Despite the near-unanimous opposition in the state legislature to the use of speed cameras, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is moving forward on a proposal to deploy photo radar on state highways using federal gas tax funds. Legislation awaiting Governor Rick Perry's signature prohibited only municipalities -- like Marble Falls and Rhome -- from installing automated speeding ticket systems.
Time-distance ticketing systems use multiple cameras spaced far apart on a freeway. Each car is photographed once as it enters the first section of road. Miles later a second photograph is taken that allows the vehicle's average speed to be calculated from the time it took to travel between the two locations.
Todd adds: "It makes me want to move to Vegas to pursue a career in poker even more. I hope Perry doesn't sign the bill....no, I PRAY he doesn't."
(I left out the cussing.)
And I'll back up the opposition. The problem is that it isn't about safety. The main thing they want to emphasize is the fact that the cameras bring in the money. People pretty much like the way the state patrols the highways now. You can go a little over the speed limit if you don't want a ticket, a lot if you decide not to care.
The machines will send you a ticket if you're so much as THREE MILES OVER the limit.
And one of the testing areas will be on highway 6, which of course, goes through Hico.
I call shenanigans. The fact of the matter is that speeding does not cause accidents. Driving around in an old pickup with an angry dog and drunk girlfriend, yelling "Yahoo! Yahoo!" and shooting bullets through the cab ceiling causes accidents. I think we all know that.
The communists are winning.
1 comment:
I wondered how long it would take them to come up with that. Since I moved to Okie-land, I've been driving back and forth from Norman to my parents in Wichita Falls on the turnpike. I have one of those handy toll tags. Every month, I get a statement of all the toll booths I pass through, and the exact time that I did so. Wouldn't be too hard to run all that data through a program to figure out how fast you were going, and send tickets (if appropriate) along with the statement. I suppose cameras work just as well.
I bet if we had elected Kinky as governor, he'd veto the damn thing.
- Anonymous Tom
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