Arizona Backs Off Its Speed Camera Program

crimeandpunishment writes to inform us that Arizona is putting the brakes to a controversial and contentious speed camera program. The cameras have been used along highways in the Phoenix area and in vans throughout the state. While the cameras are used throughout the country, Arizona's program was the widest use of the technology, and the decision to drop it is a setback for those who argue that the cameras slow speeders, reduce accidents, and free up police for more serious matters. "The camera program was instituted by Brewer's predecessor, Janet Napolitano, now the Homeland Security secretary. Cameras were introduced in September 2008 and were added until all 76 were up and running by January 2009. Lawmakers considered repeal proposals within months, but set the issue aside and appealed for calmer debate when a passing motorist fatally shot a camera-van operator doing paperwork in his marked vehicle in April 2009."

Comments

Huh?

[Lumpy]

So they take them out because a unstable idiot that cant go the speed limit murders someone?

I personally think they are needed for specific places. Construction zones. Too many idiots go flying through construction zones putting construction works and other motorists in danger. maybe speed cameras all along the construction area will actually slow down those idiots.

Re:Huh?

[bsane]

Too many idiots go flying through construction zones putting construction works and other motorists in danger.

Cite?

Specifically that people speeding in construction zones is an actual problem in AZ that causes injuries/deaths.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Won't SOMEONE think of the CHILDREN?

Re:Huh?

[Dan667]

if you want to live in a big brother country I would suggest china. They even do the thinking for you. The US does not need this kind of crap, especially when speeding cameras are only about money and not about safety.

Re:Huh?

[bsane]

Asking for cites is trolling now? No wonder there is so much bullshit here and so little truth.

Re:Huh?

[TheRealQuestor]

Asking for cites is trolling now? No wonder there is so much bullshit here and so little truth.

So slashdot is now to become slashwiki? You can't post here unless you cite your sources? Wow. I don't know why you even come here if that is what you think.

Re:Huh?

[Myopic]

The goal here is to make things safer, right? Not enforce arbitrary limits because it makes you feel better.

Wrong. The goal *should* be to make things safer, but in fact it is exactly to enforce an arbitrary limit because it massages a sense of moral superiority.

Just like there are anti-fun-sex ideologues, there are anti-convenient-driving ideologues.

Re:Huh?

[celle]

"...postponed so that the murder wouldn't influence the decision, the *exact* *opposite* of what you suggest."

Then maybe they should have murdered them all. Laws definitely will change when facing a violent uprising.

Re:Huh?

[rickb928]

Oh yeah.

I drive the same 33 mile commute every day from Mesa to North Phoenix. Up to one highway, over to another, straight shot to my exit. Big woop.

I hang in the left lane doing the speed limit for several reasons; First, I'm tired of paying tickets. Second, I just want a smooth, cruise-control, stress-less commute. Third, I am not alone in this. Sadly, many people want to go just a little faster, and some want to go a LOT faster, and every once in a while someone gets terribly agitated that I'm 'only going the speed limit' in the left lane. Well, in Arizona, the law may or may not specify that you use the left-most lanes for passing or faster traffic, but NOBODY bothers to follow that. Speeders use any lane. Slower traffic, like the landscapers towing a trailer full of oleander or bouganvilla and going 59 in a 66 every day except Sunday, gladly hang in the left lane. Speeders use the HOV lane as a passing lane, all alone in their M3 or F-350. (There is no pleasure on on Earth quite like watching them pass an officer all alone in the HOV lane. This sends a tingle up my spine.) so if you think I'm oblivious to your pleas for me to GTFOOTW, you are wrong. I'm well aware of your presence on my bumper, gesturing, and generally being a dick. You are not late for anything because of me. You were late before you got in your car.

ps - In a perfect world, you would not be travelling faster than the lane to your right. You would be travelling at the same speed, save for the right-most lane where traffic enters and exits. If you're moving slower than the lane to your right, they are speeding. The concept of stepping aside and allowing illegal or dangerous behavior may be prudent in the immediate, but it is also the crux of the illegal immigration problem. This attitude is permeating our nation, and is not good. But it may be inevitable...

