City Life

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Is this the year California OKs speed cameras? (www.latimes.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by omenmis to c/citylife

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hoping this catches on, pretty please CA...

i like the fact that the money can only go into maintaining the speed cameras or into making the road safer. those are both things desperately needed, especially in LA.

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[–] argv_minus_one 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It doesn't, however, protect innocent people from being fined for accelerating to get away from someone aggressively tailgating them. Punishing innocent people is not acceptable.

[–] soiling 6 points 1 year ago

accelerating because someone is tailgating you is not safe. the only safe response is to get away from them by changing lanes or pulling off the road. if it's impossible to move out of their way, gradually slow down. the faster you're both moving, the harder it is to avoid a crash and the worse a crash will be.

[–] offthecrossbar 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The threshold doesn't need to be the exact speed limit, I'm sure there's some wiggle room. How innocent is the other driver in this case though? Even if there's another car doing it too they are still driving over the speed limit.

[–] argv_minus_one 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's not a solution. Drivers must, above all else, drive safely and not collide with anything. If, for whatever reason, the safest course of action involves exceeding the speed limit (or some other hidden threshold, like you're talking about), then it is both wrong and dangerous to punish them for doing so.

[–] offthecrossbar 5 points 1 year ago

What about all the other pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers who are on that road? Are they safer because now there are two drivers speeding instead of one? The benefits of reducing vehicle speeds on crash fatality and frequency are outlined in the article. It sounds like you're saying that "breaking the speed limit without punishment" is a tool drivers need to have in their toolbox to drive safely, but right now we give them that tool and vehicles speeds are out of control and the traffic death statistics are unacceptable.

https://tripnet.org/reports/traffic-safety-california-news-release-06-21-2023/

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