the ohiro road speed trapSo, Welling­ton’s busiest urban speed cam­era is sit­u­at­ed down Ohi­ro Road (which, for those unfa­mil­iar with this road, starts down in Aro Val­ley, works its way up to Brook­lyn, the mean­ders down through Hap­py Val­ley to Island Bay).

This par­tic­u­lar Welling­ton­ista knows the route well — I’ve been pinged at least four times over the last year. It’s hard to rec­on­cile the ratio­nale of nation­al road polic­ing man­ag­er Super­in­ten­dent Dave Cliff — who states that sites for fixed cam­eras had to meet one of two cri­te­ria: either they were in a spot where there was a his­to­ry of speed-relat­ed crash­es or where speed had been a prob­lem, such as out­side schools — with the sec­tion of Ohi­ro Rd where all my tick­ets have been picked up (between the Cin­e­ma and the 70k zone). The local school isn’t on the road, there’s no major inter­sec­tions, and I’ve nev­er been aware of any crash­es on that par­tic­u­lar stretch (not, of course, that that means there has­n’t been dozens I’m not aware of).

The fact that it is such a long, unin­ter­rupt­ed and down­hill sec­tion of road is, of course, why it gets so many ‘speed­sters’. As you roll down the hill towards Island Bay, you can’t but help build up some extra momen­tum — con­stant brak­ing is required to keep with­in the lim­it, and, if like me you tend to judge the speed of the car by the sound of the engine more than the actu­al speedo (which in my car is infu­ri­at­ing­ly obscured by the steer­ing wheel), it’s easy to let it sneak up with­out real­is­ing. If you roll past the cam­era when your car has picked up an extra 10kph on you then — ping! — kiss anoth­er $80 good­bye.

It’s inter­est­ing to note that the oth­er speed cam­era loca­tion around the cen­tral city that’s doing a lot of busi­ness is the one at the bot­tom of Ade­laide Road, between the big Rid­di­ford Steet inter­sec­tion and Hall Street. Again, sit­u­at­ed at the end of a long, straight, down­hill stretch of road, and, in this case, hid­den away behind a tree. Much like the one, also on Ade­laide Road (at the end of anoth­er long, straight down­hill stretch) that you pass every time you dri­ve into Island Bay.

Still, that’s what brakes are for, I sup­pose…