It’s simply money-gathering

Paul Basham makes a strong case for why he is so keen to hand out traffic tickets, but I remain unconvinced.

He claims his motivation is to help lower the injury and death toll from road accidents and that there is no suggestion of moneygathering.

Yet he defends police cars on traffic patrol being obscured or even hidden so that they are more likely to be unseen and therefore catch drivers going faster than the speed limit.

If the only motivation was to slow down traffic, wouldn’t it be more effective if the patrol cars could be seen?

I suppose the most obvious example of money-gathering is the flash, new speed camera in Ngauranga Gorge. For a small section of the gorge, the speed limit drops from 100kmh to 80kmh.

The permanent speed camera that monitors that area is always among the busiest and most lucrative in the country, nabbing ‘‘speeding’’ driver after driver, even though they are by no means driving dangerously.

Traffic authorities claim the speed limit drops because the steep downhill sweep of the gorge makes driving at 100kmh dangerous.

Fair enough, but why does is the speed limit also 80kmh for cars going up the gorge on the opposite side of the road?

There is nothing dangerous about driving at 90kmh up the gorge, yet the new speed camera is now catching drivers transgressing going up as well and slapping each of them with an $80 fine. Sorry, Mr Basham. It’s money-making, pure and simple, no matter how you try to spin it.

My sympathy goes out to the ratepayers of Auckland.

On another matter, I don’t feel that recycling should be a moneymaking venture.

The city council should encourage people to bring in their recycling and either give them a small payment for doing so, or at least not charge them.

I was very impressed with a little probiotics bottle sold in Australian supermarkets, for which recyclers get 10 cents for each one returned.

This bottle is also sold in New Zealand.

A similar recycling scheme would be a good idea in this country.