[thechat] Traffic Light Cameras

[Martin Burns]

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On 16 Aug 2004, at 19:04, Lauri Väin wrote:

>> A FOAF did something rather foolish this morning. In his
>> enthusiasm to get out of the congestion charging zone in
>
> Congestion charging zone? Is this a zone in the city which has too many
> cars and where you have to pay extra when you want to cross it?

Yup, where 'city'='london' at present. It only covers the very centre, 
north of the Thames, which was utterly choked with traffic, screwing 
the environment, public transport and didn't help tourists have A Good 
Time.

You're exempt if you drive a dual-fuel hybrid btw.

> Sorry,
> never been to the UK - not much of a clue, how it works there. Seems to
> suck big time, though :)

Well yes, if you're the sort of person who just *has* to drive into the 
central tourist & government area, and can't possibly use public 
transport.

>> London before 7am, he cut a red light. In order to do this he
>> accelerated to about 40mph in a 30mph limit. As he passed the
>> light, he's pretty sure he caught a double flash in his wing
>> mirror. He's not aware of a yellow-backed speed camera in
>> that position, only a grey traffic-light camera.
>
> Oh, I can already visualize, how Jeremy Clarkson would love to bash the
> cameras with such an example :)

What, running a red light? Doing 40 in a 30 zone in the city centre? 
Probably not. Slapping someone for doing 65 on a rural straight, level 
road in good conditions, when the limit's 60, yes.

> Especially since the government wants to
> start charging a LOT of more money for using roads at peak times 
> (school
> dropping off time, work starting time, coming home from work time,
> Britney Spears concerts etc). That's the plan the government seems to
> have in the new Transportation Plan or something (was on Top Gear just 
> a
> couple of weeks ago, I think).

Top Gear isn't exactly an unbiased source. It's the kind of program 
that revels in Clarkson having bought a car whose range (about 70 
miles. Yes, seriously) is 4 miles short of his daily drive into the 
office.

Cheers
Martin
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