It's a cash-flow bonanza that would be the envy of any business.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But the only customers who qualify are those who flout the rules of the road.
Speed cameras are routinely referred to as a cash cow for government.
Yes, there have been many instances in the past where such accusations ring true.
IN OTHER NEWS:
But that's usually been where a speed camera or other speed-detection device has been set-up in a dodgy location - halfway down a steep hill, for example, or just metres from where the limit climbs from 60km/h to 80km/h.
Regardless, there is always the reasoned argument in response; that it doesn't matter where you are caught, it's the fact that you have been caught.
Don't speed and you don't get the penalty notice in the mail.
That speed kills, as many a road safety campaign has championed, is without question.
It's something we unfortunately see all the time, whether it be on local roads or on the big city TV news; just this past weekend a young woman lost her life because of a high-speed crash in the suburbs.
And so when police beg drivers to slow down, when governments run advertising campaigns imploring drivers to ease the foot off the accelerator, the reasoning is clear.
Despite this, the speeding does not stop.
Motorists continue to flout the law, almost in a state of thinking: "I'm not one of those selfish, dangerous drivers."
But they are, and so often the only way to not only get the message through but to get people to act on that message is by hitting them for a large wad of cash.
Albury's speed and red light camera system has been as efficient as any other in nabbing drivers doing the wrong thing.
The latest statistics have revealed the cameras are generating more than $126,000 in fines a month and that in a three-month period alone close to 1000 fines were issued.
That's easy money for the government for not doing much at all, but the revenue's not so easy when you think about the consequences of the heightened risk those drivers pose to themselves and others.
If a hefty fine stings, that's fine.
It's better than the truck-loads of pain that flows from serious trauma on our roads.