Bring on the Speed Cameras

Opafiets’ Least Popular Take

Traffic laws, regarding cars, bikes, and E-Transport, can be simple.

The danger is speed. Create enforceable speed limits. (Image created by ChatGPT.)

We know cops don’t scale to the level of speeding on our roads. A cop must catch a speeder with their speed gun, stop the vehicle, then write up a ticket by hand. How many can he write in a shift? Whatever the number is, it has a single digit, or it’s very close to it.

The only way to enforce a speed limit is with technology. We have that technology, speed cameras. They measure the speed of oncoming vehicles, and when they find one going over the posted limit, they can generate a ticket.

Drivers hate speed cameras because they work. That’s why drivers work through local and state governments to ban them, calling them a “cash grab.” They are a cash grab, and they’re grabbing cash from the right people.

You can apply this to E-Transport, in lieu of or in support of all the car-based hoopla drivers want to impose on us.

Take the Atlanta Beltline, for instance. Post a speed limit of 25 mph when it’s empty, 15 mph when there’s limited traffic, and 10 mph when it’s crowded. The camera can know when to change the limit, because our freeways already have technology to adjust maximum speeds based on traffic flow.

You don’t need to make the limit inflexible. Bright lights at something that’s just over the limit, then pictures taken and tickets sent for egregious offenses. Collect all speeders and generate tickets on the fastest 10% each day.

Stupid Objections

There are going to be objections to this.

All their objectives are stupid. (Image from Google Gemini.)

Drivers who object to speed cameras want to speed without consequence. Drivers who speed without consequence kill people. We know this. “Cash grab?” Get bent, sir or madam. Don’t speed.

Getting this attitude accepted is the first and most difficult task facing those of us who don’t want to die on the roadways. Speeders have impressive lobbies. We need more impressive ones. Their arguments are bogus. We need to say so, and E-Transport advocates need to organize for local and state elections against them.

Most people are drivers, and most drivers speed at one time or another. They resent the idea that they might be caught. But attitudes can be changed. In the mid-20^th century drunk driving didn’t have the stigma it does today. We can do to speeders what was done to drunks. Just don’t issue the tickets unless it’s obvious. Don’t issue them for 26 in a 25 mile per hour school zone. But when someone’s zooming through at 40, don’t just issue the ticket but make that a public record. Name them and shame them.

You start with school zones and then expand. You start by only ticketing those exceeding the speed limit by a wide margin, but you issue warnings to others. Gradually, you narrow the gap between the posted limit and the speed at which the ticket is generated.

Also, fund this government function through the government. Don’t farm it out to a private company. Make it accountable.

Yes, For E-Transport Too

I have no objection at all to seeing speed cameras, and signs with lots of lights on them, going up on shared bike paths. If a kid is riding an e-moto at 40 on a Beltline filled with people, you can get their picture, and you can post it publicly. It may take time, but we’ll find the kid. Make a game of it. Offer rewards.

You don’t have to ban specific vehicles, and you don’t have to legally distinguish between “classes” of e-bikes. Just don’t speed. Slow the “f” down. Keep the people around you alive. Your privacy means nothing next to the life of a child.