This news report proves that most traffic fines are just revenue raising and do almost nothing to improve road safety.
135,000 people were issued fines via the new automatic seat belt and mobile phone detection cameras, providing the Queensland government and extra $100 million in revenue. Yet ther were NOT 135,000 accidents during that same period of time.
Considering that those that where fined where unlucky enough to be in a location were they were photographed, it must be reasonable assumed that the number of people disobeying these laws, is multiples of times higher than 135,000. Lets say it a factor of 10. That would mean that 1.3 million people, in that time, infringed these laws. BUT ther were NOT 1.3 million accidents.
Does that mean ther is very little correlation between infringing those laws and having a road accident?
What about those that did infringe those laws but we're not fined. Is it only when they get fined that they will become safer?
Has there ever been a study that shows the correlation between being fined and obaying road rules?
Why not automatically fine everyone that infringes any road rule. With the technology that is available in mobile phones, the data to do that could easily be collected. Particularly for speeding and for talking on the phone whilst driving.
Privacy issues aside,I get the impression ther would be a big public outcry against it. It would not be politically sustainable.
That is why, even though the technology already exists, ther will never be a situation where in every road rule infringement, the perpetrator would be automatically fined.
If you are unlucky enough to get caught by one of these new seatbelt and mobile phone cameras you could take the attitude that it is mearly part of the cost of transportation.
The carrot is nearly always more effective than the stick.
Rather than fining road law infringers, how about providing incentives for those that can prove they have higher capability to drive. In the form of a tiered licencing structure, something similar to aircraft licences. The higher the level the faster you are allowed to drive, where it is safe to do so.
It would give drivers something to strive for and could possibly inprove the aggregate level of driving.