On Traffic Cameras
To the Editor,
I am sorry I missed last week’s edition where I understand you expressed the view that speed-detecting cameras are ill advised. If we want to address the traffic problem I can’t imagine why we would turn our back on this tool. Let me relate a recent experience.
I had the pleasure of driving around New Zealand and Australia for a month last year. When you pick up your rental car you are clearly warned that cameras are in wide use and you will be ticketed; everywhere! City and country.
As I left Melbourne heading west (think leaving Boston on the Mass Pike) I was struck by a strange observation. Everyone was going the speed limit. No one was passing on the wrong side, no tailgating or excessive lane changing. There was an unfamiliar civility about the entire driving experience.
Compare that to home where for 25 years I have been walking my dogs on Commonwealth Ave. It has become a drag strip. High speeds, constantly seeing red lights ignored. And don’t get me started on the new scourge: that of the wrong way, unlit, sidewalk driving food delivery motorbikes.
By the way, I’ve never seen a traffic stop of a passenger vehicle on Comm Ave by the BPD.
So to those charged with making our world safer, let’s use cameras to address the speeding and red light infractions. Let’s use traffic calming devices seen elsewhere such as city street style speed bumps.
Oh and by the way, Australia, with a road system profile similar to ours, has 40% of the per capita driving deaths we have.
Michael Gallup