Spaceborne Speedtraps: Satellites Help Plate-Reading Cameras Continuously Track Speeding Drivers

This is a really, really bad idea. In the US those who talk about using the time between toll plazas as a way to enforce speed limits have been universally beat down and subjected to furious outrage.

This would be great for the ultra-speeders, like the 100+mph motorcycles that sometimes pass right next to your mirror at night on the in-town interstates, and remote areas that are hard to monitor - but what is the point otherwise?
Cops know when and where most normal people speed. I just got a ticket in Ohio (in a line of cars, I likely was the one with out of state plates). The cop said 'I won't keep you long', and he was right - I was back on the road in less than 5 minutes! (and he was back to recovering lost tax revenue...)
Roadside radar pays for itself - quickly! Satellite-based ticketing is fantasy stuff, like the helicopters that would swoop in and haul away cars after a wreck - something I saw in PS in the 70's! Today, they seem to close all the lanes for any small accident, and you are left sitting. They don't even have a way of broadcasting what happened or what to do, like they could with small 10w radios and an unused FM station. But that would be too helpful...
(Hey PS - now that would be a useful story)

Jesus, the UK is a scary place. I never thought a country would surpass the predictions of 1984. Citation giving satellites? Are you serious? The thing that really scares me is the fact that the U.S. government usually tends to copy the tyrannical ideas of other nations.

It needs a laser to make it perfect!

Oh shit. Doesn't the UK also use UAV's to track and follow criminals and arrest them? Don't they also want to collect people's data in their biobank and stuff? The UK sounds like a place where conspiracies aren't just conspiracies.

I think this is a great idea! I hope it is adopted by the US soon. It's really not that different than the red-light cameras that are in a lot of dangerous intersections already. This just takes it a step further. Most fatality accidents are caused by people speeding. I might be tempted to say "they got what they deserved" if it was just the speeders who suffer, but far too often safe drivers or pedestrians end up involved in these accidents as well. If you speed, you are endangering EVERYONE on and along that road. Not just yourself.

Some might see this as an invasion of privacy, but I don’t. As I mentioned, it’s really no worse than the red-light cameras already in use. And there have been many reports that those intersections are adjusted to maximize revenue from these traps. (i.e. Decreasing the yellow light duration so that they trap more people.)

Cars are deadly weapons. If someone was using a gun in an unsafe manner, we would want someone to stop them. The same applies to people who use cars unsafely.

This is a waste.

This one just pisses me off. We already have way too much government involvement in our personal lives already and now they want to track my transportation movements. So if a crime is committed, will they pull in the records of all the people within a ten mile radius of the crime? My phone location is already used by the police. This is just another step towards an Orwellian big brother.

Fortunately, this wouldn't go in my state ( so far). The arresting officer has to observe the violation.

They also threw out the red light cams, which BTW have been shown to INCREASE accidents in many cases.

My issues are
1. It's complex - complex systems are more prone to fail
2. If it issues tickets automatically, there's no proof
of who was driving.

Nonsquid - I hear you. The problem though is that we wouldn't need so many watchful eyes if people didn't constantly break the law. We are a society of laws - there are those who decide to ignore them. They dump trash in rivers and it pollutes our water table. They steal money from our bank accounts and we lose our net worth. They sell drugs at street corners and our property values drop as well as our likely hood of living in a safe community.

Show me a place where people abide by the laws and I'll show you a place with enforced laws.

Don't commit any crimes? That's fair - no worries about what they are doing with the data.

It's a catch 22 - damned if you do and if you don't.

Ford2go - yeah that's a bs argument even though I agree with you. If you don't know who was driving your car at the time the car was involved in the incident then the ticket should go to the owner of the car. We are a society that has no responsibility for our actions. There's no excuse for running a red light. 2 kids ran one 3 years ago and I lost my new car. I just dropped off a passenger 5 minutes earlier and I could have lost her as well.

If you get a ticket - fight it.

Anyway - this doesn't bother me, it's just another way to see if you were breaking the law. We should be more concerned with the GPS reports that show all the cops at the dunkin donuts and not on their patrols.

sheeez! let's be honest and factual: Speed does NOT cause accidents, stupidity does. ask any professional driver (or cop) who logs 100,000+ miles accident-free every year. drivers MUST be responsible for the consequences of their actions. if stupidity were illegal all the roads would be less congested and good drivers would be in less danger.