Automated law enforcement is on the rise. Red-light cameras have been controversial, but they have only increased in use. For several years, some Metro Atlanta counties have used school-bus cameras to nab violators who do not stop when those buses load. Cameras help enforce violators in the various Peach Pass lanes, too.
Decatur, after a 30-day grace period, now has speed cameras in several school zones. Drivers caught speeding by the cameras get a $100 fine for driving 10 mph or more over the speed limit. Then they get $150 penalties for each additional violation.
With artificial intelligence only becoming more prevalent, commuters should take note. As ways of enforcement become more exact and automatic, our driving will have to follow.
In fact, these cameras are so exact that the state is not allowing Decatur Police to fine drivers who drive 9 miles per hour over the speed limit or below. The technology is that good and thousands more drivers would get caught each year.
One AJC reader, Pam H., reached out to me and asked why speeding from 26 mph to 34 mph was not penalized. Decatur PD Chief Scott Richards confirmed to me that this applied to cameras only. Live officers can still write tickets for any speed above the posted limit.
With so many kids on foot and so many distractions, areas near schools are some of the most likely to see pedestrian-versus-vehicle clashes. During back-to-school season every year, AAA releases some version of this stark statistic: Kids hit by cars at 25 miles per hour are roughly two-thirds less likely to die than those hit at 35 mph.
So if there ever was a reason to allow robotic speed cameras to work without nuance, then allowing them carte blanche in a school zone would make sense.
According to data that the City of Decatur shared with Channel 2 Action News, a one-week study of the school zones that have these cameras found 168,000 vehicles traveled in the areas. More than 20,000 were speeding, which would mean a tidy sum showing up in Decatur’s coffers. 6,680 were 15 to 20 miles per hour above the speed limit and another 2,200 or so went even faster.
Nearly 4% of Decatur drivers that week drove 15 or above the speed limit in active school zones, according to that camera data..
For speed cameras – or red-light and school-bus cams – to actually deter speeding, they need to do more than catch people after the fact. Drivers need to know that those speed detectors are being used. Then more people would slow down in the same way they do when they see a police officer running radar.
I recently got a red-light violation in Kennesaw. The left-turn signal was yellow and I thought I could make my way across busy Highway 41 and onto Highway 5/Canton Road Connector. But the light went red in mid-turn and a ticket showed up a couple of weeks later. I was dead to rights on the camera, and the still shots on the ticket proved just that.
The camera in that intersection is fairly innocuous, and if I had known it was there, I would not have tried to squeeze through that light.
These various new enforcements need major signage, assuming the goal is to actually promote safer driving. Cynics would say – and they would have a point – that having robo-enforcement is much more about driving revenue to local departments.
As auto-policing proliferates, drivers have to adjust. We should just about always expect to be under some sort of detection, and that includes dashboard cameras in other cars and the Flock cameras that many cities and businesses are using. If we are too mistake-prone, then driving assists and autonomous piloting will make us better or simply replace us behind the wheel.
And if we stubbornly reject either notion, then we need to prepare to pay. As I have learned – and more Decatur residents are starting to – the robots are generally going to win.
Doug Turnbull has covered Atlanta traffic for more than 20 years and written “Gridlock Guy” since 2017. Doug also co-hosts the “Five to Go Podcast,” a weekly deep dive on stories in motorsports. Contact him at fireballturnbull@gmail.com.
