No escape from speed cameras

Speed cameras are still operating in Wairarapa, even though signs to let you know what areas they target are long gone.
Officer in charge of the road-policing branch in Masterton, sergeant Chris Megaw, said the sites the cameras target have stayed the same, but the signs have been removed.
Cameras are now also housed in vans, which have been utilised to make the monitoring of the cameras more comfortable for operators, instead of station wagons.
"Vans came in instead of wagons, mainly for the comfort of the operator. It allows them to look rearward, and give them access to whatever they need. It also gives them the space to do paperwork when they are not so busy."
He said the Masterton police have very little to do with the operation of the cameras, which are deployed from a central location in Wellington.
"We don't have a great deal to do with their deployment, we don't say 'can we have a speed camera up here'. They have various hours they have to deliver at various sites. One camera van will cover numerous sites, and is deployed where required."
The signs that used to alert drivers to the whereabouts of the cameras began to disappear in 2004 when a government level decision was made to remove them under the "anywhere, anytime" speed camera policy.
Senior sergeant Doug Rowan, of the strategic traffic group in Wellington, said the policy would be better served without the signs.
"The signs were there since the inception of speed cameras, and the decision was made at government level that they had served their uses if cameras were going to be used anywhere or anytime."
Mr Rowan said every site has a number allocated to it, which is entered into the camera system when the operator arrives at each spot.
The numbers are used so that people photographed speeding can be told where they were doing it and to make a record of where the especially bad spots are.
He said there are 300 designated sites in the Wellington region, which spans to Otaki on the western side of the island and Mt Bruce on the east.
He said since the "anywhere, any time" policy came in the traffic group had been trying to establish new sites to increase the possible locations operators could choose from.
Traffic camera operator Adrian Ash, whose job it is to monitor the Wairarapa and Hutt Valley regions, said although the signs have gone, a true "anywhere, any time" speed camera policy is not applied at present because getting new such sites allocated is a difficult task.
"The law was changed two or three years ago to say anywhere, any time, but that's not happening at this time.
"There are a number of areas I'm considering recommending initiate sites because of problems and complaints. But there has to be a lot of discussion with transit and borough councils ? all sorts of parties have an interest, and they can be pretty stringent. Basically it's a problem of being able to accurately display where our operator took the photo."
He spends about 50 per cent of his time in Wairarapa, at sites in Featherston, State Highway 53, between Carterton and Masterton, in Masterton itself and north of Masterton on the main drag, depending on variables such as available parking or if an event is on.
He said that while he couldn't provide any exact figure on how many photos are taken in Wairarapa, the number is going down.
"I could say that for instance the amount of photos taken have dropped in the last few months. People are becoming more aware. We're more of a visible deterrent these days, everybody knows our vehicles."