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Topic: US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras  (Read 1204 times)

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US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras
« on: November 05, 2009, 06:26:17 PM »
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33649164/ns/us_news-washington_post/

Quote from: MSNBC/Washington Post
Three cities Tuesday — two in Ohio, one in Texas — voted to rip the {cameras} down. In College Station, Tex., the camera manufacturer and their subcontractors reportedly spent $60,000 campaigning to keep them in place, more than five times the amount raised by the opposition, and lost anyway. Voters in Chillicothe, Ohio, went against the cameras at a rate of 72 percent. In Heath, Ohio, the mayor got caught removing anti-camera campaign signs from an intersection. He, and the cameras, got sent packing.

I like this.  I think laws should be enforced by police officers rather than robotic cameras, and I believe they violate due process.  I understand the safety argument, but based on what I've seen here in the UK, people slow down for the precise distance that the camera can see them, then go back to speeding as soon as they're out of the camera's view.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2009, 06:28:03 PM by camoscato »


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Re: US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2009, 06:45:00 PM »
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33649164/ns/us_news-washington_post/

I like this.  I think laws should be enforced by police officers rather than robotic cameras, and I believe they violate due process.  I understand the safety argument, but based on what I've seen here in the UK, people slow down for the precise distance that the camera can see them, then go back to speeding as soon as they're out of the camera's view.

How about cameras on motorways that calculate one's average speed between two points? Or cameras at traffic junctions that catch red light runners?


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Re: US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2009, 06:59:17 PM »
How about cameras on motorways that calculate one's average speed between two points?

I'm ok with these in construction zones like they're used in the UK, but only in construction zones, and they should only be active when there are construction workers present.  They shouldn't be active at 2am on a Wednesday when nobody is doing any work.

Or cameras at traffic junctions that catch red light runners?

I have the same due process objection to red light cameras, and (like with speed cameras) I think there's too much incentive for the government and the contractor who operates the cameras to make them overly sensitive and use them primarily to generate revenue.

Plus, I'm not convinced red light cameras reduce accidents or injuries:

Quote from: MSNBC/Washington Post
This newspaper investigated red-light camera safety records in the District four years ago, had a panel of three traffic scholars review the numbers . . . and found that not only the number but the rate of accidents had increased, sometimes doubled, at intersections with red-light cameras.

Virginia Tech did a study of Fairfax's red-light cameras before the jurisdiction got rid of them in 2005, studying four years of data. The thesis looked at red light intersections, intersections without cameras but a longer yellow light, and a control group with no cameras and not-so-long yellow lights. The finding was that there was "no statistical difference" in the number of crashes with red light cameras and the others.



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Re: US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2009, 09:04:12 PM »
Plus, I'm not convinced red light cameras reduce accidents or injuries:

This UK paper suggests that they are effective but notes that the level of evidence is "relatively poor":

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7487/331

One area where I think they are very effective is where you have a main rural road with, say, a 60 limit, that then goes right through a small village or town. Absent speed cameras, lower speed limits in the built up area tend to be routinely ignored. Speed cameras placed on the approaches really do seem to slow people town.




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Re: US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2009, 01:43:09 AM »
Plus, I'm not convinced red light cameras reduce accidents or injuries:
No they just drive the business away. What's that? Oh traffic light cameras you say. Oh I get muddle up with all this language stuff. I thought... oh nevermind.

Seriously I'm with you on the 2-points camera usage for construction areas. It is a pain in the ass but necessary. I do think traffic light cameras for red light jumpers are ok.

I'm also ok with them in built up areas where kids may be about. But too often they are a license to print money and are put in "accident black spots" such as a straight away on a dual carriage way with no side roads for miles. Yea that was sarcastic. If it's an accident black spot, then fix the god damn hazard!


Still tired of coteries and bans. But hanging about anyway.


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Re: US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2009, 08:57:23 AM »
One area where I think they are very effective is where you have a main rural road with, say, a 60 limit, that then goes right through a small village or town. Absent speed cameras, lower speed limits in the built up area tend to be routinely ignored. Speed cameras placed on the approaches really do seem to slow people town.

I'm also ok with them in built up areas where kids may be about.

I agree that cameras are a good way to slow people down in villages and residential areas, but I'd rather they install speed bumps and whatever they call those concrete dividers that squeeze a two-way road down to one lane so people have to slow down as they enter a built-up area.  We have them on all the roads that lead into our village, and they keep people to a reasonable speed.  I've also read that those speed limit 30mph signs that light up if you pass them going faster than 30 work to slow people down.

I prefer those methods to cameras for the due process reason I mentioned before, and also, like Bob says, because there's too much incentive to use cameras to make money for the government/contractor.


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Re: US: Communities Voting Out Speed Cameras
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2009, 03:30:27 PM »
This is being argued about in Houston, Texas right now.   The city wants the county to help them collect the fines by refusing to register vehicles that have outstanding red-light camera tickets.  However, the City of Houston was revealed as refusing to pay the same fines for city vehicles.  Why?  They claimed that the drivers of these city-owned vehicles could not be conclusively identified.  The City doesn't let anyone else use that excuse; they want the money.   


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