QOTD: How Do We Fight the Speeding Surveillance State?
I am a firm believer that while excessive speeding is dangerous and bad, not all speeding is.
For example, driving 11 mph over the limit on the freeway in a well-maintained car when you're dead sober and paying complete attention isn't that dangerous. Driving 60 mph in a school zone is.
I also firmly believe that speeding enforcement is often more about revenue collection than safety.
So this news about a new Ford patent didn't sit well with me.
Then again, it's not like speed cameras are a new thing. Automated speed enforcement has both been around a while and will almost certainly be here to stay.
So how do we, as drivers and car enthusiasts fight back without sounding like speed-addled maniacs? None of us want to sound like Grand Theft Auto should be emulated. We don't want to come across as sympathetic to truly dangerous driving.
But we also want to not have our wallets lightened if we wander 7 mph per over the limit, nor do we like it when municipalities set limits too low in order to raise money. We're fine with speed limits, as long as they're based in safety and not lining government coffers.
Most importantly, how can we get towns and cities to cut down on automated tech used to issues tickets?
You know what to do.
Sound off below.
[Image: Ford]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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