Instead Of Bad Drivers, What If Speed Cameras 'Caught' Good Drivers Instead?
from the carrot-or-the-stick dept
We've written at length here about the multitude of problems with speed cameras. What if, instead of focusing on punishing speeders, the speed cameras were used to reward good behavior? Drivers who obey the speed limit are automatically entered into a lottery and then notified by mail if they've won. So, you might pick up your mail one day with a letter from local law enforcement and a check for good driving behavior, rather than a fine for bad driving behavior. This is somewhat reminiscent of the idea from a few years ago where police would pull over good drivers and "reward" them with free coffee coupons -- but avoids the whole "pull over" part, which certainly upset some drivers.
The idea is that the jackpot could come from the fines that were paid from speeders -- so not only do you get rewarded, you get rewarded from the pockets of worse drivers. This method may also serve to make a speeding ticket feel even more painful than just a fine alone. After all, a $500 ticket definitely stings, but a $500 ticket PLUS a little note that had you not been speeding, you could have won $10,000 instead? Ouch, that hurts a lot more.
The idea was the winning entry to VW's "The Fun Theory" competition, where applicants were tasked to design ways to change people's behavior through fun. This is a brilliantly viral campaign that showcases the fact that advertising is content, and if you make engaging content, people will beat a path to your door to watch it. The "piano stairs" entry alone has amassed over 12 million views.
Of course, rewarding good drivers with cash awards does not help governments rake in quite as much in revenue, but speed cameras are supposed to be about safety and not money, right?
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Filed Under: driving, gaming, good driving, incentives, lottery, rewards, speed cameras
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Waiting...
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Already being done
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That would be fun.
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Saying, even good drivers speed, and they are arguably supposed to. (Artificially reduced speed limits, of course.)
Maybe change the winners to those who drive while sober and not texting.
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Re: asininity
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Revenue
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VW
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dumb
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Not Gona Be Done
Just like monies from lotteries were to be used for education, that find there way into the general fund, no added ticket premium cost would stay outside the general fund for very long.
Never ever trust a politician with money.
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They are not interested in giving away money, and giving away the money they got from ticket revenue . . .
HA! Good Luck!
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How About We Back Off the Bg Brother Crap Altogether
To make matters worse the posted speed limits are ridiculously under what even cautious drivers are comfortable with. And this is the LIMIT mind you. That means that you're allowed to drive at any slower speed up to and including the posted number. Get some friends and do 55 MPH side by side on a major highway. You'll piss off a lot of people. This unrealistic situation will continue to exist as long as the group of people who make and enforce these laws are exempt from them.
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Re: How About We Back Off the Bg Brother Crap Altogether
I seem to remember a video of this from a few years back. A few friends with video cameras got on a highway, lined up, and did 55 mph. They caused the entire highway behind them to back up and become a mess. At one point in the video, someone close to the front of the whole mess sped into the shoulder to pass them and almost nailed someone who had pulled off into the shoulder. I wish I could find that video.
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One-two carrot-stick combo
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Filler piece
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Do you have a bumper sticker reading: "PWNED by Traffic Cops"?
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One ticket in the last ten years, so no.
How about an article on something that might happen.
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This might happen. I was on a TV show discussing future development of the web. The interview before me was with a guy who was describing something called a "blog". It was Dave Winer (Dotto's Data Cafe Sunday, May 19, 2002). He thought it was the next big thing (it was). I thought it sounded silly (You fool!). Lesson: Dismiss ideas at your own peril.
I do get a 50% discount on my insurance but I admit it would be more effective to have more active and short term incentives for good behavior.
Mine's zero in 25 years and three in my life.
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This is already being done
The idea works well. I would love a system that monitored my driving and gave me a large refund.
"Of course, rewarding good drivers with cash awards does not help governments rake in quite as much in revenue, but speed cameras are supposed to be about safety and not money, right?"
Well, with over 30,000 killed per year in the USA and crashes costing $230 billion (2000 estimate) not to mention lost wages and taxes from wages and spending the government would probably have more revenues by having good behavior incentives. This could probably go even further. I was always ticked off as a working class kid that really rotten some juvenile delinquents were sent, on tax payers' money, to these fantastic remote Rocky Mountain camps with and given a horse to ride and care for while spending a month on the high trails. I, as a well behaved kid, spent summer riding my bike around the local lumber mill while my dad worked his ass off in a factory earning the tax dollars to send the other kid to camp.
There's a lot of good argument in setting up a reward system for good behavior while providing no reward for bad. It's exactly how I used to handle guard dogs. Never punish or hit a dog, but always reward correct behavior. It works.
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Re: This is already being done
Also, sorry about the grammatical errors.
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I'm going to differ with a point there
The idea that someone breaking a law based on an arbitrary number is somehow a worse driver than someone who obeys that law sets poorly with me. If speed limits were set by engineers rather than politicians, I might have some respect. If those laws were about traffic safety as opposed to making money, I might have some respect.
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Another speed camera ticket, Dennis?
The role of Government is to enforce, not incent you for following the law.
You say that the way the program would work is if someone real smart (frankly smarter than you, Dennis) figured out how to pass a referendum that required that a percentage of revenue collected by red light cameras was put into a type of lottery system for good drivers.
Seems like a good idea on the surface, but let's dig a little deeper. First, if this occurred, it would undoubtedly raise privacy issues. How would you like it if the Government took efforts to capture every road you took to get sloshed on the weekend? If it's collected by the Government, it's open to a FOIA request.
