Sykesville, Maryland yesterday became the tenth jurisdiction to reject the use of photo enforcement by referendum. The town was to be the first in Carroll County to operate automated ticketing machines after leaders approved an ordinance designating three speed camera zones on February 22. These plans fell through after a group of residents collected more than enough signatures within the thirty-day deadline to put an ordinance repeal on the ballot. Sixty-one percent of Sykesville voters insisted on repealing the use of speed cameras.
The results are directly contrary to polling data released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In a 2008 report on the nearby Montgomery County speed camera program, the insurance company-backed group claimed sixty-two percent of residents supported the use of automated ticketing machines. The institute has a significant financial interest in the issue as states like Arizona, California and Illinois apply license points to certain types of photo tickets. A similar incentive drove town officials to spend taxpayer money in an attempt to convince voters to keep the cameras.
“We have received a number of emails and phone calls from residents who have expressed concern about outside special interest groups that have knocked on your door gathering signatures on a petition to oppose the adopted ordinance,” Mayor Michael P. Miller wrote in a taxpayer-funded letter to all residents before the vote. “Some of you have indicated that they were spreading misinformation about several issues including the town’s rationale and intent for adopting the ordinance to allow photo enforcement.”
The petitions, in fact, were circulated by a group of Sykesville residents led by Chris Martin. Similar citizen-led efforts have succeeded in every test at the ballot box. Last year, eighty-six percent of Sulphur, Louisiana rejected speed cameras; 72 percent said no in Chillicothe, Ohio; Heath, Ohio and College Station, Texas also rejected cameras. In 2008, residents in Cincinnati, Ohio rejected red light cameras. Seventy-six percent of Steubenville, Ohio voters rejected photo radar in 2006. In the mid-1990s, speed cameras lost by a two-to-one margin in Peoria, Arizona and Batavia, Illinois. In 1997, voters in Anchorage, Alaska banned cameras even after the local authorities had removed them. In 2003, 64 percent of voters in Arlington, Texas voted down “traffic management cameras” that opponents at the time said could be converted into ticketing cameras.
[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]
Glad to see more residents standing up to these robo-revenue collectors.
The overused term ‘special interest group’ is really meaningless.
It would be impossible to have a general interest group that is fully knowledgeable and active in pursuing every item in the political domain.
Everyone is a member of multiple special interest groups, depending on the issue at hand, no one is a uni-savant with the ability to promote some metaphysical common good.
Not surprised in Carroll county. From what I can recall (and your dad can probably verify) nearby Montgomery County is about as far left a nanny-state as you will ever find anywhere south of Massachusetts. Carroll on the other hand, not nearly so much; definitely a more “stand up for yourself” kind of place. Does my heart good to see Sykesville residents grab the bull by the horns and take this odious practice on.
Small state but still some significantly large political differences.
As a resident of Monkey County (under duress I might add), I have to agree – if the communists are going to try to take the US again, they will certainly start here.
Cameras are becoming more ubiquitous here. One of my neighbors WANTS a camera on a road bordering our neighborhood and keeps asking for one – mind you, people do drive aggressively down it. Why you ask? It was designed as a minor two lane feeder with poor sightlines, houses fronting it, decent hill (for around here), and curvy (hence it could be a mile of fun). But typical to this area, residents think if you DON’T build it they won’t come. Or when neighborhoods are built (going back to pre-war era even), planners think everything outside of the new outer suburb edge will remain farmland forever and don’t plan for the increase in population, density, and traffic as the general area grows. Siloed at best, and ignorant most likely.
You shouldn’t expect more from people who think of cars as an appliance primarily, transportation second (judging by the number of priuses, people constantly yakking or playing on their mobiles while driving, and lack of interesting iron) – no different than taking the train.
Glad to see the record still stands. The idea that photo enforcement can’t stand up to a ballot initiative will hopefully act as a deterrent to other municipalities considering it.
In this case, the town’s mayor outright lied to his constituents, and 61% still voted against it.
Using city funds to lie to the citizens should be paid back with a recall!
Welcome to the only town in the country dumb enough to buy not one, but two Dodge Intrepid police interceptors.