School Zone Speed Cameras (Atlanta, Roswell: schools, cost of, law)

[cqholt]

Roswell joins 20 other cities in Georgia in approving School Zone Speed Cameras. This is a great move, as school zones is the most important area where traffic should be slowed and enforced.
City of Atlanta needs to follow suit.

The service is free to the cities, but RedSpeed gets 35% of the ticket revenue. The rest is kept by the city and must be used for public safety.

The additional revenue can be used for sidewalk and LIT(bike) lanes to be built connecting schools with communities.
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/roswe...6QTsWHDnXR90Q#

[onemanarmy]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Roswell joins 20 other cities in Georgia in approving School Zone Speed Cameras. This is a great move, as school zones is the most important area where traffic should be slowed and enforced.
City of Atlanta needs to follow suit.

The additional revenue can be used for sidewalk and LIT(bike) lanes to be built connecting schools with communities.
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/roswe...6QTsWHDnXR90Q#

Sounds like a good idea for all streets provided they are reliable. Did the new law only allow them for school zones, I know the state law limited these in the past. Also, IIRC drivers became aware of them(which is the point) and they were no longer profitable(which is stupid if they are for safety). I'm curious if the company will still operate them, if they no longer produce the revenue of the cost of operations, or has the technology made the cost cheaper. From the video, they look a lot smaller than the monstrosities that were set up on North Ave & Lenox Rd.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by onemanarmy

Sounds like a good idea for all streets provided they are reliable. Did the new law only allow them for school zones, I know the state law limited these in the past. Also, IIRC drivers became aware of them(which is the point) and they were no longer profitable(which is stupid if they are for safety). I'm curious if the company will still operate them, if they no longer produce the revenue of the cost of operations, or has the technology made the cost cheaper. From the video, they look a lot smaller than the monstrosities that were set up on North Ave & Lenox Rd.

State law only allowed them in School Zones... for now

[toll_booth]

Good. My only complaint is that the law only allows for ticketing drivers going at least 10 over, even in school zones. That should be lowered to 5+ over.

[Need4Camaro]

I agree that people definitely need to slow down in School Zones but if they're operated by a private organization they are about as useless as those School Bus cameras. You don't legally have to pay them and they can't use them as evidence that you were indeed in violation. Only a witnessing officer can. That stated. I have actually gone out of my way to contact local deputy's to let them know about certain school zones of which citizens are speeding through ... ... while they profile certain school zones in hispanic and african american sectors, people in more affluent suburbs are practically getting away with murder.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

I agree that people definitely need to slow down in School Zones but if they're operated by a private organization they are about as useless as those School Bus cameras. You don't legally have to pay them and they can't use them as evidence that you were indeed in violation. Only a witnessing officer can. That stated. I have actually gone out of my way to contact local deputy's to let them know about certain school zones of which citizens are speeding through ... ... while they profile certain school zones in hispanic and african american sectors, people in more affluent suburbs are practically getting away with murder.

Killing a person with a car is getting away with murder.

[MattCW]

These things are stupid and unconstitutional. Law enforcement should NEVER be for-profit, it completely removes the incentive for justice and encourages the company and city to set the cameras to trigger low like 23mph or something.

Originally Posted by cqholt

Killing a person with a car is getting away with murder.

Getting away with???

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Killing a person with a car is getting away with murder.

In verdict... this likely won't get very far.

Roswell joins about 20 other cities in Georgia, including Gwinnett County’s Duluth and Lilburn, that contract with Illinois-based RedSpeed USA to ticket drivers. The service is free to the cities, but RedSpeed gets 35% of the ticket revenue. The rest is kept by the city and must be used for public safety.

They're no different than the red-light cameras that they employed alittle over a decade ago. They're designed to make money, not citate drivers. If they don't catch X # of drivers, or drivers outright refuse to pay for the tickets.. ..they come down. The city isn't paying a dime to maintain them, only RedSpeed USA of which has no legal weight when it comes to prosecuting the drivers.

Lastly, the additional revenue will not be used to make new sidewalks or bikeways to schools or anywhere else.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Getting away with???

eg: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/08/...illa-lawrence/

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Good. My only complaint is that the law only allows for ticketing drivers going at least 10 over, even in school zones. That should be lowered to 5+ over.

I'm unaware of such a law.

In the U.S. there are two types of laws regarding the enforcement of speed limits.

Absolute and Relative

Absolute means if the speed limit is 55 MPH, you can be pulled over for going 56 MPH.

Relative means if the speed limit is 55 MPH, you get a 5 MPH lee-way, so they cannot cite you until you are doing 61 MPH or more.

Georgia is an absolute speed state, that technically means they CAN legally write you a ticket for going even 1 mph over the limit - not very likely... but they have the legal frame work to do so.