- cross-posted to:
- micromobility
- fuckcars
- cross-posted to:
- micromobility
- fuckcars
The Federal Highway Administration quietly stripped bike lanes and other safety recommendations from a key list of best practices. Critics say those measures are proven to cut crashes and save lives.
Bike lanes, variable speed limits, speed safety cameras, appropriate speed limits for all road users, and road diets
Were all the things removed
our traffic fatalities by 100,000 inhabitants far exceeds that of many industrialized countries and puts the U.S. in the company of Chile and Costa Rica
Speed cameras are used more for income than safety, but yeah, the rest of them not being recommended is pretty bad.
My state recently installed speed cameras in work zones. Some areas make sense but in one area they had something like 60k fines issues which amounted to millions of dollars. 2 things were discovered: the cameras were extremely sensitive, some drivers recorded their speeds at 43mph but were fined for 46mph. Then most of the money went to a company in NJ, our state (WA) got like 15% of the loot.
Seems most of these speed cameras are predatory and scams.
Scameras
What they do here (not the USA obviously) is subtract the uncertainty of the speed camera from your measured velocity. So for example, the camera might record you driving at 80 km/h, but you would be fined as if you were driving 75 km/h (precise numbers may differ).
The odometer of cars is (at least here) actually calibrated upward. So it would show (for example) 120 km/h when you’re actually driving 115 km/h.
There’s a trick that not many people seem to know about that you can do to avoid speeding tickets. Drive at 40 mph or less.
The limit was 45… So no, grandma we will not drive at 40.
That’s understandable. If you drove at or slightly under the speed limit you might actually burst into flames or your dick might fall off or something. It’s not worth it. Keep on speeding and getting them tickets and moaning about it like a spoilt kid.
Drive 40 and the camera will clock you at 43 and you get fined.
I won’t be in favor of traffic camera enforcement until it’s shown that they are safe, reliable, and trustworthy. Red light cameras often have unsafe light timing, for example. A speed camera should have a margin of error. And speed should be controlled by road design, not signage.
And most importantly, profits should go to municipality, not in private hands.
Speed cameras have repeatedly been shown to improve safety . ~20% reduction in injuries and deaths is worth a few people getting a fine that they shouldn’t have.
Almost all jurisdictions have this and will not ticket you for going 43 in a 40
This would be good in theory, in practice though this is very expensive compared to cameras. So you’re asking those who drive safely and those who don’t drive at all to pay more in taxes to try and slow down dangerous drivers who can’t be asked to check their speedometer.
You should really read the context a lot more closely next time.
If the camera clocks you at 43 then it’s faulty and you can appeal.
Do you remember exactly what your speedometer said 12 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes, and 44 seconds ago? How do you plan to fight the ticket, tell them it’s too close to call and hope they agree?
What the fuck are you on about? You appeal tickets based on whether the camera recorded your speed correctly and if it had been calibrated properly. If it clocked you as doing 43 when you were doing 40 then one or the other is the case. Otherwise you were speeding and you deserve a ticket.
Your speedometer hits exactly the speed limit and never ticks over that, does it? Never? Never to pass, never with a little latent throttle when cresting a hill, never when a truck’s draft eases your drag, never when a speed limit gets reduced? Just a peachy perfect driver, eh? I assume you’ve actually calibrated your speedometer as well and aren’t trusting one of the most well-known inaccurate devices in the world, right?
You have no proof of your exact speed. “Cross my heart, judge, I have never exceeded the speed limit in my life” doesn’t work. There’s a reason speed readers must be calibrated and a tolerance zone must be excluded. You clearly don’t know the first thing about metrology.
That’s a significant amount of time and effort I shouldn’t have to expend, especially if it involves actually going to traffic court.
Does it happen to you often?
Speed cameras (and speed traps generally) are usually set up to catch cars that are just passing through town, not the locals. So fighting the fine could mean coming back from thousands of miles away. That’s why I let the sheriff escort me to an atm and handed over $300 in cash on my way home from college. To be fair I was speeding, and in a red car. Very young and stupid I was. Now I’m old enough to warn my kids to at least drive a stealthy color
It’s difficult to feel much sympathy when you were actually speeding. It’s literally illegal and dangerous and what the cameras are there to catch. Since I got older and stopped driving like a twat, I haven’t got any speeding tickets. I totally deserved the ones I got when I was younger because is was driving like a twat.
SHE’S A WITCH
Speed cameras do reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities, ~20% reduction in a lot of cases. If they also generate income from dangerous drivers is that a bad thing?
Speed cameras help reduce speed. It’s undeniable.
Some places will put speed cams in places with recently reduced speed limits (sometimes lower than the road should be) and would be used to generate income. Some highway speed traps are notorious for this.
Both things can be true.
The last time speed cameras went up in my area, there was an increase in accidents overall despite an unrelated reduction in traffic volume (this was during the gas price spike under Bush). They were taken down as soon as they found out all the money was going to the vendor and the local government was losing money on each ticket.
The same logic applies to cops enforcing the speed limit, some cities will put them in a speed trap to collect revenue, that doesn’t mean all cops enforcing speed limits are a scam for revenue or that we shouldn’t use them.
And that is the alternative to speed cameras, more expensive, more discriminating, more dangerous cops enforcing speed instead, because speed has to be enforced or people will die or get seriously injured if we don’t.
Yes. I didn’t say all X that enforce speed limits are scams. In fact, I said both things can be true.
I agree that speed cams are better than more cops.
That doesn’t change the fact that some jurisdictions will use them not to improve safety, but for income generation.
I wish they mentioned whether the sites included posted warnings of the presence of cameras, or real-time driver speed on digital signs. My gut says those cause a bigger and more consistent reduction than cameras themselves.
And if the signage is inconsistent it would be a big confounding factor
I’m sure it depends entirely upon implementation and placement. The cities I’ve been in that used them had only a few, and everyone knew where they were. The driving behavior just outside of the camera’s reach was made worse than it would be without them.
I wonder how the 20% compares to having LEOs that do actual traffic enforcement, where a human witnesses the violation and physically writes the ticket.
I’m actually glad they’re illegal where I’m at currently. It seems to have a chilling effect on the local surveillance state in general, plus we get to interact with our accuser and, if necessary, appeal much more easily than in places which contract out for autonomous enforcement.
I was thinking more along the lines of the moveable rigs with cameras they set up that tell you your speed.
They are actually owned by the municipalities rather than the third-party fine machines you’re thinking about.