ADT 'does not exclude' installing dummy speed cameras

Adrian Cardona

Mar 18th 2009, 11:57

"Speaking to The Times, the authority's traffic expert, David Sutton, said that in Malta, unlike many other countries, motorists were given clear advance warning of a speed camera and the speed limit."
Sur espert Sutton, you have to tell us the speed limits because your Disneyworld club at ADT does not have ONE single standard speed with these cameras! They are all different and are not in conformance with the speed listed in the Highway Code.
Your magnaminous generosity is unwanted.

r ferriggi

Mar 18th 2009, 09:22

ref to ms Stilz comments:

i DOUBT very much if there is ANYONE in the maltese islands who has a good word to say about the ADT.

it is understandable that their work is not easy but hey,,,, it is literally being used as another TAX department.

The savage collection and towing o foreign number plated car farce is another issue which has given malta a BAD name. all these people were visitors who wanted to SPEND money in these islands!!! some have been chased away with dissillusion.

PN government,,, you were once on the forefront in the opposition against these absurdities. now you are yourself immersed in them and MANY people are dissillusioned.

V.Micallef

Mar 17th 2009, 11:50

May I propose Ms Amanda Stiltz's comment for the award "Comment of the Year 2009". Keep it up, Mandy, keep it up!

K Bonello

Mar 17th 2009, 11:06

Does Mr. Sutton also know that the countries he is mentioning use such techniques on those motorways where the speed limit is well beyond a ridiculous 60 km/h?? I would gladly have dummy cameras and cameras moving around if Mr. Sutton's genial expertise can lead to roads where motorists can drive on their fifth gear, rather than 3rd or 2nd. Otherwise he should expertly suggest to the government to stop car importation in favour of go carts, horse carts, an efficient public transport system (such as that available in the countries he is referring to).

I wonder whether Mr. Sutton's expertise has anything to say about the dangers of driving in main roads with 5th class tarmac, with potholes, with slow traffic on the fast lane etc.etc.

Amanda Stitz

Mar 17th 2009, 10:31

The ADT installed, and has been using Dummies a long time ago, it is about time it brings them out from behind desks and puts them to work on the roads.

bryan sullivan

Mar 17th 2009, 10:25

dear mr sutton,
if you are the traffic expert you are made out to be can you please let our constipated cars know how it's possible to be driven under the limit of 40 kms an hour going down an incline. this refers to the short stretch of road going in the direction of marsa after leaving the short tunnel under the cycle and skateboard park . a road sign advises slow moving cars to keep to the left . how can one go slower -unless i'm a donkey- than 40kms without practically stopping ! we next have a sign to reduce speed to 60 kms . honestly speaking this confuses me . how do i reduce from 40 to 60 kms. my maths teacher must have got it wrong when i was younger ! but then there is also a camera ....so i must give it my best smile and remember that after all...this is malta !

Adrian Vella

Mar 17th 2009, 10:16

Every time the ADT is mentioned the blog is endless. Rather than replace the cameras with dummies they should replace the dummies at the ADT with proper/logical people.

Peter Korsten

Mar 17th 2009, 09:10

Honestly, I don't mind the cameras. What I do mind, though, is the following:
* fellow motorists dropping to 20 km/h under the speed limit when they see a camera.
* those same motorists hogging the right lane.
* the myriad of speed limits: sometimes 80, in other places 70, then it's 60, 50 in tunnels, 40 on bridges... it's just plain silly and very confusing.

Because apart from the issue that the roads are sometimes so bad that Spirit and Opportunity wouldn't have lasted as long on them as they have on the surface of Mars, it's also that the roads aren't straight, twist around villages and plots of land, there are too many roundabouts in major roads and not nearly enough fly-overs, four lane roads and other infrastructure that would enable us to drive 80 km/h throughout in safety.

r ferriggi

Mar 17th 2009, 08:40

the authorities are saying that these measures are needed to curb speeding and result in less accidents.

i do not argue against this happening, but i doubt very much what the real reason is.

actually,,, i believe that this is also going to slow down traffic ( flow) so much that other problems will be created, namely gridlock.

then we will start seeing frequent cases of road rage because the maltse are not the calmest people in the world.

it is better to educate the people well ( i suggest a short course for EVERYONE).

limiting speed may not be the magic answer!! the first real step is to overhaul the road network!!

