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"I hate these damn bike lanes. Screw your studies. I'm not reading that"
"Cut gas taxes. I see no reason why I should pay to support public transit"
"Fuck speed limits. I'm proud to break the law"
This sense of entitlement is insane.
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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Speed cameras are a money grab and should be abolished because they don't actually result in safer driving and really is just a revenue generator.
Instead non-highway roads should be narrowed or otherwise calmed (and use that extra space for bike/pedestrian paths), this naturally causes almost all drivers to slow down, which increases safety. (source)
Maybe we can have both?
Identify problem areas, put up a camera, and use the ticket revenue to help pay for a better designed road there, so that when it’s rebuilt it’s the features of the road dictate the speed limit, and the sign and camera can be removed.
Thank you. You're exactly right.
Are speed cameras really effective? There are multiple studies that looked at this.
And the answer is yes, they really are:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1963295/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3861844/
The car crashes that happen in Ontario cost society far more ressources (police, hospitals, nurses, medication, surgeries) that any of the money raised by speeding tickets.
Road narrowing is a great idea. It can be applied to local streets.
But the people who hate speed cameras are going to absolutely FREAK OUT if you suggest road narrowing as a potential solution.
Nah, I'm someone who hates speed cameras and I'd welcome some narrowing or weaving roads. Lowering the speed on a 60km to 40 km and sticking a speed camera on it makes everyone feel like they're being micromanaged by some new incompetent manager. If they want to lower speed limits, change the design of the road to match.
If you cant reduce your speed from 60 to 40, you are the one that is incompetent.
It costs millions to redesign and refurbish 1 road while it costs thousands to operate the cameras. We should be working towards building safer roads but ill take enforcement in the meantime, lives are literally at risk if we let speeds remain high on our city streets.
Even if every paving company in ontario worked for free year round we could not bring every unsafe, needlessly wide road to a better standard within a year. Nearly every major road in every city and town would need to be redesigned and repaved.
Speeding isn’t an individual phenomenon, it’s a group phenomenon. Groups of drivers peer pressure each other into speeding. Choosing not to speed can result in aggressive drivers tailgating you and hurling obscenities at you.
Designing streets to be physically impossible to speed on (narrow, winding roads) is the ultimate deterrent for speeding. People respond better to feedback the more immediate it is and there’s nothing more immediate (for a driver) than physical obstacles that threaten to hit your car. Getting a speeding ticket in the mail a week after the incident is such a long feedback cycle that the driver is likely to blame the speed cameras, not their own driving.
There is a sign that says the limit of the road. There is a sign that says there is a speed camera in use. If they keep getting tickets thats their fault as a driver. Blame whatever you want but they weren't reading the road signs and they weren't following the limit. Who cares if some asshole gets upset the I'm doing the limit. I stay in the right lane and they can pass me if they want.
If one guy ignores the law it’s his fault. If everybody ignores the law then it’s the law’s fault. If everyone ignores a speed limit sign then the sign is not working. Simple as that!
You should care if some asshole road rages at you and inflicts violence on you, the way a driver did to my dad when he was following a speed limit on a road people routinely speed on (which has seen extensive modifications over many years to try to combat speeding). It’s terrifying and extremely dangerous.
In my city pedestrians are being hit at roundabouts, not on straight 4 lane roads with great visibility on both sides.
A pedestrian was killed about 1 month before a camera was put in place on a straight 4 lane road with good visibility on both sides in my city.
re: first study
I looked it up, it looks like the Beltway is functionally equivalent to a US interstate. This makes some sense, as speeds on interstates are going to be higher than on arterials (and the arterials in Spain probably aren't as bad as our stroads in the US).
OTOH, maybe speed cameras as a money grab is a good thing. We have all sorts of sin taxes - alcohol, tobacco, gambling, etc. Why not a sin tax on speeding?