DC traffic cameras issued 3.3 MILLION tickets last year

[Anonymous]

We’re supposed to say “cars bad!” as good urban dwellers and never actually question where the money goes or how effective the fines are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Car apologists lamenting that traffic deaths are the inevitable price we have to pay like Charlie Kirk lamenting that gun deaths are the inevitable price we have to pay...

They've basically shown that they can't be negotiated with. Its time to start rebuilding the city around pedestrians/bikes/transit/etc... If they are going to cry, might as well give them something to cry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Car apologists lamenting that traffic deaths are the inevitable price we have to pay like Charlie Kirk lamenting that gun deaths are the inevitable price we have to pay...

They've basically shown that they can't be negotiated with. Its time to start rebuilding the city around pedestrians/bikes/transit/etc... If they are going to cry, might as well give them something to cry about.

WMATA is nearly bankrupt, building new light rail lines is impossibly expensive, so I hope you like walking and biking everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Car apologists lamenting that traffic deaths are the inevitable price we have to pay like Charlie Kirk lamenting that gun deaths are the inevitable price we have to pay...

They've basically shown that they can't be negotiated with. Its time to start rebuilding the city around pedestrians/bikes/transit/etc... If they are going to cry, might as well give them something to cry about.

WMATA is nearly bankrupt, building new light rail lines is impossibly expensive, so I hope you like walking and biking everywhere.

We know how the Wharf did by deprioritizing cars. Just keep repeating the model and people will wonder why we ever catered to drivers.

[Anonymous]

Let me remind everyone how traffic laws work in DC:

12 year old driving an ATV down the middle of Connecticut Avenue during rush hour: no penalty

Moped driver blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Motorcyclist blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Cyclist with infant placed in basket in front of bike: no penalty

Cyclist with two small children on back with no helmets: no penalty

Man on e-bike going 35mph with child in lap with no helmet: no penalty

Car driver going 50 mph in a 25 mph zone with no traffic cameras: no penalty

Car driver doesnt stop at stop sign for full three seconds at empty intersection with camera: $100, doubled after 30 days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Listing this without listing data on accidents or fatalities isn’t that useful.
Traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities are FAR higher in ward 7 than 3. This isn’t the racist “gotcha” that you think it is.

Actually it is.

https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most

Accidents and fatalities are much higher in majority black zip codes. Should city officials defer to those who break the law or those who are victimized by law breakers?

The underlying problem is that road infrastructure is generally much more conducive to speeding in black majority zip codes. The solution is more traffic calming etc..

Accidents and fatalities are rare in every section of the city. The city should not bombard people with tickets that cost them lots of money and make no difference to accident rates.

No one is bombarding you. You are actively breaking the law. You can choose to stop.

It would make more sense if we just had the cops give out the tickets. So many of the camera tickets are bullshit-y foot fault tickets. It's just harassment.

The cops do not give a crap. They never did.

And what the is a foot fault ticket?? Did you follow the law or not? Sounds like no, but you want to whine about it

A lot of the tickets are for trivial offenses. For example you stopped at a stop sign, but the nose of your car was beyond the stop sign pole when you stopped, so they say you didnt stop at the stop sign.

The stop sign cameras record your speed going over the line and will automatically cancel the ticket if it's under a certain speed, specifically to avoid this situation. If the automatic cancellation doesn't happen for some reason you can appeal and presuming you were actually just inching over the line your ticket will be dismissed because they have not only your speed recorded but a video of the infraction that a human can review for an appeal.

People love to say "oh I was just doing this reasonable thing and the mean old speed camera punished me!" But in reality it's usually either a straight up lie or they have an utter lack of self-awareness of what they are doing in their vehicle, rolling through the stop sign at 8mph but in their mind they "barely inched over."

It would be great if it actually worked like this, but that hasn't been my experience at all. Most of the traffic camera tickets I have ever gotten (and there's been a few) are penny ante complaints about how I stopped but not in precisely the right place because my bumper was over the crosswalk or something.

