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Leviathant t1_j3ughde wrote

Reply to comment by Scumandvillany in Inky: "Crashes are down 36% on Roosevelt Blvd., thanks to speed cameras" by just_start_doing_it

Red light cameras get abused, and have been found to increase accident rates - but speed cameras I can get behind.

I mean yeah, it sucks the first time I was shooting down an eight lane road in DC at 65mph, only to find out a week or two later that the signs said 45, but you can bet I never sped in Washington DC ever again.

Having visited a few places where speed in urban areas is enforced, it was jarring coming back and realizing what I'd acclimated to. I mean, I still deal with it, but it sure would be nice if fewer people would blast through Old City streets at highway speeds.

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[deleted] t1_j3ukii1 wrote

Traffic calming such as narrower streets and speed tables are an option. The enforcement is immediate and much safer for pedestrians. Its a hard sell to people who just wanna go fast though.

If speed cameras are implemented, it probably means the road was overdesigned. It takes conscious effort to drive the speed limit when going faster feels safe.

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Leviathant t1_j3us5j7 wrote

All that happens with speed tables in the city is that the people who live on a street with speed tables have to deal with the constant shaking and noise of cars blasting over them at speed. And the ones they install on 2nd Street don't last. The end up as piles of broken plastic and tire-mangling bolts sticking out of the asphalt.

I'm okay with traffic calming measures that jut into the street though. When we visited England last year, my wife did all the driving. "What the fuck is this?!" she exclaimed, slowing down because the street suddenly got narrow. The system works!

Still, neither of these are going to erode the culture of speeding quite like speed cameras. It may take longer, but when you keep getting dinged for speeding, over and over, you generally change your behavior. And at the very least, they can tell a story about how the proceeds from speeding cameras can go to something that benefits the community. No promises that it actually gets accounted for properly. Automated enforcement is notoriously abused once you get people in power that turn a blind eye to it.

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RoverTheMonster t1_j3vqi4w wrote

I’ve never quite understood why Kelly and Lincoln Drives don’t at least have speed bumps. I’ve always assumed it’s a maintenance/snow removal thing

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