nospam wrote:
"David from Oz" wrote:

Since my box junction offence fine (from the North Circular documented
on these groups) I have been extra vigilant to ensure I do not commit
further offences.

How many further offences did you intend to commit before you got fined? I
mean were you aiming at 4 or 5 a week and now that is down to zero or
something?

Apparently you were driving around with spare vigilance which you are now
applying to avoid minor traffic offences, don't you think that spare
vigilance would be better applied avoiding something of more consequence
like crashing and running over pedestrians?

So yes enforcement and fines will cause persistent offenders to change
their behaviour. Everyone else will carry on making the occasional mistake
but now they will get ****ed off, poorer, and probably more dangerous as
they devote a disproportionate amount of attention to avoiding offences of
little consequence.

Is it worth doing? It depends of how many persistent offenders there are
and what problem they cause, I'm very doubtful.

The only sure thing is offences will be committed, and enough revenue will
be generated to pay for the enforcement and turn a profit.

It would be more effective to not penalise drivers for making an occasional
mistake, say to notify but not fine them for the first 2 offences in any 12
month period. Persistent offenders would change their behaviour for the
better and the large majority would not have to change their behaviour for
the worse. Of course it will never happen because such a scheme would
generate far less income and the authorities like to **** off motorists
anyway.



I think it's a completely wrong assumption to treat stopping on a box
junction as a minor offence not related to safety. If I remember
rightly, the Highway Code says that you shouldn't go past a green light
unless you actually have somewhere to go to beyond the junction. So
the rule isn't really any different for box junctions, although maybe
the penalty is.

But my point is that doing so is definitely a safety issue. When the
lights change to red, they therefore change to green for other road
users, including pedestrian crossing lights. I have lost count of how
many times I've been in a crowd of people crossing with a "green man",
only to find several motor vehicles still trying to drive through it
because they had previously driven on to the junction.

They have the choice of staying in the path of other vehicles or
driving at the pedestrians. Neither is safe, but as a pedestrian I
strongly object to the latter.