As an observation, I see three results of my driving behavior. One, whoever was trying to pass me generally pounds into slower traffic in a mile or so, and I'm on their bumper now. Congrats, you are now ahead of me... Two, they get off in a half mile or so. Niiice. You needed that 3 second advantage. Three, they blaze on in triumphant glory. Good for you. Oh, and the drivers that hang behind me for 12 miles... I do move over after 'the curve' to get ready to exit. Many a driver who had open road to pass me for most of the 12 miles will then acclerate and speed on. These people just want to be up against whoever is in front of them. Traffic engineers understand this. I don't.

When I first moved out here in 2005, the 101 Pima from the 202 to the 51 was a racetrack. People would drive 100+ any time of day or night. Accidents were common, and pretty spectacular. Then came the cameras in the Scottsadale section. Traffic over 100mph dried up. Today, 80+ is not too uncommon, but the accidents have lessened greatly. It could be that those speeders went elsewhere, but I doubt it. Cameras there improved safety and driving. The vans are another story. Everyone except me seems to need to slow down, as if the radar will flash you if you are going even 1 mph slower than the limit. This itself is dangerous, but tolerable. They've got one on the stretch of the 202 where construction is, where we regularly do 65 in a 55 construction zone. Jersey barriers on both sides. Feh. I speed there, it's just practical and there is NO work being done this week as the concrete cures. Well, three guys today on the other side. Even when men are working, they are safer there than the irrigation crews that have no signage and no cameras.

I hate the van cameras, but they work, and there is no excuse for speeding. Arizona is letting them go because they are not bringing in the revenue, and they can't change the program to properly serve sumnmons because the law is wrong and it is not profitable to do proper service. Sad. But the red light cameras and static speed cams stay. Good.

pps- My wife hates the cameras. They love her. She calls them 'paperaspeeides'. Ah, celebrity has its reward. Hers is traffic school.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably because the "good citizens of Arizona" are all fucking morons. 80% of them are down with legal racial profiling. They are exactly the stupid fuckers who voted those idiots into office in the first place becasue they agree with them. Seriously Arizona is one of the scariest places I have been as far as people's attitudes go.

Why take them out?

[Pojut]

Why not repurpose them and put them on the border? You know, since Arizona is so into stopping illegals...

Doesn't matter

[rsilvergun]

the cities and counties are still free to spam the roads with red-light and speeding cameras. You can't win against these things because there's too much money involved and it's going to private companies who then give half of it to the reelection campaigns of corrupt local officials. Once again, capitalism at it's finest.

Re:Speeding camera's are all about revenue

[Anonymous Coward]

Speeding cameras also don't racial profile. It could be that they caught too many white people speeding, or smuggling immigrants, into the country. Arizona is all about prosecuting immigrants and enforcing federal laws, not keeping the local community safe by enforcing the small laws that keeps order. Laws such as stopping at red lights, so that a child will have some possibility of his parent not being killed by a driving moving like a bat out of hell. I will stipulate that every one of the 500 or so murders committed in Arizona is the fault of an undocumented person, but I bet some of the 1000 or so auto related deaths is caused by a white non-hispanic citizen, and it would be a shame to put a white person in a jail cell that would be better filled by a hispanic immigrant.

They need to replace with immigrant cameras

[mysidia]

Along the state's southern borders, so they can detect anyone crossing without the proper permit, so they can hold them until someone pays the $100000 fine to release them for illegaly entering Arizona.

Re:no way back

[yurtinus]

The same folks in Arizona who allowed their government to demand proof of citizenship on a whim? At the moment I don't consider Arizona being particularly "freedom loving," and with any luck the November ballot will correct my assumptions...