DC Needs to Start Enforcing Traffic Laws
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Anonymous
The point is the return on effort/work is lower for booting. There's some money in auctioning cars, but it's a heck of a lot more work than ticketing. For sure, safety should be the goal, but I suspect DPW is motivated by revenue, as most of us are. |
Anonymous
Yours is a classist position. Not everyone can afford to buy a car. It’s also ableist because not everyone can drive a car. |
Anonymous
This is just making excuses for bad behavior. If people of color are disproportionately speeding, putting others lives at risk, then they deserve to be ticketed just like anyone else who behaves in this way. Homicide is also disproportionately committed by people of color (and the victims are also disproportionately people of color). Should we just shrug and say we shouldn't prosecute murder b/c the statistics don't match some progressive pie-in-the-sky vision of what society should look like? It's like people excusing the ATV riders who put other drivers and pedestrians at risk with their juvenile behavior and people say, "Oh it's just a cultural thing." Yeah, no. It's a dangerous thing that impacts quality of life for everyone. And it's going to get someone killed. |
Anonymous
NP here, I agree that we need to keep ticketing and go further to make sure the tickets get paid. But ever since the beginning of the speed camera program the cameras have been disproportionately in areas of the city with more POC. |
Anonymous
This isn't true - the cameras have always been focused on downtown more than any other area. In fact the cameras have always been pretty evenly divided across the city. Now it is true that in terms of the number of citations more are coming from Wards 7 & 8 but that is because that is where a lot of the high volume roads in DC are. Which is a reflection of the real equity issue here which is that it is low income neighborhoods that historically have been burdened by highways serving suburbanites and those residents have disproportionately born the cost in terms of poor air quality, lowered property values and vehicular violence. If anything given the low car ownership and driving rates among lower income residents there should be more cameras rather than fewer in Wards 7 & 8. BTW the vast majority of citations issued by all DC cameras go to suburbanites not DC residents. |
Anonymous
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The reciprocity issue solely revolves around D.C's abusive use of traffic cameras.
*MD and VA require their residents to pay D.C. tickets issued by MPD officers.* But MPD has all but ceased issuing traffic tickets. I don't blame MD and VA residents for tossing away their D.C. traffic camera fundraising tickets. |
Anonymous
For the last time, it's not about money. It's about stopping crazy reckless suburbanites from taking out their road rage on our narrow neighborhood streets. If you haven't checked the news, crazy iPhone-distracted speeders from VA and MD are literally killing DC children walking home from school. Imagine if DC drivers came over to McLean to spin wheelies in your quiet cul-de-sacs. You'd be the first to scream there goes the neighborhood! |
Anonymous
If those crazy reckless suburbanites had to pay the thousands of dollars of camera fines they owe before being allowed to renew their licenses and registrations, maybe they'd be less crazy and reckless. Right now they don't have to pay a cent, and it's emboldening them to be more crazy and reckless. So yes, it's about money. |
Anonymous
Right but I think the argument is that it isn't about the money for DC per se- the tickets are supposed to deter people from speeding or running red lights in a. dangerous manner. The point is first and foremost to raise money- it is to make the streets safer for people who choose to walk, bike, etc in the city. Unfortunately the type of person who is likely to speed through a residential neighborhood is not deterred just by getting a ticket that they don't have to pay- but as PP points out they might be deterred if they had to pay before renewing their license. |
Anonymous
Clearly not true seeing as DC made plans to stop using the cameras when they were losing money. |
Anonymous
It’s 100% about money. How does receiving a ticket change past behavior? People can’t go back in time and slow down. If you want people to drive slower, put up a big sign with an arrow pointing to the camera. Most people will see the sign and correct current behavior. |
Anonymous
Just boot their stupid Tesla and see how quickly that suburban douchebag will pay. |
Anonymous
| OP, I’m seriously actually moving over this issue. The fact that I can’t commute safely by bike or scooter anymore eliminates the reason to pay DC prices and DC taxes. We are moving to Maryland and buying a second car and I’ll drive in when I need to come in to the office weekly. If you can’t beat them, join them. The failure to enforce any law for equity’s sake has made the city unpleasant and dangerous to live in. |
Anonymous
Next year's budget provides funding to more or less double the number of cameras (that MD and VA driver's can ignore). |
Anonymous
Does it double the number of boot crews, to.... 4!? |