What a tragedy!

Anyway…

People vandalize speed cameras

Toronto city council decided last week that it will install “larger, more visible and clearer” signs to warn drivers where automated speed enforcement cameras are located in the city.

“HEY VANDALS! THE SPEED CAMERAS ARE OVER HERE!”

Replace speed cameras with road diets and other geometric choices that restrict traffic speed without relying on drivers following rules (they don’t)

Have you ever seen an idiot driver in a roundabout?

That’s why they put raised safety platforms at the entrances and exits of roundabouts

Based on your response to my question, I am going to assume you have never seen an idiot driver in a roundabout.

I don’t really care that much either way for speed cameras. They work in a very limited fashion, but they punish the poor the most, and the money goes to cops.

At the end of the day speed cameras are a solution to a problem that doesn’t need to exist. We are failing to use technology available to us for basically no reason - we already know how to slow people and calm traffic without any kind of economic/punitive incentive.

The Ottawa Protocol

90 kph

Speed camera

50 kph

Past speed camera

90 kph

“It highlights the bigger problem, such as the frustration that the motorists have,” Lacroix said.

Frustrated that they can’t speed??? Frustrated enough to commit a crime because they can’t commit a different crime???

Since it was installed in April 2022, the camera has issued over 65,000 tickets and more than $7 million in fines, according to Safe Parkside.

This highlights the bigger problem, such as the complete lack of care that motorists have. 🤭

Keep fining them. And catch the people or persons who are vandalizing the cameras so they can spend the rest of their life paying for the damages.

Hey I got a ticket for going 57 in a school zone where the posted limit is 50, except the road only borders the far end of the school yard at the tip of its soccer field, with no way for students to exit, and the road itself is 4 lanes and should really have a speed limit of 60, and it was Sunday… Easter Sunday to be precise, so it was literally a school zone surrounded by days off.

Imagine if I hadn’t been caught! I’m a Menace II Society, for sure.

This is the way, but good luck getting that implemented. NIMBYs and “frustrated motorists” will push back, and it only takes a few to ruin good ideas.

but they punish the poor the most

Does being poor compel people to speed or something?

The problem is two-fold: one is that our roads are designed to encourage bad driving behaviour, and drivers feel entitled to drive in a way that’s convenient (but not safe).

Have you ever tried to get traffic calming measures implemented in a community, especially around school zones? It’s excruciatingly difficult, and a few complaints from NIMBYs will have those measures removed, wasting taxpayer money and not solving any problems.

It’s infuriating that low powered micromobility devices like e-scooters are so severely restricted, but multi-ton weapons can be operated with almost no enforcement or consequences.

I don’t know how it is up there, but down here in the states those traffic cams are pretty much all run by private for profit companies who take like 99% of the fines for themselves.

So I’ve got no problem with folks destroying them.

Does being poor compel people to speed or something?

No, but $100+ to a poor person could be the difference between literal life and death.

$100+ to someone well off or rich is nothing but pocket change.

The solution to this is sliding scale fines. The better off you are the more you get fined.

Why should a poor person have to spend 90% of their money on a fine when a “rich” person only has to spend 0.0009% for the exact same infraction.

I like reminding my friends in professional law enforcement that these cameras are exactly what losing your job to a machine is about.

Yea we’ve avoided the mass privatization of speed cameras so far and the vast majority of the fines goes into the city municipal budget, where it can be spent pretty much anywhere but often is spent on the roads themselves.

Where do you live with a 50km/h school zone? That is psychotic.

We literally do not have enough law enforcement to properly enforce traffic laws. It is part of why average speeds have crept up to 10-20 over the limit. In fact enforcing traffic laws was kinda just something that was thrown at the police when cars were invented and we’ve never really stopped to think about it since.

Poor people generally don’t own cars, and if you can afford to own a personal vehicle, you can afford to pay for driving like an asshole in one.

How about instead of speed cameras you change your road designs? People won’t speed if they cannot speed safely.

Make your roads less wide. Add some curves, depending on required max speed, you make the curves larger or smaller. On lower speed roads, add obstacles to drive around.

There are many forms of traffic management that don’t require speeding cameras but then again, speeding cameras are for making the government money, not for traffic safety