That is literally how it works. It's right there on the DDOT website if you had ever bothered to take 2 seconds to look it up:

Drivers must come to a complete stop prior to the stop bar at an intersection controlled by a stop sign or traffic signal. This allows the driver to look around and ensure that they have the right of way before continuing. The stop signs units use radar to detect if a vehicle stopped at, rolled through, or ran a stop sign. Tickets will be issued when vehicles fail to make a complete stop at a stop signs.

The stop sign enforcement camera system predicts using advance algorithms, when a stop sign violation is occurring and captures the violation event with digital camera and high-resolution video.

Step 1 The first image of the violation is taken BEFORE the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 2 The second image is taken AFTER the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 3 The license plate is taken from a close-up of the images captured.
Step 4 In addition, a high-resolution video of the violation event is captured as a validation tool.
Step 5 Additional data collected includes the time, date, speed, location, lane, and direction of the travel.

https://asc.ddot.dc.gov/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Listing this without listing data on accidents or fatalities isn’t that useful.
Traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities are FAR higher in ward 7 than 3. This isn’t the racist “gotcha” that you think it is.

Actually it is.

https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most

Accidents and fatalities are much higher in majority black zip codes. Should city officials defer to those who break the law or those who are victimized by law breakers?

The underlying problem is that road infrastructure is generally much more conducive to speeding in black majority zip codes. The solution is more traffic calming etc..

Accidents and fatalities are rare in every section of the city. The city should not bombard people with tickets that cost them lots of money and make no difference to accident rates.

No one is bombarding you. You are actively breaking the law. You can choose to stop.

It would make more sense if we just had the cops give out the tickets. So many of the camera tickets are bullshit-y foot fault tickets. It's just harassment.

The cops do not give a crap. They never did.

And what the is a foot fault ticket?? Did you follow the law or not? Sounds like no, but you want to whine about it

A lot of the tickets are for trivial offenses. For example you stopped at a stop sign, but the nose of your car was beyond the stop sign pole when you stopped, so they say you didnt stop at the stop sign.

The stop sign cameras record your speed going over the line and will automatically cancel the ticket if it's under a certain speed, specifically to avoid this situation. If the automatic cancellation doesn't happen for some reason you can appeal and presuming you were actually just inching over the line your ticket will be dismissed because they have not only your speed recorded but a video of the infraction that a human can review for an appeal.

People love to say "oh I was just doing this reasonable thing and the mean old speed camera punished me!" But in reality it's usually either a straight up lie or they have an utter lack of self-awareness of what they are doing in their vehicle, rolling through the stop sign at 8mph but in their mind they "barely inched over."

It would be great if it actually worked like this, but that hasn't been my experience at all. Most of the traffic camera tickets I have ever gotten (and there's been a few) are penny ante complaints about how I stopped but not in precisely the right place because my bumper was over the crosswalk or something.

That is literally how it works. It's right there on the DDOT website if you had ever bothered to take 2 seconds to look it up:

Drivers must come to a complete stop prior to the stop bar at an intersection controlled by a stop sign or traffic signal. This allows the driver to look around and ensure that they have the right of way before continuing. The stop signs units use radar to detect if a vehicle stopped at, rolled through, or ran a stop sign. Tickets will be issued when vehicles fail to make a complete stop at a stop signs.

The stop sign enforcement camera system predicts using advance algorithms, when a stop sign violation is occurring and captures the violation event with digital camera and high-resolution video.

Step 1 The first image of the violation is taken BEFORE the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 2 The second image is taken AFTER the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 3 The license plate is taken from a close-up of the images captured.
Step 4 In addition, a high-resolution video of the violation event is captured as a validation tool.
Step 5 Additional data collected includes the time, date, speed, location, lane, and direction of the travel.

https://asc.ddot.dc.gov/

They send you a video when you get a ticket. No one needs to look anything up. You can see how silly the tickets are in the video they send you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let me remind everyone how traffic laws work in DC:

12 year old driving an ATV down the middle of Connecticut Avenue during rush hour: no penalty

Moped driver blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Motorcyclist blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Cyclist with infant placed in basket in front of bike: no penalty

Cyclist with two small children on back with no helmets: no penalty

Man on e-bike going 35mph with child in lap with no helmet: no penalty

Car driver going 50 mph in a 25 mph zone with no traffic cameras: no penalty

Car driver doesnt stop at stop sign for full three seconds at empty intersection with camera: $100, doubled after 30 days

Reminder: traffic laws exist to keep cars from killing people. There really weren’t any laws before cars took over roads.

