Even after the heart-felt letter by the Mayor several weeks ago, he sides with those wanting to continue photo radar in Milwaukie. Yes, the city council has voted to approve a 3 year, $300,000 contract with ACS.
PhotoRadarAhead.com
Warning! Photo Radar Ahead
The Mayor wrote a thoughtful letter. It’s nice to see he really thought about the use of Photo Radar Ticketing.
However, there are better ways to promote safety on the roads than punitive measures. These include LED Speed Limit signs (which the mayor mentioned), as well as warning flags on speed limit signs when there is a reduction in speed. There is also the general rule, supported by traffic engineers, of setting the speed limit at the 85th percentile of what speed drivers drive at. All three measures are proven effective, and don’t require punishing otherwise good citizens and hurting the perception of local government by the citizens (which photo traffic enforcement does).
In the end I won’t be shopping in Milwaukie, which is too bad for local businesses. I don’t feel safe around photo enforcement as it makes other drivers unpredictable, and I feel towns that use photo enforcement don’t use proper traffic engineering (too short yellow lights, speed limits below the 85th percentile, speed limits that go up and down for no apparent reason, poor signage, poor intersection and lane markings).