Public back police in battle against speeding

Most people support the use of police cameras - concealed or otherwise - to nab speeding drivers, despite a high degree of cynicism about their true purpose.

A Herald-DigiPoll survey of 1000 people aged 18 or over found 72.7 per cent thought it was fair to use them to crack down on speed.

Yet a little over half, 50.3 per cent, believed the main purpose was to line Government coffers.

Just 46 per cent thought speed cameras were used primarily to cut the death toll on the roads.

The survey, with a 3.1 per cent margin of error, suggested cameras would enjoy public support even if the Government withdrew an instruction for the police not to conceal them.

It found even stronger backing for hidden cameras - from 59.1 per cent of those surveyed - than cited in often-criticised research by Land Transport New Zealand.

That agency's latest annual survey of attitudes to road safety found 56 per cent of 1640 people supported hidden cameras, a result that many letters to newspapers claimed was due to self-serving questions.

Land Transport's survey showed 28 per cent opposed to hidden cameras, and 16 per cent neutral.

The Herald's survey showed 40 per cent opposed the idea and just 0.9 per cent were undecided.

New Zealand First supporters in the DigiPoll survey showed the deepest cynicism, with 72.5 per cent believing grabbing revenue was the main aim.

Paradoxically, 54 per cent of the party's supporters polled favoured hidden cameras.

Green Party voters were the next most cynical (66.7 per cent), followed by Act (59.1 per cent) and National (56.4 per cent).

Only supporters of Labour among the main parties were more inclined to trust the Government and accept cameras were mainly for safety, 53.1 per cent, compared with 43 per cent who believed revenue was the real agenda.

Asians were the most trusting group, with 62.3 per cent believing cameras were for safety first.

They were also the most supportive of hidden cameras - 71.7 per cent, compared with 59.3 per cent of Europeans and 58.9 per cent of Maori or Pacific respondents.

Aucklanders were more in favour of hidden cameras than drivers elsewhere, by 63.2 per cent against 56.7 per cent in other regions.

Aucklanders and Asians, however, were more likely to speed.

Just under three-quarters, 74.7 per cent, of Aucklanders, said they usually or always obeyed limits.

Claimed compliance elsewhere was a markedly higher 81.9 per cent.

A hard core of Aucklanders, 4.6 per cent, compared with 2.9 per cent over the rest of the country, made the claim that they never kept to limits.

Only 59.6 per cent of Asians said they usually or always stayed within limits, and 9.6 per cent claimed never to do so.

Females (83.3 per cent) indicated greater obedience than males (74.4 per cent), in claiming to stick to limits usually or always.

Act supporters appeared the least law-abiding political group on the country's roads. Just 63.6 per cent claimed to stay within limits either usually or always, compared with 81.4 per cent of National voters and 77.9 per cent of Labour supporters.

Yet 59.1 per cent of Act voters agreed with hidden speed cameras, ahead of National (54.1 per cent), NZ First (54 per cent) and the Green Party (50 per cent), and a little behind Labour (60.3 per cent).

Although 75 per cent of Greens claimed to stay within the law most or all of the time, 8.3 per cent said they never obeyed speed limits.

Act leader Rodney Hide was at a loss to explain the reluctance of many of his party's supporters to drive slow enough, except to surmise that they were following the lead of Prime Minister Helen Clark's motorcade.

National MP Pansy Wong was similarly puzzled about the apparent anomaly between strong Asian support for speed cameras and the large minority pushing the limits of law enforcement.

"Maybe it's just a throwaway line, a bit of bravado," she said.

Land Transport's Auckland regional manager, Peter Kippenberger, wondered how many professing to observe speed limits meant they drove within the police tolerance levels of 10km/h above the legal maximum.

It would otherwise be hard to reconcile the 81.9 per cent of non-Aucklanders who said they obeyed the limits with a national mean urban speed of 53.7km/h measured in winter last year.

This meant more than half of drivers exceeded the limit, although the mean was well within the tolerance zone and less than 55.3km/h recorded the previous winter.

Road policing national operations manager Inspector John Kelly said the survey refuted claims enforcement was "ruining our image".

"Most people don't think we have lost the plot - most people are obeying the limits," he said.