Leo Gillick
Speed camera tickets has been deployed in a New Mexico city to absolutely no effect, prompting the majority of the mayor’s opposition to promise they’ll scrap them completely.
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A recent investigation into the results of speed camera use in Albuquerque showed that although some claim it’s making the streets safer, almost half of the tickets are unpaid. People simply don’t care. The threat of a fine is ignored, and the consequences of not paying are minimal.
Unthreatening Fines: The idea behind speed camera use in the New Mexico city was to encourage people to slow down. The threat of being flashed and fined made sense, until it didn’t. People realized that the consequences of ignoring the fine often never transpired.
- 450,000 citations have been handed out around the city. However, only 48% have actually been paid. Mayor Tim Keller has insisted that people aren’t supposed to be able to get away with it so easily. When people don’t pay, their details are handed off to collections agencies. This doesn’t bother most people though. With around 230,000 unpaid fines, I think most people will take their chances.
- The city is also, apparently, able to boot vehicles that have not paid their speed camera tickets. But, up to this point, not a single car has been booted. It appears that the speed camera campaign has failed.
Scrap The Speed Cameras
The current mayor of the New Mexico city stands by their decision to install speed cameras. Despite their significantly reduced income, they say that they’ve been effective. Maybe they’re not the revenue flow they hoped for, but the speed reduction across the city has been noticeable. As a result, accidents are down.
Fuel For The Opposition: However, four candidates standing against the mayor have used the unpaid fines as something to latch onto. Rather than talking about the reduction of speed, they are noting the lack of revenue.
- “They’re gonna come down, every single one of them, and we’re gonna put police officers out on the streets doing traffic stops,” Darren White, an upcoming candidate, said. “Nobody cares. They laugh at it because it’s so ineffective.”
