Money, not safety push for cameras fuels in Pa.

To the Times: Contact your senator and representative and urge them to Vote No on Senate Bill 172, authorizing speed cameras in work zones and on Roosevelt Boulevard.

Work zone speed cameras and speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard are another in the long list of “fixes” for non-existent problems that some in Harrisburg are proposing.

First, let’s talk about speed cameras in work zones. There is no crisis of workers being killed. Twentyfive percent of the PennDOT workers killed in work-zone fatalities were due to passing civilian vehicles since 1970. Through 2014, that is 21 fatalities by passing vehicles in 45 years, or one about every 2.14 years.

Every life is precious, but this does not justify a multi-million dollar camera fine program to benefit PennDOT and the for-profit ticket camera vendors. Cameras don’t prevent accidents.

Seventy-five percent of the PennDOT workers killed were accidents with other workers or work machinery. If PennDOT actually wants a program to reduce the number of PennDOT workers killed, wouldn’t it make sense to go after the 64 or 75 percent killed inside the work zones by other workers before putting out misleading information trumpeting a workzone crisis that needs a fake “solution” in the form of speed cameras that will issue tickets for profit instead of safety?

PennDOT is going after the work-zone issue in a poor way, one that is more likely to raise significant amounts of money than to improve safety. The transportation lobby pulls the strings at PennDOT, who rush to implement the lobby’s revenue-generating schemes, with little thought for the highway safety of drivers or workers.

Money is driving the push for speed cameras in work zones. Don’t fall for it.

Next, let’s talk about Roosevelt Boulevard. The boulevard is rife with traffic safety problems because of engineering malpractice, aided and abetted by government. PennDOT and City Council refuse to synchronize boulevard traffic lights to a reasonable speed. This would end the “speeding” that everyone complains of. PennDOT and City Council refuse to put the crosswalks underground, which would end pedestrian accidents and fatalities. Why?

Instead, they give drivers red light cameras, which have increased accidents and injuries at every camera-controlled intersection. And now certain senators and representatives, following the directives of the camera lobby, want to put speed cameras on the boulevard.

In the United Kingdom, speed cameras have increased accidents. Accident rates have not improved in Washington, D.C., after issuing $500 million in speed and red light camera tickets. In Maryland, the speed camera program was so bad it was shut down, plagued by inaccuracies, fraud and mismanagement, yet it has been resurrected after nearly $100,000 in direct contributions to Maryland lawmakers from speed camera companies.

Money is driving the push for speed cameras on the boulevard. Don’t fall for it.

Speed cameras in work zones and on the boulevard are the foot in the door for the real goal of the camera lobby: speed cameras on every Pennsylvania road and highway. The “pilot project” language is utter nonsense, and we all know it. Speed cameras are only for money, not for safety.

This is an election year, and we need to watch how the people in Harrisburg vote very closely. Tell them to do right by the taxpayers and vote no on SB172.

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