So there is now a traffic camera at one of the intersections down by the mall and man is that thing busy. It hasn’t been there long but I got to imagine it has already come close to paying for itself. The three or four times recently I have driven through that intersection I have seen the flash go off 10-15 times. It is constantly taking pictures. Now, while I am normally all for cool uses of technology and obeying the law, my inner Libertarian takes issue with cameras at stop lights. Not because they are a waste of money, but because I think they are pointless. While it is against my nature as a Calvinist, I believe the vast majority of people really do want to do good and do the right thing most of the time. That being the case, most of the people punished by being caught on film are people like you and me, people who were caught in that awkward situation where you have to debate whether the light that just turned yellow in front of you will in fact turn red before you clear the intersection or not. The decision between gunning the engine to squeeze through or slamming on the breaks and ending up with the contents of your trunk (or worse yet the driver of the car behind you) ending up in your lap. Street racers and drunks who run red lights and t-bone unsuspecting families will run lights regardless of whether or not there is a camera at the intersection. It constantly amazes me in our safety conscious society how much money we spend on trying to punitively punish people rather than taking preemptive measures to reduce the probability of people engaging in risky behavior to begin with. I feel much the same way about speed cameras. Speed is not what causes accidents, it is stupidity of the driver or environmental hazards. Speed can certainly be a contributing factor but going fast doesn’t mean you are going to crash. Busting someone for driving 10mph over the limit when they are driving in a straight line on a back road or empty freeway hardly reduces the risk of accident compared to cracking down on drunk driving or cell phone use. I am a firm believer also in graduated licensing. While it is easy for me to say now that I’m almost 25, teens should have to earn the right to drive. Limiting teens to a 16 hour period from 6am to 10pm limits how late they are out on the road, limiting the number of passengers cuts down on the possibility of distractions, doing Myth Busters style drivers ed where students have to have a conversation on the phone while trying to navigate an obstacle course, these are all ways we can cut down on the number of bad drivers on the road. Anyway, that’s just my $0.02. I’m headed back home now for some more xbox. I love days off!

Filed under: life by Jonathan Assink