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by IgorPartola 4660 days ago
Speeding cameras and other ways to ticket people automatically are problematic in the US. See, in Europe, the ticket can be given to the owner of the car. The problem is simple: take a picture of the license plate, look up the owner, send ticket.

In the US, the law says that the only person that gets the ticket is the driver which != owner in a lot of cases. Because of this, places that have speeding cameras have to employ people to look at pictures of the person driving and compare them to pictures of the license of the owner, or try to identify the driver by some other means. Needless to say this is expensive. On top of that, states like North Carolina require that all or most proceeds from speeding cameras tickets go to education, and not the police department. Thus, the police department has no reason to shell out $100k/year on running a camera to see none of the profits. They'd rather hire an extra officer to give out tickets manually.

That could be different for tickets given for average speed violations, as you could give them to the driver, but that would likely create a traffic backup nightmare.
2 comments
kalleboo 4660 days ago
> See, in Europe, the ticket can be given to the owner of the car.

Europe is a big place. In Sweden, the traffic camera has to catch the driver's face. If you cover your face so you can't be identified, they won't serve you with the ticket. They do exactly as you say - employ a room of people to compare photos to the driver's license database. http://www.svt.se/nyheter/sverige/dolj-ansiktet-slipp-boter

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mrud 4660 days ago
It depends in Europe. In some countries, e.g. Germany it is like in the US, e.g. you can contest a ticket and say that the driver was a relative from another country. You can also say that you weren't the driver but you don't know who used your car. In this case you typically are forced to keep a drivers log for this vehicle for the future.
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jorgem 4660 days ago
>> In this case you typically are forced to keep a drivers log for this vehicle for the future.

Really?? You're found not-guilty, but you are still punished?

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nmeofthestate 4660 days ago
Presumably the log is required for any vehicle that's used by multiple drivers, like a delivery van. The log seems a reasonable legal requirement.
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