Buttigieg wants to rollout speed cameras in the US

[DayTrippin]

Our national transportation czar Pete Buttigieg, wants to deploy speed cameras around the US. Call you congressional representatives and get this smacked down as soon as you can or they will be everywhere before you know it.

Transportation Sec. Buttigieg unveils new strategy to combat rise in traffic fatalities

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is pledging to tackle rising traffic fatalities through a national strategy aimed at reducing speed, redesigning roads and enhancing car …

ktla.com

 

[jabloomf1230]

Our national transportation czar Pete Buttigieg, wants to deploy speed cameras around the US. Call you congressional representatives and get this smacked down as soon as you can or they will be everywhere before you know it.

Transportation Sec. Buttigieg unveils new strategy to combat rise in traffic fatalities

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is pledging to tackle rising traffic fatalities through a national strategy aimed at reducing speed, redesigning roads and enhancing car …

ktla.com

Some US States are already using the electronic toll collection mechanism to give speeding tickets. It's probably a more effective option than speed cameras, especially since vehicles without electronic tags get charged substantially higher tolls than vehicles with tags. The concept is elegant. If you traverse from a toll road entrance to an exit at more than a fixed percentage above the posted speed limit, you are automatically assessed a fine to your account.

I don't like it, but it's the future.

 

[DayTrippin]

Remind me to avoid those states as much as possible that do this. I hate toll roads in general. I remember too many where they were turned over to private companies and became ridiculously expensive and the road conditions became worse.

Speeding tickets on the freeway are generally pretty ridiculous. Many studies have shown that it isn't speed that is the issue but speed differential. When I lived in Europe and drove on the autobahn, if all the traffic was going 100 mph it wasn't an issue. Also Germans follow the "fahren recht" principle which they strictly enforce. This is basically drive in the right lanes unless you are overtaken another vehicle.

 

[jabloomf1230]

Once each jurisdiction figures out that toll tag based speed limit violation is an easy cash cow, they'll all probably start doing it.

List of toll roads in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[cpa]

Remind me to avoid those states as much as possible that do this. I hate toll roads in general. I remember too many where they were turned over to private companies and became ridiculously expensive and the road conditions became worse.

Speeding tickets on the freeway are generally pretty ridiculous. Many studies have shown that it isn't speed that is the issue but speed differential. When I lived in Europe and drove on the autobahn, if all the traffic was going 100 mph it wasn't an issue. Also Germans follow the "fahren recht" principle which they strictly enforce. This is basically drive in the right lanes unless you are overtaken another vehicle.

Nowhere in the story was it mentioned that this program was meant to be for interstate freeway travel. It is meant for local and urban driving with crosswalks, dedicated bike and bus lanes and the like. The article went on to state that many jurisdictions let the drivers dictate what the speed limits are, and then set the posted speed limit at 85% of what is measured day-to-day.

I took away from the article that many injuries and fatalities resulted from speeding that resulted in hitting pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles -- perhaps by running red lights or stop signs. The suggestion was that automatic speeding tickets would act as a deterrence to this sort of driving.

I'm interested in how you think urban speeds should be determined. Using the fahren recht principle? Should pedestrians, cyclists, and others be banned from using city streets in order to achieve consistent speed differentials thereby resulting in fewer traffic incidents?

 

[DayTrippin]

Are you familiar with the term "creeping incrementalism?" I am not opposed to people riding bikes but if you've ever been in NYC, some of the worst offenders about traffic rules are the people on bikes.

So often traffic speed limits are unrealistic and arbitrary. I don't subscribe to just using 85% of what is measured on a day to day basis. That assumes they think traffic is moving too fast to begin with. The national traffic czar in other interview mentioned he wants to arbitrarily reduce speed limits.

Pete Buttigieg Outlines Plan to Tackle Traffic Deaths as Increase Expected

The Transportation Department announced a National Roadway Safety Strategy to help curb an increase in traffic deaths since the pandemic started.

www.newsweek.com

I taught safety classes for years. Speed is almost NEVER the primary cause of an accident. It may be a contributing factor, but is almost never the primary cause. I won't write what I think about our traffic safety czar but I'll just say I don't have a high opinion. Or to sumarize, yet again we have another clueless bureaucrat running our lives.

If I were to paraphrase his approach, he will do everything he can to make it painful to own a car and force us all toward public transportation or on bikes. That is his end goal. This is just more tool at his disposal.

If you want safer roads, implement better training and stricter licensing requirements. Get unsafe cars off the road. Breath analyzers so you can't drink and drive. These will save far more lives than reducing speed limits or spped camera. If they are so altruistic, and just want to save lives, see if they will never take a dime from the income from the speed cameras. Make sure the makers of the cameras don't get a dime either. Have it given to a worth cause that can't ever funnel the money back to any elected officials or can in any way influence elections. Let's see how many cameras go up or how many speeding tickets are given out.