Pop quiz time.
Is photo radar: A) “Big Brother” violating our privacy, making sure we’ll all be good, little, obedient citizens – because we’re children who can’t be trusted to do the right thing unless we’re being monitored? Or B) Simply a way to slow people down and save lives?
My answer is: Both. But the fact that I’m answering “both” is a sign that Lucifer must be getting fitted for ice skates, because it means that I’m agreeing with Governor Katie Hobbs and State Senator Wendy Rogers at the same time.
Brrrr. Got the willies there, for a second.
Some motorists (no matter how old they are) drive like hyperactive toddlers on a Big Wheel. So, it’s too bad that motorists who push it just slightly and “drive their age” get caught on camera, too – which could be considered an invasion of privacy.
Sponsored by Rogers and vetoed by Hobbs, Senate Bill 1234 would ban local governments and the State of Arizona from using photo enforcement to identify those who exceed the speed limit or run red lights. Personally, I consider the latter to be more dangerous than speeding.
But that might be because, “Hi, I’m Jim and I’m a speeder.” (“Hi, Jim!”)
Yeah, I’ve gotten more than a couple of speeding tickets through the years. And I’ve done traffic school more than a couple times due to photo radar and actual, badge-wearing humans writing me a ticket.
So when Hobbs used her veto power for the 99th time this legislative session to make sure that SB 1234 died, a part of me was booing her – and the most immature part of me even hoped she’d get repetitive motion disorder from using her veto stamp all the flippin’ time.
But my grown-up side had to agree with the part of her veto letter to the legislature that explained, “Research indicates that photo radar cameras demonstrate effectiveness in changing driver behavior and decreasing fatal accidents, especially in vulnerable areas like school zones.”
However, when Rogers responded to Hobbs’ veto by saying that photo radar systems are “… cash cows for not only cities and towns, but for the companies that operate them,” I had to agree with her, too.
And even though there’s no real expectation of privacy while driving in public, when someone plays the privacy card on this topic, my libertarian side nods its head up and down like the chihuahua dolls that I used to see in the rear window of cars.
So, it was scary for me to find myself agreeing with Hobbs and Rogers at the same time. But what’s even scarier is this: About 48 hours after Hobbs’ veto of SB 1234, two people were killed by a crash that was caused by a 50-year-old drunk driver street-racing a 58-year-old on Indian School Road in Goodyear.
Scary, because we’ll never be able to put enough officers – or cameras – on our roads to stop all the deadly drivers out there. People like these two: old enough to know better, yet still thinking our roads are their personal Hot Wheels tracks where they can play out their NASCAR fantasies.
