Editorial: Fixed eyes on speed

'I don't like being caught by speed cameras. But I don't mind them', says Craig Cooper. Photo / Duncan Brown

As a Northlander, say "speed camera" to me and I think "van" or "roadside".

Along with the standard muttered expletive that accompanies the arrival of the innocent looking envelope containing a motorist's letter of guilt.

So when I was presented with a speed camera fine, and I could not recall seeing a van, I wrote away and asked for the photograph. The speed camera people obliged, and there I was, scooting along Old Taupo Rd in Rotorua.

I was right - there had been no van. But what I didn't know was there was a fixed camera atop a pole. I don't like being caught by speed cameras. But I don't mind them.

In the 1990s, the Whangarei District Council debated the merits of fixed speed cameras and whether to install them in the city. A site atop the Western Hills bypass, near Kensington Park, was suggested, as motorists tended to speed off the bypass and not slow down when they hit the 50km/h zone.

If I recall correctly, in the 1990s the revenue from the fines went to the district council and not the Government.

Imagine a Hundertwasser Art Centre built from the proceeds of Whangarei District Council speed camera fines ... you can almost smell the hate.

Anyway, it never happened.

We did get roadside cameras though, initially we were even told where they would be located. The speed camera vehicles were restricted to specific zones that were signposted.

The good thing was, even if there was no speed camera vehicle parked in the zone, it made motorists check their speed and slow down.

Liberals might say it's behavioural control exerted through fear of punishment, but it's also a bloody good way of stopping people dying on our roads.

I think Northland should invest in one or two cameras, and multiple speed camera poles and boxes.

Motorists won't know whether they are loaded or not - they would be excellent, cost-effective deterrents.

Fixed speed cameras? Can't install them fast enough, I say.