Forze dell'Ordine Italiane... parliamone
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Forze dell'Ordine Italiane... parliamone

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Why AMERICA NEEDS TO SAY "NO" TO SPEED CAMERAS explanation by personal experience

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CrazySte


Admin


SPEED CAMERAS: the United States of America is more and more evaluating the possibility of Installing such devices along the Roads


Hello,
i think the Title already explains very well what i am trying to say here, but i don't like to throw words out in the Air without supporting them with proper motives, and i would like to write an explanation of why i am against Speed Cameras in America as well as in any other part of the world!

Just to be clear, when i talk about Speed Cameras i am referring to those devices that are installed in a fixed position on the side of the road and without the presence of an Officer that just takes pictures of License Plates of Cars that have been Speeding... if you take for example Italy where Speed Cameras are largely widely used, it doesn't matter if you are Speeding for medical reason, or if you are a private security officer running for an emergency call, you get the ticket home, and no way to get out of it... YES because the judge says: "The machine is right, so you must be wrong!"
So far in Italy the cases of people that managed to get away with a Speed Camera ticket can be counted with the fingers.


First of all i should say that i live in North Carolina, but i am originally from Italy, a Country where Speed Cameras have been Legal for over 10 years now, and unluckily for me i am from the City of Treviso which was one of the first cities to adopt such devices... devices that in Italy are known by the name of AUTOVELOX!



But let's get this thing clear: NOBODY WANTED THE AUTOVELOX INSTALLED, all motorists were against em because in many many Roads in Italy the Speed Limits are still those that were introduced back in the 60's (limits of 30mph or huge roads sometimes even 20mph, which were limits used back when the roads didn't even have asphalt), so basically they are impossible to respect with modern cars, so it was obvious that there was the fear that the Government would use such devices to start sending tickets home to everyone and make money off of inappropriate Speed Limits.


SO, this is how they managed to make such Devices Legal in Italy:

First they said: "We will install them ONLY on the Toll Highways and where we will Install them we will raise the Speed Limit from the present 130Km/h (80mph) to the maximum allowed by law which is 150Km/h (about 90mph), which anyway it is the speed everybody travels at anyway already"
so it seemed a nice idea... since nobody was respecting the Speed Limit of 80mph and instead everyone was driving safely at 90mph, let's Install the Speed Cameras and Raise the Limit to 90mph which was the average traveling speed everybody was traveling at anyway.


WHAT A BIG LIE!!!
Not only she Speed Limits Remained the same, but even worst, they started playing with variable Speed Limits, so all of a sudden, at Dusk the Limit would drop from from 130km/h (80mph) down to 110km/h (about 70mph), or even a minimum drizzle of Rain would cause the same thing, which is actually a good concept, but what about the speed limit of 150km/h (about 90mph) that was promised in exchange for the AUTOVELOX???... never seen... the most ever seen, even in perfectly shiny days, was the usual 130km/h (about 80mph) that we had since 1990 as Speed limit in Italy.


BUT HERE IT GET'S WORST!!!

As i said earlier, i am from Treviso, the City of Treviso has 2 Loops outside the city, each one of them is a separate ONE WAY road... the Outer Loop, which runs counter clockwise, is a 3 Lane Road, all running in the same direction, and the Speed Limit was 70Km/h (about 45mph) throughout the whole loop which is about 3 miles long...

All good and OK, it was a proper limit for a Multi-Lane One-Way Road that runs just outside the Downtown area.

The inside loop instead runs clockwise, has only 2 lanes, the Speed limit was 50Km/h (about 30mph).

So far everything is OK, it makes sense... the 3 Lane Loop has limit of 45mph and the 2 Lanes loop has the limit of 30mph.



Remember the promise they made before that the Speed Cameras would be used only on High Speed Toll Roads?

Well somehow the city of Treviso obtained the OK to install not one, not two... but 4 Speed Cameras along the Outer Loop, the Operation was done overnight, 4 AUTOVELOX (aka Speed Cameras) where installed along the outer loop and at the same time they swapped the Speed Limit signs which, for some unknown reason, went down from 70Km/h (about 45mph) to just 50Km/h (about 30mph)... YES a Speed Limit of 30mph on a One way Road with 3 Lanes... and in a loop just 3 miles long, 4 Speed Cameras were installed on the side of the road.

On the first month, the amount of over 2millions Euros (over $ 2millions Dollars) where generated by the tickets.


Does this sound crazy enough?

Wait the best comes next, because with the years Speed cameras appeared all around the City, off course even in the inner loop where they installed 3 of em, and now there are Boxes with Speed Cameras inside placed all around the city (as of 2014 there are 136 AUTOVELOX in the city of Treviso, which is a fairly small city with less than 100k inhabitants).

Where did they install all these cameras? NOT in proximity of a School or the Hospital, where they would make sense... NO, always in larger roads where the speed limits were conveniently lowered.

How about a Road, with 2 Lanes in each Direction, a nice Concrete divider in the middle, and yet a Speed Limit of 30mph... let's be clear: the limit it used not to be 30mph, it used to be 55mph (90Km/h to be precise), but one day 4 Speed Cameras appeared, 2 in each direction of the Road which is just 5 miles long, and the Speed Limit was initially lowered from 90Km/h to 70km/h (about 45mph) and then after a few years, once the cash flow from the Speed Cameras started becoming too low, the limit got dropped further to 50km/h (about 30mph)... YES a speed limit of 30mph on a 4 lane Road with divider... it's a great money machine, especially because that's a road where lot's of people from out of town drives on so they are not aware of the Cameras and respecting such limit is just ridiculous.

