Cyprus-Forum.com

[devil]

For those of you think the cameras here are wicked, consider http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eS5CtV2s2c (commentary in French)

This radar not only detects the guy speeding, in any lane, but can differentiate between types of vehicle with different limits, such as heavy goods vehicles, trailers etc. The secret is a detector mounted on the barrier rail which determines the type of vehicle and the lane it is using and transmits the info to the radar which adjusts the limit at which it flashes, automatically. In the example shown, the big truck in the nearside lane is being flashed while the cars in the two lanes nearer the camera are travelling faster legally. To avoid contests, the doppler radar triggers the flash above the set speed for the type of vehicle, but the distance moved between the two flashes at a fixed interval is used to calculate the speed a second time.

In the opening sequence (after the commentator) the old type radar box is shown and then the new ones, which cost only half the price of the old ones. In the Canton of Vaud, they have installed 20 such boxes between the border with Geneva and Lausanne, about 45 km of highway (say, similar to Nicosia-Larnaca). The accident rate has since dropped by over half (they don't say how much they've raked in with fines!!!!), but it's a foolhardy driver who exceeds 120 km/h along that stretch today.

[The Microphone]

Road safety by scam-era is the biggest tax extortion ever invented. All the gullible idiots who believe they reduce accidents in all but the blackest of blackspots need their brain cell tested for 'functionality'. If every speeding car had an accident there would be no cars on the road and the hospitals would be full of casualties. Its a tax based on the 'what if'. . '

You're speeding and you might have an accident. nicked! 'Try nicking someone for burglary because they might commit a burglary. Its totally absurd and all the lemmings have swallowed it!

Cameras have only ever been about raising money for an offence which there is no due process in court as that 'right' has been stripped away! Commit a murder and they HAVE to prove you guilty in court. That makes speeding worse than murder!

Ching ching ching the money keeps rolling in and you all feel a little better coz you paid your fine.

[Kikapu]

Road safety by scam-era is the biggest tax extortion ever invented. All the gullible idiots who believe they reduce accidents in all but the blackest of blackspots need their brain cell tested for 'functionality'. If every speeding car had an accident there would be no cars on the road and the hospitals would be full of casualties. Its a tax based on the 'what if'. . '

You're speeding and you might have an accident. nicked! 'Try nicking someone for burglary because they might commit a burglary. Its totally absurd and all the lemmings have swallowed it!

Cameras have only ever been about raising money for an offence which there is no due process in court as that 'right' has been stripped away! Commit a murder and they HAVE to prove you guilty in court. That makes speeding worse than murder!

Ching ching ching the money keeps rolling in and you all feel a little better coz you paid your fine.

If you are going to make an argument on speeding fines being nothing but a "cash cow" for the local authorities Microphone, then why don't you propose to do away with the Road Driving Rules all together and see how safe it would be for you to cross the street........well, that's if you can make it to the other side safely that is.

[The Microphone]

Are there any driving rules in Cyprus? I havent seen any yet! Why dont the police here concentrate on nicking kids riding mopeds aroung...no tax...no insurance....no lights....no helmets.....kids stood up in the backs and front of cars....incessant yapping on mobile phones glued to ones lipstick and ear............trucks with nothing securing the loads on.....driving at night with no lights.....yobbos roaring around on bikes with no lids and no tread on their tyres....poncy blue mini sidelights used instead of proper lights......foglights used all the time in a place where I have yet to see any fog.............

Would you like me to continue? Of course...not one of these is a safety issue is it?

[devil]

Road safety by scam-era is the biggest tax extortion ever invented. All the gullible idiots who believe they reduce accidents in all but the blackest of blackspots need their brain cell tested for 'functionality'. If every speeding car had an accident there would be no cars on the road and the hospitals would be full of casualties. Its a tax based on the 'what if'. . '

You're speeding and you might have an accident. nicked! 'Try nicking someone for burglary because they might commit a burglary. Its totally absurd and all the lemmings have swallowed it!

Cameras have only ever been about raising money for an offence which there is no due process in court as that 'right' has been stripped away! Commit a murder and they HAVE to prove you guilty in court. That makes speeding worse than murder!

Ching ching ching the money keeps rolling in and you all feel a little better coz you paid your fine.

Nonsense!

I made a mistake in the script. These cameras have caused the accident rate to drop not by >50%, as I said, but >40%. Nevertheless, this is a considerable improvement. Most speed-related accidents are not caused by speed per se, but by the difference in speed between different vehicles, which is often difficult to judge, especially in poor light. I wouldn't mind betting that you would have a spectacular improvement if 20 such cameras were installed between Larnaca and Nicosia!!!!

Those who oppose cameras are those who break the law. If everyone respected the speed limits, red lights etc., there would be no ching ching ching, would there? I never feel better after paying a fine. I kick myself for having been caught. So cameras are not a cash cow: they detect criminals who help pay for them by their activities.

[Kikapu]

Are there any driving rules in Cyprus? I havent seen any yet! Why dont the police here concentrate on nicking kids riding mopeds aroung...no tax...no insurance....no lights....no helmets.....kids stood up in the backs and front of cars....incessant yapping on mobile phones glued to ones lipstick and ear............trucks with nothing securing the loads on.....driving at night with no lights.....yobbos roaring around on bikes with no lids and no tread on their tyres....poncy blue mini sidelights used instead of proper lights......foglights used all the time in a place where I have yet to see any fog.............

