Chef Geoff Tracy vs DC Speed Cameras

Over a three day period in January, Washington, D.C. celebrity chef Geoff Tracy received three $150 tickets from a single newly installed traffic camera. In an attempt to alert other motorists of the speed trap, Tracy hired a sign spinner for a full week to caution passing drivers. But helping people avoid costly tickets doesn't sit well with at least one fan of D.C.'s $43 million revenue generating traffic cameras .

About 2:25 minutes. Written and produced by Rob Raffety

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Comments

[o3]

how many times oh lord?

>TAKE UR FRONT PLATE OFF

its like a $25 admin fine vs red lights at 100+

[Loki]

Unfortunately in CO a lot of the intersections with red light cameras have cameras postioned to catch the front and back plates. So you'll just end up getting fined for both running the red light and not having a front plate.

[Privatize law enforcement!]

This is the way capitalism works. Like a machine. Cha-ching!

[Private Road Corporations]

Remember, Government is just middle management for the business of America, and that's making the rich richer.

Thanks, I'll take that.

[kate]

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[el Commentariosa]

Let me guess, the sign to alert drivers was deemed a hazard?

[Private Road Corporation]

That's the way we'd enforce property rights on private roadddddzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cities like D.C. are doomed to continue their downward spirals as residents and businesses escape destructive regulations to the suburbs. So many corrupt and self-serving civil leaders that I don't know how things turn around. Good for the chef, though. (But he'll probably make one of his busboys carry the sign.)

[o3]

cept the JERBS aint in the burbs.

DC should enact an outta county wheel tax on the commuters.

4 wheel cracker tax

[Konfounded Kristen]

cept the JERBS aint in the burbs.

ORLY? Might wanna do some more research.

[JW]

(Former Mayor) Fenty's transporation crony chief raised the parking rates to $2/hour almost immediately after taking office, so that, in his words, it would discourage people from driving in to the city and taking public transport instead.

I just stopped at step 1.

[Cronyism = Capitalism]

In other news, cronyism = socialism too.

That's the way agricultural city-Statists roll.

[Tim]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....creen&NR=1

[Erik]

They can zoom in on your VIN# if you have a James Bond disappearing plate.

[Sparky]

Just once I'd like to see a city official, police officer or otherwise, just come out and say that tickets are a money making device and have nothing to do with public safety. It would be a refreshing breath of honesty.

[Tulpa]

I thought libertarians believed that selfish motives worked toward the common good.

[Sparky]

I suppose that's possible, though I never claimed to be a libertarian.

[Does anybody claim to be...]

...libertarian these days?

In other news, my fundamentalist evangelical neighbor keeps saying he's not religious.

[zeroentitlement]

Free individual motives, not profit-oriented motives of government agencies to whom we're forced to submit as authorities, and to whom we pay increasing amounts of tax revenue every year, regardless of the amount of money they extort through initiatives such as speed cameras.

[Government = individuals]

Just like corporations are individuals, ya know.

[dunphy]

you'd be surprised how often "citizens" are the ones who lobby for lower speed limits AND for speed limit enforcement. when i drive through residential neighborhoods and i talk to people, you would be amazed how many want us in their neighborhood enforcing speed laws.

personally, i am not a "ticket guy". but if you honestly think tickets have nothing to do with public safety, you are ridiculous.

speed limits, and the fear of a ticket have a deterrent effect. on most people

for those that don't, they usually get spanked with massive tickets, fines, arrests, etc. but at some point they get the message

[yonemoto]

C- on the video, reason. I was a bit embarrased to be watching it.

[Monster Truck Rally]

Fans might of liked it

[JW]

There's a new speedcam on NB 16th Street, at the bottom of a hill, near the Maryland border. It's one of the new "box sitting on the ground" types and not mounted on a pole.

It hasn't nabbed me (yet), but the thought of getting a stencil and a can of spray paint for a quick SPEEDCAM paint job on the side facing oncoming traffic pretty much passes through my mind every time I pass it.

[Tulpa]

Destruction of public property: not just for Occupiers anymore.

