The following Voice of the People Op-ed was submitted to Lower Bucks Source byTom McCarey of Berwyn, PA and was edited only for style.
Automated Traffic Enforcement
I am 100% opposed to automated traffic enforcement of any type, as well as the predatory engineering and enforcement that goes along with it.
Automated traffic enforcement is an enforcement-for-profit racket that has nothing to do with highway safety. Automated traffic enforcement makes the highways more dangerous.
What is needed for highway safety is best practices highway safety engineering. That includes setting speed limits at 85th Percentile Speeds, longer yellow lights, ending the illegal use of stop signs to slow traffic, longer flashing yellows on school buses.
The purported rationales used to promote automated enforcement are false.
For instance, there is no need for work zone speed cameras: “Transportation Officials Using Bogus Worker Death Data” “Inflated worker death numbers used to implement…programs that have no proven beneficial safety effect,” The Newspaper.com
For instance, there is no need for speed cameras: “The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced today that in 2022, statewide traffic deaths decreased to 1,179 from 1,230 in 2021.
“Reportable crashes were also down in 2022, amounting to the second lowest on record since 1951.With the overall decrease in traffic deaths, fatalities in several crash types reached new lows.” WTAJ News April 27, 2023
Credit: YouTube Screenshot
My opposition to speed cameras comes from the real-world failure of the cameras to deliver any safety benefits.
Washington, D.C. speed cameras have not improved traffic safety. Accident rates have not improved in Washington, DC after issuing $500 million in speed camera tickets.
Washington, DC has been using speed cameras for more than a decade, but traffic safety has not improved. The city’s private vendors have mailed more than 7 million photo tickets and collected a half-billion dollars in revenue; injury accidents have not declined as they have throughout the rest of the country.
To make intersections safer, add 1 second to the yellow light time. This will eliminate 70% of red light violations, making red light cameras unnecessary and unprofitable.
I urge the Pennsylvania Legislature to reject all automated traffic enforcement in Pennsylvania, and to repeal the automated traffic enforcement already on the books in Pennsylvania. Legislators should not be in the business of raising revenue from safe drivers. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: On Monday the Senate Transportation Committee will hold a public meeting on automated traffic enforcement of traffic violations beginning at 11 am. You watch the live stream of the hearing by clicking here.
Sincerely,
Tom McCarey
285 Dayleview Road
Berwyn, PA 19312
Stan
September 21, 2023 at 10:49 am
Thanks for bringing this up. As usual, nobody promotes these events and only the anti-driving people generally can talk. Ask a politician about voting for this trash, and they will run away from you.