the substandard driver education and training system in Australia compared to European countries like the UK and Sweden. I personally find it annoying that instead of improving the training standards, all drivers are made to adhere to certain speed limits designed to protect bad drivers.

Driving is a privilege we have to earn, not a right. Requiring new drivers log long hours behind the wheel and not letting drivers start until they are quite old doesn’t make up for subpar training. 

But our government doesn’t seem intent on starting drivers younger and actually teaching them to drive so they set ridiculously low speed limits that almost force people to speed. These speeders are then fined so the general public thinks the government is doing their job in promoting road safety, while also filling their pockets with taxpayers’ money.

Despite this road deaths have only decreased, which raises questions about the intentions of policy makers asking for signs to be removed.

Removal of mobile speed camera warning signs is about nothing but revenue raising and control in a police state. ‘Road safety’ and the tragic deaths of road users should never be used as excuses to collect more fines. Real safety requires well thought out policies not revenue raising ideas which only make drivers constantly paranoid about a camera flashing out of the blue! 

This article first appeared in Mychoice on 26 January 2021.