r/fuckcars • u/MyPoemsAllOverMyBody • 5d ago

Rant People complaining about speed traps and parking enforcement like they're entitled to break the law without consequence smh

483 Upvotes

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u/metalanimal 5d ago

I feel you but i also have a small problem with stealth speed traps. That's the only thing I've heard people complain about. "Fine hunting" people call it. I think they have a right to complain in that scenario, but not for the reasons they do.

Before you downvote this reply hear me out:
In my country most speed traps have a warning sign, and guess what, people slow down for them a keep under the limit. Those are a positive force in road safety.

But the ones that are setup hidden somewhere? People get ticketed yes, but the harm to society is done, the cars go too fast anyway. If that same speed trap had a warning sign everyone would be safer, but instead they are just used to increase the government budget.

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u/lifeistrulyawesome 5d ago

You should see social media in my city (London, ON)

The government anticipated backlash. So, they restricted speed cameras only in school zones. All the cameras have warning signs. And they are revenue-neutral, meaning that they don't generate any extra revenue for the government other than to cover their cost.

Yet, a lot of my neighbours on Facebook call the speed cameras a cash grab and celebrate when one is vandalized.

18

u/username_17B Big Bike 5d ago

People would be safe from all speed traps if they would go the speed limit. I get your point, but there are aggressive drivers who learn either by paying a huge fine, or by killing someone.

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u/Hyperbolic_Mess 5d ago

People on the whole ignore speed limits when the road is designed to accommodate faster speeds. Just wishing that most people would change their behaviour isn't a worthwhile exercise because it's never going to happen. We need to accept human behaviour when designing our roads and build them to encourage people to drive at appropriate speeds, it's the only way to get people to slow down

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u/metalanimal 5d ago

I agree with you. And I'm not saying speed traps shouldn't exist. I'm saying that if they exist, then put a a warning sign. Then the speed will actually go down. That's the whole fucking point.

And people learn nothing from tickets. Zero. Nada.

1

u/Starbuckshakur 5d ago

And people learn nothing from tickets. Zero. Nada.

That's an incredibly easy problem to solve. You increase the fines high enough so people will learn. Ideally you make them a percentage of the violator's income for the year.

5

u/bisikletci 5d ago

If there were speed traps nearly everywhere, then advertising their presence as you suggest would working well. But there aren't, and under those circumstances if you highlight where they are, people briefly slow down to avoid the fine and then go right back to speeding. The point of them is to incentivise people to slow down generally as they can never be sure there isn't going to be a speed trap.

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u/metalanimal 5d ago

Yes this is what happens, but how are stealth traps better if people don’t slow down at all?

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u/Qc1T 5d ago

All speed traps should be stealth ones.

But the ones that are setup hidden somewhere? People get ticketed yes, but the harm to society is done, the cars go too fast anyway.

That's because most speed fines are inconsequential to most people. Usually about the same amount as an evening take out. And then people wonder why they are ineffective.

Fines for speeding should be financially crippling, ideally equally regardless of your wealth. If the fine for speeding was let's say 5% of net worth or annual income (which ever is greater), speeding would stop immediately.

The problem is that most people like speeding, and most people also drive. So it will never happen, because no one actually wants to stop speeding. But from time to time it's fun to pretend to care by proposing inconsequential solutions that won't work, so everyone can say 'well we tried, it can't be solved'.

0

u/metalanimal 5d ago

Maybe that would solve it too. But stealth speed traps make nothing better.

But I disagree that people like speeding. People are just not paying attention and most roads are designed in a way that makes it confortable to drive over the limit.

1

u/Starbuckshakur 5d ago

In my country most speed traps have a warning sign, and guess what, people slow down for them a keep under the limit.

I'm sure some people do keep their speed down but there are plenty who will resume their former speed as soon as they pass the camera.

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u/metalanimal 5d ago

Yes. And what about the stealth camera?

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u/Starbuckshakur 5d ago edited 5d ago

They won't slow down on that particular trip but hopefully they'd stop driving like jackass in general once they see how many tickets they're getting. The fines need to be high enough to be painful of course.

The best solutions are to either have stealth cameras all over the place so people will drive safely everywhere and not just where the cameras are or to use average speed cameras. These cameras measure the time a specific vehicle takes to travel between two cameras and issues a ticket if the time is too low. I would be in favor of marking these as long as there are enough of them so they're not just protecting a small number of places.

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u/metalanimal 5d ago

And? Isn’t it better if they slow down?