[Mothy]

Down here in Australia, especially NSW, they use red light and speed cameras a lot.

All are in locations which have previously shown to be accident hot spots. All of them are signposted before you get to them. The speed cameras have a minimum of 3 BIG warning signs before you get to them, so if you get caught its you own dumb fault!!

To counter the 'revenue raising' argument, they have done a couple of things - signposting is one, so they are not hidden. The other thing is to have more installations than cameras. So when the govt installed about 40 more red light camera's, they didn't buy any more camera units - just the posts and the mounting kits. They then move the camera's around the various installations.

Since I don't know which ones are 'armed' I treat them all as live - but the Gov't only has the same number of 'revenue raising devises' (cameras) as they always did - so they are not raising any more money and can argue that they are safety devices.

FYI, our red light cameras take two shots - one when you enter the intersection on the red signal and another a second later. If it shows that you continued on through the intersection, they send you the ticket. However if you tried to stop but couldn't quite do it before entering the intersection, the second shot shows your car very close to the position in the first shot - and they don't send you the ticket.

Tim