Radar speed cameras (no Audi content)

[tnas@dtpdirect.nl (Tom Nas, DTP Direct bv)]

Hi all,

Yesterday evening when I was watching TV, zapping around, I happened upon a
report on NBC SuperChannel on the 'new' laser speed cameras that are coming
into use in the USA. Apparently they're in use in only a few states now,
because there's a difference in traffic laws. Over here, you have to prove
that you're innocent when it comes to speeding or running a red light. The
US laws appear to be quite the opposite: the police have to prove that you
were guilty.
These speed cameras are a regular fixture here in Holland since a couple of
years. I'm not proud to say that they've recently started to export them to
the UK as well, where the manufacturers' name 'Gatso' has even become a
generic term for these cameras. The report I saw on TV showed that in the
US these cameras are mounted on a police car that's parked alongside the
road. While this is the case here as well, there are a couple of
permanently fixed camera housings along the roads here too. A lot of people
know where they're located, so they put up a lot of empty camera housings
and change the cameras around the country. They really are objects of
intense hate here, and a lot of them seem to 'attract' spray paint,
baseball bats or even bullets.

If your car has been photographed while speeding, you have to pay the
ticket, even if you weren't driving at the time, unless you can get the
real driver to pay. One problem here was among drivers of leased company
cars, where the registered owner (leasing comp.) gets the ticket. They've
started to pass it on to the company who leases the car *very* quickly.
Since this company can't write this ticket off as a tax loss anymore (they
used to do that) the offender gets to pay his own tickets now. Another
problem appears to be that criminals use another person they register their
car to. This person, usually a unemployed homeless drug addict, gets a
small sum for every car that's registered to his name and doesn't pay
insurance, road tax or the tickets. It's estimated that hundreds of
thousands of cars are run in this way.

Latest development here is what they call 'revolving radar'. They put up a
large amount of cameras along a stretch that attracts a lot of speeders,
but not all of them work all of the time. The random factor involved in
this makes it impossible to know if you're being checked. As the radar
speed traps measure your speed from the rear of the car rather than from
the front, a radar detector is mostly useless here.
If you want to be on the safe side, you stay within 6 mph of the speed
limit here (60 mph or 70 mph on the highways (motorways), 50 mph or 60 mph
on country roads, 30 mph in built-up areas) because this is generally
considered 'safe'. (The police are required to take off a couple of mph for
equipment inaccuracy, plus most cars' speedometers overread by a couple of
mph). I don't know how accurate my Audi 80's electronic speedo is though.
Most cameras are in the righthand (usually empty) lane but I've seen some
in the lefthand lane.

If you're caught doing at least 30 mph over the limit, your car and/or
licence can be confiscated on the spot. They're stricter in low-speed areas
and foreigners usually have to pay up immediately (they accept credit
cards). Fines are relatively high: on a motorway, a measured 6mph over the
limit gets you a $85 ticket and it goes up in increments of 6 mph (10
km/h). If you're caught speeding in a roadworks area on the highway, fines
are *a lot* higher.

Sorry about the non-Audi content, just my contribution to the ongoing
discussion on radar detectors.

Bye,

Tom.

 _______________________________________________________________________
   Tom W. Nas, graphic design                        tnas@dtpdirect.nl
   DTP Direct bv                              Voice +31 (55) 5 790 799
   Apeldoorn, the Netherlands                   Fax +31 (55) 5 790 125

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