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Use traffic cameras with
sensible speed limits

Here's the truth: Love them or hate them, the traffic cameras worked. Motorists slowed down.

I'm skeptical that our legislators really have the political courage to bring them back, but I'd like to see them do it.

Before Round One of the traffic cameras, I was in the habit of speeding as much as most other busy, impatient motorists. In fact, I decided a month before the cameras started clicking the last time, that I'd better practice driving the speed limit (or as close as I could without being a hazard). You know what I found? In general, it's relaxing. It really doesn't take you any longer to get around, and you don't have to be hunting for little blue lights all the time.

The other thing it revealed was there are problems with the existing limits. Speed traps like the Pali tunnels are one example, but some road speeds are just generally too low for the function they serve. I mean, 45 mph on the H-1? Thirty-five on Kalanianaole Highway? Sixty on the freeway to Ewa Beach? If traffic is moving freely, you are a roadblock at those speeds.

Star-Bulletin letter-to-the-editor writer Michael Hartenstein shared California's solution with readers in the Feb. 9 issue: That state's speeding laws take into account the normal flow of traffic on each road, or the "prima facie" speed limit.

Where the normal flow of traffic is 5 or 15 miles per hour faster than the posted limits on local roads now, we need to fix the limits.

And if the speed limits were enforced consistently -- which is the promise of the camera program -- there would be much more political momentum for coming up with rational limits in the areas where they are lacking.

Consistency, though, is the main appeal of cameras. And the reason they were so hated.

There are a lot of folks in this town who believe they are above the law. A camera doesn't care whether you have a cousin on the police force, it doesn't care whether you have the skills to flirt your way out of a ticket, it doesn't even care if you are a sitting member of the state Legislature. If you are speeding, you are going to get a ticket. Boy, folks didn't like that.

Our roads are dangerous. Speed is a problem. Running red lights is a problem. Both problems kill people. Having to obey the law might be annoying, but it beats the heck out of attending an extra funeral, maybe even your own.

And as a bonus, traffic cameras will free up Honolulu's finest for more important work. I know two people in the last couple of months who have been literally run off the road by dangerous drivers. Both got good descriptions of the vehicles in question, including the license numbers. Both called 911 on their cell phones immediately, presumably while the culprits were still on the road. Both were told the police were too busy to pursue the complaints.

As a motorist, I would much rather have the police chasing down people who are running folks off the road than handing out arbitrary tickets to an unlucky sample of the people doing 65 on the H-1. So let's free up some time for these guys.

Bring back the traffic cameras. And forget just watching the freeways. I'm a lot more scared by cars whipping up Palolo Avenue at 45 with children playing on both sides of the road than somebody cruising at 70 up the H-2 to the North Shore.

The Legislature is worried about opposition to the cameras. Well, one way to build community support would be to take input on what roads and intersections the public most wants watched. And then act on that input, instead of just staking out speed traps to bring in ticket money.

In fact, as Hartenstein pointed out, getting rid of those traps and setting reasonable speed limits as part of the whole traffic camera package could go a long way toward alleviating community objections.

Let's get serious about road safety.

Use the traffic cameras to mete out even-handed punishment for speeders and red-light runners. Use the police to catch the most dangerous drivers. And where the rules aren't realistic or fair, fix them for everyone.

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