Graeme wrote:

In message
Chris Tolley (ukonline really) wrote:

Graeme wrote:

In message
Chris Tolley (ukonline really) wrote:

Graeme wrote:
Speed cameras, like many other automated processes, make decisions based on a
previously defined sets of circumstances. In this case IF vx THEN take
picture. Making such decisions does not infer that the machinery involved is
intelligent. As the cameras are, alledgedly, to enforce safe behaviour then
the decision process programmed into them can be presumed to be intended to
choose between safe/not safe. Therefore, as far as the camera's programmed
instructions are concerned, IF vx THEN the vehicle is being driven safely.

No, the cameras are there to enforce the speed limit. That is all they
do. Someone could be driving their car sideways, but within the limit.
It's your assumption or the assertion of others that cameras monitor
safety. And it's a flawed way of looking at it.

That is what they are marketed as.

That'll be the assertion of others I was talking about.

The point I was labouriously trying to make is that reliance on detection
and punishment of a single factor by automated means because it is an
easy and cheap, or even profitable, way of policing the roads is not the
best option available. Especially when the factor being detected is
responsible for a very small percentage of accidents overall.

[snip]

You may be perfectly right in saying that those who perceive the cameras
as enforcing safety are being lulled into a false sense of security, but
that's a problem of their perception (and yours, it seems) but not
everyone sees things in the same way.

Why should it be mine? I don't believe the cameras have more than a
peripheral effect on road safety.

Ah. I had been interpreting your repeated remarks about safety as if you
believed that was what hey were there for.

Further the system is manifestly weighted against the private motorist as
against other road users. A speed camera on a 70mph dual carriageway
will detect a motorist exceding the speed limit by 8mph but will not
detect a white van exceding the speed limit by 15mph or an HGV exceding
the speed limit by 20mph. (assuming the camera is set for the 10% allowed
error of the speedometers)

That's undeniable. It's not that much different from the general law
enforcement case, though, is it. Some people are caught. Others go
unpunished.

It is a lot different in that the chance of getting caught is weighted in
favour(?) of one group of potential offenders.

One could argue the other way too, in that big vehicles have
tachographs, while small ones don't. I was once aboard a coach on the
A12 that was flagged down by a police officer who then boarded it,
looked at the recording, and issued a ticket accordingly.

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