25 October 2007

Speed Camera

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As many of you are aware, there are speed cameras all over Canberra now. I personally don’t have an issue with them IF they are in the so called black spots. What I do have an issue with is the ones on Tuggeranong Park way. I have been driving along the road, going the speed limit when all of a sudden cars infront of me (who were also going the speed limit) decide to slam on their breaks and go 80 instead of the 100. This has happen to me several times in the past couple of week. In my opinion, this is going to cause a lot of accidents. People should know that they can still travel 100 and don’t need to go 80. Also I’d like to see the stats that they went by and show me how many accidents did actually happen at that spot in the past few years and I have a feeling that will jump due to idiot slamming on their breaks for no reason.

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Ingeegoodbee12:53 pm 30 Oct 07

Don’t have a boot as such on my climate changing, fossil fuel gulping SUV LM, but fell free to give me a nudge – if I feel the bump, I’ll make a note to scrape yoe off my butt when I get where I’m going.

Lord Mælinar12:49 pm 30 Oct 07

Lucky you’ve never cut me off ingee – on account of I own a very cheap car and don’t consider your legal position very strong.

I am confident of my own driving skills that I won’t damage myself in the resultant prang and I daresay my engine block weighs more than your boot.

Ingeegoodbee12:48 pm 30 Oct 07

end of rant … possibly.

Ingeegoodbee12:47 pm 30 Oct 07

Yeah, I probably being provocative, but honestly, the smooth flow of traffic is going to require a bit of give and take. If there’s somthing that pisses me off about the way we drive in Canberra, its the repeated instances of drivers speeding up to close a gap so a car can’t change lanes, merge etc. If you don’t like getting ‘cut off’ then don’t speed up to close the gap, it’s that simple. If you don’t want to get stuck behind a car that’s merging, then move over, if the speed limit’s 100km/h and its safe to do it, then drive at that speed, if you’re worried about getting pinged because you don’t think your speedo is accurate then get the bloodly thing fixed.

Snahons_scv6_berlina12:38 pm 30 Oct 07

and therein lies the problem Ingeegoodbee.

Ingeegoodbee12:21 pm 30 Oct 07

You could be onto somthing there LM. On the other hand, I also believe that if you’re not smart enough to move over to the right hand lane and make room for merging traffic then you’d better be prepared to slam on the brakes because I’m going to merge whether you like it or not – It’s simple common sense – just get out of my way.

Lord Mælinar12:13 pm 30 Oct 07

of course the driver of the vehicle attempting to enter traffic would never consider engaging the braking device to allow vehicles already in the lane right of passage as per the law, and just cut in as per the Canberra driving mentality.

Near-miss my ass. Dumbhead driver not abiding by the laws of commonsense and attempting to break the rules of gravity and motion (and a few quantums).

IntimidatedDriver11:46 am 30 Oct 07

I ahve had a very frustrating experience of trying to enter the parkway since the installation of the camera that has forced people to stay in the left lane..obviously no room for entering traffic!

One day I witnessed a near-miss accident that was about to happen to an entering car at that place (northbound).

Before it was easier to entering cars prior to these cameras were installed ther because cars would mostly go to the right lane to leave room for the entering cars …now they seem to be too nervous/scared to get caught (if they are in the right lane)for speeding if they happen to cross the 100 Km/h limit while trying to give room to others!!

We must keep alerting public and the authorities so that ordinalry law abiding citizens are spared from these excessive over-sensitive detections by faulty (I am sure) cameras so that authorities can look at this issue.

IntimidatedDriver11:38 am 30 Oct 07

I have serious concerns over the speed camera/s installed near/under the bridge of Cotter road overpass on Tuggeranong Parkway. It appears to be a notorious speed camera that detects regular gentle commuters as traffic speed offenders!

I have heard of a number of people receiving 5-7 speeding tickets issued on offences (ranging from 110 Km/h to 120+ Km/h with fines and demerit points) detected by this particular camera only to normal law abiding commuters/drivers who travel through a number of other traffic cameras on their daily travel/commuting without any problems.
In all cases they were supposedly caught by this particular camera only!! And in most cases the offences caught by this camera being the only traffic offences they have supposedly committed in their entire driving life!

