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Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain
Brian McCrary just bought a website to complain about a $90 speeding ticket he received from the Bluff City PD — the Bluff City Police Department site. The department let its domain expire and McCrary was quick to pick it up. From the article: "Brian McCrary found the perfect venue to gripe about a $90 speeding ticket when he went to the Bluff City Police Department's website, saw that its domain name was about to expire, and bought it right out from under the city's nose. Now that McCrary is the proud owner of the site, bluffcitypd.com, the Gray, Tenn., computer network designer has been using it to post links about speed cameras — like the one on US Highway 11E that caught him — and how people don't like them."
It is safety. The faster you go the higher the risk of fatality in an accident.
The U.S. Department of transportation's Federal Highway Administration review research on traffic speed in 1998.[19] The summary states:
* That the evidence shows that the risk of having a crash is increased both for vehicles traveling slower than the average speed, and for those traveling above the average speed.
* That the risk of being injured increases exponentially with speeds much faster than the median speed.
* That the severity of a crash depends on the vehicle speed change at impact.
* That there is limited evidence that suggests that lower speed limits result in lower speeds on a system wide basis.
* That most crashes related to speed involve speed too fast for the conditions.
* That more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of traffic calming.
http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/speed/speed.htm
Fugga Wugga
keeping the peace is not the same as draconian big brother and a big money making scheme. Notice how all of these speeding camera companies are not non-profits with their CEOs limited to $80k salary? If they want to enforce the speed limit then they should have actual officers there doing the job.
Having been to Bluff City and the Bristol race for many years now,
I can assure you that during race weekend a car goes anything but fast. The traffic in and out of the track is brutal, starting Friday and going well into Monday. 6+ hours before the race, traffic is already backed up for several miles, in both directions. After the race, it can take several hours to get out of Bluff City and be on your way. There are about 500 police officers (local, county and state) and a squad car about every 500 feet for a good mile in each direction because the pedestrian traffic is so heavy. I've arrived at the track 6 hours prior to the green flag and have parked 2+ miles away and walked, just because the traffic so obnoxious.
These camera's in Bluff City have very little to do with Nascar, and I would imagine speeding tickets on race weekend generate but a tiny fraction of the revenue these cameras otherwise generate.
jeff
Make driving laws about safety and engineering, not revenue creation.
Join the NMA.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Except that red-light cameras do not have any effect on driver safety, but they do cause a *large* numbers of rear-end collisions. (I've seen claims that they increase the chances of a rear end collision anywhere between 200% and 800%). See this for an explanation of how camera proponents lie with statistics.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Let's do a check of your facts...
Find me a report that says increases in speed limits increase actual speeds. According to the US DOT, they did a study that found increasing the speed limit did NOT affect the average speed of traffic. http://www.motorists.org/speedlimits/home/effects-raising-and-lowering-the-speed-limit/
Next, I would trust traffic engineers too, unfortunately, there IS probably some anonymous guy in Texas setting the speed limit.. A politician. Engineers don't set speed limits.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Why towns and governments keep using .Com domains is beyond me.. there is state.us (like il.us) and .gov domains for this purpose.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Last I checked, legal permission to drive a car on public roads was a privilege, not a right. Given that you get a drivers license, it seems hard to believe that driving at (insert speed limit here) + 1 mph is suddenly a "Right." I see this argument a lot. People think that they should be allowed to do anything they want, so long as THEY don't think it will hurt someone else. At best, these people are inconsiderate and need smacked down. (i.e. playing loud music in subway cars.) At worst, they are ignorant, foolish, and/or dangerous. (i.e. 90 mph in a 55 zone, at night.)
Lets start refering to The War Against Terror by it's initials. . .
Or you're in Arizona and you don't have your passport on you to prove your citizenship and the judge won't accept the birth certificate your sister managed to convince the county to release to her (since it's not like they're going to let some illegal out on bail and leave the state to pick up their birth certificate) and you nearly get deported to Russia before a Senator steps in and convinces the judge to accept the certificate and release you.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/01/24/25392/immigration-officials-detaining.html
All it takes to fuck you over is a cop willing to claim he "suspected" you were Russian. Or Canadian. Or British, or whatever other country white people come from. Obviously you picked up the southern accent while you were here trying to blend in.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.