Posted on 01/29/2022 4:20:36 PM PST by algore
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's plan to 'promote speed safety cameras' is raising the troubling specter of ubiquitous automated traffic enforcement in the style of the UK, where the cameras are widely despised.
Buttigieg's 42-page plan road safety plan unveiled on Thursday and backed by $14 billion in funding from the new infrastructure bill, contained only brief mention of the speed camera plan, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing for worried motorists.
Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson slammed the plan as a misuse of the funds in the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Bill, fuming that 'you're about to get a lot more speeding tickets from robots.'
'When the country applauded $1.2 trillion going to fixing the roads, bridges and buildings, a lot of us were dumb enough to think that's what might actually happen,' he said.
Speed cameras have also drawn sharp criticism from some on the left, who are angry that the fines are often directed to fund police departments, making the issue rare grounds for bipartisan agreement.
Currently, eight US states have laws specifically prohibiting speed cameras. Only 18 states plus DC have speed cameras in use by law, with the other states having no law on the books authorizing their use. Buttigieg's strategy recommends pilot programs to study and promote greater use of speed cameras
Buttigieg said new federal data being released next week will show another increase in traffic fatalities through the third quarter of 2021.
Those numbers are expected to point to a sizable increase in deaths compared with the same period in 2020, adding to a half-year traffic death total of 20,160 that already was the highest half-year figure since 2006.
'It doesn´t look good, and I continue to be extremely concerned about the trend,' Buttigieg told the AP in an interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’ve driven over in the UK. Several times.
Those speed cameras are ALL OVER THE PLACE! Even in small villages.
You are in the camp of “If you’re not guilty you’ve got nothing to say.’
What will they do about open roads in places like Montana and Texas?
Very few “good” ideas cross the pond our way. There’s a reason Orwell was British...
He will learn when he gets a notification that says “you exited two exits later than you should have for optimal mileage. Your fine will be $150.00”. Of course “the best route” according to google maps is straight onto MLK Blvd.
Especially if the Feds are pushing it now, it has nothing to do with safety, but with control. There is no rational need for this. Once they do it, the purposes for it will change. It will never disappear. We will wake up one day in a Twenty-First Century East Germany.
Nah. Maybe it’s better you realize the totalitarian march left continues unabated.
For once, NJ is the good color.
Turns out the cameras -- which were supposed to eliminate "systemic racism" by police officers in issuing traffic tickets -- are citing a disproportionate number of minorities anyway ... so they obviously have to be shut down.
“so follow the speed laws and there will be no problem.”
Follow the speed limit in Arizona and you’ll be run over by everyone else....
Necklacing.
hate buttboy but if traffic cameras would change our once tranquil narrow state highway from the drag strip it has become I’d buy the camera for the stretch in front of the farm myself.
We just had a headon down at the corner. Uninsured kid in a pickup passing a neighbor making a left turn and hit a young mother with two toddlers in car seats in the back. Children in shock, took us over an hour to cut the mom out of the car. She lived but will never be the same again.
The patrol infrequently comes out here but when they do they look like ducks in s shooting gallery going to and fro stopping speeders. The trooper told me he regretted stopping a 17 year-old girl for doing 87 in a 55. I asked why regret? She should follow the law.
I’ve had them pass me on the tractor with an implement while trying to make a left turn into the driveway, and honk while doing it. Same thing happened to my wife in her car. Lucky I wasn’t driving, I’d chase them down and get in trouble.
Sure, that's your choice. Just be sure to relish the fact that you're doing so of your own volition. Future generations may have no say in the matter.
However, if you're actually defending the expansion of state surveillance and control, you may be posting in the wrong forum.
That’s what I figure. Shoot them out at distance with a high power rifle.
You’re a clown not to have realized fedgov has no right to interfere in a state/local issue. I suggest you find another website as you sound like an apologetic for the left.
His carefully worded statement is really this:
“I never said I don’t break the speed laws, I just haven’t been caught yet.”
Which kinda wipes out any credibility he has when he tells people to simply obey the speed limit.
Because he doesn’t. He just hasn’t gotten a ticket yet.
Oh hell no! Been there. It was horrible.
“Maybe the thing to do is obey the traffic laws.”
Was that you that was holding up traffic on I-10 in 1985?
floriduh man has spoken
Sure can grow em down there.
More government stupidity.
It would be money better spent to rework all merge lanes to the standards I see on recently built interstates....a mile long and lots of time and room to merge. Too many highways have very short merge lanes with limited viability.
Second..The idiots who hang exit signs straddling two lanes should be replaced by someone who has more brains. At interstate speeds it is not safe for drivers to be confused as to whether both lanes turn or does it mean only one is the exit lane. Exit lanes should also be 1/2 to 1 mile long and not have that stupid 25 MPH turn. That is where a lot of trucks turn over.
Sometimes I am sure the guy that hung that sign rides a bicycle to work....or the bus.
I am retired but even so I make a trip once a week that is 340 miles round trip. The highway is four lane and divided. The west lanes are a pleasure to drive.
The east lanes are the original highway. I drove it the first time in 1949 and it was old then. Built when grading was done with mules and drag pans. Narrow, crooked, graded so badly that if you look at the speedometer or in the mirrors, the vehicle will be headed off the road.
Don’t have the money to rebuild it because they are going to spend it on windmills.
And it is a US highway serving Norfolk, VA and container trucks run it in packs.
So we are going to take their picture and everyone will be safe?
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