“As well as her outspoken vaccine stance, Cannon was well-known in Arlington for her campaign to ban red-light cameras in 2015.”
I can see how the right to catch and give others a deadly disease and the right to cause car crashes have some cross over.
Nah, red light cameras are a racket that should be banned. If anything, they increase accidents, because they incentivize municipalities to shorten yellow light times so as to catch more people, which is a substantial detriment to safety.
Red light cameras suck though, both on a policy and justice level
I’m always amazed on these policy discussion with americans where the clear solution implemented in most parts of the developed world is apparantly impossible in america because it requires some version of a vaguely competent and non predatory state apparatus.
I’m sure drivers whine about this in Australia too. But the link below shows what this might look like.
Australias road deaths are a fraction of the US, and have come down largely due to fairly interventionist policy across multiple measures, including speed and traffic lights
One of the only tickets I’ve ever gotten was from a red light camera. For turning right on red. At an intersection where turning right on red is allowed. I tried to fight and was told “the camera focuses in on your wheels. If rotation doesn’t stop completely for 3 seconds before turning it records the ticket. You can’t fight it, it will not be overturned.” I had only stopped for 1 second. So I got an $85 ticket for something that would never get ticketed by a cop if the cop wwas the car directly behind me. I’m still salty 10+ years later. Fuck predatory red light cameras.
I’m sorry that happened to you.
Yeah, red light and speed cameras are color-blind. They’re way fairer then letting police officers decide who to write tickets to.
Perhaps. But the question “how do we build policing policy so that our predatory, institutionally racist, murderous police force doesnt use it further oppress black people” seems like it isnt really cutting to the best potential solution.
They aren’t and have largely been deployed in specific areas for a reason.
They also haven’t actually been shown to prevent anything, at least in America. I can’t speak to Australia specifically, but I’m deeply skeptical that cameras are what drives down traffic deaths as opposed to various other interventions.
Why?
People more likely to crash and more likely to die if they do crash at faster speeds. Speed cameras slow people down. Less people die.
Like theres a few jumps in there but theres a very viable causative relationship.
Its legitimately hard tho. Explaining to americans what competent and well meaning government feels like is like trying to explain to a deep sea worm about sunlight.
Yeah, it’s easy enough to put a bunch of cameras in the hood and pretend that they’re colorblind.
Rugby’s description of red light cameras in Australia makes it sound like they were rolled out at about the same time as a bunch of other traffic safety measures, so it may be difficult to show the effectiveness of the cameras there apart from other interventions that may have had a much stronger effect.
When I got my red light ticket. (Idiot in front of me brakes suddenly then speeds up. which cause me to break and just I’m go past the line a split second after the light turns red.
It was a grande ripoff.
Found a study at the time that a free fix to add 0.5 seconds to the standard yellow light time reduced accidents massively. But what do we do? We shorten the yellow to try and catch more red light violations. The red light tickets are big business.
The best was in LA where the banned red light and speed cameras, and everyone who had a ticket pending got amnesty - no points, no fine. But if you were a good little citizen and had paid your fine right away? Still points, and no refund on the fine.
Lesson: never give the govt money until the last possible second, and then only maybe.
Retired Staten Island cops love to whine about speed cameras, presumably because they can’t get out of a ticket by flashing their badge.
After seeing the cops in my neighborhood let one white person after another run a stop sign, then pull over the first brown person, I agree some solution to is needed. But I doubt cameras are the answer. Maybe cameras that watch the cops.
Because traffic fatalities have been dropping in developed nations for decades, and these types of questions are complex. While I can’t comment on Australia specifically, I won’t just buy that traffic cameras are hugely important when I’m sure that Australia does a lot of other things better than us, and cars themselves are so much safer than they used to be.
FFS I started driving on public roads, legally, at 14 years 9 months. I drove fully independently with basically zero restrictions at 16. Training and licensing was a joke. I’m sure y’all can do better than that (and I’m sure most states don’t do that kind of shit anymore).
What I don’t buy is that cameras are that important. It’s based more on bias I’m sure, but the data on their use in the USA was not good at all.
First result from google scholar.
Australian roads have speed cameras nearly everywhere. Combined with roving cameras in cars. Plus point to point, average speed type cameras.
But I could see the data being very messy, and heavily dependent on implementation.
Yes but as we Ben Garrison constantly reminds us, Australia is more repressive than China.
In USA#1, they are a revenue racket and nothing more.
Speeding tickets, in general, are a poor use of government resources, imo. But if you are gonna write tickets, do it in person. Like the olden days.
