Post

I mean, alternatively we could drive reasonably safe passenger cars instead of basically trucks with bucket seats that are much larger than most people need or have the skill to drive safely, instead of a surveillance state that will predictably be used in all kinds of nefarious ways :-)

And speeding tickets are proportionate to your income, so highly paid speeders get bigger tickets!

if you design the speed camera properly approximately nobody will pay the fine. this has been largely the experience in New York City with red light cameras

Aren’t red light cameras illegal in Texas?

There’s a speed camera like a mile from where I live. when we first moved in my wife and I both got tickets within a month and it fundamentally changed our driving behavior. The system works!

"[The duty of government is] that of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it.” - Adam Smith

The misuse evidence is concrete: in Milwaukee, the detective assigned to investigate a plate-reader stalking case was later charged with identical misuse. In Georgia, GBI arrested 5 officers for using Flock data for 'non-law-enforcement purposes.' https://www.thebluf.news/p/flock-camera-misuse

I don’t think it’s bad per se, the UK has an extensive automatic number plate recognition camera network, which helps solve a lot of serious crime. Perhaps it’s just the way America does it?

how do you prevent the former from becoming the latter?

This how it is in Oregon. State law regulates yellow light timing. Entirely fixable.

that's politics for you

You can't guarantee me that a speed camera isn't also collecting data. It's still a non-starter. No cameras.

I think the core issue is: how do we remove the cops from implementation and enforcement? These companies could have made the safe, effective version of this tech, but they didn't because empowering cops was the path to rapid, widespread adoption. And cops will be obstacles to a good alternative.

This isn’t even to say we shouldn’t use them, as someone who nearly gets run over on a regular basis I would like for my city to install them, but I don’t see treating them like a necessity over the objections of people who are being terrorized by fascists as a strategy likely to succeed

suomi mainittu

💯 "surveillance and technology are inherently flawed", say the people who want to speed around in three ton SUVs while they kill 40k people a year. Sell your car if you don't want it to be tracked.

One thing that makes the US not Finland is we have 50 different sets of laws on driving and things like speed cameras and school zones. Plus many local variants. I drove through several speed camera areas in RI yesterday and even at slow speed I could not read all the signs fast enough.

My objection is it undermines actual enforcement when it's needed when the kids are there. Around here they are routinely flashing at the wrong times, and often not flashing when they should be. Plus the signs are just gobbledygook. Just make the speed limit something like 20mph all the time!

I've had a few close calls at the school around the corner from me. Actually got passed on the left a few times.