Enforcement won’t work

I read with some interest Ald. Mark Borkowski’s common sense opinion piece in the March 5 Journal Sentinel about cracking down on speeders (“Crack down on speeders,” Crossroads).

Obviously, out in Lake Country we have the same problem. Whenever this issue comes up, the word “enforcement” always is thrown around as the preferred solution. But it makes me think that about the only time people slow down is when they run into a tree or have some kind of accident.

Borkowski cited statistics that 18% of all accidents had speed as a contributing factor. I would suggest to you that only takes into account the people actually involved in an accident and not all the other drivers on the road who may have contributed but drove away.

We have a good group of law enforcement personnel out here working in various jurisdictions. But I would bet if you asked, they’d tell you that they could write tickets all day and the only thing they would accomplish is creating a lot of ill will.

Municipal courts would be overrun with people contesting traffic tickets. And the overall cost of the additional court personnel, jail personnel and collection agencies, if you carry the argument out to its logical conclusion (Lock ‘em up!), would be prohibitive.

Any solution to this problem that relies on discretionary behavior by human beings is doomed to failure. Until such time as technology catches up and municipalities can control a car’s speed within, say, a five mile an hour tolerance of the posted speed limit by broadband communication with a car’s onboard computer, things won’t change much.

In the meantime, let’s take the cheap solution and plant more trees.

Dave Tomsyck Oconomowoc