And you thought the nationwide surveillance story was bad news? The National Motorists Assoc. just posted this story about tests being carried out in the UK involving satellites being used as a speed-limiting device. Currently, three types of systems are being evaluated: an advisory mode that informs or reminds the motorist of the speed limit, another version that would apply the brakes or limit fuel, but that can be overidden and, lastly, a system that would take over complete control and not allow for driver over-ride. Thankfully, it would be a voluntary system, but, according the Telegraph UK, 54% of those asked said they’d opt for some type of system.
The Newspaper.com reported that nation’s two largest red light camera vendors both have plans to turn their photo-ticketing cameras into a nationwide surveillance system. "We are moving into areas such as homeland security on a national level and on a local level," Redflex regional director Cherif Elsadek said. And in a proposal to the Arizona state police, ATS, the second-largest vendor, told the agency that their cameras could be integrated into a national vehicle tracking database. This is similar to the plan in the UK that will utilize their average speed cameras to help police "keep tabs on criminals and political opponents."
"Quit building cars that can exceed the speed limit" is Op-Ed contributor, Kent Sepkowitz’s solution for decreasing fatalities. He doesn’t mention anything about improving driver skill or making the tests to get a license any more difficult. Isn’t a bad driver in a car going below the speed limit more dangerous than a good driver exceeding the limit? Speed kills when the driver is in over his head, when he doesn’t know his limits or the car’s limits. Those two skills can be taught.
I’ve left New York. What started as a ten-day trip to hammer out some business with Alex turned into five weeks of sleeping on his blue velour sectional, plenty of brainstorming, a ton of new friends and adventures the wooly world of startups that I couldn’t conceive of when I boarded that eastbound redeye in Sacramento over 4th of July weekend. But come to an end it has. We’re off to Monterey in 144B. We’ve enlisted the talents of Autoblog’s resident Northern California boy, Damon Lavrinc, to handle additional driving duties. We’re also attempting to warp the poor man’s brain. We’ve never attempted a driveplan that involved meeting an airline flight before, but that’s exactly what we’ll be attempting this time when we pick up Liz Moses.
She claims that she’ll bring some much-needed sense to the proceedings, but we’re a bit curious as to how much sense anyone who hitches a ride in a fake German police car crewed by a bald man, a bearded man and a blogging man could possibly have. Nevertheless, we intend to make our trek a memorable one. We’ll be broadcasting live video from Seero, as well as putting together one of our signature maps. We’ll be ruminating on the nature of driving in today’s America, passing through hamlets large and small as we travel the entire length of Interstate 80 — from the George Washington Bridge in New York to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, then tooling down 101 through Silicon Valley and south to Steinbeck Country — where we’ll take in the goings on during what’s internationally recognized as the most fantastic collection of automotive events in one weekend. If you call yourself a car guy and haven’t made it to Monterey, mark your calendars. And once you experience it, you’ll want to come back every year.
Redflex, the largest red-light/speed camera contractor in the U.S., is being investigated by the FCC after their competitor, ATS, filed a complaint with the FCC accusing Redflex of using radar equipment that has yet to win FCC approval. Because of this complaint, Arizona’s Department of Public Safety ordered Redflex’s mobile photo radar vans to be taken off state highways. This of course begs the question: If an un-approved camera issues a citation, is that ticket valid? If not, then does this mean that those ticketed by the un-approved camera/radar be eligible for a refund? Any lawyers or law school students want to chime in?
U.S. Express driver, Mack Howard, got this warning during his run in ‘82. Cannonball and U.S. Express drivers considered Ohio one of the toughest states to speed through. He would go on to get two real tickets within three hours of receiving it. Check out his sweet RX-7 with the giant air dam.
Seems logical that Cali would have the most speed traps (according to speedtrap.org) as they’re the most-populated and have tons of roads. The rest of the top 10 fall into the similar population-to-area ratio. In descending order after Cali, the most speed traps are in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, NY, Ohio, NJ, Pennsylvania and Georgia. South Dakota, which is near the bottom, also has the city considered the safest to drive in, which is Sioux Falls, according to Allstate Insurance. You probably won’t be finding many of Jalopnik’s Top Ten Real Life Car Chases coming from that state.
Michael Shrimpton, noted national security and intelligence expert, went to a UK court yesterday while representing a man for speeding. His plan was to claim that "prosecutions relying on cameras - both handheld and fixed - have been won on inadmissable evidence" because many of those cameras were put into use without approval from Parliament. He said, "It seems that around 10 million prosecutions, including fixed penalty cases, have been based on unapproved devices." Shrimpton won a a similar case two weeks ago on the same argument. A Home Office spokesman claims the cameras are legal and that the government won’t be embarrassed. We have yet to find out the result of his latest case.
.png)
