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Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

nytimes.com

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Re: Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

#21

Post by Jiro »

mabbo wrote: post #16

Of all the places I'd expect negative reactions to this, I'm shocked HN is one of them. This is automation of a dangerous job that is expensive to pay the labor costs of. That's our thing , folks! That's what tech is all about! If you think the speed limits should be higher so you can drive faster, fine, but that's completely orthogonal to the point here. Better enforcement of road laws, fewer police deaths from road…

>The only people complaining are the ones who want to disregard road laws because they don't care about the danger they pose to others, and like that there's barely any enforcement.

This assumes that speeding laws are mainly there to prevent danger to others.

That's not true.

Re: Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

#22

Post by gwill »

whalesalad wrote: post #19

I don't know why we spend so much time and resources on speeding when it is not the biggest issue facing the motoring public.

this should allow for fewer net resources to be used to combat speeding thanks to automation. police can be used elsewhere.

Re: Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

#23

Post by Jiro »

throw310822 wrote: post #11
garciasn wrote: post #7

From the article: It would make California the 19th state to install cameras that would automatically issue tickets to the owners of vehicles that are spotted exceeding the speed limit by at least 11 miles an hour. [...] The fines could be reduced if the vehicle owner is unable to pay. [...] “We’re out to change behavior. We’re not out to be punitive.” --- So: 1. The unintended consequence is that more people may fee…

> Those who can afford the $50 fine (which, knowing CA, is a big part of the population) That's why fines should always be proportional to income. They are not the price of a product, they are the price that should make a behaviour equally unaffordable for everyone.

By that reasoning, if you don't have a job, so being put in jail won't make you lose your job, you should be jailed longer to make up for the fact that jail harms you less. Likewise if you don't have children.

Re: Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

#27

Post by bryanlarsen »

whalesalad wrote: post #19

I don't know why we spend so much time and resources on speeding when it is not the biggest issue facing the motoring public.

You've probably internalized the talking point that "speeding doesn't cause accidents". While not completely true, the correlation isn't high.

However, speeding does have a significant impact on the severity of the accidents, making it an important issue. A little bit of speeding can be the difference between a fatal and non-fatal accident. Speeding is estimated to cause 30,000 deaths a year in the US.

https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/fhwasa1304/Res...

Re: Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

#28

Post by francisofascii »

One of my work projects was developing a system for managing the deployment locations of speed cameras. (Don't want to give away the state.) The speed cameras are rotated around to different locations each day. The vendor that supplies the speed camera systems is called RedFlex. It issues a couple thousand violations a day. Maybe around 1-2% of the total traffic. The legislation makes it lack teeth. There must be a warning sign before the camera. (so if you are paying attention, you simply slow down.) First offense is a warning, must be going 11 mph over, no points, etc.

Re: Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

#29

Post by tjohns »

garciasn wrote: post #7

From the article: It would make California the 19th state to install cameras that would automatically issue tickets to the owners of vehicles that are spotted exceeding the speed limit by at least 11 miles an hour. [...] The fines could be reduced if the vehicle owner is unable to pay. [...] “We’re out to change behavior. We’re not out to be punitive.” --- So: 1. The unintended consequence is that more people may fee…

The real impact of traffic tickets has always been the increased insurance rates, and after enough points you lose your license.

The fine is practically meaningless compared to what it does to your insurance rates.

Re: Californian Roads Could Soon Have Speed Cameras Issuing Tickets

#30

Post by bootlickdev »

mabbo wrote: post #16

Of all the places I'd expect negative reactions to this, I'm shocked HN is one of them. This is automation of a dangerous job that is expensive to pay the labor costs of. That's our thing , folks! That's what tech is all about! If you think the speed limits should be higher so you can drive faster, fine, but that's completely orthogonal to the point here. Better enforcement of road laws, fewer police deaths from road…

Surprisingly, law enforcement without compromise and expansion of the surveillance state aren't universal engineering values.
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