On: Speed Cameras and the City

[mytochar]

Before we get speed cameras, I would rather have:

   * always use blinker when turning / change lanes cameras
   * turn your lights on:
        * 30 minutes from dusk / dawn
        * when it's raining
     cameras
   * bikers without safety lights cameras
   * runners without reflective gear yet running in the
     road at night cameras
   * hand-held cellphone while driving and not stopped
     cameras
   * tailgating cameras

Speeding is the least of my worries about the road.

[jrockway → mytochar]

If you were driving slower, you probably wouldn't hit as many pedestrians regardless of whether or not they're wearing reflective gear.

The reality is: a runner hits someone, two people are annoyed. A car hits someone, one person is dead. Cyclists are somewhere in the middle.

[mytochar → jrockway]

30 is still a very painful accident for a pedestrian; but, yes, ideally there'd be less pedestrian incidents... [1, random thought footnote]

That said, most of the things I was suggesting had more to do with highway situations, where I imagine most of the speed cameras would be situated. I was mainly ranting about things that I see almost every single time that I go driving, if not every single time I go driving, that erks me as a safety hazard that seems more dangerous than speeding (where speeding is defined as above the posted limit, but within a modest delta of other adjacent cars on the highway)

[1, random thought footnote] Unless we had some sort of ironic situation where since cars are going slower, pedestrians become more presumptuous about their powers and the car's stopping abilities / driver's attentiveness and it'd result in more accidents. Who knows

[jrockway → mytochar]

No, these are not on highways in NYC. These are on roads directly in front of schools, as per state law. (I guess.)

Some of these roads are called highways ("The West Side Highway" is a surface street), some feel like highways (Queens Boulevard) but they differ from highways in that people cross them to get to school.

For highways, drive 90, I don't care.