Speeding in Singapore

Among the recent bout of complaints about the Traffic Police's hidden speed traps, two common ones are that the hidden speed traps are sneaky and they put undue stress on drivers who now have to adhere to speed limits not knowing where the speed traps are. One man even wrote in to the ST Forum to complain that after 2 incidents, now he drives slowly - so slow that other drivers freely express their irritation at him. Not too smart eh?

A friend of mine asked me to help vet a letter intended to be submitted to the One Motoring forum and I was surprised at the gripes listed. While the loaded language was uncalled for, my friend did have some questions that appear valid, such as publicly warning drivers about speed cameras and why this method of punitive deterrence is being utilized over others. Accordingly, the number of traffic offences has risen drastically in the past few years, but without any contextual information, it's difficult to ascertain the real cause.

My friend went so far as to suggest that hidden speed traps are the practices of authoritarian states, but we know that the police in America uses these along highways. Besides, Singapore's political climate is another topic, altogether.

So I pondered long and hard before deciding that the main issue is that these drivers are disgruntled because they want to be at liberty to speed at certain locations, such as a straight road, or times of day, such as early morning or late night. A certain degree of enforcement is tolerable as long as the methods are respectable, i.e. publicly known.

When drivers complain about hidden speed traps, aren't they actually contesting the speed limit? After all, legally offenders are fined only because they've exceeded the speed limit which was determined by the traffic police to be a safe speed. Are they questioning the rationalization behind?

A discussion with a colleague made me realized that visible speed cameras with warning signs may actually be hazardous. Some drivers blissfully speed along the highway till they realize a speed camera's ahead and slow down unexpectedly or unreasonably. Worse still, kan cheong drivers nearing junctions with traffic lights slam the brakes without first checking for vehicles behind.

At the end of day, I remember that I haven't received any tickets for speeding. This is probably because my car's only 1000cc and I'm a safe driver :) Officially the speed limit along main roads is 60-70kmh, I've definitely gone up to 80kmh but still no ticket. What does this say?