But do you think this is ridiculous?

Do you remember the inner and outer loop we were talking about before?

Well, eventually the cash flow started reducing a lot in there as well, so one day the major had a great idea to fix the economy of the city: he said it didn't make sense that the bigger outer loop with 3 lanes had the same speed limit of the inner loop that only had 2 lanes (REMEMBER: the outer Loop used to be 45mph before they installed the Cameras and lowered the limit to 30mph), so to assure the proper safety he felt compelled to reduce the Speed Limit of the Inner Loop from 50km/h (about 30mph) to just 30km/h (about 20mph)... YES a 2 lane Road ONE WAY with the limit of 20mph, and immediately on the first month the 3 Speed Cameras in the Inner Loop restarted generating cash!

LOT'S OF CASH


Eventually the same trend started repeating a bit everywhere, even the Highway that passes by the city, has become a continuous speed trap.. the Speed Limits bounce from 90km/h (about 55mph) to a drop to all of a sudden 50km/h (about 30mph) usually right on top of a hump, and guess what's hidden behind the hump?

SPEED CAMERA

YES, they lower the Speed Limit in a point where the Camera is hidden by the conformation of the road, the Speed Limit sign is placed right before the hump, but unless you really get on the brakes, by the time you are over the hump you are not yet down to 30mph and the nice machine takes a Picture of your Licence Plate and months later you receive the letter.


Months later, sometimes even 6-8 months later, you get a letter at home stating that on such day you were Speeding by that much.

I remember when i got my first ticket, it was in the Outer Loop of Treviso, it stated i was driving at 56km/h (34.7mph) on a limit of 50Km/h (31mph)... amount: 245 Euros (that's like saying $245).

I was outraged, the Ticked was for just few Km/h out, but i was just one of the many, anybody that tried to fight those tickets, ended up having to pay the ticket again... YES that's the Italian penalty if you lose in Court... pay the ticket twice!


THE WORST COMES NOW

Eventually years after the AUTOVELOX were introduced, which is how they call the Speed Cameras over there, a scandal was discovered where City Officials were tricking the Speed Cameras to take Pictures at lower Speeds than what they were supposed to... anyway the Ticket arrives at your house Months and Months later, who remembers if they were really Speeding back then?


So an investigation was performed, it was initiated by a group of indipendent journalists, they broadcasted the result on the local TV and the scandal went national and it started involving even the Red Light Cameras, the investigation went a bit all around Italy and Cameras were found to be tared purposely off.


Millions of Tickets were considered VOIDED because the Cameras were involved in the investigation, even my Aunt had 2 Tickets Voided (one of them she got it as she was driving to the Hospital in Labor... and NO, they didn't allow her to Cancel that ticket because they said she should have called an Ambulance or have someone else not in pain Drive her safely), but the letter she received 2 Months after the notification that the Tickets were Voided was the worst:

"Any Points Taken away by those Tickets have been given back to your license..."
(NOTE: in Italy you start with 20 points, at every ticket you lose some until you're down to 0 points and you lose the Licence for 3 months)

the letter continued:
" unfortunately the Money you paid for the ticket have already been invested in safety by the Italian Department of Transportation and can not be given back, you may claim them as a tax deduction at the end of the fiscal year "

Nope, those money never came back, they were basically stolen, my Aunt went to the Accountant, and he said that the Department of Revenue didn't setup any deduction for those tickets for that year and she had to re-try the next... year after year, the money are still not given, and the Speed Cameras keep appearing while the Speed Limits keep dropping randomly.

Sadly with the Years, even the Police Forces have been reduced, rather than putting more Cops in service to protect citizens, the City started saving by not hiring new Officers, the Speed Cameras and Red Light Cameras do the Tickets, the other officers stay in the Office validating them and shipping them, while People remains unprotected.


NO I DON'T WANT THIS IN AMERICA

Let the Police Officers Pull Over People, and see face to face what the problem is, maybe it's a woman in labor that rather than being stopped she needs to be escorted to the hospital, or even someone that is running to help someone else in difficult, maybe a parent that called from home hurt.


I am starting to get worried, recently i went to Canada and i got a rental Car and the rental Car place kept telling me to be extremely careful to the Speed Limit signs because they suddenly Drop for no reason and there are Speed Cameras right behind them... this is the same kind of tricks they do in Italy a lot, it is scary to see that they are getting so close to our home.

Even some relatives that live in Brazil, Drive in constant Terror because of the Speed Cameras... at least in Italy they are forced to make sure the Speed Cameras are visible, in Brazil they install them inside fake trees or even fake dumpsters, and just like in Italy, the Speed Limits have been lowered after the Cameras were installed, so the cash flow is increased.


NO, let's not let America fall in the same trick, when i Drive in Italy and in Canada i am constantly nervous, i can't relax and enjoy the view for a moment because that's all it takes, you look around a second and you missed a road sign that advised you that the Speed Limit Dropped, for no reason, maybe while you were driving on a Highway in the middle of nowhere... and, CLICK, a picture is taken without you even knowing it.


THIS IS NOT RIGHT!


LET'S MAINTAIN AMERICA A NICE PLACE TO DRIVE
NO SPEED CAMERAS, Please, let's maintain the human factor in these things, Driving is a thing done by humans, humans make mistakes, but humans also know how to forgive, whereas a machine doesn't... it only CLICKS!

LET'S KEEP AMERICA AUTOVELOX FREE!!!
CIAO

https://fdoitaliane.forumotion.net

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