Columnist Marc Sandalow has been driving among them in Washington, D.C. for decades
I mean no disrespect to either the elderly or to women. I qualify as the former and have great respect and love for the latter. However, it is the best description of the cautious, deliberate, and annoyingly slow manner in which I now drive.
I have been driving among these costly menaces in Washington, D.C., for decades. Sadly, I have the receipts to prove it. The District of Columbia currently has 476 traffic cameras, according to its Department of Transportation. And though I regard myself as a model of safe and careful driving, somehow these devices have captured multiple photographs of my car exceeding the speed limit and even running a red light . San Francisco is installing 33 cameras on city streets and within days will begin snapping photos of vehicles exceeding the speed limit by at least 11 miles per hour. After a two-month warning period, the owners of the offending vehicles will receive fines ranging from $50 to $500, as outlined by California Assembly Bill 645. There are good reasons to applaud the move. Pedestrian deaths in the first six months last year were up 48% from the same span in 2014, according to a Governors Highway Safety Association analysis published this month, and there is significant evidence showing that higher speeds are associated with accidents. Fines also provide a potentially huge source of revenue. The D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer projected last month it will capture an estimated $1.2 billion over the next four fiscal years from fines and forfeitures. None of this eases my irritation at the bright flash which signals a picture has been taken, or the official looking letter that arrives roughly a week later from the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles demanding payment.Forget excuses. It might seem reasonable to drive a little faster when the road is completely empty, or if you are late for an appointment or desperate for a bathroom. Speed cameras, lacking the intellect to make such distinctions, are ruthless. Ex // Top Stories Officials OK nearly 50-foot-tall statue for Embarcadero The San Francisco Arts Commission approved plans to display a nearly 50-foot tall metal sculpture of a naked woman on Embarcadero Plaza Balboa Cafe, espresso martinis hold steady in The City’s heart The establishment and its signature cocktail remain San Francisco mainstays ‘A safe place to heal’: SF nurses unite to protect vulnerable patients With federal policies targeting immigrant and transgender communities, nurses worry about their ability to keep their patients safe — so they're taking action Prepare to blame your family. The grainy black-and-white photos mailed to your home provide a picture of your vehicle and a close-up of your license plate. They don’t show the driver. That’s why the vehicle owner is the one who is fined. My initial reaction each time I’ve received a ticket by mail has been to blame my wife or sons. Sadly, each time we consult the calendar it becomes obvious that I’m the one at fault. Leave earlier or expect to be late. For my entire adult life, I have given myself insufficient time to get from one place to another and made up for it with crafty driving. Sadly, that is no longer possible. Enjoy the schadenfreude. I’m not proud of this, but I get a burst of satisfaction every time a vehicle speeds past me and I see the familiar flash of the camera, knowing that they will soon be receiving one of those letters in the mail. Traffic cameras raise legitimate privacy issues. In Washington, cameras capture images of all license plates that pass by. In theory, that means police could trace vehicle locations to find suspects, confirm alibis, or simply spy on anyone’s driving habits. California AB 645 says “information collected and maintained” as part of the speed-camera pilot “shall not be disclosed ... except as required by state or federal law, court order, or in response to a subpoena in an individual case or proceeding.” At the same time, cameras — unlike humans — do not racially profile. Studies have found that police pull over Black motorists at a higher rate than white motorists during the day, but much less so at night. Researchers contend that the explanation lies in a racial bias that comes into play only when it is light enough for police to notice the driver’s race. Individual cameras, focused on license-plate numbers, make no such distinctions. But their deployment matters: ProPublica and The Washington Post have reported on cameras in predominantly Black neighborhoods issuing a disproportionate number of tickets. There is an unmistakable pattern when new cameras are installed along my daily commute. Initially, drivers don’t notice, touching off a burst of camera lights. Within weeks — presumably after the fines have been mailed — half the cars are going the speed limit, while others weave and honk at the frustratingly slow pace. Soon, most everyone is complying, with the exception unsuspecting out-of-state drivers. In their 1964 hit, “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena,” Jan and Dean warned that “she’s gonna get a ticket now, sooner or later, ‘cause she can’t keep her foot off the accelerator.”Marc Sandalow is a senior faculty member at the University of California’s Washington Program. He has been writing about California politics from Washington, D.C., for over 30 years.
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