Cameras Catch 3,000 Dayton Speeders In 17 Days

Would you not consider it a win-win if people who have been speeding quit breaking the law and the city made money until everyone got below the speed limit?

No, I wouldn't consider a win-win. None of these streets, not a single one, was a high accident area. The cameras were put in to help balance the city's budget, not to improve safety. The city has been in debt for years, and is laying off fire fighters and policemen. Then the cameras were added to generate revenue based on promises by the company that installed them & issues the tickets.

What has happened, in reality, is people are now taking side streets to get around the cameras. These side streets are residential, with children playing in the yards, and not designed for heavy, high-speed traffic. So, the city is putting speed bumps on some side streets, and closing others to through traffic. So, people are seeking other routes around the cameras and closed streets. The cat & mouse games continue...

Before commenting on the quote, I thought I would include the article on which this thread is based. By the way, following the link in the OP, one can watch a newscast that is roughly the same as the print version. Interestingly, the two citizens interviewed both thought the cameras were a good thing.

Cameras Catch 3,000 Dayton Speeders In 17 Days
DAYTON, Ohio -- New intersection cameras in Dayton show that we are a city of speeders.

At $85 a ticket, the speed cameras could generate a lot of money for the city of Dayton but city officials stress that this is not the reason why they were installed.

The video version said there were four speed camera. The printe article observed that Dayton is a city of speeders. One of the video interviews asked the participant if she thought that people speed and her answer was yes.

Lube-guy, the article did not comment on whether these speed camera locations were in high accident areas. However, you said that they were not - adding "not a single one". This implies that you have knowledge of where the high accident areas are. Could you share your source of knowledge, please?

The article was posted on August 19 and we know that the cameras have been in operation for only 17 days.
I find it very interesting that "people are now taking side streets to get around the cameras. These side streets are residential, with children playing in the yards, and not designed for heavy, high-speed traffic. So, the city is putting speed bumps on some side streets, and closing others to through traffic. So, people are seeking other routes around the cameras and closed streets."

If this is so, the ciry has really moved quickly if they have already put speed bumps on side streets as a result of people all of a sudden avoiding speed camera.

You seem to know a lot about the situation. Can you give us the names of the four streets on which the cameras are located and the side streets with the speed bumps as well as the side streets which have been closed to through traffic, please? It would be interesting to use EPE to see the patterns that must be there.

Neither the video or print article spoke of Dayton having a budget problem. How much of a budget problem is there?

I was very surprise several cities in Orange County were going to install the cameras but decided not to. Based on the revenue the city of Santa Ana receives from those cameras and the rest of the cities are having difficulty with revenue, it makes no sense not to install the cameras, so the politics goes on and they are trying to find other ways in increasing revenue for their cities.

When put to a vote of the public, I don't think any safety camera law has survived. But it's difficult getting it to a vote.

Getting the vote is indeed the tricky part.

Elected officials will do whatever it takes to generate money to pay for their 'phoney baloney jobs."

Every time they say: "it's not about the money;" it's about the money

New article out on these cameras

Dayton City Manager Tim Riordan is battling a projected $15 million annual revenue decline from state, federal and local tax sources. But Riordan said he expects citations, and therefore revenue, to decline quickly. He cited the example of Dayton’s red-light cameras, which issued many more citations in their first few years.
“We never viewed (speed cameras) as a money-raiser,” Riordan said, adding he hasn’t done the math on possible income. “We viewed it as we did with the intersection cameras — they brought traffic accidents way down. I think it will slow speeding.”

Faulkner confirmed that Dayton officers only issue a ticket when a driver is a certain number of miles per hour over the speed limit. He said the city set the speed cameras at that same standard, but is giving an extra 1-2 mph buffer in case of calibration differences between city radar and camera radar. The goal? No one gets a citation from a camera if they wouldn’t be eligible for a ticket from a officer.
(emphasis added)

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/new-speed-ca...

The first thing that went through my head was cha ching $

I have sent the location of these cameras to Miss POI and they should be showing up on the next update. Dayton has been having budgetary problems and this is a way to help them get more money into the city's bank account. Cincinnati is also having money problems but they, so far, have refrained from going the red light/speed camera route to enhance their bottom line.

What it usually means when you have that many people speeding is that the speed limit is set too low.

Unless there is an overriding reason, such as a school zone, the speed limit should be set based on the speed of the drivers on the road, not some artificially set arbitrary number.

According to the Institute of Traffic Engineers, in the US, speed limits are usually set at the 85th percentile of measured speeds on the road in question. For more information, see

http://www.ite.org/standards/speed_zoning.pdf

^x2, just like the "default" speed is 55 for highways when they don't know what to set the speed limit to. There is never a reason to set a speed limit to 55, either 50 or 60 is sufficient, just because the max speed was 55 for years should not mean that is the default. I guess some like Nixon's legacy.

Time to download the latest Red Light and Speed camera locations. Thanks Miss POI.

That's a lot of speeders, though.