Is this the year California OKs speed cameras?
Is this the year California OKs speed cameras?
Safety advocates and some state leaders have been down this road before but are hoping the third try will be the charm.
hoping this catches on, pretty please CA...
i like the fact that the money can only go into maintaining the speed cameras or into making the road safer. those are both things desperately needed, especially in LA.
We implemented speed cameras in my province in Canada 20 years ago, and the government that implemented them got thrown out because the opposition party offered to get rid of them.
People REALLY hate them. Worse than anything else I've ever seen people hate.
I've lived in places with speed cameras all my life... if you're worried, just don't speed?
Like, I don't want to be all "don't break the law and you won't have to worry (:" but speeding is really easy to not do, especially in places where cameras are well signposted or static.
A little while back, I suddenly had to start travelling on a route that had a lot of speed cameras. It's a particularly dangerous road, so I know there's good reason for them to be there, but I had to get myself out of the habit of speeding. Previously I tended to just drive whatever speed I felt was appropriate for the road.
So I invented a game called Speed. As you're driving, you imagine that there is a bomb in your car, and it will explode if you go over the speed limit. You win when you get to your destination without exploding. The speed cameras are the villains, and as you glide past them at the speed limit, you're welcome to taunt them with the fact that they haven't managed to kill you. Police with mobile speed cameras can also be taunted this way, as long as the car windows are closed, for obvious reasons.
Playing this for about 6 months built a really good habit, and I'm honestly a better, safer driver because of it. I'm also a more patient driver, and I enjoy driving more now because I'm not rushing, trying to be as fast as possible all the time. 10/10, would recommend.
I must certainly hope this does not pass. CA already nullified red light cameras, what's the point of relearning this lesson?
why not? CA has struggled with record levels of traffic injury and death in recent years.
So, two concerns with this.
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Hasn't it been shown the cameras actually increase accident rates? Basically it makes people drive less predictably, by slowly really quickly when they realize there's a camera. I could be thinking of red light cameras, rather than speed cameras but I thought it was both.
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I'm pretty sure they aren't enforceable? If someone doesn't want to pay one it's super easy to get out of. Which ends up meaning that the people who need be held accountable, aren't. And the people that are decent drivers, continue to be decent drivers.
I'm pretty sure they aren't enforceable? If someone doesn't want to pay one it's super easy to get out of. Which ends up meaning that the people who need be held accountable, aren't. And the people that are decent drivers, continue to be decent drivers
The problem is that any ticket that is issued solely based on a camera (like speeding or red light cameras) can normally only detect the car by its plates, while tickets are normally written against a driver. In some states, this means that points can't be assessed, and fines punish the poor more than the rich. In others, all the car owner has to do is submit an affidavit saying "I wasn't driving" to get out of it. If the owner is lying, that's perjury, of course. But who will bother checking into it?
A camera that is coupled with a law enforcement presence is much more enforceable, because you pull the car over and issue the ticket to the driver right there, using the camera data as proof.
Hmm. When my boyfriend drove under a toll camera in my car, I called to explain that I wasn't the one driving at the time. The lady on the line asked if the vehicle was stolen, when I said no, she said I had to pay the fine and if I didn't, I may not be able to register my vehicle. Naturally, I paid the fine.
We have some precedent with red light cameras and the like repeatedly being held up. Courts are equipped to handle bad actors and if that becomes an actual problem, they're not going to just shrug if someone has 25 speeding violations that they're not paying. I could see this working once or twice, but if you're driving past that camera every day, it'll be a good idea to start obeying the law sooner rather than later.
Hasn’t it been shown the cameras actually increase accident rates?
Most studies find that cameras decrease accident rates: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004607.pub4/abstract
Theoretically, it might cause drivers to drive more unpredictably, but I'd expect that those are typically rear-end colissions as drivers slam their brakes to try to avoid a ticket. Those are the safest type of traffic incident and I'd happily trade a pedestrian getting hit for a couple rear-endings.
On the second point:
Red light cameras seem to work and are enforceable just fine. These would be no different.
Regarding #1, the problem lies in the implementation of the cameras. I think the idea of average speed cameras are interesting. Basically, just have multiple cameras and use the time a driver takes to get from one to the other to calculate their average speed. This way you can't game it by slowing down at specific points.
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Several studies have came out that red light cameras have made driving less safe. I bet speed cameras are the same. We should really do away with stroads in America.
Speed cameras in NYC are extremely effective at reducing speeding.
Legal changes enabled NYC to issue tickets from speed cameras at night and on weekends starting in August of last year. This provided a great natural experiment because they were recording speeding events before and after.
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/03/17/drivers-getting-nabbed-with-fewer-speeding-tickets-data-show
Speeding dropped 40% by March.
“We're having too many car accidents. I know! Let's deploy devices that'll cause more car accidents! What could possibly go wrong?!” —Californian legislators
You might be surprised to know that speed cameras do not increase accident rates, but decrease them.
Twenty eight studies measured the effect on crashes. All 28 studies found a lower number of crashes in the speed camera areas after implementation of the program. In the vicinity of camera sites, the reductions ranged from 8% to 49% for all crashes, with reductions for most studies in the 14% to 25% range. For injury crashes the decrease ranged between 8% to 50% and for crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injuries the reductions were in the range of 11% to 44%. Effects over wider areas showed reductions for all crashes ranging from 9% to 35%, with most studies reporting reductions in the 11% to to 27% range. For crashes resulting in death or serious injury reductions ranged from 17% to 58%, with most studies reporting this result in the 30% to 40% reduction range. The studies of longer duration showed that these positive trends were either maintained or improved with time.
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004607.pub4/abstract