A House Committee heard emotional testimony in favor of speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard. The bill, introduced by State Rep. John Taylor, calls for a five-year test run to issue tickets to speeders clocked by radar guns and caught on camera going at least 11 miles over the limit on Roosevelt Boulevard. It is getting serious consideration.
Emotional testimony given at Friday’s hearing on speed cameras stirred up sad memories for Representative Ed Neilson. After listening to Angie Dellavella’s description of…
Source: House Committee hears emotional testimony in favor of speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard
I would be concerned about the radars’ accuracy. It’s a good idea, but will it be reliable?
Not a good idea and radar not accurate.
Key points. There are a few bills, with different details.
1.Speed limits too low and not set to the 85th percentile free-flowing traffic speed of US 1. Proper speed limits equal no speeding and more safety.
2.Tickets go out barely over the speed limit. Some areas are +6 mph, while others are +10 mph or +11 mph, but you will not know which area you are in. This varies by the bill you are discussing.
3.MASSIVE NUMBER OF ERRORS have occurred with speed cameras all over. Stopped cars have been cited for speeding, wrong car, speed reading wrong.
4.Crashes have gone up where used or cams had no impact.
5.Real engineering improvements are NOT being done. These could fix any problems. Things like setting yellow lights longer and more realistic speed limits.
6.George Spencer did a damaging story about how bicyclists do not obey traffic laws in Philly. This was also written about by Stu Bykofsky. Further, this was confirmed by a DC news story
about the same issue. Maybe this is making US 1 unsafe?
7.What about jaywalking and other pedestrian lawbreaking on US 1? Why is this never brought up?
8.None of the people promoting speed cameras have expressed if they currently are or will profit if speed cameras come to Philly.
9.We have an odd situation. The Philly bike group supports ticket cameras of all types, but benefits from them. Look how the city got ARLE grant money from red-light cameras, which was used FOR bike projects. There are many examples like this, such as the delineators on the Walnut St.
Bridge.
10.No way to verify that the speed reading is accurate or the proper car was cited.
Check out the National Motorists Association for unbiased info
Speed cameras will cause traffic to shift to local roads and congest things for everybody. Better things can be done to manage traffic speed such as longer yellow lights and properly calibrated speed limits.