NZ's highest-earning red light camera rakes in nearly $650,000 in fines in first year
Motorists on Auckland’s North Shore have kept a red-light camera extremely busy in its first year of operation.
In the 12 months from June 2018 to June to 2019, $642,000 in fines were issued by the fixed-position camera.
It's a figure that even the AA, which supports the use of red-light cameras, says is concerning. “A camera issuing that many tickets, your're just not getting the right road safety result,” AA advisor Barney Irvine told Seven Sharp.
The camera was installed at the intersection of Esmonde Road and Fred Thomas Drive, near the Northern Motorway on-ramp, as part of a wider rollout of cameras across the city. Each new single camera costs $46,828, generally purchased by Auckland Transport and is monitored by police. “The camera there issued two-thousand tickets in the first four months of the year, and that’s way ahead of what we’re seeing on other roads with the same amount of traffic. It’s just far too high,” Mr Irvine says. The AA is now calling on Auckland Transport to investigate other options for cracking down on red-light infringements. In a statement, Auckland Transport says that it is aware that “this intersection is a high infringement zone” and that they are looking at ways to make signage and signals clearer. “This will include additional traffic lights (one that sits over the intersection) and flashing studs in the road seal to warn people of the upcoming red signal.” Mr Irvine says sometimes a red-light camera by itself just isn’t enough.
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Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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63.3% Summer
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35.4% Winter
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1.3% Other - I'll share below
New Year, New Questions You Won’t Solve!
I get smaller every time I take a bath.
What am I?
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What it feels like speaking with a MAGA American:
Me: “Your total is $44.19. Cash or card?”
The customer hands me a credit card but the chip inside it has been hole-punched out.
Me: “Uh, I don’t think this will work.”
Customer: “Why not? It hasn’t expired and I have money in my account.”
Me: “Sir… the chip is gone.”
Customer: “I didn’t want the chip.”
Me: “The card won’t work without it.”
Customer: “It just means I can’t enter my PIN, but you can still swipe it.”
Me: “I don’t think it will work, sir.”
Customer: “Just swipe it.”
I swipe it to prove a point.
Me: “It’s not working, sir.”
Customer: “Then you’re doing it wrong. Swipe it again!”
I do so again with the same result.
Customer: “Maybe you should swipe it so that the magnetic strip isn’t the thing being swiped?”
Me: *Swiping it as suggested.* “Sure, why not? About as much chance of it going through without the magnetic strip as there is without the chip – oh look, it didn’t work.”
Customer: “Your machine must be broken!”
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