How driverless cars could kill the speeding ticket — and rob your city

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: How driverless cars could kill the speeding ticket – and rob your city

One of the big benefits of driverless cars is that they aim to promote safety on the roads while reducing congestion at the same time. If cars are largely run by computers, talking to each other, they can travel closer together in a more coordinated fashion without fear of causing a fender-bender.

Those machines could obviously malfunction. But on the whole, driverless cars are known to behave more cautiously than their human operators. And by virtue of their, well, virtues, autonomous vehicles won't know how to speed, run red lights, park illegally or make other traffic violations that would result in a ticket. And that could drive some city budgets into a deep hole.

Take the nation's capital, which operates the most speeding and red-light cameras of any city in the country. In 2014, the District issued an average of 773 tickets a day from its speeding cameras alone – adding up to roughly $37.5 million worth of fines, according to the latest figures from AAA Mid-Atlantic. Since 2007, speed cameras have been a cash cow for the city's police, resulting in nearly $357 million in revenue, AAA said.

[Brandon]

Municipalities should not be relying on traffic infractions to balance their budgets.

[The Nature Boy]

Good.

Cities that rely on tickets to balance their budgets are predatory and need to be stopped.

[empirestate]

I agree, the idea of paying for orderly civil society by depending on a certain amount of uncivility seems badly misplaced to me.

As for the driverless cars, their most obvious advantage is that they're able to all agree on the same set of rules, and all follow it equally. A lot of what slows down human-operated cars is the sorting out of what the rules are, and accommodating those who decide not to follow them.

[SidS1045]

The previous three posts are spot on, but let's not kid ourselves that anything will change.  The allure of money is too great and that money generally goes into a self-perpetuating bureaucracy that provides, among other things, employment to judges, clerks, police officers, and every other kind of job associated with traffic enforcement.  I wouldn't want to be the politician who has to tell these people that their jobs are eventually going away.

[jeffandnicole]

Would driverless cars also move themselves from metered parking spots when the meter runs out, finding another metered spot to park in? 

Could a driverless car also stop and get a pizza for me too?  And do my Christmas shopping?

[Jardine]

Kinda naive thinking municipalities aren't going to figure out tapping other income streams.

[kkt]

Would driverless cars also move themselves from metered parking spots when the meter runs out, finding another metered spot to park in? 

Why not?  Even better, it should drive itself to the outskirts of town where the parking is free, and when you're ready you'd phone it to come get you.

Could a driverless car also stop and get a pizza for me too?  And do my Christmas shopping?

There are delivery services that take care of that already.

[SSOWorld]

Would driverless cars also move themselves from metered parking spots when the meter runs out, finding another metered spot to park in? 

Why not?  Even better, it should drive itself to the outskirts of town where the parking is free, and when you're ready you'd phone it to come get you.

Or even better - your garage back at the house.

[thenetwork]

The previous three posts are spot on, but let's not kid ourselves that anything will change.  The allure of money is too great and that money generally goes into a self-perpetuating bureaucracy that provides, among other things, employment to judges, clerks, police officers, and every other kind of job associated with traffic enforcement.  I wouldn't want to be the politician who has to tell these people that their jobs are eventually going away.

Those jobs won't go away because of less traffic infractions, it just makes room for said workers to concentrate on more important crimes that go on in those same municipalities:  Cops can catch more robbers, courts have more time to shorten the current backlog of court cases, and the coffers can collect more court fees on these serious crimes.  For example, with all of the dash cams now, the courts SHOULD charge people who run from the cops every individual traffic infraction they incur during the documented chase.

I cannot wait to hear the first stories of dumb criminals who try to make a getaway in a driverless car!!!  It will happen and will happen often!

[Jardine]

Bwa, ha, ha, ha !!!

Crack down on all those damn pedestrians !!!

[SidS1045]

Those jobs won't go away because of less traffic infractions, it just makes room for said workers to concentrate on more important crimes that go on in those same municipalities:  Cops can catch more robbers, courts have more time to shorten the current backlog of court cases, and the coffers can collect more court fees on these serious crimes.

Court fees assessed for felonies and misdemeanors are a drop in the bucket compared to the steady revenue stream provided by traffic infractions.  The really big crimes such as murder and armed robbery carry no fines, just jail time.  Without the money coming in, jobs will be lost.

[SP Cook]

Good. 

Remember that actual serious police work and traffic "work" are totally different things.  Especially at the town level, most traffic cops have no ability to solve actual crimes, and most wide-spot-in-the-road towns have no need to police in the first place.

These bozos can find work in the beef jerkey retailing industry.

[TXtoNJ]

The previous three posts are spot on, but let's not kid ourselves that anything will change.  The allure of money is too great and that money generally goes into a self-perpetuating bureaucracy that provides, among other things, employment to judges, clerks, police officers, and every other kind of job associated with traffic enforcement.  I wouldn't want to be the politician who has to tell these people that their jobs are eventually going away.

