Thursday, November 17, 2005

Speed Cameras and Mind Control

They are at it again. The papers here in the UK (Daily Express in particular) having another go at the speed cameras citing the alleged 50% increase in those law-abiding people who drive cars too fast. The revenue made through these fines is enormous. It equates to a lot of people being caught speeding. It's turning these speeders into criminals. Oops! Rather odd that one, isn't it? I always imagined - still do, in fact - that exceeding the speed limit is unlawful.

Apparently there are some critics of speed cameras stating that these cameras do not reduce the number of accidents. This type of comment presupposes that accidents are not caused by speed. There must be some other reason. Maybe being an irritable little shit on the road who couldn't give a damn about anybody (even the little shit itself) doesn't factor into this. Believe it or not but speed does kill - even 10mph or less. Whether the speed is 35mph or 40mph in a 30mph limit won't make much difference in a head on collision or even a glancing blow. The occupants will probably be killed anyway. It's shit driving that kills. Even SLOW shit driving.

Accidents are normally caused by stupid, careless drivers. There's an arrogance in suggesting pillars of society are being made into criminals. These pillocks of society manage to do that themselves. This is playing at mind control by even making such suggestions. Fairly poor effort though. Unfortunately, a lot of people will believe it's true, mostly those who speed. Hey, leave us alone and let us all drive fast. Buy expensive petrol and burn more gas by hard accelaration and higher speeds.

Driving powerful cars (basic production cars are powerful) slowly, defeats the reason for getting a powerful car. Perverse reasoning, but I believe it's true. I still believe the lobbyists pushing these arguments are from the motor industry.

Having sensible and safe speed limits harms sales. That isn't perverse logic.