Reply to DC traffic cameras issued 3.3 MILLION tickets last year

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Looks like Kenyan McDuffie wants to make the explosion in traffic camera tickets an issue in the mayoral race.

"We also don’t want to continue to prey on folks with traffic tickets and enforcement in ways that communities have been plagued by increasing costs. We know that there are folks in this city simply trying to figure out ways to get to work favorably, simply trying to figure out ways to make money, to take care of themselves and their families, and we want to lighten that load for them."

https://wtop.com/dc/2026/01/kenyan-mcduffie-announces-run-for-mayor-tells-wtop-why-hes-entering-the-race/

[/quote]

About a year and a half ago, a DC-licensed driver of a vehicle that had accumulated literally thousands of dollars in speeding tickets hit an elderly pedestrian as she walked across a crosswalk in my neighborhood.

The driver struck the elderly pedestrian with enough force to throw her about a hundred feet down the road, despite it being a 25mph zone.

Despite having thousands of dollars in unpaid fines, the driver had been able to re-register her vehicle, renew her license, and generally go about her business without any fear of suffering any consequences for her unpaid speeding tickets.

In just the past month, an MPD officer - Terry Bennett - and another pedestrian - Aaron Marckell Williams - were killed by drivers with extensive records of speeding tickets and another infractions.

For the complete lack of consequences enjoyed by sociopathic drivers in DC, we have council members like Kenyon McDuffie to thank.

But Kenyon Duffie is worried that folks are being preyed on by “traffic tickets and enforcement”.

Patricia Bollinger. Officer Terry Bennett. Aaron Marckell Williams. Mohamed Kamara. Jonathan Cabrera Mendez. Olvin Torres Velasquez.

All died at the hands of drivers that Kenyon McDuffie feels are being preyed upon on by “traffic tickets and enforcement”.

I can’t wait to ask him exactly what enforcement these drivers faced before they killed an elderly DC resident, a 26 year-old pedestrian from Southeast, an MPD officer who graduated from Ballou High School and Bucknell University, and three rideshare passengers. If anyone else has any insights, please feel free to share.[/quote]

cameras are useless, except for the profits they generate for the camera companies. [/quote]

Dozens of rigorous studies say otherwise, but why bother with them when we’ve got your vibes to go on.[/quote]

Look at the evidence right in front of you. Over the past decade, DC increased ticketing by ten fold. We now issue more tickets per capita than probably anywhere else in the entire world. We issue so many tickets that AAA now warns drivers about DC (AAA calls the ticketing in DC "predatory"). And what happened? Traffic deaths did not decline. [/quote]

An interesting observation, but the Congressional Research Service (CRS), National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are probably better informed and maybe a little bit more objective than you (or the AAA for that matter).

As noted in the CRS report on automated traffic enforcement (ATE) (https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R46552/R46552.1.pdf),

"There have been many studies of speed camera programs; most have concluded that speed cameras reduced speeding and/or crashes in the vicinity of the cameras, and in some cases in the  surrounding areas. Several reviews that looked at dozens of studies from around the world found that despite methodological issues in most studies, speed cameras reduce speeding and/or crashes. In its evidence-based guide to traffic safety measures, NHTSA gives ATE (including  both speed cameras and red light cameras) the highest rating for effectiveness; the setting of  speed limits themselves is the only other countermeasure rated as demonstrated to be effective in limiting speeding. Similarly, automated speed enforcement is the only speeding-related  countermeasure included by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its tool to enable states to model cost-effective interventions to reduce traffic deaths and injuries. The NTSB also considers automated speed enforcement to be “an effective countermeasure to reduce speeding-related crashes, fatalities, and injuries.”

Or would you rather we have more speeding-related crashes, fatalities, and injuries?[/quote]

Ok, so when did the explosion in ticketing begin to reduce traffic deaths? Which year? Here's the number of speeding-driver deaths in DC from the past decade:

2024: 20
2023: 22
2022: 9
2021: 12
2020: 15
2019: 10
2018: 9
2017: 12
2016: 8
2015: 11
2014: 12
2013: 11[/quote]

It looks like the number of deaths went way up when the DC Council removed the last remaining consequences for not paying camera fines (and when MPD stopped doing traffic enforcement) and then can come down when they put some of those back in (via the STEER Act). It shouldn’t be surprising that merely taking photos of speeding cars doesn’t improve traffic safety, but that enforcing fines causes at least some drivers to adjust their behavior.[/quote]

Source? Because this is all a bunch of lies. Most tickets are paid. [/quote]

The sources have been posted ad nauseum. You refuse to engage with them and then pretend they don’t exist.

Almost every serious study shows that sanctioning speeding reduces average speeds, which reduces the number of crashes and the proportion of crashes that are deadly.

It’s very well-established and not something that any serious person would take issue with.

Taking a contrary view is kind of like maintaining that plants don’t need sunshine to grow, that cigarettes don’t cause cancer, that binge drinking during the first trimester doesn’t harm fetal development, or that toxic sludge is great for marine life.[/quote]

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