If drivers are mad, they need to look in the mirror.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me remind everyone how traffic laws work in DC:

12 year old driving an ATV down the middle of Connecticut Avenue during rush hour: no penalty

Moped driver blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Motorcyclist blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Cyclist with infant placed in basket in front of bike: no penalty

Cyclist with two small children on back with no helmets: no penalty

Man on e-bike going 35mph with child in lap with no helmet: no penalty

Car driver going 50 mph in a 25 mph zone with no traffic cameras: no penalty

Car driver doesnt stop at stop sign for full three seconds at empty intersection with camera: $100, doubled after 30 days

Reminder: traffic laws exist to keep cars from killing people. There really weren’t any laws before cars took over roads.

If drivers are mad, they need to look in the mirror.

There were rules regarding horses long before cars existed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me remind everyone how traffic laws work in DC:

12 year old driving an ATV down the middle of Connecticut Avenue during rush hour: no penalty

Moped driver blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Motorcyclist blowing stop sign at 40 mph: no penalty

Cyclist with infant placed in basket in front of bike: no penalty

Cyclist with two small children on back with no helmets: no penalty

Man on e-bike going 35mph with child in lap with no helmet: no penalty

Car driver going 50 mph in a 25 mph zone with no traffic cameras: no penalty

Car driver doesnt stop at stop sign for full three seconds at empty intersection with camera: $100, doubled after 30 days

Reminder: traffic laws exist to keep cars from killing people. There really weren’t any laws before cars took over roads.

If drivers are mad, they need to look in the mirror.

There were rules regarding horses long before cars existed.

Such as?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Listing this without listing data on accidents or fatalities isn’t that useful.
Traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities are FAR higher in ward 7 than 3. This isn’t the racist “gotcha” that you think it is.

Where's the evidence that traffic cameras reduce accidents? DC has increasing ticketing by almost 10 times. Where's the corresponding reduction in traffic deaths?

The evidence was provided to you several pages back. But you reject it because it destroys your thesis. You are this website’s most boring broken record.

No one has provided any evidence. That's the issue.

If there were evidence, it would be obvious by now. The city has increased ticketing by nearly 1000 percent over the past decade, and issues enough tickets each year to hit every driver in the city multiple times, and yet accident rates are no better than they were 10 years ago.

it's not just that handing out a billion traffic tickets isn't making a difference, it's literally everything dot is doing isn't making a difference.

Another factor is that, during COVID people started driving through DC like bats out of hell. Dialing that back requires significant action.

I'll take things that never happened for $200, Alex.

The number of speeding related deaths in DC is pretty much the same every single year since forever.

Where in the world do you actually live?

Almost all traffic deaths are caused by speed, regardless of whether speeding is listed as the "primary cause" by the attending officer or not. I believe the physics behind this have been explained to you many times over the past few years, but yet you continue to peddle nonsense.

That is not true. There's a whole range of reasons for traffic deaths. Typically about one-third involve speeding.

I trust that you understand the distinction between speed and speeding even if you pretend not to.

A driver can veer off I-95, hit a barricade at 70mph, and die. Speeding was not a factor in the crash, but speed sure as he was.

But we're talking about DC after all and there are only a handful of DC roads where the speed limit exceeds 25mph. Impacts at 25mph or less are rarely fatal, but the probability of a road user dying as a result of a crash increases markedly at speeds above that. It is thus highly probable that speeding was a factor contributing to any fatalities that occur on roads with speed limits of 25mph or less.

Yeah, that's like saying leaving your home is a contributing factor to traffic fatalities because none of the fatalities would have happened if people had just stayed home.

What the hell is this nonsense? You sound like the kind of person who would argue that short skirts cause sexual assault.

Pedestrians should have the right to walk down the street or - heaven forbid - cross the street without having their lives threatened by those who speed. whether those drivers are focused on the road, actively texting, staring at their Apple Play screen, or whistling Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah of their a$&holes.

And the DC government has a responsibility to uphold the safety of its residents and those visiting the city. Which it does by using speed cameras to deter speeding.

