Speed checks frequency increasing 10 fold - conspiracy?

TheDoc

heybaby wrote: »

The inconsistency with which speed traps are deployed nationwide has always bugged me, not least because drivers speed up once beyond them but also because it facilitates the "garda are just shooting fish in a barrel " argument.

As has previously been mentioned, don't speed and you won't get fined. However I believe garda holding speed guns are utterly useless as far as the changing the national pastime of speeding is concerned. It's also a total waste of vital manpower. At some point economies of scale and a tad bit of common sense will enable tamper proof GPS monitors to be installed in all cars which will track everything the driver does. This, I believe will be 1000 times more effective than the current wholly inadequate system. The beauty will be that there will be no way out of it.

Until technology saves drivers from themselves it'll be up to drivers to stick to common sense and slow down.

A number of insurers here are trialing GPS tags for cars on a beta/trial basis to see if it's something to introduce. I know Aviva are offering it as an incentive for policy holders. It records your speed limit on certain roads matching it against a DB where roads limits are stored. But it also monitors to ensure you dont hit speeds that is simply illegal everywhere etc.

Although it also tracks your journeys and distances, and in some ways is to catch out people who lie about their annual distance or car usage when signing up for a new policy.

Some European countries have them again on a trial basis, but there appears to be one GPS tag that was already "hacked" whereby you could feed it bogus data to relay back to the insurer.

Personally I'd say the next step is probably unmanned cameras that automatically clock and record details of speeders. Their is a rollout in Dublin around Luas lines, with these cameras recording cards that break red lights on luas tracks to automatically send a fine and penalty points notice.

Matter of time before they are mounted on underpasses, on motorways etc. Surprised they arn't here already, the M50 for example has those notification boards at X distance, so would imagine cameras will eventually be hung from them.

ardmacha

Well I've driven in every county in Ireland and I haven't got as a speeding ticket yet, so this isn't exactly a major issue.

deco nate

I had to go to wexford then on to Dungarvan yesterday, on the way to wexford (from bray) I saw 3 vans, 1 cop.
Then onto dungarvan I saw 3 vans. On my way back up the m9 when I passed Kilkenny on the opposite side I saw 2 cop cars hiding on the slip roads 3 junctions apart, this is very common on the m9.
Today I went to Headford and was 2 van's.
Maybe they just like getting out in the good weather?

Big Wex fan

I've seen an increased Garda presence on the Roads since they changed their fleet. I think with the hiring ban & the aging fleet, there was huge reduction in checkpoints the last few years. Thankfully I haven't seen an increase in checkpoints yet, no tax on the car!!! But expecting a fine in the post from Garda with a handheld camera hidden on a corner of the M11.

ectoraige

TheDoc wrote: »

Are you for real? It's been a headline issues since 2013.

GoSafe vans are present all around the country, and have been involved in a number of high profile cases regarding their operation and regulation and questions over their actual impact.

Oh, I'm well aware of GoSafe. However, you said:

TheDoc wrote: »

A number of speedvans have been introduced by a private entity, but I believe its a tender, in that they pay a fee to the government in order to operate.

GoSafe don't pay a fee to the government in order to operate, it's the exact opposite. The government pay GoSafe around €1.7m per month to operate the scheme. Also, it's been in the headlines since it was introduced in 2010, maybe you only noticed the headlines in 2013?

The total cost of the contract up to November 2014 was €80m and the department recovered €18.9m through speeding fines, which means the overall cost of the scheme to the state was about €61.1m.

A death through an RTA is estimated to cost the state about €1m (can't remember where that's cited). So if you reckon the scheme saves the lives of 62 people over four years then yes, it's making money for the state. If you think it has saved fewer than 62 people, then it's a net loss to the state's coffers.

Bongalongherb

Valetta wrote: »

Bit harsh.

It's not harsh at all. When you look at the importance of printed paper-money to survive, and then you look at the importance to a human life in the tangle of this paperism... The money will always rule over a strangers life in a greed capitalist environment, because you are not made of money

Ah sure, Let us (The ECB) digitally create A trillion Euro out of thin-air and pump it into already successful multinational corporations to make more money and lower the Euro currency as to detrimentally affect the working class and to put them into a smaller box of economic hardship.

It's not harsh, it's diabolical.

Cold War Kid

Bongalongherb wrote: »

They don't give a sh!t about life, it's just a scam to get as much money from you as possible. If it was ever about life, then you would think the government would do something of help in regards to the very high suicide rate in this country.

It's all about the money.

That's just speculation in fairness. I wonder why people are stating it as fact when all it is, is based on their opinion.

Now I do agree that some speed limits seem arbitrary and unnecessary, and the sudden drop from 100kmph to 50kmph - they can be on non pedestrian roads where it's actually hard to keep your speed down at 50.

But most of the time, it is easy to stick to the speed limit - and therefore avoid the fines (so why not do so? Instead of giving these apparent "revenue collectors" the satisfaction of adding to their coffers?) and it is really not unreasonable to put out the message that speeding can be dangerous and deserving of punishment.

Bongalongherb

Cold War Kid wrote: »

That's just speculation in fairness. I wonder why people are stating it as fact when all it is, is based on their opinion.

Now I do agree that some speed limits seem arbitrary and unnecessary, and the sudden drop from 100kmph to 50kmph - they can be on non pedestrian roads where it's actually hard to keep your speed down at 50.

But most of the time, it is easy to stick to the speed limit - and therefore avoid the fines (so why not do so? Instead of giving these apparent "revenue collectors" the satisfaction of adding to their coffers?) and it is really not unreasonable to put out the message that speeding can be dangerous and deserving of punishment.

In all fairness in this reality, it is simple common sense of truth whether folk want to admit it or not or hide behind the black curtain oblivious to its truth.

Cold War Kid

Bongalongherb wrote: »

In all fairness in this reality, it is simple common sense of truth whether folk want to admit it or not or hide behind the black curtain oblivious to its truth.

Um... nope, it's speculation. There's no not wanting to admit stuff or hiding behind a black curtain. You can usually avoid speeding fines; excessive speeding can kill, unless you genuinely believe neither of those are true?

Bongalongherb

Cold War Kid wrote: »

Um... nope, it's speculation. There's no not wanting to admit stuff or hiding behind a black curtain. You can usually avoid speeding fines; excessive speeding can kill, unless you genuinely believe neither of those are true?

Number 1.. They do hide behind a black curtain, it's a black curtain of tainted black on the outside of their van looking in. Their lasers as has been shown previously are mostly not aligned correctly and of which also give false warnings of speeding. 1/kph over this and you get fined, while they hide in behind bushes and shrubbery and also in unused lanes with no visibility to all vehicle drivers, as they are supposed to be visible at all times to other drivers.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is a revenue maker, and as such will continue to be so while they hide in the black curtain of darkness to fine you, and to bring in the Euro, when they are supposed to be visible at all times and made clearly visible to all drivers.

Hiding in bushes and unused lanes is not making their presence known to the driver, to quickly remind the speeding driver to slow down.

I'm on the roads and back-roads all the time and they are not visible, they are always hidden so you cannot see them. I don't speed so I'm ok, but I can see the fault they are making.

Make yourself visible so drivers that do speed will say sh!t, I better keep to the limit as these guys are on this particular road, instead of seeing nothing and weeks later being fined.

sligojoek

If they cared about safety they'd be better off putting those vans in the middle of villages on major routes . I'd far rather they were doing people for 70 or 80k in a 50k zone than someone doing 110k in a 100k zone.