The other day I was thinking, I bet Jalopnik would love to find a transportation angle on this story.

I understand a lot of the concerns around speed cameras, and in general I’m opposed. But in all the outrage expressed in the comment sections of the news articles here in Rochester, none of the outrage was that SO MANY FUCKING PEOPLE ARE SPEEDING THROUGH THE SCHOOL ZONES.

And as much as I often don’t like police they have discretion, you may be “speeding” but if going with the flow or the limit is stupid (have a stretch of straight rural road that is 40 mph and they never enforce it) they can use judgement and wait for the reckless drivers and aggravated speeders.

Where I lived previously there was a school zone with cameras, the only problem is they were not adjusted for non-school days, I saw people getting lit up (literally) when school wasn’t in session as they were going the base limit but the cameras were timed for school zone. Maybe they didn’t send them out from those…

Those systems usually take several days just to generate the ticket. Someone has to look at it and verify the plate (even if the software grabs the plate number). Then they have to get the driver info from a DMV database. Then they still have to print and mail the ticket out. I could easily see them not getting the…

That was my thought, they probably mail the ticket and I assume there is a lag for processing and mailing times.

Pretty much ALL traffic camera systems are like this where the lions share goes to the camera company. We had red light cameras here for a while, until it cam out the city got such a TINY amount, that and tickets given to people that didn’t in fact run the red light.  I never got stung, but driving through town one…

Yep, exactly. But, if this program (I guess?) was run correctly, the money generated from the tickets would go directly to improving or reengineering the road to stop it from happening. Then after that has been shown to work, you move to the next area that needs help. They could literally use the cameras to generate…

This. I got hit with three photos tickets in the same place over two weeks before I got a single letter in the mail. At least when a cop pulls you over, you know instantly what to watch out for 

Exactly my problem with this type of enforcement method. It doesn’t fix the root issue.

Is it at all possible that in those 10 days the driver didn’t actually know yet that they were accumulating the tickets? So, clearly, speeding in a school zone is not ideal, a presumed lag in the system would mean they didn’t realize they were racking up fines. 

As someone who wrote RFP responses to state and local governments for speed cameras, red light and parking enforcement, and toll collection systems, I’m shocked the city is getting that much.

For every $50 fine paid, $17 goes to the city, and $33 goes to the camera company.

I’m in Syracuse and they are planning to install cameras here. Everyday on my commute, I drive through by an elementary school with a posted 20mph speed limit. Everyday, I have someone on my bumper when I slow down to that speed. The cars ahead and in the other lane seem to ignore the speed, too.

I honestly don’t like speed cams at all as I don’t think they really do anything, especially when you live close to another state or district (Hello DC!). But the fact that of the $50, the private company gets $33 is just insane. The money should mostly go to the city to then make the school zones safer, until ticket…

This seems relevant right now:

I know how this all went down:

DONT TAZE ME BRO!

Dipshit needs to just learn how to call corporate. There is a website and everything.