If you need evidence of the difference that speed cameras make, Google “James Evert Anderson”. James was a 16 year old who lived in Kensington, MD. He was killed on Sunday while crossing University Boulevard West. There was a speed camera at the location, which was recently removed. One local resident reports that, in the absence of the camera, drivers regularly speed at “50 or 60 on a 30 mph road”. Had drivers stuck to the speed limit, James Evert Anderson would still be alive today.

The only problem, as others have mentioned, is that there aren’t enough speed cameras. DC has about 8,000 city blocks and less than 500 speed cameras, so drivers are free to speed across 99.9% of the city without any plausible risk of being sanctioned for their speeding. That is just nuts.

Putting traffic cameras everywhere, giving everyone a ticket for everything, and making traffic a nightmare has not done anything at all to reduce traffic deaths. Look at the data.

I just looked at the data. Right here: https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/traffic-data

Traffic fatalities have fallen 61% year-on-year.

This is right after they doubled the number of traffic cameras in 2024 and right after the DC Attorney General started suing car owners with outstanding camera fines.

How inconvenient for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Listing this without listing data on accidents or fatalities isn’t that useful.
Traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities are FAR higher in ward 7 than 3. This isn’t the racist “gotcha” that you think it is.

Where's the evidence that traffic cameras reduce accidents? DC has increasing ticketing by almost 10 times. Where's the corresponding reduction in traffic deaths?

The evidence was provided to you several pages back. But you reject it because it destroys your thesis. You are this website’s most boring broken record.

No one has provided any evidence. That's the issue.

If there were evidence, it would be obvious by now. The city has increased ticketing by nearly 1000 percent over the past decade, and issues enough tickets each year to hit every driver in the city multiple times, and yet accident rates are no better than they were 10 years ago.

it's not just that handing out a billion traffic tickets isn't making a difference, it's literally everything dot is doing isn't making a difference.

Another factor is that, during COVID people started driving through DC like bats out of hell. Dialing that back requires significant action.

I'll take things that never happened for $200, Alex.

The number of speeding related deaths in DC is pretty much the same every single year since forever.

Where in the world do you actually live?

Almost all traffic deaths are caused by speed, regardless of whether speeding is listed as the "primary cause" by the attending officer or not. I believe the physics behind this have been explained to you many times over the past few years, but yet you continue to peddle nonsense.

That is not true. There's a whole range of reasons for traffic deaths. Typically about one-third involve speeding.

I trust that you understand the distinction between speed and speeding even if you pretend not to.

A driver can veer off I-95, hit a barricade at 70mph, and die. Speeding was not a factor in the crash, but speed sure as he was.

But we're talking about DC after all and there are only a handful of DC roads where the speed limit exceeds 25mph. Impacts at 25mph or less are rarely fatal, but the probability of a road user dying as a result of a crash increases markedly at speeds above that. It is thus highly probable that speeding was a factor contributing to any fatalities that occur on roads with speed limits of 25mph or less.

Yeah, that's like saying leaving your home is a contributing factor to traffic fatalities because none of the fatalities would have happened if people had just stayed home.

What the hell is this nonsense? You sound like the kind of person who would argue that short skirts cause sexual assault.

Pedestrians should have the right to walk down the street or - heaven forbid - cross the street without having their lives threatened by those who speed. whether those drivers are focused on the road, actively texting, staring at their Apple Play screen, or whistling Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah of their a$&holes.

And the DC government has a responsibility to uphold the safety of its residents and those visiting the city. Which it does by using speed cameras to deter speeding.

If you need evidence of the difference that speed cameras make, Google “James Evert Anderson”. James was a 16 year old who lived in Kensington, MD. He was killed on Sunday while crossing University Boulevard West. There was a speed camera at the location, which was recently removed. One local resident reports that, in the absence of the camera, drivers regularly speed at “50 or 60 on a 30 mph road”. Had drivers stuck to the speed limit, James Evert Anderson would still be alive today.

The only problem, as others have mentioned, is that there aren’t enough speed cameras. DC has about 8,000 city blocks and less than 500 speed cameras, so drivers are free to speed across 99.9% of the city without any plausible risk of being sanctioned for their speeding. That is just nuts.

