Posted on 01/03/2002 11:37:48 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:50:26 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The District has issued automated speeding citations to more than 160,000 drivers and collected more than $5.3 million in fines since it began its photo-radar camera program in August.
According to figures provided by the Metropolitan Police Department, the city has collected through Dec. 27 $5,326,922 from 74,228 of the 161,322 drivers who have been cited since the automated traffic-enforcement program began Aug. 10.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Politicians are our employees. They work for us. We should be able to protest by refusing to sell them goods and services. If it was anybody else other than government sucking even one tenth as much money out of your pocket would you have them as your customer? How do you feel about having Ted Kennedy or Hillary Clinton in your store?
That's it in a nutshell, amigo.
It is an absolute joke. I haven't gotten a ticket in 10 years now. The last one I got was on a straight, nearly empty interstate going 78 in a 70 zone by a cop who was hiding behind a billboard. Yeah, I feel so much safer knowing he is hiding back there "to protect us".
My theory is that we should just add more cops who regularly patrol. If while on patrol they see a violation, they ticket it. The Hide-a-cop, radar photo cameras are an intrusion into our freedoms though.
I am sick and tired of being nickled and dimed to death. The fees here, the taxes there are all designed to make us not realize how much we pay in taxes. Sales taxes went up 1/4 of 1% in California as of Jan 1. We don't notice it. Hey ya buy a $4 item... now you pay 33 cents as opposed to 32 cents in taxes. You buy a $40,000 car though, and it tacks on $100 to the purchase price.
I am not opposed to all government spending. The politicians, democrat and republican as well are terrified of what would happen if we went to a flat tax and killed all the nickle and dime fees. If every time you bought something, you pay a value added tax there would be so much pressure to reduce the %. It's so much easier to nickle and dime us into sleep.
If it is about "saving lives" then why did they hope for 80,000 monthly citations? If this really works the number of citations should shrink, and that's what they should hope for. But they always say that more citations "proves" that it works. It's just about the money.
It's not about saving lives, just as tobacco taxes aren't about saving lives. IT'S ABOUT REVENUE. I hope people who get caught have the urge to revisit the camera and make it not work.
"Average speeds in 25 mph zones appear to have stabilized at 29 mph — down from 35.5 mph in July," said Mr. Morison.
Monitoring of 35 mph zones shows a reduction in average speeds from 43.7 mph in July to 39.4 mph in December, he added.
Any traffic engineer can tell you that the long-accepted practice for setting speed limits is to measure motorist speeds, then to set the limit at the 85th percentile of thos speeds, rounding up. This is enacted in law in probably every state, based on the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). Thus, limits are set above the average speed.
When they tell us that the average speed in the 25 zone was 35 mph, then the limit is set too low, based on safety criteria (unless there is evidence that this road has significant safety concerns compared to other roads with comparable speeds). Same for the 35 zone, with average speeds nearly 10 mph above that.
If they wanted to succeed at eliminating speeding, they would raise the 25 limit to 40, and the 35 limit to 45. But that would leave them bereft of the multi-million dollar revenue stream.
The other interesting story is the fact that only half of violators are paying up. Like most such systems, they are probably not legally serving the accused (they can't prove that the violator received notice) and the payment is essentially voluntary.
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