Louis Gatt

Mar 17th 2009, 08:08

The issue of speed camers is just a tiny part of road management and safety. There are numerous other things which contributes to road safety. Unfortunately, ADT presses home the awareness of road safety through speed cameras alone. Most of the other traffiic rules in the highway code go unnoticed. Just mentioning a few, I would put first and foremost the use (or rather misuse) of traffic indicators, ignoring stop signs, ignoring give way signs, parking on yellow lines and no parking signs, creating obstacles by driving too slow and/or in the middle of the road, throwing cigarettes out of the window, too noisy silencer, smoke and gas emissions, no or badly adjusted lights, no stop lights, ignoring traffic lights and roundabout rules. These are only just a few of the numerous traffice offences one can see all day long. Most of these offences go by unpunished. For this reason, speed looks like the only punishable offence (apart for some parking tickets). This is perhaps why some motorists are up in arms against speed cameras. I would like to see ADT upgrading their way of traffic management for promoting safer roads and better quality of driving.

cassar i

Mar 16th 2009, 23:08

Its not a cash Mu Mu said our EXPERT Mr Sutton etc etc . We give warnings, so does Norway for example and its done electronically and so does the rest of Europe.
ADT= dipartiment tal tabelli w toroq tal playmobile.
@ Ramon casha. Yes you can...name it ADT

Marton Saliba

Mar 16th 2009, 23:02

First the epically difficult driving exams...haveing to sit at least twice to get it...and now this... treating people as if they're a pathetic social organism...hypocrites...


I'm so motivated to learn driving...NOT!!

Albert Bezzina

Mar 16th 2009, 21:30

The onslaught of restrictions on the ownership and use of passenger cars may be an orchestrated plan to herd motorists onto public transport. There is nothing wrong in this as long as the citizen’s choice is free and based on perceived benefits from using an effective (future) public transport. The level of traffic congestion (which tends to convince people to leave their cars and use buses) and the amount of commuters using buses (which reduces traffic congestion and promotes the use of personal road transport) is a balancing act.
Car tax and speed camera ‘restrictions’ are suddenly picking up unprecedented momentum. I believe that this is not a coincidence, culminating with a new public transport operator who would only invest if there is government backed stealthy methods of forcing motorists onto the privately operated buses. It is not expected that there is a viable number of bus commuters who, out of their own free choice, switch to public transport even with a marked improvement in service. I would expect that the operator would want to recoup the investment within 5 years. At current bus occupancy it may take 15 years. This goes by the title of 'positive traffic managment changes'

Emanuel Busuttil

Mar 16th 2009, 19:38

So after all speed cameras in Malta are revenue gobblers - the recent installation of speed cameras has apparently been so successful, it seems hardly anyone is being caught "overspeeding". So what does ADT do? It comes up with the great idea of dummy s/cameras, moving others without notice, etc. How will speed cameras be calibrated from one place to another (especially roads with different speed limits)? "In the interest of safer roads" in this case should read "in the interest of higher financial income" for ADT! SAFER ROADS MY FOOT!!! Such practice is flagrant ENTRAPMENT! Come on - ADT get serious! (That's very mild - in Maltese we would say 'TKOMPLUX TGHAFFGUHA!) If ADT wants to be credible it should really start taking up a very serious exercise in upgrading our roads, introduce strict regulations regarding the indiscriminate trenching and the ridiculous road repairs (sic!!!!) that are carried out.

Rita Spiteri

Mar 16th 2009, 19:31

@Ramon Casha Best comment ,couldn't stop laughing

Antoine Grima

Mar 16th 2009, 19:21

We might aswell leave the car at home and walk .

P. Montebello

Mar 16th 2009, 19:20

As I commented some days ago, GRAVEL ROADS in Argentina carry a maximum 40 to 50Kmh, and this for very obvious reasons. No other comment needed on the ADT limit of 60 Kmh except that they have unofficially told us that our roads are very similar to third class gravel roads. To increase safety, why don't the ADT install cameras on traffic lights commencing taking photos as soon as the lights turn red and then stop when light turn green? I believe that there is this technology. I am positive that this will cut down much more on abuses and accidents.

Richard Curmi

Mar 16th 2009, 19:09

@ADT. Safer roads and safer driving? You think speed cameras do this. Today I encountered at least ten very deep pot holes with my motorbike. I manage to swerve around all of them because I keep constant attention for everything while driving. Your double standard farce is there for all to see. Instead of concentrating on cash cows with illogical speed limits you should fix all the major roads first. After you have done this, then start teaching us mere mortals how to behave and drive on the roads. A friend of mine was doing 30kph when he hit a pothole which threw him off, broke his hand and bruised him all over. If it was me I would have sued you dry. Experts? Yeah right, to earn more money not for our safely though.

