After a celebration of Car Free Happy Hour last night, I wound up driving to work today. Blah!
It wasn't the temperature--that is above my threshold. It wasn't the roads, I don't think--I haven't scouted the one section that usually gives me trouble when the roads are snowed-over, but the rest of my route was clear enough.
Both of us were running late, though, so I dropped Jenn off at her office on my way to work. Her task load at the moment is such that I may be picking her up on my way home tonight. Since her office isn't far out of my way, we are at least taking one car off the road.
As I drove to work this morning, though I had WFPL playing on the radio. They were broadcasting the NPR story over the angry folks in Arizona griping about traffic ticket cameras.
As I listened to the report, which gave some views from folks who decry the system as invasive to their privacy, illegal, and so on along with those who have found great benefit from the camera's placement, I thought about my own progression as regards traffic law.
You see, once upon a time I was one of those hot-headed motorists (still have a bit of that, sad to say) who felt that traffic enforcement wasn't "real" police work--their time (and thus my taxpayer dollars) would be better spent catching robbers, burglars, murderers, and so on.
I didn't think about motorists being murderers, despite that motor vehicle crashes cost our nation more than 40,000 deaths annually. I didn't think about motorists being terrorists, despite that society seems bent on terrorizing vulnerable road users into staying off the roads, lest we be run down by some clueless twit herding his car along while paying greater attention to his GPS, cell phone, the brat in the back seat hitting his sibling, and his breakfast than to the road around him. I like to think I've matured a bit since then, despite having a short temper when I'm in the car. I have re-calibrated my private rantings a bit, though. I fuss about folks blowing stop lights--regardless of their vehicle choice. I fuss about people following too closely (I've been known to "brake check" on such folks, usually after a warning taking the form of several rapid taps on my brake lights).
It has always been thus, or so it seems. At least since the dawn of the Automobile Age. The Copenhagenize blog had a post the other day on a poster from London in 1908. Despite that we knew this about cars a hundred years ago, we still kowtow to the addiction of using them.
I also thought about our societal attitudes about traffic law a bit. I've often observed that those most insistent on "law and order" are the most cavalier about their own obeyance to the law, especially as regards their driving. It's as if the law's main purpose is to get folks out of the one person's way so that one person can disobey the speed limit at will.
I won't say there is no valid point against traffic cameras used for law enforcement. I'm sure there is potential for misuse and simple error. If someone borrows your car, speeds, and you get the ticket/fine/points, you have incentive to not lend your car to that person ever again, and use the resulting tiff between friends as argument against the camera system. If Jefferson County or Kentucky were to consider doing such a thing, I'd want to see measures in place to guard against misuse and a way to deal with the "borrowed car" phenomenon. I don't see it happening here for a while, though, simply because most such systems depend on the car having a front license plate, which neither Kentucky nor Indiana have.
One possible by-product of the cameras' presence is that there has been a sharp reduction in traffic fatalities near them. Causality is unclear--the statistics don't support anything beyond a correlation--but it seems reasonable to think that motorists near those cameras are paying better attention to the road and how they are using it, reducing at the very least one of the largest causes of death in our society--inattentive motor vehicle drivers.
Those who claim the cameras are an invasion of privacy would do well to remember that if you have such an objection to getting a ticket from such a system, don't speed/run the traffic light/pass illegally/whatever. Some of the loudest protesters are ready to protest that the police department isn't proactively preventing burglaries/muggings/murders, and would be happy to invade the privacy of others to prevent such things. See my comment above about motor vehicle mis-use as causes of death.
Boulder, Louisville, and press coverage of crashes
16 years ago
4 comments:
I guess I have a problem with a simple fine for speeding.
Wouldn't actual criminal charges be more likely to slow people down?
I have no problem with speed cameras (when used properly), however red light cameras haven't been well utilized, and while reducing overall accidents at intersections, they have increased the type that could most impact cyclists (the type where one motorist slams on his brakes to avoid rolling through and getting a ticket, and the one following rear-ends the first, which could end up sandwiching a cyclist in between). Red light cameras have also in several cases been found to be illegally timed, shortening the amount of time allowed to get through the intersection, in an effort to increase income (yet not offering an increase in safety to go along with it and encouraging the accident type I listed)
Timothy, the statistics on the type of crash you cite are pretty tiny as far as cyclists are concerned. How many times have you been between two motorists, one intent on running the light behind you with one intent on stopping for it in front of you? Usually the two are reversed.
I also think that if motorists suspected that EVERY intersection had a camera, they'd be more careful in their approaches to every intersection. Most of the time, those who run traffic lights do so because they either a) don't expect enforcement or b) simply weren't paying close enough attention. Expectation of cameras would help with both.
I share your concerns about fairness in their use.
You'd be surprised how many people start slamming on the brakes when the light changes yellow once they know they could get a ticket-$125.
It was a drastic change down in Louisiana, the first person overreacting and slamming on the brakes, when there was enough signal time for another car or two to slide through.
If a car had just passed you and did this you'd be sandwiched.
Of course, the worst part is that it's a civil fine and doesn't go on your driving record.
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