Putting traffic cameras everywhere, giving everyone a ticket for everything, and making traffic a nightmare has not done anything at all to reduce traffic deaths. Look at the data.

I just looked at the data. Right here: https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/traffic-data

Traffic fatalities have fallen 61% year-on-year.

This is right after they doubled the number of traffic cameras in 2024 and right after the DC Attorney General started suing car owners with outstanding camera fines.

How inconvenient for you.

Are you stupid or just dishonest? That's not because of the cameras. That's because of Trump's crackdown on the city. Every crime stat is way down. You may have heard about how no one is going to restaurants and how businesses are getting killed. It's because people have been afraid to go out. Turns out if you stay home, there's fewer car accidents (and murders and robberies).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Listing this without listing data on accidents or fatalities isn’t that useful.
Traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities are FAR higher in ward 7 than 3. This isn’t the racist “gotcha” that you think it is.

Where's the evidence that traffic cameras reduce accidents? DC has increasing ticketing by almost 10 times. Where's the corresponding reduction in traffic deaths?

The evidence was provided to you several pages back. But you reject it because it destroys your thesis. You are this website’s most boring broken record.

No one has provided any evidence. That's the issue.

If there were evidence, it would be obvious by now. The city has increased ticketing by nearly 1000 percent over the past decade, and issues enough tickets each year to hit every driver in the city multiple times, and yet accident rates are no better than they were 10 years ago.

it's not just that handing out a billion traffic tickets isn't making a difference, it's literally everything dot is doing isn't making a difference.

Another factor is that, during COVID people started driving through DC like bats out of hell. Dialing that back requires significant action.

I'll take things that never happened for $200, Alex.

The number of speeding related deaths in DC is pretty much the same every single year since forever.

Where in the world do you actually live?

Almost all traffic deaths are caused by speed, regardless of whether speeding is listed as the "primary cause" by the attending officer or not. I believe the physics behind this have been explained to you many times over the past few years, but yet you continue to peddle nonsense.

That is not true. There's a whole range of reasons for traffic deaths. Typically about one-third involve speeding.

I trust that you understand the distinction between speed and speeding even if you pretend not to.

A driver can veer off I-95, hit a barricade at 70mph, and die. Speeding was not a factor in the crash, but speed sure as he was.

But we're talking about DC after all and there are only a handful of DC roads where the speed limit exceeds 25mph. Impacts at 25mph or less are rarely fatal, but the probability of a road user dying as a result of a crash increases markedly at speeds above that. It is thus highly probable that speeding was a factor contributing to any fatalities that occur on roads with speed limits of 25mph or less.

Yeah, that's like saying leaving your home is a contributing factor to traffic fatalities because none of the fatalities would have happened if people had just stayed home.

What the hell is this nonsense? You sound like the kind of person who would argue that short skirts cause sexual assault.

Pedestrians should have the right to walk down the street or - heaven forbid - cross the street without having their lives threatened by those who speed. whether those drivers are focused on the road, actively texting, staring at their Apple Play screen, or whistling Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah of their a$&holes.

And the DC government has a responsibility to uphold the safety of its residents and those visiting the city. Which it does by using speed cameras to deter speeding.

If you need evidence of the difference that speed cameras make, Google “James Evert Anderson”. James was a 16 year old who lived in Kensington, MD. He was killed on Sunday while crossing University Boulevard West. There was a speed camera at the location, which was recently removed. One local resident reports that, in the absence of the camera, drivers regularly speed at “50 or 60 on a 30 mph road”. Had drivers stuck to the speed limit, James Evert Anderson would still be alive today.

The only problem, as others have mentioned, is that there aren’t enough speed cameras. DC has about 8,000 city blocks and less than 500 speed cameras, so drivers are free to speed across 99.9% of the city without any plausible risk of being sanctioned for their speeding. That is just nuts.

Putting traffic cameras everywhere, giving everyone a ticket for everything, and making traffic a nightmare has not done anything at all to reduce traffic deaths. Look at the data.

So what is your solution? Traffic stops? Road design? If they die they die?

Do you worry about murders too? Because murders are way more common than dying in traffic accidents. Traffic deaths in this city are rare. They're also inevitable. If you're uncomfortable with that, maybe you should move. A small town might be more your speed.

