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The problem I have with speed and red light cameras is that generally they are owned and operated by private corporations and they give the government a cut of
by pmorici 16y ago
The problem I have with speed and red light cameras is that generally they are owned and operated by private corporations and they give the government a cut of fines collected. So in other words it isn't like the government investing in the equipment to keep people safe it is the government allowing a private corporation to to have it's way with people.
They for example sent me a speed camera ticket once where my car wasn't even the once captured as the speeder but my license plate was the only one visible since a jersey barrier was blocking the plate of the real culprit so they went ahead and sent it to me anyways even though it was blatantly obvious the ticket was improper. I had to go to court to and the ticket was immediately thrown out but not before I wasted 4 hours on a work day.
- koski 16y agoIn witch country is this?
- danilocampos 16y agoThe Republic of California, among others, I'm sure. Nothing like extremely bright strobe lights flashing in the middle of an intersection at night to improve traffic safety.
- burgerbrain 16y agoI'll guess it was in Salem MA.
- jrockway 16y agoGood thing there were no newts around.
- natrius 16y agoThe dichotomy you present implies that governments can't contract out efforts to make people safer. I don't see the logic behind that. Separately, governments are perfectly capable of using law enforcement as a revenue generator, so that downside isn't specific to private companies.
- rmc 16y agoThe solution is to not let the private company get a commission. It should be a flat fee. Ireland recently outsourced some 'speed vans' to catch people speeding. They went to great pains at launch to point out the company wasn't getting commission.
- pmorici 16y agoI'm implying that a for profit company has no motive to double check the tickets they send out it is to their advantage to send out false tickets because there is no penalty to them for the government eventually loosing the court case. In this case the ticket was like $80 for a minor speeding infraction, 6 over the limit. I took a half day off my job to dispute that I had to drive to the very heard of down town in a busy metro area to get to the court house. Tell me if I had any common sense and no principles what is it that I should have done? That isn't to say the government doesn't have the same motive to maximize revenue but I can't imagine the instinct being as strong as for a for profit company.
- CWuestefeld 16y agoWhen I was in college, the local towing company gave to the city a street sweeping machine. Naturally, that machine needed to be used, and to use it, there can't be any cars along the side of the road. That led to new rules about what side of which street on which day has parking prohibited. Naturally, the city had to call the tow truck company to remove any cars that parked in the way of their new sweeper.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoGenius.