This is nice but I'd say that im still not a fan of this type of policy in general.
Maybe its unreasonable to even expect fatalities to decrease, but i think these types of policies allow city engineers to do keep the same inherently unsafe design.
i remember being told years ago that speed cameras didn’t reduce speeds, and i’m so glad the research shows that they actually do! no need for contact between cops and drivers. now we just need maryland to actually make their drivers pay dc tickets.
They did this in nj. It was good at first but then they privatized it cause large scale data transmission, storage and monitoring is expensive. Then the private company figured out they could just send the notice of violation and most people would pay without dispute the tune of a couple million.1/2
"And many drivers find the cameras a nuisance or a real financial hardship. The fines, which start at $100 and can reach $500 for high speeds, have become the city’s primary method of traffic enforcement." Hmm, I wonder how one can avoid the hardship?
Traffic cams can be good, but piggies have no concept of diminishing return and will absolutely work with contractors to extract revenue past the threshold for which they have a useful impact on traffic safety.
When I drive somewhere that has a speed camera, I definitely pay closer attention to my velocity. Like them or not, they will make you notice your speed one way or another
It’s weird that fatalities have increased. “But traffic fatalities haven’t gone down..Far from it: They’ve increased every year since 2015 &reached a 16 year zenith last year with 52 deaths,according to data.Serious injuries related to traffic crashes increased nearly 15 percent from 2015 to 2022.”
The headline is wrong. Speeding CITATIONS are down. It says nothing about the speeds people go outside the range of the camera.
Speed cameras don't work. Investing in infrastructure to lower speed limits and improve bike access and walkability does.
Red light cameras were such a failure in NJ that they ended up getting banned. Enormous amounts of false positives -> drain on courts -> annoyed judges.
I wonder if speeding cameras, which are a bit more basic and simple might help.
Yeah.... They got rid of red light cameras in my old city because they caused more accidents. People would slam their brakes as soon as it turned yellow to not risk an automated ticket.
I mean. I like narrow streets and physical deterrents, but not cameras. Not bc I object to their effects but because of the privacy implications for the “mosaic of information” it allows govt to create. Feels an awful lot like a warrantless search to just film everyone on chance they break the law.
Turns out that a lot of people just sorta back down from bad behavior the minute they catch even a whiff of consequences for their actions.
My favorite trivia about this is that if you put a mirror in a room during a test, it drastically reduces cheating.
Not really shocking. I would certainly drive more carefully if I knew there was a camera up which could mail a ticket to me which would, wothout a doubt, arrive in 6 months when I was short of cash after another large unexpected bill.
this is good news I guess? but imo around dc people just slow down for the cameras and then gun it again - and where the cameras aren’t, they’re incredibly reckless. The cameras would have to be nearly ubiquitous. and I would be fine with that.
Traffic cameras cause accidents, and often the timing of the yellow lights is reduced to generate more revenue. Lots of places have removed them because of this. They are not a net good. ww2.motorists.org/issues/red-l... and lots of similar sources.
Speed cameras are generally acknowledged as one of the few uses of video surveillance that actually work and provide a genuine social good, but they are also amongst the most opposed (IME as a lifelong cyclist, because driving a car seems to turn ordinary people, especially men, into sociopaths).
Where I live, the ticket rates have dropped but the accident rates have gone through the roof. I avoid intersections with them because other people don't pay attention
There were, of course, huge battles around cameras and specifically red light ticketing. But that was before everyone carried an always on tracking device with them
I really like the method I remember reading about in...Sweden I think? (Definitely a Scandinavian country)
Caught on speed camera speeding? They send you a ticket.
Caught on camera driving responsibly? Automatically entered into cash sweepstakes funded by the ppl speeding.
my sister in law dated a dominos delivery guy and he whined about the cameras in Humble. He was like " sometimes it's a close call, the yellows in Texas are kinda long and weird." Like, dude. Get back in the habit of slowing down and/or stopping at yellow lights. And never gun a red. Problem solved!
Denver has basically stopped using them because they don’t raise enough revenue to pay for themselves. We’re only legally required to pay tickets that are served by the cop that witnessed the infraction (ie the cop who pulls you over). Cops intentionally haven’t enforced traffic laws since ~2018.
