Anonymous
08/05/2024 12:25
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
It's pretty useless to argue with the proponents of these cameras. DC needs the money, so we'll continue seeing more of them, and the people who actually think they make the roads safer will do their chest thumping because they believe the speed limit is some sort of magic number that will prevent traffic accidents. Just learn where the cameras are on the routes you take regularly (and if driving a different route, be extra vigilant), learn what the threshold is for them to ticket you, and act accordingly.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 12:01
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the ramp to/from 66. There are no pedestrains, bicyclists, scooters, wheelchairs, children or dogs at risk. There are zero "safety" concerns involved. Instead there are very significant safety reasons regarding merging why someone might need to speed. It's nothing but a blatant cash grab.
Alternatively: obey the law, don't speed.
A safe merge/exit on a highway sometimes requires temporarily going faster.
Faster than the legal speed limit? There? Nah.
To safely merge/exit around existing traffic then yes. Have you never driven on a highway before because it sure sounds like it.
If you can't drive without breaking traffic laws, you shouldn't be driving.
You're a fool stuck on a talking point.
To merge onto a highway you have to go the prevailing speed otherwise you are creating a major safety issue.
And you’re a fool stuck on one single example where a traffic camera MAY not make sense, and using that to say all traffic cameras are bad. We see you.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:59
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the ramp to/from 66. There are no pedestrains, bicyclists, scooters, wheelchairs, children or dogs at risk. There are zero "safety" concerns involved. Instead there are very significant safety reasons regarding merging why someone might need to speed. It's nothing but a blatant cash grab.
Alternatively: obey the law, don't speed.
A safe merge/exit on a highway sometimes requires temporarily going faster.
Faster than the legal speed limit? There? Nah.
To safely merge/exit around existing traffic then yes. Have you never driven on a highway before because it sure sounds like it.
If you can't drive without breaking traffic laws, you shouldn't be driving.
You're a fool stuck on a talking point.
To merge onto a highway you have to go the prevailing speed otherwise you are creating a major safety issue.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:54
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the ramp to/from 66. There are no pedestrains, bicyclists, scooters, wheelchairs, children or dogs at risk. There are zero "safety" concerns involved. Instead there are very significant safety reasons regarding merging why someone might need to speed. It's nothing but a blatant cash grab.
Alternatively: obey the law, don't speed.
A safe merge/exit on a highway sometimes requires temporarily going faster.
Faster than the legal speed limit? There? Nah.
To safely merge/exit around existing traffic then yes. Have you never driven on a highway before because it sure sounds like it.
If you can't drive without breaking traffic laws, you shouldn't be driving.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:53
Subject: Re:Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Traffic cameras are racist as hell.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/08/06/dc-traffic-parking-tickets-black-neighborhoods/
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
Black drivers in DC pay *five times* as much in traffic camera fees as white drivers. That is astounding.
Yes, that's what happens when traffic calming and other street-safety measures primarily go in areas where white people predominate. Tell you what: let's put lots of traffic calming and other street-safety measures in areas where black people predominate, and lots of additional automated enforcement in areas where white people predominate. Sound good?
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:52
Subject: Re:Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Traffic cameras are racist as hell.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/08/06/dc-traffic-parking-tickets-black-neighborhoods/
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
Black drivers in DC pay *five times* as much in traffic camera fees as white drivers. That is astounding.
Maybe black drivers need to learn obey traffic laws. As long as the cameras are placed in areas where speeding is a problem there’s nothing racist about it. What IS racist is refusing to ensure traffic safety in black neighborhoods.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:49
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the ramp to/from 66. There are no pedestrains, bicyclists, scooters, wheelchairs, children or dogs at risk. There are zero "safety" concerns involved. Instead there are very significant safety reasons regarding merging why someone might need to speed. It's nothing but a blatant cash grab.
Alternatively: obey the law, don't speed.
A safe merge/exit on a highway sometimes requires temporarily going faster.
Faster than the legal speed limit? There? Nah.
To safely merge/exit around existing traffic then yes. Have you never driven on a highway before because it sure sounds like it.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:45
Subject: Re:Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Traffic cameras are racist as hell.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/08/06/dc-traffic-parking-tickets-black-neighborhoods/
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
Black drivers in DC pay *five times* as much in traffic camera fees as white drivers. That is astounding.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:39
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the ramp to/from 66. There are no pedestrains, bicyclists, scooters, wheelchairs, children or dogs at risk. There are zero "safety" concerns involved. Instead there are very significant safety reasons regarding merging why someone might need to speed. It's nothing but a blatant cash grab.
Alternatively: obey the law, don't speed.
A safe merge/exit on a highway sometimes requires temporarily going faster.
Faster than the legal speed limit? There? Nah.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:38
Subject: Re:Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Traffic cameras are racist as hell.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/08/06/dc-traffic-parking-tickets-black-neighborhoods/
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
"Advocates for changing the District’s system of fees and fines say the disparities show that the city’s ticketing and traffic enforcement policies not only target Black drivers but criminalize poverty. When a person in the District cannot pay their infractions, the amounts double. The city can then put a hold on license and vehicle renewals and registrations before calling on debt collection agencies that tack on additional surcharges to capture overdue fines. The result over time becomes a financial and bureaucratic black hole where people like Scott lose their vehicles and jobs, making it that much more difficult to crawl out of debt."
Trayon has been on this
“This ticket system we have in the District is crippling the finances of poor and working-class Black and Brown families,” said council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), who has been an advocate of ticket reform since joining the council in 2017. “The average person doesn’t have an additional $300 in discretionary funds to pay to a government that has a $500 million surplus during a pandemic.”
