Halt traffic cameras while
awaiting legislative reviewThe issue: Legislators are asking for
a review of the experiment of using
traffic cameras to catch speeders.BEFORE the state Department of Transportation's experiment with traffic cameras results in a crisis on the roads or in the courts, the state should suspend its operation. At the same time, a comprehensive review is needed to deal with Hawaii's traffic problems, including whether law-enforcement functions should be performed by the state instead of local police.
State officials have said that the contract with Affiliated Computer Services Inc. to catch speeding motorists on camera was written deliberately to allow a quick exit if the experiment went awry. It has.
Instead of being paid a flat fee for performing the service, the company is paid $29.25 for each ticket issued. Placing its camera-equipped vans at spots where speed limits are drastically reduced has a potential of being very lucrative for the company. Using a low threshold -- 6 mph above the speed limit rather than the more lenient standard used by police officers -- can add to the profits.
Public anger about the speed threshold and the locations of vans prompts the larger question of whether speed limits on various highways or stretches of roads are appropriate. Where they are unreasonably low, motorists have ignored them and police officers have not enforced them.
State legislators understandably are reluctant to repeal their authorization of the program, which has worked well in numerous metropolitan areas on the mainland. In most of those areas, however, the operation of traffic cameras has been contracted through police departments.
Brian Minaai, the state director of transportation, says his department plans to review speed limits on all state roads so that traffic cameras can be positioned in spots where numerous accidents have occurred. The contract with Affiliated Computer Services, if written with public safety rather than profitability in mind, should allow the state to determine where to put the cameras.
Sen. Cal Kawamoto, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, says he will ask transportation officials to conduct a review of speed limits, the traffic-camera contract, location of traffic-camera vans and enforcement of speed limits and to report back to the Legislature 20 days before the end of the current session.
Tom Hodgkins, the company's director of government relations, says the outcry on Oahu has been similar to the initial reaction of the program's introduction on mainland cities. "But as the program becomes more accepted and more understood, you see increased support," he said.
That support will be forthcoming here only if the operation is directed by the Honolulu Police Department in a manner consistent with how police officers have been enforcing speed limits for years.
Wage and job disparities
widen between the sexesThe issue: A study shows that
top positions remain elusive for
women and the pay gap has
increased since 1995.A congressional study dispels the notion that women are cracking through the so-called glass ceiling in the American workplace, showing that they still lack a proportionate number of management positions and even made less money than men in comparable jobs in 2000 than they had previously.
Whether the disparity can be overcome without federal mandates is arguable; what isn't is that the inequity leaves women in a second tier in the work force. That should be remedied.
The study by the General Accounting Office reviewed data from 10 industries, seven of which employ 71 percent of women workers. In only half of those 10 were female managers proportionate to the numbers of women in the workforce. The wage gap between men and women also has widened. For example, a woman manager in communications made 86 cents for every dollar a male made in the industry in 1995, while in 2000, she made only 73 cents.
The report gave no explanation for the earnings decrease. However, it said that the wage gap was widest among women who had children at home, indicating that those women found it more difficult to surrender family needs for careers. At the same time, women may be choosing jobs with fewer managerial demands to spend more time with their children. Another reason may be that women and men measure success differently. Women are less likely to point to their salaries as a gauge of achievement than men and place personal satisfaction before external approval.
Whatever the rationale, the disparity adversely affects family life. If women earn less money, they can ill afford to work fewer hours when their family needs are high. Further, more women today are the principal bread-winners or work because their incomes are necessary, yet many employers operate as if there were still a full-time homemaker back at the house.
The United States remains the only industrialized country with work structures so rigid that employees have difficulty meeting responsibilities at home. If employers permitted flexible schedules, job sharing or four-day work weeks in exchange for longer work days, employees could better balance family demands.
A law firm in Sydney, Australia, for example, provides employees with computers, fax machines, telephone lines and cell phones at home so that they may leave the office earlier, take care of families, then put in a few more hours on the job. This has allowed women to climb the corporate ladder.
While there are costs for such programs, the benefits are enormous. Disparities between men and women should not be seen as "women's issues" because they affect the whole of the population.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comRichard Halloran, editorial page director, 529-4790; rhalloran@starbulletin.com
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