Watch out FasTrak, carpool lane cheats, speeders, others

Q

Do we need more traffic officers? My goodness, yes.

— Robert Stokes and others

A

The California Highway Patrol is embarking on a plan to hire more than 1,000 additional officers over the next few years. So carpool lane and FasTrak cheats, speeders and cellphone abusers, you may find there's more scrutiny just around the bend.

Q

We don't need more cops, we need smarter enforcement by the use of cameras. Cameras are a great deterrent to crime, as the UK has proven, over and over again.

As for speeding, let me tell you my experience. Driving in the south of France, I noticed a billboard sign that said, “BBB234 trop vite.” I understood that said too fast and thought to myself, “What is my rental car license plate? Doesn't it start with BBB? Better slow down.” I did. If I had not done so, when I passed the next camera-operated speed check, I would have earned myself a citation, sent to the rental car company and the California DMV. How easy. How safe. No $130,000 extra salary for one patrol person. Get a few of those tickets, and the resulting huge increase in car insurance rates, and the lesson is quickly learned. Thankfully I learned it before getting a ticket. By the way, I was going 140 kph, which is not quite 87 mph. That's nowhere near as fast as the speed that some people drive now on 280!

— Bob Pierce

A

It sounds like that camera ticketing system did help reduce speeding. The chances of getting camera speed enforcement on California freeways is very slim, as there has been no push for it. There are plans in the works to add speed cameras on busy city streets in areas with a high frequency of crashes.

Q

I suspect that more police officers in San Jose would not only make the roads safer, but also make the population, as a whole, safer. San Jose has 1,151 sworn officers, or 114 officers per 100,000 people. The four cities closest to San Jose in population (San Diego, Dallas, Austin, and Jacksonville) average 207 officers per 100,000. For San Jose to meet the average, we would need 2,101 officers.

— Jim Konsevich

A

Hopefully, more city cops will be added, and the traffic division brought back.

Q

Tell me what the difference is between a driver physically holding a phone, and a driver talking on a phone that is attached to the dashboard. Are both ways prohibited, or just the first one? It seems to me there's no difference in terms of driver distraction.

— Horacio Cavaleiro, Dublin

A

Handheld phones are prohibited, but not dashboard-mounted phones. Handhelds have been proven to be a greater distraction.