[Paul]

Nope, it's for everyone resisting Big Brother.

http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

[DK]

I guess they'll be putting up security cameras to monitor the speedcams.

[Res Publica Americana]

Don't be a moron.

[I'm not libertarian. So there.]

[Joe M]

Better public than private.

[MrDamage]

no need to paint the thing, just stick something in front of it.

[Tulpa]

When drivers know where speeding is being monitored, they also know where it's NOT being monitored.

The whole idea of speed enforcement will collapse if the zones of punishment are publicly known, because people will feel free to speed in other areas.

[Sparky]

But if people know where the zones of punishment are it will also get them to slow down in those zones. If the idea really is public safety then smart police forces will make it well known where those areas are to get people to slow down there.

[Paul]

It's not about slowing people down or reducing accidednts. It's about fines from catching people.

[Sparky]

Hence my comment above.

[Paul]

No I saw your comment above. It just can't be reiterated enough.

[dunphy]

clearly, you don't undestand the concepts of specific deterrence, general deterrence, etc.

how utterly unsurprising

[Paul]

That's why England is now putting its cameras inside people's apartments looking onto the street.

[Res Publica Americana]

Your argument is based on the premise that speed enforcement is necessary.

[SugarFree]

The law is the law, you filthy anarchist.

[Warty]

Look, serious adults obey the law. It's not my fault if you want to treat the roads as your own personal playpen.

[Self-refutation...]

...and yet they still believe.

[Konfounded Kristen]

There's a traffic light on King St in Old Town (Alexandria for you non-DCers), and one in the Cleveland Park area in DC also, that will turn red if you're speeding. No ticket, just a red light. That system seems much more geared to safety than revenue generation.

BTW, stupid assholes trigger the red light on King St all the time. How the fuck hard is it to slow the fuck down when the sign says the red light will trigger if you speed? Do these people not believe what the sign is telling them?

[Konfounded Kristen]

(errr...just west of Old Town, that is. Up the hill from the Masons)

[JW]

No shit? I haven't heard of that scheme yet.

Where in Cleveland Park? On Conn Ave?

[dunphy]

many people do fine with just a warning. some others, require harsher incentives.

[Sparky]

Well the gamboling douche showed up late in the day to ruin everything from here on. Good thing it's the end of the day and we're heading into the weekend.

[Truth has a way of ruining...]

...any libertarian's day.

[Digital Ruse]

I know what you were trying to do... but leave it to the Powerthirst guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuNxHqwazs&ob=av3n

[dunphy]

one thing that critics of speed cameras never mention is that they are a 'solution' to many of the very things they complain about - speed cameras don't racially profile (setting aside the issue that racial profiling is largely a myth as heather macdonald has demonstratd, but regardless, it's clear that the CAMERAS don't profile), they can't "harass" people selectively for any reason APART FROM THEIR BEHAVIOR (speeding or red light running or whatever), they offer no favoritism (our chief has already made policy clear that if an officer is caught by a red light camera and he is NOT running code, he is responsible for the ticket. full stop), they don't tase anybody, etc. etc.

iow, they are a completely impartial form of law enforcement that offers no favoritism, racial bias, class bias, ethnic bias, or any of the shit that cops get criticized for. they don't ask for consent to search, they don't "intimdate" or "harass" people etc.

iow, they are a "cure" to what many people (often unjustifiably ) complain about the "bad cops" doing.

i have many criticisms of these cameras, but i just find it highly ironic that the same people who criticize cops for all these alleged types of misconduct, are usually the same ones who also wank about speed cameras, which cannot do any of the shit they criticize flesh and blood cops for.

[James C. Walker]

DC's speed and red light cameras are NOT about safety, they are about MONEY. They ONLY make profits because the speed limits are set below the safest levels and the yellow light intervals are set shorter than the safest levels. Both engineering "errors" are deliberately and maliciously done so thousands of tickets can be given to safe drivers for MONEY. See the science on our website. James C. Walker, National Motorists Association, http://www.motorists.org, Ann Arbor, MI (frequent visitor to the area)