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It's the automation of privacy-invading technologies that gets me. I feel more and more like I'm being governed by computers and machines, not humans. I think

It's the automation of privacy-invading technologies that gets me. I feel more and more like I'm being governed by computers and machines, not humans. I think that society is accustomed to a certain kind of slack when it comes to authority. We can get away with things sometimes. We can make mistakes and not come home with a ticket or citation every time. With all of these automated enforcement measures, we're all going to end up with rap sheets a mile long. There will be no such thing as someone having a clean record.

jack-r-abbit 14y ago
Alternatively, we as a society will pay more attention to what we are doing and stop doing things that we used to get away with. Sure I speed. Nearly everyone does. But just because there was no cop to see me and ticket me doesn't automagically make it legal. It just means I got away with it. If the stretch of highway I regularly commute on had speed cameras installed... it would not take too many tickets before that stretch of highway started to flow at the posted speed. People get pissed when a law that is largely unenforced starts to get enforced more strictly. So naturally they will want to strike down any new tech that assists in that stricter enforcement. I'm not sure how cops gave out speeding tickets before radar guns but I'll bet that tech dramatically increased their ability to enforce it. Not many people are up in arms about those these days.
- lutorm 14y ago
  it would not take too many tickets before that stretch of highway started to flow at the posted speed Actually, it would have to flow quite a bit below the posted speed to be sure you didn't accidentally go above and get a ticket. An officer would probably decide that that was not a serious enough violation to warrant a ticket, but an automated system has no such discretion. I haven't seen any statistics on whether automated speed enforcement actually lowers the accident rate. It seems perfectly plausible to me that it would be counterproductive, because getting rid of the small number of seriously unsafe speeders would be counterbalanced by the fact that people in general will be much more paranoid about their speed and direct more attention to that to the detriment of paying attention to more important things like what's happening down the road.
  - jack-r-abbit 14y ago
    It depends on if it was a system that just put radar guns out and issued a ticket to any car that was speeding through its beam (I've never heard of this type) or a system that tracked your average speed between two points (I have heard of these). And automated systems do have discretion... it would depend on what +/- tolerance said system was given. I've heard anecdotal claims that a cop won't give you a speeding ticket unless you are exceeding the limit by some X amount.

jack-r-abbit 14y ago

Alternatively, we as a society will pay more attention to what we are doing and stop doing things that we used to get away with. Sure I speed. Nearly everyone does. But just because there was no cop to see me and ticket me doesn't automagically make it legal. It just means I got away with it. If the stretch of highway I regularly commute on had speed cameras installed... it would not take too many tickets before that stretch of highway started to flow at the posted speed. People get pissed when a law that is largely unenforced starts to get enforced more strictly. So naturally they will want to strike down any new tech that assists in that stricter enforcement. I'm not sure how cops gave out speeding tickets before radar guns but I'll bet that tech dramatically increased their ability to enforce it. Not many people are up in arms about those these days.

lutorm 14y ago
it would not take too many tickets before that stretch of highway started to flow at the posted speed Actually, it would have to flow quite a bit below the posted speed to be sure you didn't accidentally go above and get a ticket. An officer would probably decide that that was not a serious enough violation to warrant a ticket, but an automated system has no such discretion. I haven't seen any statistics on whether automated speed enforcement actually lowers the accident rate. It seems perfectly plausible to me that it would be counterproductive, because getting rid of the small number of seriously unsafe speeders would be counterbalanced by the fact that people in general will be much more paranoid about their speed and direct more attention to that to the detriment of paying attention to more important things like what's happening down the road.
- jack-r-abbit 14y ago
  It depends on if it was a system that just put radar guns out and issued a ticket to any car that was speeding through its beam (I've never heard of this type) or a system that tracked your average speed between two points (I have heard of these). And automated systems do have discretion... it would depend on what +/- tolerance said system was given. I've heard anecdotal claims that a cop won't give you a speeding ticket unless you are exceeding the limit by some X amount.