Absolute nonsense. Helsinki, which has a population almost identical to DC's, just went a year without a single traffic death: https://www.politico.eu/article/helsinki-no-traffic-death-roads-eu-accident-finland-driving-transport/

Unlike solving murders, we know very well how to reduce fatal traffic accidents. Yet people continue to die needlessly because ghouls like you believe the convenience of your commute is more important than other people's lives.

This is obviously untrue. Nothing the city has done in the past decade has made an iota of difference in the incidence of traffic deaths. Here's the number of deaths caused by speeding drivers in DC:

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

You are misrepresenting the data and have been told you are misrepresenting the data, which would seem to make you a liar.

Those numbers do not represent, as you claim, the "number of deaths caused by speeding drivers in DC" but rather the number of people who died in crashes where speeding was deemed by MPD to be the primary cause.

But crashes almost always have multiple causes. A case in point is when Jeoffrey Richard Williams got very drunk on the evening of July 10 2019, drove his GMC Yukon SUV westbound on Pennsylvania Avenue on the wrong side of the road, veered off and careened through James Monroe Park in NW DC, and killed Jesus Antonio Llanes-Datil and Thomas Dwight Spriggs, who were sitting on a park bench.

A U.S. Park Police officer, Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, reported that “it does appear that speed was a factor” in the crash, but was speed the primary cause according to MPD? Or was it because Jeoffrey Richard Williams was drunk? Or was it because Jeoffrey Richard Williams failed to maintain control of his vehicle?

I would really like to hear your explanation of how that determination is made.

But whether the primary cause was determined to be speeding, intoxication, or loss of control, the point remains that Jesus Antonio Llanes-Datil and Thomas Dwight Spriggs would almost certainly still be with us today had the vehicle not been driving over 60mph in a 25mph zone.

I believe that more than 131 people were killed in DC between 2013 and 2023 as a result of crashes that involved a speeding driver, but that's beside the point.

Many - if not perhaps all - of those 131 people would still be alive if the city did a better job of enforcing its speed limits. If the lives of those 131 people don't mean anything to you - or are, at best, collateral damage in service of the right you would bestow on drivers to do whatever they want without concern for being harassed by flashing cameras or any other form of enforcement - I doubt there's much point in continuing to converse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Listing this without listing data on accidents or fatalities isn’t that useful.
Traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities are FAR higher in ward 7 than 3. This isn’t the racist “gotcha” that you think it is.

Actually it is.

https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most

Accidents and fatalities are much higher in majority black zip codes. Should city officials defer to those who break the law or those who are victimized by law breakers?

The underlying problem is that road infrastructure is generally much more conducive to speeding in black majority zip codes. The solution is more traffic calming etc..

Accidents and fatalities are rare in every section of the city. The city should not bombard people with tickets that cost them lots of money and make no difference to accident rates.

No one is bombarding you. You are actively breaking the law. You can choose to stop.

It would make more sense if we just had the cops give out the tickets. So many of the camera tickets are bullshit-y foot fault tickets. It's just harassment.

The cops do not give a crap. They never did.

And what the is a foot fault ticket?? Did you follow the law or not? Sounds like no, but you want to whine about it

A lot of the tickets are for trivial offenses. For example you stopped at a stop sign, but the nose of your car was beyond the stop sign pole when you stopped, so they say you didnt stop at the stop sign.

The stop sign cameras record your speed going over the line and will automatically cancel the ticket if it's under a certain speed, specifically to avoid this situation. If the automatic cancellation doesn't happen for some reason you can appeal and presuming you were actually just inching over the line your ticket will be dismissed because they have not only your speed recorded but a video of the infraction that a human can review for an appeal.

People love to say "oh I was just doing this reasonable thing and the mean old speed camera punished me!" But in reality it's usually either a straight up lie or they have an utter lack of self-awareness of what they are doing in their vehicle, rolling through the stop sign at 8mph but in their mind they "barely inched over."

It would be great if it actually worked like this, but that hasn't been my experience at all. Most of the traffic camera tickets I have ever gotten (and there's been a few) are penny ante complaints about how I stopped but not in precisely the right place because my bumper was over the crosswalk or something.

