D.C. traffic cameras could multiply, ticket drivers for a growing list of infractions
I find it amazing that there is acknowledgment of driver errors that contribute to an unsafe environment for pedestrains and the willingness to enforce it. We'll probably not see anything like this in Maryland but things like this need to start somewhere. Some excerpts from TBD article:"The D.C. police are hoping to install smaller, more mobile cameras in neighborhoods around town, catching drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, block the box at intersections, or even fail to fully stop at stop signs, among other potential violations. The portable units would probably be battery- or solar-powered and affixed to small concrete pads set up around town, making them far more versatile than the permanent streetside cameras or cruiser cameras now in use. Their modest size would allow them to be used in areas where cameras couldn’t go before."
“I want [drivers] to modify their behavior. I’m not trying to just give out tickets,” Sutter said after explaining the new cameras at a community meeting last night. “If there are enough of [the cameras] out there, then people have the attitude, I’m not really sure where it is, so I’ll slow down everywhere, or I’ll stop at every stop sign, or there’s a pedestrian so I’ll stop. That’s the attitude I want.”
"...commuters coming in from Maryland and Virginia – view them as a surreptitious taxing mechanism designed purely to bring in revenue." <a href="http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot/2011/02/d-c-traffic-cameras-to-multiply-ticket-drivers-for-more-infractions-8010.html">http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot/2011/02/d-c-traffic-cameras-to-multiply-ticket-drivers-for-more-infractions-8010.html</a>;
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