With age, comes wisdom.
As I have been ageing through out my 21 years on this planet, I have gained much wisdom about many interesting things. In fact, the depth of my wisdom is so extensive, that I am not going to go into detail about all of it here. It would just go on for ever, and I only have 500 words.
However, there is one insight that I will share with you today. It is to do with the incredibly exciting topic of police speed cameras. Having seen many speed cameras on the road during my time as both a driver, and a passenger, my intuitions have lead me to one conclusion regarding the subject.
It reads as follows: speed cameras are installed for the sole function of generating money by catching out unsuspecting motorists who may not even be driving dangerously in the first place. I guess you could also add to that the idea that they are some sort of sick joke; implemented by the government to infuriate motorists, while not necessarily saving lives.
I have come to this conclusion by using my deep wisdom to analyse the real life facts. Whenever I see speed cameras, especially at home in New Zealand, they are almost always put in places where the police will know that people will be going a tiny, microscopic bit over the speed limit.
Passing lanes, the bottom of hills, long stretches of straight road. All of these places fall within the sights of this particularly money-grabbing arm of the police/government. Whilst I don’t disagree that people do tend to drive a bit faster along these certain pieces of road, what I do disagree with is the idea that these pieces of road are more dangerous than windy, narrow pieces of roadway.
I think what really grinds my gears is the fact that while you will almost always see a speed camera at the end of a passing lane; I can almost guarantee you that you will never see one in the aforementioned windy, and narrow pieces of road. I think this is due to the fact that traffic officers are particularly sadistic, and gain infinite amounts of pleasure by pulling people over for speeding.
I mean, what else is there to do when you’re sat on the side of the road in your patrol car all day? Jerk off? Maybe it’s this repressed urge to masturbate that causes traffic cops to pull people over at the drop of a hat; they need some excitement in their lives, and this is where they get it.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to convey here is that you will almost never see traffic cops on stretches of road that would actually be considered to be dangerous, or hazardous. I guess they have cottoned on to the fact that there is no money to be made on speeding tickets in these areas, mainly due to the fact that anyone who has half a brain would be travelling well under the speed limit anyway. Either that, or they had too big of a problem with patrol officers amusing themselves in other ways.
I’m not against the idea of speed cameras, I just hate the idea of them being used for revenue gathering, rather than for saving lives.
So, I’ll leave you with this pearl of wisdom: I would like to see speed cameras being moved away from areas where motorists are easy prey for speeding tickets, and into areas where they could better fulfil their purpose of saving lives. Maybe around schools, in town centres, or — god forbid — in well known accident black spots.
Just some food for thought.
Simon Davis, June 2014
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