This raises a question on the accuracy of this camera. I strongly believe we (all sufferers of this notorious camera) MUST make representations to relevant authorities or Ministers to look at this issue.

VY, if I’m right about the section of the road you mean, I couldn’t agree more. Having said that, it is a completely ridiculous traffic arrangement to begin with.

VYBerlinaV8...the_original_and_best10:45 am 26 Oct 07

“The Cotter Road is not a merging lane. There are lines on the raod that makes the ramp from the Cotter Raod to the Parkway a give-way to the traffic on the Parkway. Theoretically the cars from the Cotter should stop to merge.”

This is exactly the same problem as the southbound lane of the Monaro Hwy heading over the first Fyshwick entry. It’s clearly a give way for the cars from Fyshwick, but everyone steams in as though they have right of way. It would be nice to see some marked police cars targeting this kind of stupid and dangerous behaviour.

I just checked the Australian Road Rules ( http://www.ntc.gov.au/ViewPage.aspx?page=A022075053009400200 ) and on page 306 it says;

“The traffic sign applies to the driver or pedestrian even though the driver or pedestrian does not pass the sign.”

My friend was wrong.

I’d like it if we got some of those advisory speed measuring signs installed on that overpass, like the ones on the Hume freeway as you leave Albury. That way people would know how “out” their speedo is, and wouldn’t have to overcompensate.

Rawhide Kid No 29:48 am 26 Oct 07

Why don’t they put the 100 sign on the camera warning sign?

bd84

The Cotter Road is not a merging lane. There are lines on the raod that makes the ramp from the Cotter Raod to the Parkway a give-way to the traffic on the Parkway. Theoretically the cars from the Cotter should stop to merge.

But when will this happen to one of the speed cameras?

http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

Ingee, aa – I too have experienced this slowing to around 80 at least 9/10 times I drive along this section of road. From a conversation with my colleagues, I now understand that some drivers want to ensure they are below 100 (also taking into account their car’s speedo may be slightly out) but I still think it is a little excessive to have to slow right down to 80 to make absolutely sure that they are below 100.. perhaps they should have their speedo’s checked if this is their main argument! I think El must be particularly lucky if he has never had to put up with this crazy behaviour, fingers crossed next time I’m on the Parkway I don’t have to!

Ingeegoodbee9:00 am 26 Oct 07

El, I only go under the Cotter Rd bridge on Saturday mornings and I have definately experienced this sort of thing – it could be a “Saturday” drivers thing, but it does happen.

el ......VNBerlinaV87:02 am 26 Oct 07

Well I travel the road in question every day, and I’m yet to see someone slow down to 80 from 100 for the cameras. Most often I see people slowing from just over 100 – 110 or so to just under 100 for a few seconds. Methinks ‘aa’ was a particularly uninspiring troll.

Smee I think you will find that’s not the law, on ramps will be the same speed limit as the road you’re coming off (i.e. hindmarsh drive case 80kph) but technically as has been mentioned above you should be at the speed limit of the road you’re joining by the time you get to merge into traffic (for the smooth flow of traffic, plus it’s illegal to pull out in front of someone causing them to slow, which half the morons in canberra do not understand) It is never signposted though and good luck guessing if you have never driven on the road before.

The merging problem in canberra is a mixture of a few things, cars entering the road who do not give way and try and force their way on, cars who will never let the merging car to enter – trying to get past before they merge, and the merging lanes in a lot of cases is just too short, people can’t get up to speed in time and the short window to merge causes accidents.

on the signage issue i think stanjoke said they were looking at purchasing similar speed camera signs to that in nsw, with their new found speed fine wealth.

finally with the jamming on breaks towards the cameras, you should be far enough behind to be able to react, I find it helpful to stay in the left lane.. it allows the people who can’t read to go flying past and or those slow at the last minute to do their own thing in the right lane 😉

I have found that people are more likely to go 80 in the southerly direction, i’ve passed a few people past that camera while still being at or just under 100kph.. might have more to do with the camera being at the base of the hill going up.

I was told recently by a friend who runs a driving school that in the ACT now there is no such thing as a “road speed”. The ACT state limit is 50Km/h.

