Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
If you need a cop to educate you when you are caught speeding, then you shouldn't be driving in the first place. I get my 'education' on how fast I should be driving by
a) noticing the posted speed limits
b) noticing the speed on my speedometer and ensuring I don't go 9+ over
I just love when people try to justify ways that photo radar is useless. Personally I don't care if isn't helpful, a check the box method, or a way to them to reach their quota. It's nobody else's fault if you speed. It's 100% your own and very controllable.
If the cops are saying photo radar improves safety, when in reality it doesn't....well why does it even matter? If CPS held a press gathering and made a statement saying they use using it as a cash grab and not for public safety, would people suddenly change the way they drive? Let's be realistic; people are upset about photo radar because they are caught speeding by a method that often isn't seen, are forced to pay a fine, and to give their hard earned money to the government. That's why photo radar sucks. Let's not pretend the big issue about photo radar is that it's not a method of educating someone when they speed. It's a sneaky way to catch people doing something wrong, and nobody likes it when someone does something sneaky to them.
I think everyone knows it doesn't do anything to actually improve safety. But to say that getting pulled over is an educational experience that helped you become a better driver is just wrong. I've never in my life heard a story of someone getting pulled over and telling me they learned something by the cop doing that.
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I got pulled over once in Oklahoma, going probably around 60 in what I suspect was a 45 mph zone (or 75 in a 60). I was out in a very rural area, totally lost, and was looking at a map while trying to figure out where I was. In the midst of looking back and forth at the map and the road, I lost track of my speed and I suppose the speed limit.
The cop pulled me over, asked what I was doing, and I explained to him what had happened. He was very kind and gave me a warning and then told me how to get to where I wanted to go.
In short, getting pulled over was educational in realizing that trying to drive and look at a map is foolish, that it is very easy to loose track of how fast you are going, and that being a white male in rural Oklahoma reduces one's chance of getting shot by a cop.
Had I simply received a photo ticket, I probably would not have learned any of that and simply wondered how I was speeding.
And, for the record, I did receive a photo ticket once coming back from Banff coming into Calgary---for allegedly going 3 Kmh over the speed limit, which, quite frankly, is within the margin of error of my (and probably everyone's) speedometer. What did I learn from that? Well, I guess I learned that traffic enforcement in Calgary is staffed by a bunch of money grubbing jerks.