Anybody who has driven through NSW recently would recognise the signs of speed cameras popping up everywhere. Argued to be there in order to slow drivers down to prevent accidents, a recent move by the Government proves that they are, in fact, little more than digital revenue raisers.
A report last week in Drive by Alexandra Smith cited leaked cabinet documents stating that the currently secret 3kph speeding leeway would be axed. The report, dated December 9 last year, says it will axe the “internal and undisclosed tolerance as applied by the State Debt Recovery Office to digitally captured infringements as notified by the RTA”.
Should this go ahead, it means that thousands of unaware drivers in NSW will be fined for speeding.
According to a senior policeman who spoke to Drive claimed that something as small as a new set of tyres or the width of the speedometer needle could end up fined. The different heights of different drivers in the same car could do the same thing.
As a point of comparison, it’s worth noting that the Australian design rules used to accomodate a 10 percent tolerance above or below the speed limit.
Of course, the Roads and Traffic Authority refuses to confirm either the 3kph leeway or the change, claiming that it was a matter for the State debt recovery office. Or the company responsible for taking your dollars away from you when you’re busted speeding.
Given the amount of technology manufacturers are putting into cars these days, it would make sense that the technology in the speed cameras were becoming a bit stricter as well… if there was no level of error in the car. But given that there are so many small things that can vary the accuracy of the speedometer in a car, there needs to be some level of leeway when it comes to driving.
[Drive
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dave
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:15 PMFine, pardon the punt, see you in court!
Matt Stone
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:31 PM“Given the amount of technology manufacturers are putting into cars these days, it would make sense that the technology in the speed cameras were becoming a bit stricter as well… if there was no level of error in the car.”
Lets not forget that MOST common people don’t have a new technology filled cars. I am still driving around in an early 90′s car that is in perfect working order. Furthermore, I personally I like to be able to open the bonnet of a car and see/work on the engine. Not stare at a series of plastic covers!
Mik
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 5:45 PMI drive an old car too. it has an analog speedo, so i cant tell the difference between 60kph and 61kph. its probably not accurate to 1 kph anyway.
But the RTA doesnt seem to care about that.
I think you somewhat missed the point.
Michael
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:34 PMPretty sure Vic ditched the leeway on fixed camera’s a couple of years ago, except ours wasn’t a “secret” leeway, fines used to come through with a Alleged Speed, then they minused 3km’s for the leeway and if the remain speed was over the limit then you were fined. Now it’s just alleged speed is what your fined for.
Nathaniel Baker
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:35 PM3km/h?? What a joke… people are already scared enough of speeding and getting a ridiculously massive fine just because you let your judgement laps for 0.05 of a second and your foot slipped 1.2mm further down and low and behold.. OMG your already ACCIDENTLY 63km/h and you just happened to be caught by a camera or a cop with a speed gun. Never mind the person who’s just swerved in front of you or is behaving erratically cuz they can’t steer straight.. or the kid on the side of the road who is playing with a ball and your being cautious to make sure nothing happens.. or the person sitting on the side of the road waiting to come out of the street and you’re watching them to make sure they don’t happen to make a mistake and come out in traffic (YES IT HAPPENS).. nor the myriad of other possible things that could happen to you whilst your concentrating on keeping your speed on 60km/h! Driving is hard enough! Why add another cocktail to the mix of paranoid drivers worried they are going to be slapped with a $200 fine for trying to do the right thing. 3km/h is WAY TOO LOW of a threshold to catch people speeding. I don’t condone speeding on any level.. but don’t make people scared to drive their car. Cut down on accidents? No Way! Create accidents! Certainly!
Matt Larritt
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:45 PMThis was scrapped the other day. I heard it on the radio. Just google ’3 kph tolerance’ and you’ll see…
olearymo
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 5:06 PMMatt this is Gizmodo. Give ‘em 72 hours.
Rob Bailey
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:56 PMThe speedo on my Brand new mitsubishi triton was 6kmh out. I cannot see how they can try this. Tread wear alone on tires is capable of changing your speed by several kph. I really fear for the stupid direction that this country is heading some times.
Adam
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 5:02 PMThis just screams Revenue Raiser, because its so easy to go 1-3 km/h over, you could be going over a hill, watching the road more than the speed dial going a inch over. Nothing will be more annoying to be pulled over for going 1-3km/h over, 5-10 km/h, fair enough fine me but 1 km/h, really and not only that but now be seen as a speeder on the record, yes i was caught speeding, i was doing 51km/h in a 50 km/h zone.
Adam
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 5:06 PMActually might exageratting a bit as i could clearly not see a Cop pulling me over for the sake of 1-3 km/h with the paperwork involved and then having someone doing 20-30 km/h over go past. World’s going mad
smadge1
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 6:20 PMThis is probably why everyone seems to slow down to 10kmh under the speed limit as they pass a speed camera. that’s a worse traffic hazard.
David
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 6:43 PMYou’ll just have to watch the speed on your GPS…then crash because you were not watching the road.
Bob Chantrell
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 6:51 PMWhere is the law that will keep the correct tyres and wheel on cars
A new set of tyre will make most cars record LOW
Tomas Medina
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7:00 PMBasic rule of any sort of measurement is significant figures. Very few speedometers in average cars show divisions of anything lower then 5kph, and quite a few will only show marks for every 10 kph. What they should change it to is to not have 3km/h minused from any detected speed, but not have 0-5km/h in excess as a punishable offense.
drsusancalvin
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7:11 PMTwo words. Cruise control. And all you sciency types can easily work out what the risk /reward is. Go slower, mebbe less than 1% slower, leave the house earlier, mebbe 120 seconds, or on a looooong trip, 10 minutes. All the thrashing about in the shallows over this issue…. ffs; one could argue that a transparent template over the speedo that moves the numbers anti clockwise a fraction might do the trick. OOOHHH I’m doing 106 kph…. (no you’re not, but whatever)
Peter
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7:27 PMYeah man. Just revenue raising.
