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May 12, 2005
Red light cameras again
Sunday's paper had editorials both for and against traffic cameras being installed in Knox County.
While Sterling Owen does make some good points in favor of the system, overall I'd have to give Steve Hall a clear win. Mr. Hall's arguments against the system just make more sense from a safety perspective.
Mr. Owen did explain something that, as I mentioned earlier, was bothering me. The tickets issued wouldn't be moving violations, they'd be similar to parking tickets and not put points on your license. That's both a good thing and a bad thing. Good in that it wouldn't raise your insurance rates. Bad in that Knoxville doesn't exactly have a stellar record regarding parking enforcement. Of course both of those things actually help a properly issued moving violation be something more than an annoyance. So what you're left with is getting a parking ticket in the mail that is just a one-time hit for some cash with (probably) a non existent appeals process.
Posted by Paul Witt at May 12, 2005 05:35 PM
Comments
The easiest way to stop the traffic violations would be to base the penalty on your income.
Do not issue speeding tickets for 5 MPH or less but issue a warning ticket. Three warnings and you recieve a speeding ticket on the third.
The fine could be 1% of your last years income. You make $20K you pay $200, $100K a thousand dollar fine, etc.
I know I would watch my speed. This, however; would jam our court system so bad with people fighting tickets that it would be a nightmare. So my suggestion for this would be to allow you to fight the ticket, but, if you lose you have to pay double. 2 percent.
If any police officer gives a ticket out just to raise revenue and is caught the agency he works for should pay the victims gasoline bill for a year. And the officer fired.
Parents wouldn't have to pay their kids speeding tickets (under 18). The kids would have to do community service in the amount of 1% of a years worth of work. There are 2080 hours in a working year so we could round it off to 2000. That would be 20 hours of community service.
Money talks. We need to teach people that crime doesn't pay, it cost. If they did this there would not be any reasons for cameras.
Posted by: Ron at May 12, 2005 06:31 PM