Speed cameras throw due process in a grimy dumpster out back then light it on fire.
Never have I felt more anarchical, more willing to wield a Molotov cocktail, than when I received my first Washington, D.C., speeding ticket in the mail. The officer on duty when the alleged crime occurred?
A speed camera.
The rage that coursed through my veins nearly compelled me to take a sledgehammer to the abominable machine myself, in the great tradition of freedom-loving vigilantes. So, one can imagine my wrath (shared by all other D.C. residents I’ve spoken with) when, earlier this month, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced it would deploy “Automated Traffic Enforcement Cameras” to 30 new locations. These locations were determined by the DDOT to be “High Injury Network (HIN) locations . . . where data analysis has identified Speeding as a safety issue.”
Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong.
Speed cameras throw due process in a grimy dumpster out back then light it on fire. Under their technocratic rule, the driver is guilty until he proves himself innocent. There are contextual exceptions to most laws — even speed limits — which can be easily determined by a human being at the scene. The classic example? Say a husband is driving his pregnant wife to the hospital as she goes into labor — a cop would escort them to the clinic himself, but a speed camera would coldly send the new father a ticket he’d have to fight later in court.
While the pregnant-wife case especially incites our pathos, there are many mundane cases that would still call for some human leniency. I have compiled a short list:
- You speed up to pass the rickety pickup truck full of debris in front of you.
- You accelerate rather than slam on the brakes to match the timing of the stoplight ahead.
- An aggressive driver is tailing you, and you try to get out of his way.
- A speed limit was recently lowered, but you (and your GPS) recall the old one.
- You are matching the flow of traffic, which flows at seven miles per hour over the limit.
I could go on. There is no chance to explain yourself to a speed camera. A robot is, necessarily, tyrannical and unforgiving.
Instead of making the streets safer, the District’s move to install more cameras is a thinly veiled cash grab to make up for their failed policies elsewhere (the Metro system is currently lying in a $750 million hole of its own design). A single-speed camera, cleverly placed, can rake in nearly $1 million a month — preying on average commuters and visitors alike. D.C.’s expanded camera program is expected to generate $580 million in revenue over the next four years alone.
I’ll confess, I like driving fast. I love few things more than a joyride down an open, flat, Midwestern road. I derive pleasure in a clean maneuver around the incompetent drivers of the District, who have a knack for standing in the middle of a busy road or attempting a U-turn in the worst possible location. While I like to get from point A to point B efficiently and am sometimes too generous with the accelerator, I have yet to mow down a pedestrian or careen into oncoming traffic.
Why not? There is a stark difference between quotidian speeding and reckless driving. Speed cameras punish the former and neglect the latter. The District’s cited reason for increasing their army of speed cameras — combatting the rise in road fatalities — is naïve at best and manipulative at worst. Reckless driving causes road deaths, not an extra few miles an hour.
A Washington Post piece from last year blamed the rise in traffic fatalities on “structural racism,” as an imbalanced majority of road deaths occurred in low-income, majority-Black neighborhoods. However, a resident of one such neighborhood, who was quoted in the article, had another reason in mind: “It almost feels as though there is a culture of recklessness from people who interact with our community. . . . Running red lights, running stop signs.”
Between February 2021 and February 2022, a top speed of 116 mph in a 25-mph zone was recorded on Southern Ave — a road notorious for traffic fatalities that borders the low-income, majority-black neighborhoods as described by the Post. However, “by comparison, a traffic camera on Connecticut Avenue NW, in Ward 3, caught speeders reaching a maximum of 73 mph in a 25-mph zone.”
Certainly, true accidents do happen, but the majority of traffic fatalities in D.C. are caused by irresponsible driving and pedestrian negligence. On the driver’s side, a combination of excessive speeding, impaired driving, and distracted driving contribute to road deaths. For pedestrians, walking while impaired, walking outside of a crosswalk, or walking against the signal light increases the likelihood of a fatal accident. According to D.C.’s Highway Safety Office,
Most motorists rarely drive aggressively, and some never do. For others, episodes of aggressive driving are frequent, and for a small proportion of motorists, it is their usual driving behavior.
Speed cameras do little to nothing to disincentivize this “small proportion” from reckless driving.
This past spring, a man who amassed 44 tickets in a year — altogether worth over $12,000 — killed three people in a crash on a major D.C. thoroughfare. Despite his continuous spree of reckless driving and unpaid tickets, he remained behind the wheel. In another story, the Post found a car with Maryland tags with 339 outstanding tickets worth $186,000 in fines and penalties.
A D.C. council member is seeking to pass a bill that would enable the District’s attorney general to go after dangerous drivers in civil court — if enacted and vigorously enforced, this proposal has the potential to actually alter the norm of consequence-free, reckless driving in D.C.
Government interventions like speed cameras, rumble strips, extra stop signs, or lowered speed limits cannot and will not stop a routinely reckless driver from, say, cruising 100 miles over the speed limit. Until such drivers are de-frocked of licenses and forbidden from operating vehicles, their neighbors will begrudgingly continue to dodge them on the roads — just to come home to a fresh speeding ticket in their mailboxes.