In Finland there are cameras. Automated cameras. They observe the roads, watching for speeders. Nothing new, right? Wrong. These silent watchers can ding drivers for pretty much everything else too.
Items like insurance, taxes, seat belt usage and tailgating—all checked in the blink of an eye!
Called ASSET (Advanced Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport), the effective range is about 50 metres, and you really can have as many as four or five tickets issued to you, simultaneously:
It is the first to detect multiple offences at the same time and is connected to police computers via satellite, so that prosecutions can be started within seconds of any offence.
Within seconds! How fun. [Daily Mail]
Giantman
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 10:42 AMWhy is it that seemingly intelligent, well educated societies are blindly marching into a future where they allow their governments to perpetually spy on them? It appears that today few cherish their freedom and privacy enough to raise their voices in objection to these techno governors. Perhaps it’s the ‘promise’ of increased safety/security that fools us into relinquishing our liberty? Seems a high price to pay for a ‘safer’ world.
Stopandthink
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 2:56 PMSaturate society with fear through the media channels, then offer a solution at the cost of liberty and privacy. It’s how the governments roll, unfortunately there’s very little we can do about.
Michael
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 3:44 PMWrong – there is ALOT we can do about it, however in the lazy ass society that we now live in, no one does anything.
The first thing that you could do is protest, etc, etc, etc until you realise that it is not working and then go do something about it – like destroy the cameras and make a point. If they are losing these all the time they will stop deploying them – and this is by no means the first time that this tactic has worked. just look at history, every rebellion that has worked has done so through the community uniting together to fight for a common cause
until this happens we will let ourselved be pressed upon by all sides
Stopandthink
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 11:35 PMI’m not sure laziness has anything to do with it Michael, apathy is more likely the culprit. Actually it’s more about people preferring to keep their jobs so they can provide for their family, pay their mortgage etc. This means avoiding confrontation with the law. These days protesting is about as far as you can go without putting yourself in the line of fire of law enforcement. This is the way our society has been molded to keep us all in line. Smashing cameras will get you nothing but a court order, a fine and a permanent mark next to your name. I do respect your passion though.
John
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 12:36 PMGiantman, you ask why? People believe that it is being done for the greater good, and can’t see past the benign (if you obey all traffic laws all the time!) aspects to the amount of control it gives an authoritarian government.
Myself, I’d rather leave things the way they are – with governments unable to determine where everybody is at any time of the day and night.
Awnshegh
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 1:28 PMWhy aren’t we simply using the software to set car speed limits and RFID tags at speed changes on roads to enforce it. Zero speeding – zero fines. Zero fatalities caused by speeding.
Worst part is that these days it’s probably easier to implement than installing super duper cameras everywhere. It just cuts government revenue too much to ever get off the ground.
JT...
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 1:52 PMindeed…It’s always baffled me why cars are allowed to have such powerful engines when it’s illegal to use them on public roads at full capacity anyway? Makes no sense to me.
Dan Halford
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 2:39 PM“Zero fatalities caused by speeding”. No … You’d get just a many fatalities as before; it’s just the government would have to come up with something else to blame them on.
In some countries (the UK, New Zealand and Australia are the three that I know of specifically), when fatalities are attributed to “speeding”, it doesn’t just mean “travelling faster than the posted limit”. Speeding also refers to travelling as a speed that is not safe for the conditions.
Doing 60 in a 70 zone is not illegal. However, if it’s foggy and there’s black ice on the road, then it’s certainly too fast for the conditions and certainly dangerous. The government’s problem is that they’ve not got cameras that can detect morons. Governments will keep on mindlessly banging on about speed because it’s financially and politically profitable to do so.
Oh … and the UK’s trialled satellite-based speed limiting. Apparently it was very effective in stopping people going faster than whatever random bureaucrat-set limit was in force. The speed nazis and greenies loved the idea.
And I’m sure most of the population would too, as they’re too dumb to think through the consequences; like if you need to get to hospital QUICKLY.
matt
Monday, November 8, 2010 at 4:20 PMthe fact that the Gov has never entertained the idea of just having speed limiters in new cars (most new cars have them anyway) to prevent speeding says as clearly as possible:
they aren’t interested in stopping people from speeding. they are interested in fining people for speeding.
not that I’d be happy with the limiter solution either.
I don’t believe “speeding” kills. please, enlighten me…
Glen
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 7:58 AMNo it is the sudden stop at the end :)