Hundreds of people have thrown their signatures behind a petition calling for “the immediate removal” of all speed enforcement cameras in Brampton while the city is set to add more by the end of the summer.
They believe they have a God given right to break the speed limit
Even then, I’d argue they still disproportionately impact those most likely to be on the road - those who need to drive for or to work.
But so what? Drive the speed limit and you don’t get ticketed. This isn’t some unfair cop picking and choosing who to pull over. Add scaling fines for income and its STILL going to disproportionally impact working class people.
So let’s push for that instead of pushing to remove cameras. In fact, proportional fines would probably increase the revenue, which would bring the funds to improve the road design so folks don’t get the wrong impression of the speed they’re supposed to be in. Also let’s push for better transit so poor people are not forced to drive and risk getting fined.
While I’m down for eating the billionaires, this sounds awfully close to punishing people for being successful.
I agree it disproportionally affects poor people, but rather than scaling the punishment, maybe the answer is to look for non punitive measures that produce the same result.
I’m in agreement that we need systemic solutions, and those involve improving road design, so we agree for the most part on the most important aspect of this.
punishing people for being successful.
But issuing bigger fines for breaking the law is very, VERY far from punishing people for being successful. It’s a correction of an unfortunate truth: if you’re wealthy, you can afford to drive recklessly.
Unscaled fines punish people for being poor, because the punishment is a larger percentage of their disposable income.
Why should a poor person pay a fine of 30% of their monthly take home, while a rich enough person pays 5% (or less?) of their take home for the same infraction.
The only fair solution is for the fine to amount to an equal percent of your take home pay. Then it is the same punishment for everyone.
They disproportionately effect assholes who speed. The fines are harder to pay if you are poor but they are equally easy to avoid for both rich and poor.
100% true, unless fines are scaled to be proportional with offender wealth.
Even then, I’d argue they still disproportionately impact those most likely to be on the road - those who need to drive for or to work.
But so what? Drive the speed limit and you don’t get ticketed. This isn’t some unfair cop picking and choosing who to pull over. Add scaling fines for income and its STILL going to disproportionally impact working class people.
Its still not an argument to get rid of them
So let’s push for that instead of pushing to remove cameras. In fact, proportional fines would probably increase the revenue, which would bring the funds to improve the road design so folks don’t get the wrong impression of the speed they’re supposed to be in. Also let’s push for better transit so poor people are not forced to drive and risk getting fined.
While I’m down for eating the billionaires, this sounds awfully close to punishing people for being successful.
I agree it disproportionally affects poor people, but rather than scaling the punishment, maybe the answer is to look for non punitive measures that produce the same result.
I’m in agreement that we need systemic solutions, and those involve improving road design, so we agree for the most part on the most important aspect of this.
But issuing bigger fines for breaking the law is very, VERY far from punishing people for being successful. It’s a correction of an unfortunate truth: if you’re wealthy, you can afford to drive recklessly.
Unscaled fines punish people for being poor, because the punishment is a larger percentage of their disposable income.
Why should a poor person pay a fine of 30% of their monthly take home, while a rich enough person pays 5% (or less?) of their take home for the same infraction.
The only fair solution is for the fine to amount to an equal percent of your take home pay. Then it is the same punishment for everyone.
Indeed I don’t disagree, I think it’s worth experimenting with this and driving fines look like a good place to start
They disproportionately effect assholes who speed. The fines are harder to pay if you are poor but they are equally easy to avoid for both rich and poor.