Colorado's New Speed Camera System Makes Waze Nearly Useless(www.motor1.com)
15 pointsby c4207 hours ago6 comments
  • stevenicr6 hours ago
    Is the data publicly available?

    I can think of a few roads near me where 90% of the vehicles do 20-25 mph over the limit all the time.

    You occasionally see them out there writing tickets, but never seen an accident in that area.

    I would think the data could show that the speed limit should be adjusted up.

    Understanding that 2 weeks of the year they need to put out some markers about the holiday traffic creating a full stop.. but they need to do that anyway regardless if the limit is 45, 55 or 70.

  • none25855 hours ago
    I don't understand how they can issue a ticket to the owner without proving they were driving
    • whynotmaybe2 hours ago
      In Québec they solved it by issuing the ticket to the car owner that is considered responsible and it's up to the owner to contest it.

      Nobody's considered guilty, it's an administrative ticket.

      No points are removed from the owner's driver licence because they can't prove who was driving but the owner still has to pay the ticket.

    • verdverm4 hours ago
      I think there is a case going to the supreme Court on this, for a red light camera.

      The gist is that it shifts the burden to the accused to prove they were not the driver at the time, whereas when you are pulled over, the police are verifying it right there.

  • brewcejener7 hours ago
    Why not skip a few steps and just electronically limit the top speed of all new vehicles? Too much revenue lost??
    • tmerch5 hours ago
      A: they do already. Either electronically or via gearing and rev limiting. B: you may want to exceed the speed limit to escape danger. C: not everyone uses their vehicle on public roads and there are places you may want to do over 100 mph, like a race track. Side note, some vehicles know when you're at a track. Sometimes that feature doesn't work. D: it's not practical. What top speed would you set? In NY, it's 65. Montana is 80. Texas has a highway where it's 85. What about Germany? A maximum speed does not keep someone from doing 60 in a 30.

      Dynamic restrictions would also be a problem, either by forcing location tracking into every vehicle or relying on (eventually) outdated database or flakey computer vision (cameras can get dirty). Then you need to consider what action to take when a vehicle is exceeding the speed limit. Are you going to disable the throttle or apply brakes? How soon and how hard? Keep in mind that older vehicles don't have this system, so braking may cause an accident. Disabling the throttle might also cause an accident either by upsetting the car with unexpected weight transfer or indirectly because the car could not get away from danger.

  • dlev_pika6 hours ago
    Sure, but make fines proportionate with reported income
    • derwiki4 hours ago
      Income or total wealth?
      • dlev_pika3 hours ago
        Whichever Sweden uses, idc - because if not it’s just disproportionately hurting those that have less
  • SilverElfin4 hours ago
    What a waste of effort. Revenue generation disguised as safetyism. Most roads can be safely driven over the speed limit, especially in modern cars, where driving at 80 feels like driving at 55 in a thirty year old car.

    And it is only a matter of time before states with problematic budgets end up selling surveillance data about all of us to data brokers or the federal government.

  • BeetleB7 hours ago
    Can we get this in my state? :-)
    • tmerch5 hours ago
      To figure out average speed of a vehicle between two known points, you need to find when that specific vehicle was at point a and point b. Likely this would be done by automated license plate readers and storing when that car was where in some database. Great, now we're tracking the movement and location of vehicles (and people) with no reasonable suspicion of a crime. Surely this information won't be misused this time.
      • derwiki4 hours ago
        Don’t all modern cars have an always on cellular connection anyway?

        I’ve got as big a tinfoil hat as anyone, but I think this battle was lost a long time ago. Automobiles transportation will become closer to flights, where everything is logged.