Approve speed cameras now

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
April 26, 2012

The City of Chicago is considering use of speed cameras.

The Illinois State Police began using them a while back in Work Zones.Did they have any effect?

Paradise Valley, Arizona began using them years ago. They were in use, when I lived in Phoenix in 1989. And you know what? Drivers slowed down in Paradise Valley!

What's wrong with speed cameras? Nothing. They photograph cars of speeders and record the speeds. Then a ticket is mailed to the owner of the vehicle.

In Paradise Valley, if the owner wasn't driving the car, he could write back and say so, identifying in whose possession his car was at the time. I remember a conversation with a woman who was livid that her husband had mailed back a ticket and identified her, without telling her. I thought that was hilarious. She didn't claim that she wasn't speeding; only that he ratted her out.

All you have to do is drive on the Illinois Tollway, the Dan Ryan or the Kennedy Expressway to experience the insanity of the speeding problem. Many drivers routinely speed 15-20-25-30 MPH over the limit. What's wrong with nailing them with PhotoRadar?

And what's wrong with nailing those who operate at 15 or 10 or 6MPH over the limit? The speed limit is the Speed Limit. If you think the Speed Limit is unreasonably low, put some pressure on those who set the Speed Limit.

I'll tell you one speed limit that is too low, and that's on the Dan Ryan from the circle to about 63rd Street. The speed limit is 45MPH. To obey the 45MPH is very dangerous; yet IDOT maintains that unreasonably low speed limit. It is probably set at 45MPH because IDOT admits that "everybody" speeds.

Try the I-90 Tollway any day between Randall Road and in near O'Hare. You might want to set your Cruise Control for about 75MPH (in the 55MPH zone), so that you don't get run over.

Police manpower does not exist to enforce speed limits. Using electronic enforcement gets my 100% approval.