Income based fines for traffic camera tickets in DC?

[Anonymous]

This is how fines should work for moving and non-moving violations, but for the first time only. No discounts for subsequent offenses.

Too often, unpaid traffic fines put poor people on a cycle of escalating penalties that they can’t escape. They fail to pay the fine because they don’t have the money, and then they accrue penalties, putting payment further out of reach. Eventually, their tags or licenses are suspended, exposing them to more expensive fines and potentially arrest outside of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is how fines should work for moving and non-moving violations, but for the first time only. No discounts for subsequent offenses.

Too often, unpaid traffic fines put poor people on a cycle of escalating penalties that they can’t escape. They fail to pay the fine because they don’t have the money, and then they accrue penalties, putting payment further out of reach. Eventually, their tags or licenses are suspended, exposing them to more expensive fines and potentially arrest outside of DC.

No, they fail to pay because there are no consequences in DC for not paying and everyone knows it.

[Anonymous]

Seems fair. We cannot have poor people in perpetual debt because they cannot pay a fine. You can't squeeze blood from a stone.

I'm a hard ass too wrt paying what you owe and fining people for breaking laws. You need to punish people appropriately for their crimes, not ruin their entire lives because of a speeding ticket they can't pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious if you have heard about this new proposed law for DC. Basically if you were to receive a ticket from a traffic camera you would get a $100 fine. If you can prove that you have a lower Household income, the price you would have to pay would be on a sliding scale. My ticket could be $100, yours could be $20.

More controversially, Mayor Bowser wants to use more than a half-billion dollars worth of revenue from a planned expansion of traffic cameras — which target speeding, red light-running, stop sign violations, and more — to help close the four-year budget gap. Under a traffic safety plan approved by the D.C. Council, the number of cameras across the city is expected to leap from 140 now to almost 500 in the coming years. But Bowser is also creating a task force to consider options of how to mitigate the cost of steep traffic camera fines on low-income drivers (including a possible sliding scale of fines depending on income) ...

I am of the camp that says "do the crime, pay the time". Why should people that break the law be treated defiantly based on income?

Thoughts?

It doesn't make any sense.

[Anonymous]

If someone can't pay ticket, do community service in weekends.

[Anonymous]

or just avoid getting tickets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's already income based because poor people don't pay the tickets right now.

BTW, for all the super slow drivers out there, you don't get a ticket unless you're going more than 10 over. It's not written into law (like Maryland's tolerance of 12 over is), but DC is on record as saying this is the threshold. I always go 8-9 over on 16th street, where the speed limit is artificially low at 30.

The speed limit of 30 on 16th Street is not artificially low. 16th Street runs past residential neighborhoods (and has houses on it, in parts). No reason you have to be going 45 or 50 miles per hour there. Leave earlier for work if you're worried about time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the income based fine is what is controversial here and not the fact that she is more than doubling the number of traffic cameras? All in an effort to balance the budget.

Yeah I do have a problem with this. I also don’t think it will work. And if she is going for equity it seems inequitable to those who have to work in person versus those residents who can work from home. They won’t get as many tickets. I’m just going to keep pointing out inequities for each proposal she has because all of this is getting absurd. Meanwhile there were ATVs speeding all over my neighborhood all evening last night. I’m sure they’ll be real upset and stop speeding when they get all those tickets.

I go to the office at least three days a week, but I take Metro or bike -- which means I won't have to pay ANY FINES AT ALL. Totally unfair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's already income based because poor people don't pay the tickets right now.

BTW, for all the super slow drivers out there, you don't get a ticket unless you're going more than 10 over. It's not written into law (like Maryland's tolerance of 12 over is), but DC is on record as saying this is the threshold. I always go 8-9 over on 16th street, where the speed limit is artificially low at 30.

The speed limit is the speed limit. If you speed (and 38-39 in a 30 is speeding by a lot), you're breaking the law. Are there any other laws you routinely break, and does the exemption from obeying laws only apply to you, or does it apply to others, too?

[Anonymous]

Higher fines for richer people provide more equal punishment and deterrence. If $10 is very little money to you, then you may not think twice before speeding. The prospect of a higher fine may be a stronger deterrent.

[Anonymous]

DC's transition to full communism is almost complete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If someone can't pay ticket, do community service in weekends.

I would agree with that - community service when they can't pay.

Also, DC needs to enforce in the first place. There are lots of people with thousands and thousands of dollars in unpaid tickets and it's not because they can't pay, it's because they are jerks who want to drive like maniacs and know they can get away with it.
DC could easily get revenue by adding a few more tow/boot crews, which would pay for themselves, along with making the streets safer once the word gets out that you'll be less likely to get away with bad behavior behind the wheel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's transition to full communism is almost complete.

I missed the proposal for nationalizing the means of production.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's transition to full communism is almost complete.

I missed the proposal for nationalizing the means of production.

And the collective farms. Where will they be happening? Should be interesting in any event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why should a family be plunged into the red over a traffic ticket?

Because they broke the law...why shouldn't they pay the fine? Fair is fair.