Hundreds of people have thrown their signatures behind a petition calling for “the immediate removal” of all speed enforcement cameras in Brampton while the city is set to add more by the end of the summer.
They believe they have a God given right to break the speed limit
Even then, I'd argue they still disproportionately impact those most likely to be on the road - those who need to drive for or to work.
But so what? Drive the speed limit and you don't get ticketed. This isn't some unfair cop picking and choosing who to pull over. Add scaling fines for income and its STILL going to disproportionally impact working class people.
They disproportionately effect assholes who speed. The fines are harder to pay if you are poor but they are equally easy to avoid for both rich and poor.
So let's push for that instead of pushing to remove cameras. In fact, proportional fines would probably increase the revenue, which would bring the funds to improve the road design so folks don't get the wrong impression of the speed they're supposed to be in. Also let's push for better transit so poor people are not forced to drive and risk getting fined.
While I'm down for eating the billionaires, this sounds awfully close to punishing people for being successful.
I agree it disproportionally affects poor people, but rather than scaling the punishment, maybe the answer is to look for non punitive measures that produce the same result.
Spend money on calming measures but they won't because revenue, and the camera companies give the sweet, sweet perks to get the revenue sharing contracts.
Adding narrow shoulders, speed bumps and plastic bollards to the center of roads all slow down traffic because they makes it difficult and uncomfortable to speed. They also drive all the assholes back to main streets instead of taking their big-brain shortcuts through residential areas.
Speed cameras reduce speeding on the main streets by costing you money. After your 3rd, 5th, or 15th automatic ticket you will eventually slow down. You can't narrow the ridiculous 4 lane city streets in Brampton to slow people down, you can't put speed bumps in an 80 zone, speed cameras are a cheap and easy to deploy method of convincing drivers to slow the fuck down.
Yep - between the speed, the shitty driving and the insurance scammers, I won't be surprised when insurance companies start declining to insure people with Brampton addresses. I'm not saying it's right, but it won't be surprising.
@Davriellelouna I dunno, I think there are other ways -- obviously nobody likes paying a fine for doing a pretty reasonable speed with no traffic or pedestrians around, even if it is a CSZ. like, <60 in a 50 zone that is a 40 CSZ when there is nobody around, doesn't feel fair. But also those speed cameras are not just spotting traffic, theyre always watching you. The discomfort with them is real
@Davriellelouna what could we do instead? more transit, more density, being able to walk to more places we need to go. but instead we get speed traps harassing people who are honestly acting pretty reasonable (ok, obviously there are maniacs who are not reasonable -- but they all drive benzes and bmws, so a fine probably isnt stopping them)