[ OUR OPINION ]
THE state's traffic-camera program to catch speeders has crashed and should not be allowed to reappear in the near future. The program failed because its focus extended beyond dangerously aggressive drivers, outraging motorists who have become accustomed to traveling slightly -- and, under normal conditions, safely -- faster than the speed limit. Don’t bring van cams
back any time soon
THE ISSUE Governor Cayetano has shut down the traffic-camera program aimed at speeders.
While police continued to recognize normal driving habits, operators of what motorists derisively called "Talivans" applied another standard for criminality -- correctly dismissed by judges as "deminimis," Latin legalese for what one TV reporter accurately translated into Hawaiian as manini. The Department of Transportation foolishly brought charges against driving behavior that is both customary and tolerable.
Unfortunately, the program's demise may look like a green light to motorists who drive at dangerous speeds, encouraged by auto manufacturers' glorification of horsepower. "Zoom, zoom, zoom," Mazda proclaims, while a Hyundai "disappears faster than a dotcom" and Volkswagen warns, "Blink and you'll miss it."
The controversy of photo-traffic enforcement in other parts of the country has involved snapshots of cars running red lights at intersections, a phase that had been planned in Hawaii but is now parked alongside the speed cameras. However, legal challenges of those programs were similarly based on the unfounded presumption that the car's owner was the driver and that contracts with vendors were based unfairly on the volume of traffic citations instead of a flat fee. The Honolulu prosecutor's office chose on Thursday to withdraw speeding citations that were challenged in court after District Judge Leslie Ann Hayashi ruled that the presumption of the car owner being the driver could not be sustained.
The state still must comply with a court order from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii rightly accusing the state of invading motorists' privacy by handing over their Social Security numbers -- the same as most Hawaii driver's license numbers -- to a private company. A state judge has given the state two weeks to retrieve the personal information.
Hawaii transportation officials should have been aware of these and other problems before signing the profit-driven contract with Affiliated Computer Services.
Legislators were on the verge of repealing the law authorizing the camera-van program when Governor Cayetano shut it down, although he supported the program's objectives. The continued operation of similar programs on the mainland in the next few years will provide an opportunity for Hawaii's legislators to determine what works elsewhere and is acceptable to the public.
Brian Minaai, the state transportation director, says his department plans to install more speed-indicator trailers and small road bumps and to conduct more educational programs to persuade motorists to slow down. Those measures are appropriate activities for his department. Minaai should leave law enforcement to the police.
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