In a nation that is estimated to have four million surveillance cameras--the most per capita in the world, civil liberties groups say--there are currently as many as 6,000 spots for speed cameras, in the country and in the city, on highways, urban arteries, suburban streets and rural lanes....
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The cameras detect cars that exceed the speed limit, often with radar technology, and take flash photographs of the license plates so a ticket can be issued. A speeding offense adds three points to a driver's license. Because drivers who amass 12 points in three years face six-month driving bans, people go to enormous lengths to avoid detection.
In a recent case, 28-year-old Craig Moore, an engineer from South Yorkshire, ran into trouble when, in the words of a spokesman for the Greater Manchester Police, "instead of just accepting that he had been caught traveling above the speed limit, Moore decided to blow the camera apart.
Using thermite, a pyrotechnic substance often used in underwater welding, Moore succeeded in wrecking the camera, but its hard drive survived--along with videotape of his van driving toward it and then driving away, as the picture dissolved in a cloud of fiery sparks. He was sentenced to four months in jail."
We don't have them in Canada, but from driving in the UK and other countries I know how much of a PITA they are.
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Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
Having been caught twice by speed cameras, I can vouch for the fact that they are a GIANT PITA. To avoid getting points on my license, I had to attend traffic school, the most mind numbing 12 hours of my life, (6 hours each time). We have stationary speed cameras which are easy to avoid because you know where they are. The mobile ones mounted in a van are the ones that got me.
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Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll be gone all day.
Traffic lights that are set for 35 are also set for 70
I don't blame the guy for blowing the camera up(maybe he should of made a bigger bomb?). I hate those things, and the primary reason I wouldn't want to live in the uk.
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In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
No cameras where I routinely travel though they do have them in the D.C. area.
Curious question for the camera haters - Why? Because it costs you if you get caught or because you think it's a privacy issue? Other reason?
it's more of a personal thing for me, I REALLY REALLY don't like people watching me. anything from police to the guy driving next to me on the highway. not so much as glancing or looking but stareing(sp?) when ever I look at a camera, I picture a guy in a room somewhere eye balling me and it just... I don't know it's freaky to me
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In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
I hate those things, and the primary reason I wouldn't want to live in the uk.
I'm in the UK and don't have any kind of a problem with them. If you speed you might get cought, if you don't speed it's no problem.
On the UK motoways the limit is 70. I tend to drive at that and no more. Forever being overtaken by twerps doing god knows what speed. I wish they'd enforce the limit all over, though on some motorways they are now.
Is there a national motorway limit in the US? Didn't it used to be 50 or something?
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