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Just because you don't remember a time without speed cameras doesn't mean they are ineffective and a "thin veil of safety". It's like vaccines, over time people

Just because you don't remember a time without speed cameras doesn't mean they are ineffective and a "thin veil of safety". It's like vaccines, over time people seem to forget why we have them in the first place. France makes an excellent case study for this. They only implemented speed cameras and related safety measures around 2002/2003 but managed a remarkable drop in fatalities and average speeds [1][2]. Speed is insidious; we live in a three-dimensional world so drag increases quadratically with velocity, or going at 40mph requires four times as much power as at 20mph, and there is of course a corresponding increase in the kinetic energy in an impact. This is particularly important for pedestrians, where the difference between 20mph and 30mph is likely injury vs likely death. 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23298692 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23298692 2: http://imgur.com/a/of7JV http://imgur.com/a/of7JV

dbg31415 10y ago
> Just because you don't remember a time without speed cameras Sorry... I'm not even from Texas, but I've lived here for 12 years. I do love it. And I find so much of it hilarious. The government here does everything it can to put itself out of business. Speed cameras, for example, are banned in Texas. * Texas Transportation Code - TRANSP § 542.2035 | FindLaw || http://codes.findlaw.com/tx/transportation-code/transp-sect-542-2035.html http://codes.findlaw.com/tx/transportation-code/transp-sect-...
- brianwawok 10y ago
  After having lived with red light cameras in Chicago and all the corruption that entailed... Go Texas.
dtech 10y ago
I have not lived in a time when there were no speeding cameras where I lived, so it's not some kind of weird nostalgia. I have no doubt that speeding cameras make the road safer, but they are being abused in the Netherlands, because they are a very good source of income. For example, driving 4 kmh (2.5 mph) over the limit causes a €37 fine. The threshhold for fining has been lowered from 10 kmh to 4 kmh. Fines have quadrupled over the last 3 decades. This all gets worse because we have 4 (80, 100, 120, 130) + dynamic as common limits on the highways, which change every few kilometres on some roads with only minimal signs. A large amounts of fines was actually declared invalid by court because of this reason.

dbg31415 10y ago

> Just because you don't remember a time without speed cameras Sorry... I'm not even from Texas, but I've lived here for 12 years. I do love it. And I find so much of it hilarious. The government here does everything it can to put itself out of business. Speed cameras, for example, are banned in Texas. * Texas Transportation Code - TRANSP § 542.2035 | FindLaw || http://codes.findlaw.com/tx/transportation-code/transp-sect-542-2035.html http://codes.findlaw.com/tx/transportation-code/transp-sect-...

brianwawok 10y ago
After having lived with red light cameras in Chicago and all the corruption that entailed... Go Texas.

dtech 10y ago

I have not lived in a time when there were no speeding cameras where I lived, so it's not some kind of weird nostalgia. I have no doubt that speeding cameras make the road safer, but they are being abused in the Netherlands, because they are a very good source of income. For example, driving 4 kmh (2.5 mph) over the limit causes a €37 fine. The threshhold for fining has been lowered from 10 kmh to 4 kmh. Fines have quadrupled over the last 3 decades. This all gets worse because we have 4 (80, 100, 120, 130) + dynamic as common limits on the highways, which change every few kilometres on some roads with only minimal signs. A large amounts of fines was actually declared invalid by court because of this reason.