Would you like me to continue? Of course...not one of these is a safety issue is it?

I can't say you did not make a good case Microphone with the above.

On the other hand, it is not as sexy to a police officer busting some young kids on a moped, when they can play
"Smokey and the Bandit".

[The Microphone]

Thats so true Kikapu. I wonder if Devil is responsible for selling these damned things here? It seems like he has an interest. In the right places, like outside schools and at traffic lights I agree wholeheartedly with their deployment.

But you need to look a little deeper Devil. 99% of all scameras should be destroyed as they ONLY exist to make money. How can nicking someone on an empty motorway prevent an accident that in fact hasnt happened and in millions of cases never does when I have given you a short list above of offenses where the risk of accident and injury and the cost of seeing to that is far higher?

Perhaps the cops prefer to sit on the side of the raod coz its easier than dealing with the real crime they take backhanders to ignore! (Allegedly). Besides, its also easier than scraping the brain of some 14 year old off the bonnet a car!

Take your head out the sand. You've been brainwashed and you cant see it!

[devil]

Thats so true Kikapu. I wonder if Devil is responsible for selling these damned things here? It seems like he has an interest. In the right places, like outside schools and at traffic lights I agree wholeheartedly with their deployment.

But you need to look a little deeper Devil. 99% of all scameras should be destroyed as they ONLY exist to make money. How can nicking someone on an empty motorway prevent an accident that in fact hasnt happened and in millions of cases never does when I have given you a short list above of offenses where the risk of accident and injury and the cost of seeing to that is far higher?

Perhaps the cops prefer to sit on the side of the raod coz its easier than dealing with the real crime they take backhanders to ignore! (Allegedly). Besides, its also easier than scraping the brain of some 14 year old off the bonnet a car!

Take your head out the sand. You've been brainwashed and you cant see it!

You haven't explained why the highway accident rate between Lausanne and the Geneva border has dropped by >40% since they put in the new cameras every 2 km and, after an initial surge, very few motorists get caught now (so income has dropped). So much for your cash cow!

The following are the fines for minor speeding offences with figures above the limit resp. for built-up areas, roads & motorways in CHF (CHF 1 = CYP 0.36)
de 0 à 5 km/h 40.- 40.- 20.- + 2 points
de 6 à 10 km/h 120.- 100.- 60.- + 2 points
de 11 à 15 km/h 250.- 160.- 120.- +2 points
de 16 à 20 km/h 400.- 240.- 180.- + denounciation + 4 points + licence withdrawn for 0-2 months
de 21 à 24 km/h 600.- 400.- 260.- + denounciation + 4 points + licence withdrawn mandatorily for 3 months
de 25 à 30 km/h 800.- 600.- 400.- + denounciation + 4 points + licence withdrawn mandatorily for 6 months

Above 30 km/h, the fine is a percentage of your income with a minimum of 1000.- to 5000.- + licence withdrawn for a minimum of 1 year + need to retake the driving test after the withdrawal period. In severe cases, of >40 km/h the judge can inflict prison sentences of up to 1 year, on top.

You can therefore see why the Swiss respect the speed limit on this motorway and why the accident rate has dropped because of the cameras.

I have no interest in these cameras or anything else, but I would like to see the standard of driving in Cyprus to improve to what is normal in W. Europe. After all, we have embraced the EU: we should accept the disadvantages as well as the (pretended) advantages.

And, if anyone is nicked on an empty motorway, then he deserves all he gets because the police set up their traps visibly. He should also be charged with driving without due care and attention, as well as speeding, if he cannot see the trap - or sent for an eye test. And if he is nicked, it is not to make money but to try and instil into thick heads (a vain job with some) that there is a reason for speed limits and that drivers have no right to change it because it suits them to. That reason is to try and bring down the accident rate, which you must admit is abnormally high in this country.

[Kikapu]

I agree with Devil, that Speed Cameras do serve their purposes. I have only noticed few cameras on the freeways here in Switzerland, but there are a lot within city limits, which of course, is where most pedestrians are. Aside from the fixed cameras, police often set up a temporary one for few hours. The real kicker are the mobile ones, that sits in the back of a small car, which they park for an hour and then drive to another location and start again.

Oh, by the way, I have been caught only once within city limits and it cost me 40 CHF.

Not bad, only one in 3 years.!!

[devil]

I have only noticed few cameras on the freeways here in Switzerland,

Varies according to the Canton. GE and VD are much more highway-oriented, although GE have quite a number in town, as well. ZH and BS are more town oriented. In 35 years, was caught only once in Switzerland, in VS. I was approaching Martigny from Villeneuve (before the motorway was open). Just 8 m after the 50 sign, there is an electricity distribution box and the cops had hidden the radar behind it. The reception committee, 50 m further on, stopped literally every car. I was had for 58 km/h and fined CHF 30,- on the spot. Everybody was complaining it was a dirty trick, but the law is the law! Got my own back, though, as the VS gendarmerie were a customer of mine for software and I charged them an extra CHF 30.- for the following update!