Speed cameras are getting nasty

[Yorkie]

I'm probably going to make myself  unpopular when I say that I find it rather odd when speed cameras are referred to in the media as 'sneaky' and 'stealthy'.  

Surely 'sneaky' and 'stealthy' apply more appropriately to those motorists who speed when they think they can get away with it, (which they judge to be most of the time, until they get ticketed)?  Cameras are popularly termed 'cash cows' but really, it's a tax on the stupidity of those who don't adhere to speed limits. I'm working on a slogan for that: "A [something?] and his [something?] are soon parted" - I just need to think of the two words to insert there.

 How not to get a ticket isn't difficult to grasp - if a motorist is doing anything when driving, which - if they did it in their driving test would cause them to fail -  they'd best not do it.

I was in the barber's a week ago when a chap in the chair was bemoaning having got a speeding ticket in the post that morning for having exceeded the 50mph limit on the motorway on average speed cameras. Huh?  He drives for mile after mile past bright yellow 'Specs' cameras mounted high up on visible poles with sign after sign saying '50MPH, average speed cameras' then when he gets a ticket, he tells a shop full of customers. Do what? Really, guys like that should be laughed off the face of the planet.

All that probably sounds more than a tad haughty and I'll admit to having little sympathy for errant motorists.

That said, if there's one thing that strikes me as a real danger which little seems to be done about, it's lorries driving far too close to each other on motorways. They're supposed to not exceed 56mph, at which speed the thinking/stopping distance on a dry road surface is 240 ft - 18 car lengths. Often, there's barely one car's length between them, and the tailgating lorry driver can only see the rear end of the lorry in front. If that was properly policed (even by cameras) they just wouldn't do it, or if they did, they'd be taken off the road out of harm's way.

I guess that in not to many years away, so called 'driverless cars' in which built-in technology will regulate speed and distance from other objects and will protect drivers and other road users from their own stupidity. I think by that time, if I'm still around I'll have been downgraded to a mobility scooter! Meanwhile, the presence or absence of cameras is something I don't need to concern myself with. Just need to be aware of what the speed limit is. In a 30 limit, best thing to do is stay in third gear then you don't need to fall back on excuse #19: "There wasn't much traffic, it was a clear day, I'm not familiar with that stretch of road - it wasn't a deliberate attempt to flout the law -  my car is very quiet and my speed drifted up in a moment of inattentiveness...

Yes, of course.

All in all, a topic that's destined to generate more heat than light.