Michael Porter

Mar 16th 2009, 19:03

I wonder what the ADT will come up with on 1st April!!!

Ramon Casha

Mar 16th 2009, 18:42

If they install dummy speed cameras, can we install dummy number plates?

r.lewis

Mar 16th 2009, 18:20

Mr. Sutton if you are a traffic expert, you should be working abroad. Here we dont have roads, so you are wasting your time.Cant you recognise the difference between roads and lanes. Mr.Oatmon from Germany said that in his country speed varies according to the time of the day and weather conditions, and here it varies according to the tax revenue needed, 50/60/70/80 kph. Mr.Sutton I heard you saying on a TV programm that the speed limit is calculated depending on the geometrical design of the road, i.e. curves. Therefore I suggest to you, although I'm not an expert that you should install signs warning drivers of the incoming curves and not install speed cameras. This is a means of easy making money. Most probably the majority of traffic accidents, occur due to the fact that one try to read the exagerated amount of traffic signs installed on our roads and therefor lose their driving concentration.

L Eriksson

Mar 16th 2009, 18:11

Dummys putting up dummys.

J. Borg

Mar 16th 2009, 17:27

Thanks ADT You have helped me make my mind on how to vote come June......blue has faded away!

r.spiteri

Mar 16th 2009, 16:50

ADT should ban these new road hazards.I`m talking about the bicycles which have a motor affixed to them.A driver crashed into a barrier so not to hit the careless young lad.Of course the young lad flew and the car driver had to face the music.These people drive as fast as anything along the roads of the towns or villages where there are no speed cameras,with no road lisence and no insurance.

v.pulis

Mar 16th 2009, 16:35

If ever there was proof needed that the new cameras were cash traps this is it! It seems that drivers are not falling for the trick and the new cameras are proving too expensive to run so the ADT is trying another tactic.

Gilbert Busuttil

Mar 16th 2009, 15:41

How about investing time and money in a SERIOUS excercise to upgrade and rebuild the roads? Mr. Sutton stated that Malta, unlike many countries, have a clear warning about Speed Cams. Well using the same comparison Mr. Sutton; Malta, unlike many other countries, have 3rd world roads. So when comparing...compare the full scenario. With the money spent on Speed Cameras, roads can be repaired. But then again...how would ADT and the local councils make money? Apparently it's always the motorist's fault and never the roads' when accidents occur. I have experienced bursting a new tyre, to which the ADT replied that it was my fault and got no compensation whatsoever. It's time to grow up ADT and use the money collected from Road Tax...to actually upgrading (and maintaining) the Roads, if you could call them that,

g. scerri

Mar 16th 2009, 14:48

Try to implement this in the UK Mr. Sutton where people are more ready to stand up for their rights than in most other places. Or do you have Germany in mind, where they hide cameras in skips and other places to catch the unwary motorist and milk him. I thought it is a principle that the law should not ambush the citizen. Or have things changed that much here?

John Mallia

Mar 16th 2009, 12:54

What David Sutton conveniently forgot was that in other countries there are good quality roads that minimise the dangers from driving (even if within speed limits). He also forgot to tell us why speed limits were put illegitimately down to 60 kmh.

This is preposterous and in many ways naive since it fritters away motorists' time during a period where the humdrum workers have to make the most of it in order not to fall below the poverty line threshold. All this, at a time when roads are being narrowed instead of widened (consider the case of the Attard road leading to Rabat as an example).

This is, to say the leat, a shameful fiasco for which David Sutton should take responsibility. I therefore call for his resignation.

Rita Spiteri

Mar 16th 2009, 12:24

Is this plan to make the roads safer? Is sudden braking when you see a camera that wasn't there before safer? Even if you are within the speed limit instinctively you slam on the brakes when you are nearing a speed camera I usually go 50kmh just to be on the safe side as I put it I don't want to "INPAXXI L'GVERN"

GiovDeMartino

Mar 16th 2009, 12:10

MOVE THEM AND HIDE THEM.

Charles Micallef

Mar 16th 2009, 12:10

Whatever happened to the new Camera that was supposed to be installed on St Paul's Bay By Pass, has it suffered the same fate as the one in Xemxija and votes came before Road Safety?

Oh I forgot this is Malta and politics rules our lives and well before common sense....................

joseph camilleri

Mar 16th 2009, 11:02

Why not consider installing electronic speed displays that flash the speed of oncoming cars above a given limit, as is found in many EU countries?

