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Comment by hiAndrewQuinn | Hacker News Reader

There's no need for violence. In fact, the capital outlay would be inefficient.

If you want to curb speeding, the solution looks much the same: Pay reporters some portion of the fines collected from the speeder. You will very quickly see a cottage industry of Internet connected dashcams and on-board AI solutions spring up, because it's practically free money if you drive safely yourself for long enough. Pretty soon nobody will be speeding, simply because you never know who or what is watching.

This is a set of economic-legal policies I've been writing about here and there for a long time. It's great stuff.

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Peasant bounty hunting really concludes the picture of a nation slowly failing under applause and cheers.

Phrased like that, it's indeed problematic. But you should keep in mind that speeding is

1. A safety hazard

2. Causes high noise pollution

3. Measurably increases air pollution

Under these circumstances I feel like a citizen driven enforcement for the law is not quite bad as you are portraying it. I would even call it apploudable, because they increase the quantity of life for everyone in their neighborhood.

The problem here is the anonymity for the tipster. Like if you can't defend your actions by putting your name to them are they actions worth taking?

The guy who reports one person for driving 100mph over the limit can and ought to sleep soundly knowing society more or less agrees with his actions.

The guy who reports 100 people for going 1mph over the limit ought to be be worried. His actions are not something society generally thinks is a good thing.

>There's no need for violence.

Then what what underpins the fines?

Uh, did someone advocate for violence?

A speed trap is a kind of violence, yes. Have you ever hit one of those things at high speed before? Ouch.

EDIT: I've been away from the States for too long. I was indeed thinking about speed bumps, not traps. Traps are cameras, and they therefore get a thumbs up from me in the beautiful bounties-on-everything-we-care-about future.

a speed trap is a device that measures the speed of cars that drive by it. It's usually on the sidewalk or (as I proposed here) in a property adjacent to the street. You're not supposed to hit them.

Are you talking about speed bumps?

I am! Mea maxima culpa. Yes, I agree with you.

Even ignoring that misunderstanding, speed bumps can be absolutely great. They can‘t be installed everywhere since they also significantly slow down emergency services, but combine speedbumps and a crosswalk and you get a raised crosswalk, which is a great measure to increase pedestrian safety.

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