That is literally how it works. It's right there on the DDOT website if you had ever bothered to take 2 seconds to look it up:

Drivers must come to a complete stop prior to the stop bar at an intersection controlled by a stop sign or traffic signal. This allows the driver to look around and ensure that they have the right of way before continuing. The stop signs units use radar to detect if a vehicle stopped at, rolled through, or ran a stop sign. Tickets will be issued when vehicles fail to make a complete stop at a stop signs.

The stop sign enforcement camera system predicts using advance algorithms, when a stop sign violation is occurring and captures the violation event with digital camera and high-resolution video.

Step 1 The first image of the violation is taken BEFORE the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 2 The second image is taken AFTER the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 3 The license plate is taken from a close-up of the images captured.
Step 4 In addition, a high-resolution video of the violation event is captured as a validation tool.
Step 5 Additional data collected includes the time, date, speed, location, lane, and direction of the travel.

https://asc.ddot.dc.gov/

Unfortunately, there are lots of intersections where, if you stop at the white line, you cannot see if it is safe to proceed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Listing this without listing data on accidents or fatalities isn’t that useful.
Traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities are FAR higher in ward 7 than 3. This isn’t the racist “gotcha” that you think it is.

Actually it is.

https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most

Accidents and fatalities are much higher in majority black zip codes. Should city officials defer to those who break the law or those who are victimized by law breakers?

The underlying problem is that road infrastructure is generally much more conducive to speeding in black majority zip codes. The solution is more traffic calming etc..

Accidents and fatalities are rare in every section of the city. The city should not bombard people with tickets that cost them lots of money and make no difference to accident rates.

No one is bombarding you. You are actively breaking the law. You can choose to stop.

It would make more sense if we just had the cops give out the tickets. So many of the camera tickets are bullshit-y foot fault tickets. It's just harassment.

The cops do not give a crap. They never did.

And what the is a foot fault ticket?? Did you follow the law or not? Sounds like no, but you want to whine about it

A lot of the tickets are for trivial offenses. For example you stopped at a stop sign, but the nose of your car was beyond the stop sign pole when you stopped, so they say you didnt stop at the stop sign.

The stop sign cameras record your speed going over the line and will automatically cancel the ticket if it's under a certain speed, specifically to avoid this situation. If the automatic cancellation doesn't happen for some reason you can appeal and presuming you were actually just inching over the line your ticket will be dismissed because they have not only your speed recorded but a video of the infraction that a human can review for an appeal.

People love to say "oh I was just doing this reasonable thing and the mean old speed camera punished me!" But in reality it's usually either a straight up lie or they have an utter lack of self-awareness of what they are doing in their vehicle, rolling through the stop sign at 8mph but in their mind they "barely inched over."

It would be great if it actually worked like this, but that hasn't been my experience at all. Most of the traffic camera tickets I have ever gotten (and there's been a few) are penny ante complaints about how I stopped but not in precisely the right place because my bumper was over the crosswalk or something.

That is literally how it works. It's right there on the DDOT website if you had ever bothered to take 2 seconds to look it up:

Drivers must come to a complete stop prior to the stop bar at an intersection controlled by a stop sign or traffic signal. This allows the driver to look around and ensure that they have the right of way before continuing. The stop signs units use radar to detect if a vehicle stopped at, rolled through, or ran a stop sign. Tickets will be issued when vehicles fail to make a complete stop at a stop signs.

The stop sign enforcement camera system predicts using advance algorithms, when a stop sign violation is occurring and captures the violation event with digital camera and high-resolution video.

Step 1 The first image of the violation is taken BEFORE the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 2 The second image is taken AFTER the vehicle passes the stop line.
Step 3 The license plate is taken from a close-up of the images captured.
Step 4 In addition, a high-resolution video of the violation event is captured as a validation tool.
Step 5 Additional data collected includes the time, date, speed, location, lane, and direction of the travel.

https://asc.ddot.dc.gov/

Unfortunately, there are lots of intersections where, if you stop at the white line, you cannot see if it is safe to proceed.

Do you, as a driver, really not know the legal and safe way to handle those intersections?

I wouldn't be surprised, but still disappointed. It's so easy.