If you turn at an intersection then you have a speed limit of 50Km/h until you pass a sign indicating a speed.

So, for that person turning north off Hindmarsh to the Parkway, it’s officially only 50Km/h up the ramp and onto the Parkway until you pass a speed sign.

Damn stupid I think, but my friend was insistent that it was now law. (Is Nik the pig around to verify this?)

Ingeegoodbee6:18 pm 25 Oct 07

I’m with you Cameron. If there’s one thing that Canberra Drivers do to rival the incompetence of other states it’s absolutely pathetic merging. Time and time again these dopes dawdle up to the end of the feeder lane at less than the speed limit and I’ve even seen some useless dogs parked at the intersection – WTF are they waiting for!

In the land of the free you get a bloody big fine for failing to merge at the posted speed limit … can’t see why you wouldn’t introduce that law here.

If the people coming from Cotter Road actually used the on ramp to accelerate to 100kph (instead of cruising down the ramp at 80 and hoping that the parkway traffic will slow and let them in) and blend in with the traffic, there wouldn’t be a problem.

I think the placement of the parkway speed camera is intended to keep people at 100 so that others can merge safely (northbound) from cotter rd.

About bloody time.

Hmm – I agree that most of them are here for revenue not safety, but I think the “text wording” signs are pretty bloody obvious.

Jonathon Reynolds4:08 pm 25 Oct 07

What pisses me off is that the Speed Camera Ahead signs are “text wording” (sorry no pictures) instead of being obvious.

NSW RTA got it right with the signage
http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/speedandspeedcameras/fixeddigitalspeedcameras/signageatspeedcamerasites.html

This reinforces the issue in the ACT that the cameras are for revenue not safety.

I believe the rule is that residential streets are 50kph unless signposted otherwise – a system that I thought was also in place in NSW.

I don’t think there’s a problem for residential streets though. The problem with the signposting relates exactly to what Gungahlin Al has said, in that there are plenty of areas that could be anywhere between 70 and 100 and aren’t signposted at key entry points.

I agree, speed signs in Canberra are shocking. Most NSW towns have taken the time to signpost every single road.. if you go from a 60 to a 50 road, it is signposted.. if it’s not then it continues to be 60.

Canberra just took the cheap option and said everywhere in Canberra is 50, unless otherwise signposted.

Canberra should take the time to introduce the same system as NSW.

Gungahlin Al2:28 pm 25 Oct 07

Well I’ll toss a different spin on the issue. There are next to no bloody speed signs around Canberra!

This was rammed home to me again this week when as a northside worker, I had to go to Woden. Came out of Hindmarsh (a pretty major intersection I would think) onto the Parkway heading north.
No speed sign – is the road 80/90/100? I dunno.

Then a few klicks north you come across a “Speed camera ahead” sign. So what are you going to do? Slow down to 80 just in case. After all, there are plenty of 100-suitable roads around Canberra that are stupidly posted to only 80 (Gungahlin Drive for example).

Then a little further there is the first speed sign since leaving Woden – a 100 sign just 50 metres before the speed camera.

For god sake this is stupid! Get some damn speed signs put in around the place Hargreaves – if it isn’t just the revenue you care about…

yeah! you tell it.

This has been discussed to death here, here and here – and that’s only from the last two months (as far back as I could be bothered looking).

Could we put a brake on all this whining? We all know they’re revenue raisers. How long until they break even, I wonder?

Ingeegoodbee1:58 pm 25 Oct 07

I’ve experienced the 80km/h in the 100 zone thing to – you know that it’s likely there’ll be a hand full of Sydney drivers about so you just give these incompetents a little room and back off a bit.

Hey admins, could we perhaps have some sticky posts that sit at the top (or maybe on the side somewhere) so that topics like this get added into a single thread and these endless battles can be fought out in a central location?

Maybe – speed cameras, I hate Stanhope this time because…, climate change/AGW, soft judges, I hate this business because…, smoking and the socialist plot to brainwash our children?

I don’t know how hard this might be, just a thought.

🙂 i do agree it could cause accidents though since most people are too close

There is a 100 sign just before the camera and you should be a sufficient distance behind that if the car hit a kangaroo you could stop.

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