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Genuine question...if we really cared about speeding, couldn't we just put speed cameras everywhere and issue tickets automatically for people who are driving t

Genuine question...if we really cared about speeding, couldn't we just put speed cameras everywhere and issue tickets automatically for people who are driving too fast? The randomness of having a human officer grab me (not the other 1,000 people) off the road for going too fast feels unfair and ineffective.

tbihl 10y ago
Doing so would be too unpopular, Especially in the wide range of cases where speed limits are set too low for the geometry of the road.
jpmattia 10y ago
> couldn't we just put speed cameras everywhere and issue tickets automatically for people who are driving too fast? There are stretches in DC with exactly that strategy. As a consequence, people speed and then hit the brakes right before the cameras. I'd love to know the accident stats right around those stretches.
- gsnedders 10y ago
  Average speed cameras are a solution to that problem and frequently used for long-running road works on UK motorways.
  - Markoff 10y ago
    how do they deal with stopovers? average speed measuring is useful only for continuous trip and very short distances between measuring points so they can't be cheated by stops, but I can see how delivery driver with many stops could easily break speed limits even with average measuring
    - gsnedders 10y ago
      They're only done on motorways (~freeway) in general, and there tend to be at the very least cameras before/after each junction. Any directly on-carriageway parking places tend to be closed off, hard shoulders are for emergency use only, and service areas are considered junctions for this. I don't think I've ever seen anywhere with them with less than, say, half a mile separation between junctions. At that point, you just get normal speed cameras.
throwaway18917 10y ago
In 2013, there were 4,071,000 miles of roads [1]. How many cameras are we going to need? I think the idea of randomness is supposed to make people think "there could be a cop anywhere, so I'd better not speed", but I think a basic psychology education (and driving on a US highway for three minutes) proves that that's not actually how people behave. [1] https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_04.html https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu...
Sargos 10y ago
That's solving the wrong problem. We want to keep the roads safe and fine drivers that drive at an unsafe speed. Since speed limits are not tied to the safe speed in most cases then you are just fining people in a way that does nothing to help society. You need to fix the core speed limit problem before fully enforcing the limits.
Markoff 10y ago
this is already taken care of, in EU within few years so roads must have toll gate system monitoring passing cars with unit built in car, so you can easily measure average speed, though it's not perfect solution if there is longer distance between gates

tbihl 10y ago

Doing so would be too unpopular, Especially in the wide range of cases where speed limits are set too low for the geometry of the road.

jpmattia 10y ago

> couldn't we just put speed cameras everywhere and issue tickets automatically for people who are driving too fast? There are stretches in DC with exactly that strategy. As a consequence, people speed and then hit the brakes right before the cameras. I'd love to know the accident stats right around those stretches.

gsnedders 10y ago
Average speed cameras are a solution to that problem and frequently used for long-running road works on UK motorways.
- Markoff 10y ago
  how do they deal with stopovers? average speed measuring is useful only for continuous trip and very short distances between measuring points so they can't be cheated by stops, but I can see how delivery driver with many stops could easily break speed limits even with average measuring
  - gsnedders 10y ago
    They're only done on motorways (~freeway) in general, and there tend to be at the very least cameras before/after each junction. Any directly on-carriageway parking places tend to be closed off, hard shoulders are for emergency use only, and service areas are considered junctions for this. I don't think I've ever seen anywhere with them with less than, say, half a mile separation between junctions. At that point, you just get normal speed cameras.

throwaway18917 10y ago

In 2013, there were 4,071,000 miles of roads [1]. How many cameras are we going to need? I think the idea of randomness is supposed to make people think "there could be a cop anywhere, so I'd better not speed", but I think a basic psychology education (and driving on a US highway for three minutes) proves that that's not actually how people behave. [1] https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_04.html https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu...

Sargos 10y ago

That's solving the wrong problem. We want to keep the roads safe and fine drivers that drive at an unsafe speed. Since speed limits are not tied to the safe speed in most cases then you are just fining people in a way that does nothing to help society. You need to fix the core speed limit problem before fully enforcing the limits.

Markoff 10y ago

this is already taken care of, in EU within few years so roads must have toll gate system monitoring passing cars with unit built in car, so you can easily measure average speed, though it's not perfect solution if there is longer distance between gates