What does this sound like to you?
[From UK Times]
DOZENS of speed cameras are to be replaced with electronic signs that display a frowning face when a driver is speeding but do not result in fines or penalty points.
The devices are to be placed where police can no longer justify having a speed camera because there is no recent history of crashes.
Police hope that the speed indicator devices (SIDs) will defuse some of the anger generated by the huge increase in camera fines. Last year an estimated two million drivers caught on camera were fined £60 and given three penalty points.
The new devices use radar to detect the speed of an oncoming vehicle, and flash it up on a screen. If the driver is within the limit, the screen changes to a smiling face.
At just 1mph over the limit, the face will frown.
Because it sounds to me like the Home Office are starting to back down.
At this rate it will take about another year for the ‘frowny faces’ to be replaced by an All-Weather Traffic Co-Ordination Officer whose job it will be to stand on the verge of a dual carriageway and shout “fascist, fascist” as the cars whizz by.
That’s absolutely hilarious!
Awww, you got a frowny face!
So let’s get this straight. We have a number of acknowledged former accident spots. The authorities replace cameras that force drivers to hit the brakes with ones that don’t. These, however, still beg the motorists’ attention … “What’s my speed? Do I get a smiley or frowny face?”
Does this sound like road safety to you?
Oh no…Not a frowny face. At least it’s a step away from more traffic cams everywhere. Somebody in the Home Office will probably get demoted for this.
Media Watch 2004
One of these ‘Speed Indicator Devices’ was recently installed on a road not far from me. So much for ‘defusing some of the anger generated by speed cameras’ – the device was vandalised within a couple of days of being put in place and permanently removed by local authorities not long after.
During its short life the SID actly merely as an irritant to motorists passing it, not least because it appeared to be either incorrectly configured or deliberately over-sensitive – often frowning at motorists travelling past at several MPH under the speed limit.
Guessedworker: I think the idea is that cameras are being replaced with faces in exactly the places where there was *no* acknowledged accident blackspot, former or otherwise.
It’s the cameras that are put on roads where people speed because it is safe to that I disagree with, so these smiley faces sound like a good idea.
I think many motorists most of the time are only vaguely aware of their speed. Something like this that says WAKE UP! could well improve road safety, if it is used judiciously.
What is the ‘UK Times’, where can I buy a copy?
If the frowny faces are at places where there haven’t been problems, why have them at all? It sounds like a waste of money to me.
In the US at least, speed limits used to be set by traffic engineers, not politicians. They would vary the speed limit and measure the speed distribution. The final speed limit would then be set at the 85th percentile of measured speeds, on the theory that drivers pretty well know what a safe speed is. This rule would only be modified in places where there were no good clues to real hazards.
Unfortunately, in the town that surrounds my little county island, they intentionally set the speed limits lower than in the larger cities adjoining them. The road quality doesn’t change, just the speed limits. I believe it is because this is a rich little town and they want to keep the hoi polloi from commuting through it, even though it sits on two critical mountain passes.
It was the first municipality in the United States to put out speed cameras. Given the state of firearms here in Arizona, un-manned cameras had very short lives. So now they have little SUV’s with the cameras and radars in them. They move them around, and there’s always somebody sitting in the vehicle to prevent vandalism (this sounds like a really, really boring job). They make vast amounts of revenue off of this system, as does the company that actually runs the equipment *and* gets a cut of all tickets.
The system has been challenged in court several times. When that happens, the town fights long enough to generate significant legal costs to the person fighting, and then simply drops prosecution before a definitive ruling is handed down.
What is the ‘UK Times’, where can I buy a copy?
Someone just got a frowny face on the pedant scale.
Well thank you very much Mr Carr. I just envisioned John Cleese standing on the verge of a dual carriageway shouting “fascist, fascist” as the cars whizz by and now there is coffee spilled all over the place.
Looks like I’m the only one who finds the idea horrifying. How dare the state spend public money to express its disapproval of the citizenry by frowning at them? An amber flashing light or something normally associated with the flow of traffic would be appropriate, but a judgemental frown? As though the state was somehow your boss and you had displeased it. No assumptions that the state has the parental authority to express displeasure with us! Let’s hope the local yobs and vandals share my disapproval of the state having the impertinence to frown at them. We are the paymasters.
“…still beg the motorists’ attention … “What’s my speed?…”
If you are driving a car and you don’t know how fast you’re going, you are incompetent as well as (probably) dangerous.
If you exceed the limit, you may get caught. It’s an easily controllable risk. Stop whining.
Remember to say “cheese” as you zoom by.
>>>At this rate it will take about another year for the ‘frowny faces’ to be replaced by an All-Weather Traffic Co-Ordination Officer whose job it will be to stand on the verge of a dual carriageway and shout “fascist, fascist” as the cars whizz by.<<< I haven't had a good, down-deep, cackly, you-think-its-over-but -it-starts-back-up-again-more-vigorously-than-before belly laugh in months, maybe not since I got a speeding ticket for going a handful of MPH over an artificially low posted limit at a notorious speed trap on the main highway between my home and work last Thanksgiving. That mental image did the trick. Thanks so much! And thanks also to the dissident frogman for embellishing that image with the reference to the esteemed Mr. Cleese. You know what really got me laughing, almost so much that I started crying? Here in Santa Cruz CA USA, both the frowny-face signs and the earnest person screaming "Fascist" would be embraced as "out of the box" thinking worthy of our little progressive-socialist democratic dictatorship. This is a town that declares itself a "nuclear free" and "hate free" zone, and which rarely votes against a tax. On any other day, writing these words might depress me. But not after that long, loud, good laugh. Thanks again.
Here in Texas they’ve lately taken to putting up radar signs at the entrances to construction zones. They usually have a huge sign on top that show your current speed in relation to the posted speed. If you’re going more than 10 MPH over the limit, your speed will flash on the sign (and no, I’m not going to tell you how I learned this…).
Interestingly, these signs seems to have higher powered radar units that the average patrol car around here, and given flat terrain my radar detector can usually sense one from a mile away on the approach and about a half-mile leaving. It gets pretty annoying.
A few local police departments also have these portable speed signs that they deploy in different locations from day to day. About all they accomplish is to slow people down for the day and then things return to normal when the sign is moved.
Is it just me, or does this seem designed to encourage  people to exceed the speed limit? Some years ago they put up a device like this (with a flashing light, though, not a frown) at the entrance to a freeway ramp in the city I lived in. Maybe it’s just me, but I couldn’t resist coming into that curve fast enough to set off the light, on purpose. I did it every time traffic allowed.
I can’t be the only one who’s that childish!
In my experience, many people jam on the brakes when they see a camera, regardless of whether or not they are speeding. This is more likely to cause an accident than speeding (as well as more of the ‘earth destroying pollution’). I don’t think these new devices will cause any different reaction.
If the frowny faces are at places where there haven’t been problems, why have them at all? It sounds like a waste of money to me.
Great question. How about desenstizing the public to the presence of these automated radar stations? Take away the cameras for a while, then gradually slip them back in, after some of the ruckus has died down.
When I see something like this, I reflect that bureaucracies almost never give away a power once they have it.