But I have a plan to really screw them. I just drive according to the speed limit and I never get tickets then. It really messes with them!
Graeme
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 12:30 PMYou’re crazy man! Next you’ll be suggesting that you should park legally if you don’t want a parking ticket!
Yoda
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 4:05 PMif everybody stays under the speed limit resulting in reduced revenue, the speed limit will be lowered AGAIN until enough money is collected
Jackson Bison
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 1:22 PMHaha, yep, I can probably guarantee that’s the case… I mean they only recently got stricter, and I can only assume this meant less speeding, which meant less revenue, so the only way to get that revenue back is to make it even stricter again…
Steven White
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7:33 PMThis wont matter when the trail thats current in the high court proves that speeding fines are unconstitutional.
i.e. all crimes you are innocent untill proven guilty, speeding fines you are guilty untill you prove your innocence (which isn’t really an option)
Dan
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 8:04 PMYou could always just give yourself your own leeway, by driving at whatever speed you need to in order to be confidently under the limit. You can measure your actual speed in lots of ways, including gps, so I don’t see that there’s any excuse. Cameras don’t raise any revenue from people like me, who don’t speed.
David Anderton
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 9:04 PMits stupid, they should have a 10% tolerance just like your car does… do more than 44 in a 40 zone and yeh you can be fined. do 105 in a 100 zone your in the clear.
Andreas Weiß
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 9:13 PMI would even go further and say that this ridiculous enforcement of speed limits is counterproductive. A lot of my concentration while driving a car goes only to the speed limit … 100 … 101 … 99 … 98 … 100 … 98.9 … 100.1 …
When I drive on a german “Autobahn” I concentrate mainly on the traffic and the road condition even when there is a speed limit 120 … don’t worry too much when you are 130. You need to check the traffic first if it is safe to slow down ;-).
Adam smolkowicz
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 9:41 PMThis totally sucks
Bob
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 9:53 PMJust what we need… more people driving around staring at their speedos instead of watching the road.
Love the pic, BTW…. what sort of HIghway is it that has 40Km/h limit? Did someone photoshop the 1 from in front?
Callie Rasmussen
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 10:01 PMurgh, can you people PLEASE report this issue properly? STOP SCAREMONGERING!
It’s the 3kph off the TICKET that is being scrapped, not the TOLERANCE on the cameras.
Fixed cameras have a tolerance of 10% and mobile cameras a tolerance of 20% – to set off a fixed camera in an 80 zone, you have to be doing AT LEAST 88kmph.
They do it that way so that it’s harder for you to contest the charge in court and harder to claim there’s no way you were speeding.
This will only affect people that used to get their fines and demerits lowered due to the 3kmph leeway on the TICKET itself (ie: Recorded Speed: 92 Probable Speed: 89).
This means that 3kmph that used to be the difference between a 1 demerit offense and a 2 demerit offense is gone and you’ll either get no demerits at all, or you’ll get the 2 demerits.
Leo
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 10:26 PMThey don’t call it a speed LIMIT for nothing. 80 doesn’t mean doing exactly 80, it means doing NO MORE than 80.
But all the speeders will continue to complain.
Kieran
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 10:51 PMState Government abuse of speed cameras,
turning them into blatant revenue raisers puts the future of speed camera enforcement in serious doubt.
Speedos in cars are only accurate to about + or – 10%.
One day this type of draconian enforcement will be proven unconstitutional and illegal.
The cameras cause traffic chaos, with frightened drivers slowing to ridiculously slow speeds at camera sites.
This draconian enforcement also adds to driver frustration, is detrimental to their health, and is a major contributor to road rage.
Unions around Australia should refuse to have any part of such desperate idiotic greed driven policy.
Sr sr
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 11:46 PMWe need to take this country back Lybian style…. Politicians have lost their credibility. What happened to driving to the conditions? @ 60kph I’m bored shitless; can’t concerntate, less alert; at 40kph, even worse…. School zone hours are screwed. Never seen a kid at 2:30 or 4pm.
You should see what they are spending on removing controlled pedestrian level crossings and installing bridges. 200m to walk up and over a bridge rather than crossing 3 rail way tracks with boom gates and bells!
johnd
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 8:41 AM“@ 60kph I’m bored shitless; can’t concerntate, less alert”
… shouldn’t have a license, as you obviously don’t have the necessary skills to drive.
Dave Lord
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 10:28 AMI was booked for doing 101 klm/hr in a 100 k zone in Queensland. I had my cruise control set to 100 klm/hr, and this was verified by my GPS. My speedo is digital.
I had a very good argument to go to court with…. I would plead guilty to traveling at 100.9999 klm/hr, but not 101! Considering that my speedo would not indicate a speed of 101 until I was actually doing 101, I could have in fact been doing 100.9999 but thought I was only doing 100. Therefore I was willing to plea bargain over .0001 of a klm per hour.
I was really annoyed because I had a ex-friend who was caught redhanded with $40,000 of cocaine by 5 police cars. He got off the charge because he had a rich daddy!
Unfortunately the Qld transport Dept withdrew my ticket. Dammit! I want my day in court!