The tickets are crazy expensive! This is just a money grab by the city.
If you don't speed and don't go through red lights, you won't get a ticket.
I have no idea how crazy expensive the tickets are, because I have never received one.
The tickets start at $100, double after 30 years and grow from there. It's funny that we get rid of library overdue fines in the name of equity, but we're fine with black drivers paying the lion's share of egregiously expensive traffic camera tickets. If you've ever gotten one at a stop sign, you know there are extremely picky. If you don't stop and sit there for a couple seconds, you get a ticket. No cop would do that.
Library fines cost more to administer than they bring in, and they dissuade people from borrowing library materials.
Automated enforcement fines bring in more than they cost to administer, and they dissuade people from driving dangerously.
If a cop wouldn't cite a driver for failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign - that's a problem, and it's also an argument FOR automated enforcement.
To be fair, part of the shift to camera's was to reduce the interactions of police with drivers. Too many drivers were responding poorly to being stopped and creating bad situations. If you start pulling people over again, be prepared for the occasional PR flare-up to nationwide riot type events.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:37
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the ramp to/from 66. There are no pedestrains, bicyclists, scooters, wheelchairs, children or dogs at risk. There are zero "safety" concerns involved. Instead there are very significant safety reasons regarding merging why someone might need to speed. It's nothing but a blatant cash grab.
Alternatively: obey the law, don't speed.
A safe merge/exit on a highway sometimes requires temporarily going faster.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:35
Subject: Re:Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Traffic cameras are racist as hell.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/08/06/dc-traffic-parking-tickets-black-neighborhoods/
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
"Advocates for changing the District’s system of fees and fines say the disparities show that the city’s ticketing and traffic enforcement policies not only target Black drivers but criminalize poverty. When a person in the District cannot pay their infractions, the amounts double. The city can then put a hold on license and vehicle renewals and registrations before calling on debt collection agencies that tack on additional surcharges to capture overdue fines. The result over time becomes a financial and bureaucratic black hole where people like Scott lose their vehicles and jobs, making it that much more difficult to crawl out of debt."
Trayon has been on this
“This ticket system we have in the District is crippling the finances of poor and working-class Black and Brown families,” said council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), who has been an advocate of ticket reform since joining the council in 2017. “The average person doesn’t have an additional $300 in discretionary funds to pay to a government that has a $500 million surplus during a pandemic.”
Trayon being concerned about this is hilarious considering all the traffic violations on his record in both DC and Maryland (look it up). It's like Charles Allen writing DUI laws even though he was found guilty of DUI.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:30
Subject: Re:Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Traffic cameras are racist as hell.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/08/06/dc-traffic-parking-tickets-black-neighborhoods/
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
"Advocates for changing the District’s system of fees and fines say the disparities show that the city’s ticketing and traffic enforcement policies not only target Black drivers but criminalize poverty. When a person in the District cannot pay their infractions, the amounts double. The city can then put a hold on license and vehicle renewals and registrations before calling on debt collection agencies that tack on additional surcharges to capture overdue fines. The result over time becomes a financial and bureaucratic black hole where people like Scott lose their vehicles and jobs, making it that much more difficult to crawl out of debt."
Trayon has been on this
“This ticket system we have in the District is crippling the finances of poor and working-class Black and Brown families,” said council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), who has been an advocate of ticket reform since joining the council in 2017. “The average person doesn’t have an additional $300 in discretionary funds to pay to a government that has a $500 million surplus during a pandemic.”
The tickets are crazy expensive! This is just a money grab by the city.
If you don't speed and don't go through red lights, you won't get a ticket.
I have no idea how crazy expensive the tickets are, because I have never received one.
The tickets start at $100, double after 30 years and grow from there. It's funny that we get rid of library overdue fines in the name of equity, but we're fine with black drivers paying the lion's share of egregiously expensive traffic camera tickets. If you've ever gotten one at a stop sign, you know there are extremely picky. If you don't stop and sit there for a couple seconds, you get a ticket. No cop would do that.
Library fines cost more to administer than they bring in, and they dissuade people from borrowing library materials.
Automated enforcement fines bring in more than they cost to administer, and they dissuade people from driving dangerously.
If a cop wouldn't cite a driver for failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign - that's a problem, and it's also an argument FOR automated enforcement.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:28
Subject: Re:Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's counter-intuitive, but traffic cameras make streets less safe because:
1. Now, no one is policing drunk and stoned drivers
2. Dangerous drivers will just avoid the streets that have traffic cameras (and they know that no traffic camera = no traffic enforcement). They can do whatever they want on streets that don't have cameras (which is most of them).
It's counter-intuitive because it's false.
Wow. Powerful argument. Traffic cameras are easy to game if you're a driver. You can speed so long as you don't go more than 10 mph over the limit on streets with cameras. You can blow stop signs as long as you're not on one of the rare streets with stop sign cameras. You can drink a bottle of vodka and drive all you want and nothing will happen so long as you don't crash.
So the traffic cameras do slow you down.
Anonymous
08/05/2024 11:27
Subject: Top traffic cameras bring in $1 million PER WEEK
Anonymous wrote:This is the ramp to/from 66. There are no pedestrains, bicyclists, scooters, wheelchairs, children or dogs at risk. There are zero "safety" concerns involved. Instead there are very significant safety reasons regarding merging why someone might need to speed. It's nothing but a blatant cash grab.
Alternatively: obey the law, don't speed.