Police crackdown is ‘short-sighted’
The police plan to install 35 new speed cameras around the country to snap speeding drivers.
Predictably, this was met with widespread cynicism and the continued belief that the police are far more interested in gathering revenue for the Government than they are in trying to protect road users.
I agree with those who are distrustful of the policies implemented by police when it comes to the placement of speed cameras.
The police certainly don’t help their public image by deliberately placing speed cameras and radar guns at the bottom of hills, or hiding them behind shrubs on straight pieces of road, or even on motorways.
Some may say it’s easy to avoid fines by not speeding, but that would mean constantly looking at the speedometer to ensure the needle doesn’t go over 100.
This is potentially more dangerous than going 4 kms per hour over the speed limit on a straight piece of road, with littleto-no risk to other road users.
The police and NZTA ran an ad campaign a few years back saying that distracted drivers are dangerous drivers, after all.
The reduced tolerance to speeding over the holiday periods is also a cop-out.
There is naturally a higher volume of traffic on the road in these periods.
Two years ago during the Christmas and New Year period, police tried to go for broke by telling everyone that 1kph over the limit was too much and that people would be punished for it.
But the road toll was double that of the same period in the previous year.
There were several problems with this policy, such as the fact that they could not prove their speed cameras and radar guns were completely accurate.
The police have invested so much into clamping down on speeders and drink drivers that it appears they have forgotten that speed and alcohol are just two of many contributing factors influencing the road toll.
For instance, they don’t seem to care about the driver plodding along at 80kph in a 100kph zone with a line of traffic waiting behind them, who then proceeds to speed up to 100kph in passing lanes, forcing the drivers stuck behind to go well above the speed limit to pass them.
This behaviour leads to frustrated drivers attempting risky passing manoeuvres.
It seems to me that speed and alcohol are the easiest things for the police to target and so that’s what they’re doing, but evidence suggests that this policy is backfiring on them.
They have thrown so much weight behind these two things that it seems they have become short-sighted, unable to see what is really happening on our roads.
Police will not change driver habits by punishing people for being 4kph over the limit.