Here's a beauty.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23661161-5000117,00.html
It refers to the soon to be opened Eastlink tollway in Melbourne's east.
The state budget was handed down the other night and as reported, the
government expects revenue to rise based on patronage of this new road.
It will have banks of fixed speed cameras, mobile police patrols and
roadside car speed cameras.
Now, as Mitchell pointed out, the government and police drum into us that
speed cameras aren't about revenue. Rather, they're about "saving lives".
Cameras are set up where there are known hot spots for crashes, and
problematic excessive speeds.
However, Eastlink, a brand new multilane, modern, state-of-the-art divided
carriageway, hasn't even opened.
So, folks, it IS about revenue. The government budgets for it. No
government will concede that it is about revenue raising. No government,
to put their mouthes where their money is, will plough speeding fine
revenue back into road safety programs. Rather, it goes into consolidated
revenue.
Speed cameras are an easy fix for a problem that they don't address - but
they think that we're conned into believing that it does address the
problems.
It's like any pubic servant. They'll do what they can to get out of doing
a day's hard work. By saying that "speed kills" they get off from actually
getting off their fat lard arses and doing something that WOULD reduce the
road toll, and casualty crashes.
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