Speed Camera Civil Disobedience

The truth about cars as an article on civil disobedience in Arizona where speed camera's have been defaced with post-it notes:

Over the past month other cameras have had their lenses covered with multiple yellow notes with the phrase "honest mistake" written on them. This is a subtle dig at camera operator Redflex

Courtesy of Australia's early foray into speed cameras, Redflex, an Australian company, has won the contract to put speed cameras throughout Arizona. Governor Neapolitano wanted the cameras to aid in revenue shortfalls. Taxing people more is politically impossible in the US, consequently, governments raise money through means where people have no moral stance; speeding is one. Added bonus, nearly everyone speeds.

Australia is not dis-similar and has massive fines for speeding - up to $700. Fines are so large that Queensland has a mechanism where you can pay it back bit by bit. Kind of like lay-away (lawby for Auians) for taxation. If someone has to enter into a repayment scheme over a speeding ticket then we are in unfair and unjust territory.

The Arizona speeding cameras were nearly put on the recent electoral ballot as a citizen initiative but Napolitano managed to halt that action. The cameras are exceptionally unpopular and viewed as cynical revenue raising mechanisms. I doubt they would have survived a popular ballot.

One of the fellows I work with had forty-five minutes to kill while waiting for his car, so he went and stood infront of a mobile camera van. He said he managed to stop two speeding tickets being issued as they got a shot of his back rather than the car.

The fellow in the van called the police on him. He said his heart was pounding in his chest when the policeman pulled up. But the policeman said to him, "You aren't obstructing traffic, and you aren't being a public nuisance, so nothing I can do." The bloke I work with and the policeman had a chat about how they hate the speed cameras and then policemen went on his way. My workmate was getting waves and honks of the horn the whole time he was doing. Good on him.
Permalink, Speed Camera Civil Disobedience, Nov 2008, cam
Slim: The ultimate civil disobedience against speed cameras is to actually obey the law and keep to the speed limit. Radical concept, I know.

What is it about drivers' (especially male) attitude that it is OK to break the law by just a little bit? I don't buy it. It doesn't apply to theft or assault or any number of other crimes, so why should it apply to driving potentially lethal weapons?

In my experience, most drivers are not that conscious of what they are actually doing when driving a car, especially at speed. Hence the almost universal tendency to tail-gate and drive at speeds without an escape plan, should the car in front suddenly stop - your classic 3 car head-on, for example.

Speed if you insist, it's your 'right', but quit complaining if you get fined by a speed camera. A no-brainer, really.
cam: There are multiple issues here. One, it is the state at is most impersonal and cynical. This isn't about public order, public good or even safety, it is cynical revenue raising. Second, everyone speeds. It is like central planning vs market economy. The state puts down blanket speed limits that often bear no relation to the actual road. They also put down a myriad of speed zones such that no-one really knows what the speed limit is when they are confronted by a speed camera. Self-organization and spontaneous organization is always more efficient than central planning and traffic is a massive organism of self-organization. It is why the police don't pull anyone over in rush hour, they just cause traffic jams. Speed cameras also destroy the flow of traffic as people throw out the anchors and do up to ten mph below the speed limit to avoid getting a ticket.

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