Collection of such data opens itself up to abuse. As the lottery novelty wears off, it's safe to assume that the lottery concept as you (or that really smarter person than you) originally envisioned, won't stay in it's original form for more a few years; maybe ten years tops. Eventually the program will cost too much, and there will be a need to find a way to monetize it. At this point, maybe some super smart 28 year old with an MBA wearing a cape at an insurance company will come up with a way to identify drivers that are on the road after 10:00 are less safe drivers, and the insurance company should increase their premiums; but again using this data which would be available under FOIA.
Next, consider other potential for abuse of the collected data. We read that when Sprint made available device location information, some 6,000,000 requests for information were made by law enforcement agencies within the first few months of it's launch. A system that collects this type of data would perhaps be abused in one form or another.
Indeed, such a system in time would allow an officer to pull you over and and ask why you aren't taking your normal route home.
It's a bad idea, Dennis. Mike, can you please keep morons like Dennis to the 'anonymous coward' peanut gallery crowd? I have more fun when he whines and deletes my comments.
Otherwise, in the words of Keith Olbermann, Check, Please.
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cover it up
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Fines should be based on income
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Change Government Behaviour Too!
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no incentives needed to be honest or law abiding
Most people DO NOT NEED an incentive for not breaking the law, they do not need to change of a prize for being good, or not breaking the law.
Now there are far more people who obey the laws than there are who disobey them.
That means its far easier to find those who break the law, (the small number) than it is to find the majority that do not break the law.
What if you do not break a law, and you dont win any money (are not bribed to be good), you might say screw this, im getting nowhere being good. I might as well break the law!
So I guess, you would rather see police resources, your tax money, going into the police spending all their time finding the people who DID NOT BREAK THE LAW..
I guess that would be somewhat easier :) except that that is MOST of the population.
we have had speed cameras and red light camera here in Australia for years and years, no problems they are just what they are. Its really very very simple, dont break the law and you can live your entire life and not ever have to worry about police technology, or the police doing their job, which is catching the bad guys..
Not chasing after the good guys, to reward them for doing what everyone is expected to do anyway..
that is obey the law. is it THAT hard ?
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Police are payed by US to catch bad guys, our reward is a stable society, and not lawlessness.
thats why taxpayers agree to pay taxes for the police, and for the government to create laws and rules that allow people to get along as a society.
Most people (except Mike) would think that is their job, we pay them to keep badies from killing us, stealing from us, or hurting us in some way that is against the law.
Police are expensive, and most tax payers are honest and law abiding, most of those people will not be happy to see the police not doing the job they are paid to do, that is keep social order.
And as most of the law abiders will never see any prizes for being good, how can you make that system fair, or unbiased. Will we end up with "good courts", where two people try to prove how good they are to get their reward.
Rewarding people for doing the right thing, and for being law abiding citizens, will only achieve bad feelings from the rest of society that are honest, law abiding but do not receive any prize.
As for the law breakers, they will love it, all the police spending their time and resources in finding people NOT breaking the law (much easier to do BTW).
And not employing those resources in finding the people who are breaking the law.
I can imagine it, police man pulls over good driver to give a prize, while 10 speeding cars zoom by.
Also, here in Australia, (a well advanced country) we had a good driver reward system, heavily promoted, but a total failure. It just does not work.
What they found, is that police are very good at being police, at upholding the law, and catching the bad guys.
We pay them alot of our money do be police, we dont pay them to run a 'good lotto'. They are not trained, skilled, or willing to do that job. They joined the police force to catch badies, and to shoot people.
Not be Mr Nice Guy, but to do their job. (not another job).
Doing their job does not mean them putting on the uniform and doing some other job, (like prize giver), they find criminals, thats hard to do.
They do not find honest people, thats easy, as most are honest.
I dont need to be rewarded for doing the right thing, or obeying the law. Most if not all people do not need rewarding over the rewards we allready have.
That is not living in a lawless society, that is my reward for being honest, and obeying the law, that is everyones reward and prize.
Its a system that has worked throughout history, these other schemes have been tried and failed in the past. And its clear (from above) why it fails.
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Why is it you equate obeying an arbitratily set speed limit with honesty, decency and morality? I consider myself an honest, decent and moral person, but I usually drive between 5 and 10 mph over the posted speed limit. You know why? Because the speed limit A) is set artificially low to encourage speeding so police departments can generate more revenue, and B) has to be applied to everyone from 80 year old geriactrics behind the wheel of a 40 ft motorhome to semi trucks with double tanker trailers.
I'm fully capable of driving at a higher speed than the posted speed limit in a safe manner, and have done so for nearly 20 years. An 80 year old in a motorhome probably isn't. When I'm 80 and behind the wheel of a 900 sq ft behemoth, I'll stay within the speed limit.
So please spare me your moral indignation. If you want to obey the letter of every law, have at it. But don't be so quick to judge those of us who obey the spirit of the law.
Thank you.
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Funny!
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Good idea
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hmm
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red light camers
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How Does This Solve the Budget Deficit??
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I do however disagree that this is all about money. If a piece of equipment is put in place to catch bad drivers and hopefully teach them a lesson by penalizing them, isn't that creating a safer environment? That is if people actually learn their lesson.
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Awesome!
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uuummm
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Okay...
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Speed Cameras
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Do them both
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Not a bad idea but...
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