DC traffic cameras issued 3.3 MILLION tickets last year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think the evolution of the cameras should be from revenue stream to identifying and restricting dangerous drivers. But I know that will cause a lot of privacy/due process problems. To me though, we already heavily regulate who can drive and under what terms and it feels like we should be taking more of those drivers off the road rather than just fining them.

This is a great point and I hope to see this evolution. We know who the bad drivers are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The number almost doubled from the year before. DC now issues 8 times as many tickets each year as it did a decade ago. We issue twice as many tickets as Chicago, which is SO MUCH BIGGER! Pretty insane.

Hard to see what difference it's made to safety. Here's how many people the police say were killed each year in DC by speeding drivers:

2023: 22
2022: 9
2021: 12
2020: 15
2019: 10
2018: 9
2017: 12
2016: 8
2015: 11
2014: 12
2013: 11

Not really seeing a pattern.

It's hard to see what difference any of the "traffic calming" measures DC has adopted have made.

[Anonymous]

The share of tickets that are actually paid has been dropping for years. Barely half are now paid. People are not taking the tickets seriously. Probably because there are so many of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you know there's almost no stop sign cameras west of the park? I wonder how that happens....

There's 17 speed cameras in Ward 3. In Ward 7, there's almost 60.

That's because it's more crowded and more people speed there.

I can tell you that there is a speed camera on the section of Eastern Avenue I live near that has made a huge difference in my family's safety when we turn out of our neighborhood onto Eastern Avenue. Additionally, it's possible to cross the street out of our residential neighborhood and walk to our closest grocery store far more safely than before the speed camera. I'm grateful for it.

Seems like some major equity issues when all the cameras are in poor black neighborhoods and hardly any in the rich white neighborhoods, especially when the city is carpet bombing them with very expensive tickets. Also, obviously, each ward has approximately the same population.

Equity is dead. Racial profiling is the law by EO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The share of tickets that are actually paid has been dropping for years. Barely half are now paid. People are not taking the tickets seriously. Probably because there are so many of them.

The National Guard, FBI and DHS are running traffic stops in white neighborhoods but have failed to arrest people with outstanding tickets. Though they did arrest anyone with a gun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you know there's almost no stop sign cameras west of the park? I wonder how that happens....

There's 17 speed cameras in Ward 3. In Ward 7, there's almost 60.

That's because it's more crowded and more people speed there.

I can tell you that there is a speed camera on the section of Eastern Avenue I live near that has made a huge difference in my family's safety when we turn out of our neighborhood onto Eastern Avenue. Additionally, it's possible to cross the street out of our residential neighborhood and walk to our closest grocery store far more safely than before the speed camera. I'm grateful for it.

Seems like some major equity issues when all the cameras are in poor black neighborhoods and hardly any in the rich white neighborhoods, especially when the city is carpet bombing them with very expensive tickets. Also, obviously, each ward has approximately the same population.

Not if the placement is done based in statistics or other race neutral information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you know there's almost no stop sign cameras west of the park? I wonder how that happens....

There's 17 speed cameras in Ward 3. In Ward 7, there's almost 60.

That's because it's more crowded and more people speed there.

I can tell you that there is a speed camera on the section of Eastern Avenue I live near that has made a huge difference in my family's safety when we turn out of our neighborhood onto Eastern Avenue. Additionally, it's possible to cross the street out of our residential neighborhood and walk to our closest grocery store far more safely than before the speed camera. I'm grateful for it.

Seems like some major equity issues when all the cameras are in poor black neighborhoods and hardly any in the rich white neighborhoods, especially when the city is carpet bombing them with very expensive tickets. Also, obviously, each ward has approximately the same population.

Not if the placement is done based in statistics or other race neutral information.

Funny how we don't have that standard for literally anything else except traffic tickets.

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen cameras placed in parts of Ward 3 at resident request only to be removed because they only showed a lack of violations. I guess the city needs the cameras to be cost effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen cameras placed in parts of Ward 3 at resident request only to be removed because they only showed a lack of violations. I guess the city needs the cameras to be cost effective.

Oh brother. If you believe that, bridge in Brooklyn...

[Anonymous]

Some of the crappiest speed cameras are west and east of the park. K Street underpass and slip roads for Anacostia Freeway and US 50, looking at you.

I haven't gotten a speed camera ticket in 10 years, so this isn't about my driving or means. But I can still say that many of them are purely about $$$ and not safety.

[Anonymous]

The trajectory here is bananas. In 2014, the city issued 366,610 tickets. In 2023, it issued 3.31 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number almost doubled from the year before. DC now issues 8 times as many tickets each year as it did a decade ago. We issue twice as many tickets as Chicago, which is SO MUCH BIGGER! Pretty insane.

Hard to see what difference it's made to safety. Here's how many people the police say were killed each year in DC by speeding drivers:

2023: 22
2022: 9
2021: 12
2020: 15
2019: 10
2018: 9
2017: 12
2016: 8
2015: 11
2014: 12
2013: 11

Not really seeing a pattern.

There aren't many cities in the entire world that have made more aggressive use of traffic cameras than DC. It's a legitimate question what, if anything, it has accomplished.

Are there any other big cities that have zero traffic cops? I think when people complain about traffic cameras in DC they forget that it's literally the only line of defense here. It's not like a belt-and-suspenders approach where you can get a ticket for speeding/reckless driving/failure to yield from a real live cop, and also a ticket mailed to your house for rolling through a stop sign.

The cameras are all we've got, and they don't seem to slow the suburbanites down much anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trajectory here is bananas. In 2014, the city issued 366,610 tickets. In 2023, it issued 3.31 million.

So we don’t know how much revenue is actually generated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number almost doubled from the year before. DC now issues 8 times as many tickets each year as it did a decade ago. We issue twice as many tickets as Chicago, which is SO MUCH BIGGER! Pretty insane.

Hard to see what difference it's made to safety. Here's how many people the police say were killed each year in DC by speeding drivers:

2023: 22
2022: 9
2021: 12
2020: 15
2019: 10
2018: 9
2017: 12
2016: 8
2015: 11
2014: 12
2013: 11

Not really seeing a pattern.

There aren't many cities in the entire world that have made more aggressive use of traffic cameras than DC. It's a legitimate question what, if anything, it has accomplished.

Are there any other big cities that have zero traffic cops? I think when people complain about traffic cameras in DC they forget that it's literally the only line of defense here. It's not like a belt-and-suspenders approach where you can get a ticket for speeding/reckless driving/failure to yield from a real live cop, and also a ticket mailed to your house for rolling through a stop sign.

The cameras are all we've got, and they don't seem to slow the suburbanites down much anyway.

It's not the only line of defense. DC has the biggest police force in the country, on a per capita basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The share of tickets that are actually paid has been dropping for years. Barely half are now paid. People are not taking the tickets seriously. Probably because there are so many of them.

Nooo. Because there are no consequences esp if you drive in from Md or Va and speed and run lights and stop signs.

Chicago can enforce payment from most drivers because they don’t have to deal with many violators from two different surrounding jurisdictions.