A lot of aggressive drivers are creating havoc on the roads these days.
Some Massachusetts lawmakers would like to be able to deploy traffic safety cameras to encourage better driving behavior.
The cameras take a picture of a vehicle’s license plate if it runs a red light, exceeds the speed limit, or makes an illegal right on red.
If there is a violation of the traffic laws, the owner of the car or truck gets a ticket in the email.
About a half dozen communities in Rhode Island have positioned traffic cameras at some of their intersections.
“Enforcement is one of the best ways to make people comply with any rules or laws,” said Wen Hu, a senior research transportation engineer with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
She says the types of crashes caused by running red lights are very dangerous and almost always cause very severe injuries or even fatal injuries to the occupant of the vehicle that’s hit.
According the IIHS, more than 1,100 people were killed in 2022 after being hit by a vehicle that had run a red light.
More than 107,000 were injured in these kind of crashes.
About half of the states have laws that allow for traffic safety cameras, but Massachusetts isn’t one of them.
Boston 25 News asked people along Centre Steet in Jamaica Plain how safe they feel navigating the roads these days.
One man said, “It’s gotten worse with Ubers, and I feel like you see a lot more traffic in general, and at the same time, Boston has always been a traffic heavy city. I generally feel like it’s always been bad.”
A woman added, “I think we’re a very aggressive city in terms of driving.”
Another woman said she’d support anything that would make the roads safer.
State Senator Will Brownsberger (D-Middlesex/Suffolk Counties) wants to empower communities to add traffic safety cameras. He’s filed a bill to give Massachusetts cities and towns the local option to install these devices.
“These are places that have a lot of people and a lot of traffic. There are people who want to preserve the safety of their neighborhoods and are asking for some enforcement. They’re not getting it from the police because the police are too busy elsewhere.”
Brownsberger says infractions won’t go on anyone’s driving record since the violation is tied to the car’s registration.
“But you’re going to have to pay it. You can’t get your registration renewed without paying it. These are going to be reasonable fines, but people are going to say they don’t want to deal with this and will drive the road safely.”
As part of her budget, Governor Healey is also proposing traffic enforcement cameras.
Opponents of these cameras believe they’re a backhanded way to raise revenue.
Others, like a woman in Jamaica Plain, worry about privacy.
“I think it is going to make us feel like we live in a police state where we’re always caught under surveillance, always being watched, everything is like big brother.”
Another woman countered, “I think that’s always a concern, but in the day and age that we’re in, I’m probably being recorded right now.”
Brownsberger says his bill has privacy protections built into it.
Two forms of camera enforcement have already been approved in Massachusetts and will roll out soon.
One measure will put cameras on the front of MBTA busses to report on cars in the “Bus Only” lanes.
The second type will go on school buses to nab drivers who don’t stop when kids are getting on and off the bus.
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