It's only a problem because the alternative is raising taxes elsewhere, and a good chunk of the voting population won't approve new taxes unless they think the person who it's imposed upon "deserves" it.

[cpzilliacus]

Those jobs won't go away because of less traffic infractions, it just makes room for said workers to concentrate on more important crimes that go on in those same municipalities:  Cops can catch more robbers, courts have more time to shorten the current backlog of court cases, and the coffers can collect more court fees on these serious crimes.

Court fees assessed for felonies and misdemeanors are a drop in the bucket compared to the steady revenue stream provided by traffic infractions.  The really big crimes such as murder and armed robbery carry no fines, just jail time.  Without the money coming in, jobs will be lost.

Perhaps more to the point, persons charged with (and convicted of) such serious crimes do not usually have any money with which to pay such fines.  Now admittedly, there are some exceptions, but generally speaking, felons tend to be poor people.

[triplemultiplex]

This is so easy.  You make up the loss in revenue by reducing stupid police forces where half the cops are just collecting revenue through traffic fines.  Fire the Barney Fife's and keep the Andy Griffiths.

[thenetwork]

In the "tickets for revenue" municipalities, while the cops may not be able to catch speeders in driverless cars anymore in theory, those cars will still have a percentage of them with burnt out taillights, expired plates, and unpaid parking tickets just like driver-necessitated cars.

And do you think the bad boys with the street rods, low riders, bass blasters and loud tailpipes are going to buy driverless cars?  Let the cops concentrate on those drivers and the crotch rockets.  There will still be plenty of them to keep an eye on.

[empirestate]

And do you think the bad boys with the street rods, low riders, bass blasters and loud tailpipes are going to buy driverless cars?

Yes, if they want to use them on the streets they will. At some point I expect driving one's own car will be limited to private facilities.

[cpzilliacus]

In the "tickets for revenue" municipalities, while the cops may not be able to catch speeders in driverless cars anymore in theory, those cars will still have a percentage of them with burnt out taillights, expired plates, and unpaid parking tickets just like driver-necessitated cars.

And do you think the bad boys with the street rods, low riders, bass blasters and loud tailpipes are going to buy driverless cars?  Let the cops concentrate on those drivers and the crotch rockets.  There will still be plenty of them to keep an eye on.

Emphasis added above.

At least in Maryland, the crotch rockets are a huge problem, and there has been no systematic effort by law enforcement to chase them down and arrest them.

[SSOWorld]

In the "tickets for revenue" municipalities, while the cops may not be able to catch speeders in driverless cars anymore in theory, those cars will still have a percentage of them with burnt out taillights, expired plates, and unpaid parking tickets just like driver-necessitated cars.

And do you think the bad boys with the street rods, low riders, bass blasters and loud tailpipes are going to buy driverless cars?  Let the cops concentrate on those drivers and the crotch rockets.  There will still be plenty of them to keep an eye on.

Emphasis added above.

At least in Maryland, the crotch rockets are a huge problem, and there has been no systematic effort by law enforcement to chase them down and arrest them.

They certainly can't keep up with them - the rockets can split traffic, cop cars can't.  Glorified safety risk, yes - but cops who chase make traffic even more dangerous.

[Rothman]

In the "tickets for revenue" municipalities, while the cops may not be able to catch speeders in driverless cars anymore in theory, those cars will still have a percentage of them with burnt out taillights, expired plates, and unpaid parking tickets just like driver-necessitated cars.

And do you think the bad boys with the street rods, low riders, bass blasters and loud tailpipes are going to buy driverless cars?  Let the cops concentrate on those drivers and the crotch rockets.  There will still be plenty of them to keep an eye on.

Emphasis added above.

At least in Maryland, the crotch rockets are a huge problem, and there has been no systematic effort by law enforcement to chase them down and arrest them.

They certainly can't keep up with them - the rockets can split traffic, cop cars can't.  Glorified safety risk, yes - but cops who chase make traffic even more dangerous.

I take it the rockets don't have license plates.

[cpzilliacus]

I take it the rockets don't have license plates.

Many do not - or they have them installed in such a way as to be unreadable.

If chased, they will tend to head for sanctuary in the District of Columbia.  D.C. cops will not chase anyone, and Maryland cops will not cross into D.C. unless the driver or vehicle are wanted for a felony.

[noelbotevera]

You know what, these speed trap towns (Waldo and Starke, Florida, I'm looking at you) really deserve this karma. I think that once driverless cars really start kicking in, then all the speed trap towns will be in real trouble.


Until they find another way, which isn't likely, for some of them...

[wxfree]

I've been driving for a long time and many miles and have never had a moving violation.  I've never felt bad about "robbing" government of revenue by not paying traffic fines.  In fact, I feel kinda good about doing what we all should be doing.  We live in a perverse society when government depends on lawlessness to pay the bills.  I've always thought that lawmaking and fine-collecting should be separated, so that fine money does not benefit those who make the laws.

[Road Hog]

Only a good guy with a crotch rocket can stop a bad guy with a crotch rocket.