Originally Posted by Stuart C

From the article


The article totally misses the glaring difference between spotting someone speeding and spotting someone smoking. As, apparently, have you.

It also misses the subtle point that detection is part of enforcement (you can instigate all the bans you want, but if you have no means of detecting if they are being broken, they will be ineffective).

Put simply, it is usually obvious when someone is speeding. You can see it. Even where it is not obvious (someone doing 60 in a 30 limit would be obvious, someone doing 35 in a 30 limit may not), there are various devices, such as radar guns, that can detect it.

How would you tell if someone is smoking? As long as they aren't smoking something dodgy (which is already illegal) and driving dangerously, There will be little or no external signal that they are smoking. Ok, there may be some smoke coming from an open window, but what if they don't have windows open? What if they are just relying on the car's vents to remove the smoke (in which case, the cigarette smoke will just merge with all the gases coming out of the car already so will not be visible)?

In extreme circumstances, there will be smoke visible in the passenger cabin, but this will only occur if the driver has been smoking a long time, is easy to get rid of (just open the vents and waft it toward them) and may not be easily visible on a CCTV camera (which, let's face it, is where the police seem to do most of their traffic enforcement).

To make it easier, I'll rephrase the question. How would the police detect people smoking? Bear in mind that detection should be quick (to avoid unnecessary delays on busy roads), so the police may not be allowed to set up checkpoints where they can stop drivers and check them manually.