It surely attracts drivers' attention far better than speed cameras due to the flashing registered speed - they're practically impossible to go by unnoticed and drivers (responsible ones) automatically slow down. Such should also be installed a few hundred metres ahead of speed cameras. Unless the latter are a means of tax collecting of course.

Edwin Mifsud

Mar 16th 2009, 10:55

Thank you ADT for giving us safer roads which will reward you financially.

...."in the interest of safer roads", could you get rid of the thousands of pot holes.

Oh Yes! Silly me. Patching pot holes will make no monetary rewards will it.

Stop taking us for a RIDE. It is a well known secret that cameras are booby traps which sooner or later EVERY motorist will fall for.

Charles Sammut

Mar 16th 2009, 10:51

Potholes and bumps are cheaper and more effective.

duncan Tanti

Mar 16th 2009, 10:51

Does this means that they are not making the projected amount of money??come on adt leave us drivers a breathing space because everyone is seeing us as a cash machine.

christopher camilleribirkirkara

Mar 16th 2009, 10:47

vera spiccajna ninkwetaw fuq ix-xejn!!!!!! this is all a complete joke. . . i think if i start running to places i'll start arriving quicker!!!! the speed limits are inconsistent from bypass to bypass and to me this is a joke!!

nevil debattista

Mar 16th 2009, 10:38

Dear Mr.Sutton if you really care about our safety you should go and inspect the road which from Saqqajja leads to Siggiewi . I can guarantee you that there you will meet with the largest and deepest potholes that ever existed.

Kenneth Cassar

Mar 16th 2009, 10:37

"...in Malta, unlike many other countries, motorists were given clear advance warning of a speed camera and the speed limit".

Am I dreaming? I wonder which countries Mr David Sutton has in mind.

L.Attard Bezzina

Mar 16th 2009, 10:37

Playing Musical (Cameras) Chairs now ! Do these "experts" think we are just little kids? Do they know the sheer frustration most normal law abiding citizens have to endure with these tactics? Why don't they fix the roads first, then they can start talking. It is illigal not to warn motorists of a speed camera.

J Oatmon

Mar 16th 2009, 10:37

Germany a good example:

German drivers are alert and have higher lane discipline. Cars sometimes travelling in excess of 200km/h, not paying attention or switching lanes without signalling or checking your mirrors is potentially fatal!

The driving practices in Germany’s autobahn’s ought to be emulated by other countries - some points to consider:

1. The autobahn is toll-free for cars, though heavy trucks are required to pay toll.

2. A stretch of the autobahn is only speed-limit free after passing a de-restriction sign. Even so, the recommended speed is 130km/h. Should you be unfortunate enough to be involved in a accident at higher speeds, you could be held partially responsible irrespective of the other party’s fault.

3. Speed limits might vary according to time of the day, and weather conditions. Thus electronic road signs are placed along certain stretches to adjust the speed-limit. Speed-limits are lowered during night time and bad weather conditions. (This makes so much more sense isn’t it?)

4. Despite not having a speed-limit, German autobahns have far lower accident rates than many other countries in the world.

5. It is illegal for cars to drive on the fast lane if the other lanes are clear.

M. Busuttil

Mar 16th 2009, 10:31

Yes, but may I ask....if you move cameras and don't do any warnings or worst put dummy cameras should the national speed limit go down to 60kph??

It's going to be too obvious that this cameras are going to be a mean of revenue. Can't have a road that you pass from it in the morning at 80kph(proper maltese speed limit) and then pass from it in the afternoon and there's a camera which fines you if you don't go slower than 60kph.

MICKEY MOUSE COUNTRY!!

Nigel Lawrence

Mar 16th 2009, 10:23

Good, pop one over to Triq Il Qasab, San Gwann, where over speeding is the norm.

A.Vella

Mar 16th 2009, 10:21

Maltese are not against speed cameras per se. The only problem is that of ridiculous limits such as 50km/h and 60km/h. Speed cameras are creating a lot of risks as drivers tend to 'sudden-break' metres before passing by the camera, and this sudden-breaking might cause accidents. Whereas if limits are more reasonable, one would not have to sudden-break but simply reduce speed and keep going.

Reuben Zarb

Mar 16th 2009, 10:20

"......unlike many other countries, motorists were given clear advance warning of a speed camera and the speed limit."

Has Mr.Sutton ever left Malta during the past 10 years ? If not I suggest he should visit the UK, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, among many other countries which give clear advance warnings of speed cameras and REASONABLE speed limits.

R Sammut

Mar 16th 2009, 10:11

"move present cameras around without notice"

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is called ENTRAPMENT and is illegal. I seriously doubt that this is done in other European countries.