DC Speed Traps and iPhone Apps
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A post by "J. Mal" To see more posts click here |
There are new internet and GPS applications (like PhantomAlert available on the iPhone) where people can update in real time the location of speed traps, speed cameras, sobriety checkpoints and red light cameras. I’ve always had a problem with these “traps” to begin with, but somehow believed that they did serve a benevolent purpose. Get people to slow down, obey lights, and drive with care.
But in a recent interview in the Examiner, DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier overlooks the hypocrisy and spoon feeds us the “BS” intentions of these “trap devices” while denouncing this new technology. She says the traps are for public safety, but I think it is really all about the money.
Lanier said the new alert technology is a “cowardly tactic” and “people who overly rely on those and break the law anyway are going to get caught” in one way or another.
“I think that’s the whole point of this program,” she told The Examiner. “It’s designed to circumvent law enforcement — law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives.”
The greater D.C. area has 290 red-light and speed cameras — comprising nearly 10 percent of all traffic cameras in the U.S., according to estimates by a camera-tracking database called the POI Factory. (Examiner Article)
Photo radar tickets generated nearly $1 billion in revenues for D.C. during fiscal years 2005 to 2008.
In defense of the new alert applications, if you are driving down the street going too fast, and your GPS or I-Phone alerts you of a speed trap ahead, isn’t it more likely that people will slow down? If you don’t know the camera is there, then chances are you will go right on speeding or run the light. Having the cameras hidden or secret doesn’t cause people to slow down at all. It just penalizes them. This new I-Phone application actually furthers the cause of public safety by actually getting people to slow down with the added bonus of saving them money.
If you have some time, which I know you do, read the article and check out some of the comments at the bottom. The people really put DC’s head PIG in her place.I think the Lanier is just upset that all that great revenue the city has been sucking out of people in DC/MD/VA is going to start shrinking.
…udothedishes
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Lets be honest… The reality is that these programs you speak of were created because consumers want to know where the cameras are so they CAN circumvent the law..The reason the programs are appealing at all is so that we can avoid getting tickets, not so that we can help safety on the streets. The Police Chief is correct her statement as she is pointing out the fundamental reason why these applications are so popular. I doubt for a second that anyone would say “I downloaded the Iphone speed trap Application so I could ultimately become a safer driver and slow down where I know the traps are..” I would assume that most people would admit that they downloaded the app to simply avoid tickets and to avoid getting caught, aka “circumventing the law”.
My point of view is simply that private organizations find ways to entice consumers with simple necessities that will make our lives easier. If Iphone really wanted to help reduce speeding, they could create an application that syncs up your phones to our cars, and whenever you speed it immediately calls the PD to let them know your committing a crime. But who in their right mind would download or buy that?! No one wants to get caught. Everyone wants to avoid the inconvenience of a ticket or criminal record.
But you do make one point that could be correct. Whether or not you find out that there is a speed trap from your phone, or by actually running it and getting a ticket, you will eventually slow down IN THAT PARTICULAR AREA. If you know that at one intersection in your town has a camera, you will drive slower there, but you may not everywhere else if your confidant that the other areas of town are clear of them. The unknown sometimes plays such a vital role with things like this. For example, If I know speed cameras exist in my town, but I’m unsure where they are, I am probably more likely to consider or think of them in multiple intersections, red lights, ect. because i have no idea where they are, but i know they do exist. But if I know that there is only one, and it is on the other side of town, and I’m sitting at a red light late at night when there are no other cars around, i may just run it cause i know there is no way I will get caught.
good point.
Lauren, regarding your comment “…If Iphone really wanted to help reduce speeding, they could create an application that syncs up your phones to our cars, and whenever you speed it immediately calls the PD to let them know your committing a crime…” Don’t worry, it’s coming. It just won’t be offered by Apple. It will be offered (forced) by your local police department.
George, you almost got it right except that all it would take is for King Obama to say the word and the PD would have the software in there cars that could check the speed of any car with a GPS phone in it. That my friend is already in the works and the word is that it will be setup so that if you speeding at one moment you are checked you will get a ticket, then if you’re checked again in say 5 minute and your speeding you’ll get another. You very well could open your mail to find that you have hundreds of speeding tickets and there all for the same day of driving. Now that’s safety and a whole lot scary!
I guess I’ll have to get my new iphone under a false identity, and I’ll make sure I don’t buy a new GM vehicle.