wopazoo

wopazoo, 5 months ago

Do you not feel discouraged from speeding or running red lights when there are traffic enforcement cameras watching?

wopazoo, 5 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

Cameras have only the mechanisms necessary to record and report, they have no mechanism by which they can divert, slow, or stop a car or pedestrian and no mechanism they can use to stop an accident.

There is no need to stop a crash in-progress when the dangerous behavior that would have resulted in that crash never happened in the first place because of the discouraging effect of traffic cameras.

wopazoo, 5 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

Traffic calming and speed cameras are carrot and stick in lowering the speed of roads. Lowering the design speed of roads alone is never going to stop drivers in a hurry from driving dangerously fast. People aren’t deterred from commiting crimes by heavy penalties, they are deterred by the chance of getting caught. Automatic traffic enforcement raises that chance to 100%.

wopazoo, 5 months ago

Speed cameras are applicable to all roads, from the 30 km/h residential street to the 140 km/h highway. Speed cameras are also self-funding and thus have a negative cost. Fines collected by speed cameras can be used to finance road redesign and traffic calming measures.

wopazoo, 5 months ago

Ah yes, let’s just close all the roads in the country until we get that sorted out, great idea.

wopazoo, 5 months ago (edited 10 days ago)

Please explain to me where the money to redesign and rebuild like half the city’s roads is going to come from if not from a transitional period of speed cameras.

Say, why are you such a virulent opponent of speed cameras? Do you find yourself to be a chronic speeder?

wopazoo, 5 months ago (edited 10 days ago)

Lol the absolute state of speed camera opposers

If you don’t drive, you have literally no reason to oppose speed cameras. Speed cameras reduce the negative externalities of cars at literally no cost to you. If you don’t drive, you cannot get a speed ticket.

Also, for the China fans out there, consider how the widespread implementation of automatic traffic enforcement cameras in China that do things from watching if you’re speeding, to watching if you’re driving in multiple lanes at once, to watching if you’re wearing a seatbelt have massively improved driving conditions and reduced road chaos in China. Automatic traffic enforcement makes driving better.

wopazoo, 5 months ago

I’m sure your plan will be popular with the motoring public that anti speed camera rhetoric is trying to appeal to.

wopazoo, 5 months ago (edited 10 days ago)

The widespread implementation of automatic traffic enforcement cameras in China objectively has decreased traffic violations. Compare driving in China in 2008 to 2024. It is a night and day difference.

I agree with your assessment about American traffic enforcement being more about collecting an informal tax than actually being about improving road safety (see: speed traps). In the UK (which this article is about), the speed cameras do flash (and thus provide immediate feedback).

wopazoo, 5 months ago (edited 10 days ago)

As I understand it, China just has cameras on every street because their goal is to decrease traffic violations and not just generate ticket revenue.

This is correct. Traffic cameras are present on basically every street, and they are highly visible, preceded by a road sign, and your GPS audibly tells you about them. They also flash at you.

China also has a better implementation of red light cameras. Green lights start flashing a few seconds before they turn yellow, allowing you to either make it across the intersection or slow down in time.

wopazoo, 6 months ago

do you not realize that the existing car infrastructure requires constant maintenance

wopazoo, 6 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

That doesn’t make any sense. Observation is alteration. You cannot see light without absorbing light.