The truth about speed cameras down south

MANILA, Philippines - After months of threats and stiff warnings, the management of the Southern Luzon Toll Road plan on cashing in on their threats by tomorrow. Literally.

Yes, you heard right. The party is over. As of March 1, the South Super Highway is now strictly enforcing the posted limits. You have been warned. No more high speed runs down south or early morning blasts along the Skyway. The boys in blue are watching you. Okay, so they may not be in blue. But it’s hard to rhyme things with grey without being offensive.

The irony here is, after decades of suffering a snail’s pace, now that we can finally speed up, we’re not actually allowed to. It is kind of like the equivalent of the Germans tearing down the Berlin Wall only to replace it with lasers that sawed you in half if you crossed it. But fair enough, I say. For the speed cameras, of course, not the East German thing.

But since the warnings were issued to motorists some months back, there has been a lot of rumor and urban myths spreading around cyberspace, which is why The STAR decided to go straight to the source to set the record straight once and for all.

In the interest of professional journalism, and to avoid the awkwardness of quoting myself in this piece, we spoke to the operations manager of MATES, Patrick Nicholas David, who is directly in charge of the entire stretch from the Alabang viaduct to Sto. Tomas, Batangas, to see if we could save our readers a thousand bucks or so and a trip down to East Avenue or Lipa, Batangas.

Fact 1: There are only two hand-held laser speed guns operating at any given time between the 36 kilometer stretch. These guns are capable of recording your speed and photographing your vehicle simultaneously and are accurate to within 3 inches by 3 inches. And contrary to public belief, while camera equipment does tend to struggle in low light, these ones can function at night due to the improved street lighting. They cannot, however, function properly in heavy rain. Then again, neither can you and your vehicle. So do us all a favor and keep it under the limit, especially in wet conditions. Please.

Fact 2: The entire expressway is covered by CCTV cameras. There is one every kilometer and they are capable of zooming in as far as two kilometers, which means that there are no blind spots along the highway. No, they do not record your speed or photograph you, but they do act as alarm bells to the control room. When a vehicle is traveling at a significantly faster or slower pace than regular traffic, it sticks out like Carlos Celdran in Manila Cathedral and (in both cases) a patrol unit can and usually will be dispatched. No offense, Carlos...

Fact 3: There are no fixed cameras. And sadly, no choppers either.

Fact 4: And the scariest one yet: Your entry time is encoded on your toll card. The computer software will easily detect if you have exited in under the allowed time – which in the case of Sto. Tomas to Alabang, say, should happen in around 21.6 minutes in perfect conditions. If you arrive in 10 minutes, you might want to have your license handy. They will apprehend you and ticket you. This, however, does not apply to Epass holders. Yet. Once the new system is up and running, all entry/exit times will be recorded and travel times will be monitored.

Fact 5: All MATES, NLEX, SCTEX, Skyway O&M and any other patrol units of any toll operator in this country are deputized by LTO, which is why you will need to claim your license in East Avenue Quezon City even if you get caught in Susanna Heights. Likewise, if you are apprehended in San Pedro Laguna or further south, you will need to claim your license from LTO Lipa, Batangas, which if you happen to live in Makati, would drastically chew into any time you may have gained from speeding.

Fact 6: The speed limit is 60 km/h minimum, 100 km/h maximum. The fine for over speeding is P1,500, while under speeding will set you back P500. These are the rates prescribed by the LTO, who justify the difference by classifying one as reckless driving and the other as obstruction. I’ll leave it to you to work out which is which.

Fact 7: Toll operators are not on commission. ALL revenue is collected by LTO and stays with the LTO, hence the need to settle your fine there. The only incentive the toll operators have to enforce the speed limits is to avoid scraping up twisted chassis and limbs off the side of the road.

Sure there are some loopholes. And yes, the clever ones will get away with it. Just as the clever gambler will walk away when he is ahead. But when it comes to your life, or that of your loved ones and other innocent road users that have chosen to just play it straight and follow the rules, are you willing to gamble?