How D.C. Is Sending Its Most Dangerous Drivers a Message

According to a recent Freakonomics episode, educational campaigns don’t work. What does work? Traffic cameras.

What might also work? Sending their info to their insurance company. I would be in favor of this. I don’t want to be in the same risk pool as these recklessly dangerous drivers.

In and around NYC, i don’t think this would work. The most dangerous drivers are so flagrantly reckless (street racing, running reds, swerving through bike lanes or sidewalks, talking back to cops). It’s hard to imagine them responding well to a warning like this

It feels like the people running this campaign think that these drivers are curious and interested in being the best and safest driver they can be. This seems unlikely. I pretty much ignore anything I get in the mail, the exceptions are bank or government paperwork, but if I open it up and see that it's just informational and not something I need to take action on (like property taxes or Jurry duty), then I just stop reading.

I hope this works out, but I'd put money on it not working.

Oh boy.

I moved to DC about a year ago. I have nothing against automatic traffic cameras. I've seen them used to great effect in NYC, where I'm natively from, to reduce speeding incidents in sensitive areas like high-traffic mixed use zones, school zones, etc.

The traffic cameras in DC are not that. They're primarily placed at chokepoints that seem intended to collect speeding fines. Some of the most prominent speed cameras are placed on major arterial throughput roads/ that turn into highways, which are either not connected to the sidewalk at all, or have no major foot traffic concerns.

In one particularly blatant location, leading right up to US-50, a major road, which has a nominal speed limit of 45, has a speed camera set to 25 mph dead in the middle, over a bridge, which is largely inaccessible to foot traffic. In the hundreds of feet leading up to the camera, the posted speed limit get progressively lower, from 45, to 30, to 30, until settling at 25 where the camera is, and then progressively raises again.

The residents have learned the game, and now this major arterial road is a nonstop traffic jam in the mile or so leading up, as people slow to a crawl to avoid the fines.

DC absolutely has some aggressive and awful drivers. But the real root cause are things like intensely poor city planning -- the criss crossing grid of exceedingly narrow streets meant to look pretty on a map and picturesque during sunset basically is an absolute worst case for gridlock. They've also done an exceedingly poor job of retrofitting modern amenities like bike lanes onto those streets, where premium space is taken up by triple-wide, treelined sidewalks, yet cars do not have room to navigate major arterial streets, and a single taxi letting out a passenger means congestion and danger to everyone around them.

And then you have what is probably the least engaged police force. Traffic cops can be seen casually parked and playing on their phone for hours on end, often parked illegally themselves, while drivers around them brazenly break the law, knowing there's nothing approaching real patrols or enforcement.

It feels like the people running this campaign think that these drivers are curious and interested in being the best and safest driver they can be. This seems unlikely. I pretty much ignore anything I get in the mail, the exceptions are bank or government paperwork, but if I open it up and see that it's just informational and not something I need to take action on (like property taxes or Jury duty), then I just stop reading.

I hope this works out, but I'd put money on it not working.

It's amazing how many folks think that maintaining more than a few over the posted speed limit is acceptable, or that driving 52 in a 55 zone, which is what you are supposed to do, is somehow illegal or immoral. What's wrong with people?

The worst drivers have often crashed multiple cars. If that didn't get through to them, it's hard to imagine a polite letter will.

I don't agree that "speeding" is really an issue in and of itself. It all depends on the conditions around you. If you're on a 45 MPH limit road but it's pouring rain reducing visibility with 5 o'clock traffic, you'll most likely be going quite a bit below that limit. If you're on the same road, 45 MPH limit, at 2 AM, with zero other cars on the road, it should be understood that there's no harm going, reasonably, above that limit. What is "reasonable" or not is up for debate.

Some states even have laws that slower traffic must stay right, regardless of what your speedometer says. What's important is that you aren't impeding the flow of traffic, if traffic is moving 10 MPH over the limit but you refuse to go above it, no problem move right.

It's funny this article says "Avoid expensive traffic tickets, pay less for car insurance" when the car insurance is mandatory and they have cameras watching your car constantly. Seems dystopian to me.

DC reported 558 drug overdose fatalities in the past 12 months, but only 35 traffic fatalities in 2022 (from all sources, not necessarily speeding involved, but speeding is apparently a factor in 29% of traffic fatalities, 29% of 35 is 10.15, so we can say DC had about 10 traffic fatalities related to speeding in 2022). I'm not saying "speeding" isn't an issue there, but..... maybe they should focus elsewhere?

It's also funny this article says

"There's already some support for that hypothesis. A recent national survey found that 60 percent of U.S. motorists thought that automated enforcement was "mostly about raising revenue," presumably even when they're sited on calm, well-designed roads that make it clear in other ways that safety is a top priority."

Well yes in fact I do think this is about raising revenue because this project is apparently going to raise $578 million over four years, where is that money coming from, I wonder??

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/traffic-data https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/speeding https://wtop.com/dc/2023/03/dc-mayors-comeback-budget-adds-t...

Don't get me wrong, speeding is an issue, sure. But is it really THE issue they should be focusing on, or is this just a cash grab? And, is "speeding" truly THE issue, or is it unsafe driving? There is a difference.