Clear, Simple, and Wrong
Pity poor Pete Buttigieg, now elevated to Transportation Secretary in an era of (purportedly) bad infrastructure amidst infinite spending. Dubbed "Pothole Pete" for his inadequate handling of South Bend's roadways, he "failed upward" and is now in charge of the roads of the entire nation.
After taking paternity leave in the midst of the supply chain crisis (that could have been greatly abated by a few executive orders countermanding the restrictions causing the Long Beach CA bottleneck), he has come up with a lulu of a remedy for the nation's (not really) ailing infrastructure... apart from the $1.2 TRILLION just appropriated for that purpose.
With a big fat spoonful of social justice mixed in, of course. Both "equity" and climate change are to be addressed in conjunction with fixing the roads and bridges.
The brilliant idea?
Because "equity," to address the driving-while-black problem, the cameras will be less subjective than cops and troopers in who gets ticketed.
This is idiocy, and its idiocy is validated by empirical evidence: Mayor Putz (aka Bill De Blasio, aka Warren Wilhelm, Jr.) gave New York City his "Vision Zero" initiative, meant to eliminate the number of traffic injuries and fatalities. Among the components of Vision Zero was an increase in the number of speed cameras city-wide from 20 to 1400. While deaths decreased across much of De Blasio's term, injuries didn't, and deaths spiked when actual NYPD enforcement was curtailed.
Just another example of big government politicians treating the poor and working classes as revenue sources. To the tune of $215M per year.
And, because "equity," Mayor Pete's fine structure will emulate the Finnish model, wherein your fine is based on how much you earn. Jerry Seinfeld, watch your wallet.
$1,200,000,000,000 is, apparently, not enough to fix the roads. That the (again, purportedly) sorry shape of the roads can be attributed to the systemic and decades-long diversion of gasoline tax revenues to non-road purposes is neither here nor there, nor is the reality that government always overpays for such work. So, the grand plan starts with a 'brilliant' remedy from one of the Best-and-Brightest:
More money, more money, more money!!!.
We all know the truth: there's plenty of money for the roads. There was, before the infrastructure bill, and now there's far more than ever.
So, why the speed camera cash-grab? Because politics is only rarely about solving problems, and usually about OPM. And, when the OPM grab can be dolled up with woke and identity politics, so much the better.
H. L. Mencken told us that,
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
Soaking citizens for even more money than is already being taken via taxes, fees, fines, and inflation is just naked, grotesque political greed, nothing more. It’ll be spent in the usual cronyish and rent-seeker-rewarding ways, that is to say inefficiently, triplicately, wastefully, and corruptly. They don’t need the extra money, they’ll not improve highway safety in any meaningful way, and they’ll just make people hate government more.
Which may be the only silver lining.
I read about a study, where speed camera were set up on a high way near Baltimore. it took a picture of the drivers for the purpose of establishing their race, no tickets etc. given.
It showed African Americans speed more than others.
other studies have shown that these fines disproportionately impact the minority communities, as they receive a majority of the tickets, and the poor are impacted by fines.
Looks like Chicago did a study and found that the minorities were hit hardest by the City's fines that raise millions, so Mayor Lightfoot's answer is to lower the speed at which tickets are issued.
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
now maybe she thinks that Whites speed more just not at the higher speed, or more likely she expects to bring in more money and doesn't care where it comes from.
I think the lyrics to a famous rap song sums this up perfectly:
"Mo money, mo problems"
Smdh