“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein
Does the presence of speed radar or video controlled intersections actually cause you to slow down?
Before I enable you to invest your reading sense in this article, I confess the writing is biased. I didn’t support the policy of lowering the school zone speed limit to 30Km. WAIT, before you click the link on the article supporting the above statement, How slow is too fast, the publisher will insist you sign up for a free account before viewing the document.
I included this small disclaimer in the first paragraph because I was being respectful of the investment of your time knowing that it is not free.
To complete the sign up you are required to check off all the boxes, including the one box that puts your email address on their mailing list and others if they sell it, so they can send you all kinds of stuff in the hope of generating some revenue and getting you to realize news is not free.
Now, do you really want to click the link to confirm I didn’t agree with the school zone speed change? Maybe you can take my word for it.
At a news site that doesn’t require you to be on their mailing list in order to read the news content, Winnipeg police rake in highest ever from photo radar tickets – $14M, would you be surprised to hear a Winnipeg councillor indicate drivers would react appropriately and decrease their speed when the city lowers the speed limit in school zones?
“I don’t know that the service could have anticipated what would happen and the behaviour of drivers,” said Scott Gillingham, the councillor for St. James-Brooklands-Weston.
It seems the city has found that their fix to speeding – that doesn’t fix the problem but increases revenue – won’t be fixed.
Let me get this fix straight. The city overseers implemented a solution to improve safety that doesn’t produce the results needed but will remain in place anyway. Kind of makes you wonder was the fix really a solution or just a fix in the first place.
It seems CAA has waded in supporting the the need to reduce speed. They didn’t reason increasing fines and posting signs was an effective deterrent. CAA Manitoba says school zone signage unfair to drivers Sorry, I meant to tell you there would be no toll for reading that last link either.
I had two thoughts while driving through a reduced speed school zone. (Maybe there is reason I got fined, read on). First: restore the school zone speed limit and reduce the construction zone speeding fines. Second: use the 25% additional revenue generated to fund the exploration of alternative methods to achieving the goal.
I feel my thought should be considered since I helped produce the revenue: Guilty with an explanation. Oh yeah, that link is toll free also. My revenue contribution was reduced at my hearing but two weeks later my spouse insisted on making another contribution of $300 for speeding in a reduced speed limit school zone. Some people just won’t learn.
You can think of the one time revenue increase as a guise called safety learning. Now that we know it doesn’t work, let’s put a stop to that revenue generation and focus on a more effective solution using the monies from the mistake.
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