Colorado's New Speed Camera System Makes Waze Nearly Useless

Colorado's New Speed Camera System Makes Waze Nearly Useless(motor1.com)

20 points by c420 44 days ago | 17 comments

stevenicr 44 days ago |

Is the data publicly available?

I can think of a few roads near me where 90% of the vehicles do 20-25 mph over the limit all the time.

You occasionally see them out there writing tickets, but never seen an accident in that area.

I would think the data could show that the speed limit should be adjusted up.

Understanding that 2 weeks of the year they need to put out some markers about the holiday traffic creating a full stop.. but they need to do that anyway regardless if the limit is 45, 55 or 70.

SilverElfin 44 days ago |

What a waste of effort. Revenue generation disguised as safetyism. Most roads can be safely driven over the speed limit, especially in modern cars, where driving at 80 feels like driving at 55 in a thirty year old car.

And it is only a matter of time before states with problematic budgets end up selling surveillance data about all of us to data brokers or the federal government.

none2585 44 days ago |

I don't understand how they can issue a ticket to the owner without proving they were driving

whynotmaybe 44 days ago | |

In Québec they solved it by issuing the ticket to the car owner that is considered responsible and it's up to the owner to contest it.

Nobody's considered guilty, it's an administrative ticket.

No points are removed from the owner's driver licence because they can't prove who was driving but the owner still has to pay the ticket.

verdverm 44 days ago | |

I think there is a case going to the supreme Court on this, for a red light camera.

The gist is that it shifts the burden to the accused to prove they were not the driver at the time, whereas when you are pulled over, the police are verifying it right there.

brewcejener 44 days ago |

Why not skip a few steps and just electronically limit the top speed of all new vehicles? Too much revenue lost??

tmerch 44 days ago | |

A: they do already. Either electronically or via gearing and rev limiting. B: you may want to exceed the speed limit to escape danger. C: not everyone uses their vehicle on public roads and there are places you may want to do over 100 mph, like a race track. Side note, some vehicles know when you're at a track. Sometimes that feature doesn't work. D: it's not practical. What top speed would you set? In NY, it's 65. Montana is 80. Texas has a highway where it's 85. What about Germany? A maximum speed does not keep someone from doing 60 in a 30.

Dynamic restrictions would also be a problem, either by forcing location tracking into every vehicle or relying on (eventually) outdated database or flakey computer vision (cameras can get dirty). Then you need to consider what action to take when a vehicle is exceeding the speed limit. Are you going to disable the throttle or apply brakes? How soon and how hard? Keep in mind that older vehicles don't have this system, so braking may cause an accident. Disabling the throttle might also cause an accident either by upsetting the car with unexpected weight transfer or indirectly because the car could not get away from danger.

iAMkenough 43 days ago | | |

As an aside, what new cars don’t include location tracking?

My experience is they all have satellite connections and require some level of telemetry. My car throws a persistent check engine light and error message on the radio if you disconnect the telematics control unit.

dlev_pika 44 days ago |

Sure, but make fines proportionate with reported income

derwiki 44 days ago | |

Income or total wealth?

dlev_pika 44 days ago | | |

Whichever Sweden uses, idc - because if not it’s just disproportionately hurting those that have less

KetoManx64 43 days ago | |

So just lick the boot that keeps pressing down on you with more burdensome fees and taxes instead of doing anything about it.

BeetleB 44 days ago |

Can we get this in my state? :-)

tmerch 44 days ago | |

To figure out average speed of a vehicle between two known points, you need to find when that specific vehicle was at point a and point b. Likely this would be done by automated license plate readers and storing when that car was where in some database. Great, now we're tracking the movement and location of vehicles (and people) with no reasonable suspicion of a crime. Surely this information won't be misused this time.

derwiki 44 days ago | | |

Don’t all modern cars have an always on cellular connection anyway?

I’ve got as big a tinfoil hat as anyone, but I think this battle was lost a long time ago. Automobiles transportation will become closer to flights, where everything is logged.