Like I feel like the standard for traffic cameras is they should be temporary installations used in an investigation to figure out why so many people speed or run red lights or something. And yep, they do eventually figure out interesting tricks.
This one's dumb, but an observation I noticed lately is lots of intersections will change to all red and then light the pedestrian walk light before they change the car light to green. Why? Probably to lower the amount of people crossing the street getting hit by someone turning right in their car. Neat trick.
That is exactly the reason, you can find plenty of studies on it!
These things in isolation, to me, can seem minor, but when combined, it feels a little like death by a thousand cuts.
No actually, the town I went to college in installed cameras at 3 intersections and was able to get rid of them at 2 after figuring out solutions.
And honestly, a LOT of red light runs are stupid silly ones where, for example, the green left turn arrow lights up first! Then the person next to them goes without realizing that straight traffic has a red light. i see that all the time.
Dunno, just a guess. My city started doing this pattern a few years ago and I am very curious about the research backing it up. It does make me feel “safer” crossing streets at busy intersections. But I’d be curious what the actual rationale says about it.
Fines are even more lucrative relative to the extent that speeding is actually a problem.
Australia has an average "top speed" of 100km/h (110km/h in certain states) - whereas many other countries, with varying degrees of better or worse infrastructure, have average "top speed" of 130km/h - and yet have similar traffic fatalities.
Turkey: 130km/h (and fairly poor infrastructure compared to europe): 6.7 fatalities per 100k France: 130km/h (most people drive at ~145 on highways - only 1 point if you hit a radar) - 5 fatalities per 100k Australia: 100km/h - 4.5 fatalities per 100k
It can't just be speed, otherwise other 'similar' countries would be orders of magnitude above Australia.
It's not just speed.
The standards of driving in Australia is terrible. There's an aggressive attitude, tail gating, no lane discipline, if someone is going way under the speed limit, you come to an overtaking lane, go to over take they'll speed up as "you are not passing me" etc. If you watch "Dash Cam Owners Australia" on YouTube half the incidents are avoidable but because "It's my right of way" or "I'm in the right" the driver will drive straight in to the incident rather than give way and avoid ignoring being “dead right” is still dead.
I've driven/ridden in countries with terrible roads, no real rules, and to the average person looks like chaos but it seems to just work. The difference is non of these countries are aggressive drivers.
When I moved to Australia I used to think the low national speed limits were silly. Now I think it'd be carnage if they are increased given the Australian driving standards.
I also think the same formula holds for shipping companies, cellphone carriers, and airlines. All airlines suck, all cellphone providers suck and all shipping companies suck too. Oh and banks too.
Some countries require much more training, have higher standards of vehicle maintenance, and have other cultural differences.
Did you know [1] that Germany, land of unlimited-speed-limit autobahns, has 3.7 road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and 4.2 deaths per billion vehicle-km?
While the USA has 12.9 road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and 6.9 deaths per billion vehicle-km?
Australia, with 4.5 road deaths per 100,000 inhabitants and 4.9 deaths per billion vehicle-km is in between.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
I’ve driven the world most dangerous roads that’s my thing. Often you wouldn’t even call them roads.
I felt more safe on a goat track with a coach coming the other way and sheer drop at the side of the road or highway with cows in the middle of the road and chaos traffic than Australia. Even 150mph down the Autobahn felt safer than 110kmh on an Australian highway.
Every car journey in Australia I play a game, spot the potential accident ahead as someone nearly crashes or does something stupid.
Watch dash cam owners Australia, half of it’s avoidable but the driver drives straight in to it rather than defensively avoid putting themselves in a dangerous situation
It’s absolutely an attitude/cultural issue. They have a lengthy process to get a license however I notice there’s a preference of parents teaching their bad habits vs professional driver training.
I wouldn't say Australia is fine but it is almost in a different ballpark. The frustrating thing here, in the US, is the ambivalence.
I think this is common in many places where a significant portion of the population lives in low density areas (eg: American, Australian and Canadian suburbs.) Outside of major city centers it is very difficult to live without a car, so states and provinces choose to set a very low bar for acquiring and keeping a driver's license.
If speeding cameras were being used to track and spy on people then that would be a serious problem, but if they're just being very effective at catching speeders, that seems fine? Speeding is a major safety problem, and one of the main problems with speeding is that enforcement is so sparse, drivers are tempted to speed knowing that they usually get away with it.