RTFA: http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

The Vandalised Gatso section has been broken down into four pages. This is due to the amount of time it used to take to load all the pictures, even with broadband. At the end of each page there is link to take you to the next page.

This page is probably the highlight of the entire site. To my knowledge this is the largest collection of wrecked Gatsos on the internet, and its growing rapidly. So long as these cameras are robbing motorists of their cash they will continue to be destroyed.

This is a surprisingly large collection of pictures documenting the destruction of UK Gatso (a brand) speeding cameras. That is, these cameras take a picture of your license plate (and sometimes your face, too) if you are driving above a certain speed. In the picture above, the Gatso camera was destroyed before the construction crew finished installing it.

According to this comment on Slashdot:

In the UK some are taking tires, hanging them on the speed cameras, filling the inside with gasoline, and lighting it. The gasoline burns long enough to get the tire burning, and as the tire burns, the steel belts keep it from burning itself off of the camera housing before it’s been there for a considerable amount of time.

I wouldn’t advocate doing this with tires that you bought new if you registered the warranty on them, but tires on wheels can sometimes be bought for $8.00 on half-price day at the junk yard, and dismounting them isn’t that difficult if they’re not those low-profile or large rim types. I’d imagine that you’d put the gasoline into the tire while it’s on the ground, then lift it up and on, then toss a match or two into it.

Above, you can actually see the tire sitting on the camera. The story that sparked this whole discussion is available from The Sentinel:

As a prank, students from local high schools have been taking advantage of the county’s Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past, including other students and even teachers.

Students from Richard Montgomery High School dubbed the prank the Speed Camera “Pimping” game, according to a parent of a student enrolled at one of the high schools.

Originating from Wootton High School, the parent said, students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that “mimic” those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera, the parent said. The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.

Students are even obtaining vehicles from their friends that are similar or identical to the make and model of the car owned by the targeted victim, according to the parent.

“This game is very disturbing,” the parent said. “Especially since unsuspecting parents will also be victimized through receipt of unwarranted photo speed tickets.

Permit me to chuckle momentarily at the flaming tires and at “this disturbing game.” Photo-taking “speeding cameras” are just another creepy Big Brother invention that serve to generate revenue, rather than to increase safety. In fact, these cameras may increase collisions at intersections when used in “red light” mode.

According to the DOT’s Safety Evaluation of Red-Light Cameras:

The fundamental objective of this research was to determine the effectiveness of red-light-camera (RLC) systems in reducing crashes. The study involved an empirical Bayes (EB) before-after research using data from seven jurisdictions across the United States to estimate the crash and associated economic effects of RLC systems. The study included 132 treatment sites, and specially derived rear end and right-angle unit crash costs for various severity levels. Crash effects detected were consistent in direction with those found in many previous studies: decreased right-angle crashes and increased rear end ones.

I’ve heard that cities derive tons of money from red light cameras, which creates an incentive to decrease the length of yellow lights. According to the National Motorist Association:

Short yellow light times at intersections have been shown to increase the number of traffic violations and accidents. Conversely, increasing the yellow light duration can dramatically reduce red-light violations at an intersection.

Some local governments have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.

The article above is about 6 cities that have been caught shortening yellow lights; it’s worth reading, but here’s the list of guilty cities:

1) Chattanooga, Tennessee
2) Dallas, Texas
3) Springfield, Missouri
4) Lubbock, Texas
5) Nashville, Tennessee
6) Union City, California

Pretty shameful, considering the fact that the association with collisions has been established.

When an industry springs up to make a profit off this sort of thing, and when governments can get a cut of the profits, this creates your classic fill-in-the-blank-industrial-complex (as in military-industrial-complex and prison-industrial-complex).

Blog posts like this serve to increase awareness, and some old fashioned “civil” disobedience does raise the costs of installing cameras… but what is the long-term solution?