Cameras on Stop Signs; What Does Miami Think?

IA Sample 1

ENC 1102

Professor Anderson

04/06/14

Cameras on stop signs; what does Miami think?

As people who live in Miami we all know that Miami is a very diverse place to live in and it’s wonderful because there are so many places to go to that offer you different cultures. However, when it comes to driving we all have dealt with people with crazy driving styles. As a Venezuelan myself we grew up with not respecting traffic lights due to our government not caring to enforce laws. Just like the Venezuelan culture there are different cultures that have different ways of driving as well. Due to this, Miami and other places have dealt with many car accidents because of people violating traffic lights.

That is why cameras on intersections were installed in 1993 in New York due to a huge accident that had happened in 1982 with a New Yorker who ran a red light and ended up running over an 18 month old baby girl in a stroller. This whole event led a group of concerned people to work with the city’s Department of Transportation to research for different methods they could use to prevent this from happening. After 11 years of working with the department and getting it straight into Congress red light cameras were finally brought out in New York and then ended up spreading around the U.S in the 1980’s.

To the great luck that I have when I first got my car I got hit due to someone not respecting a stop sign. That person escaped the scene and I was left with a two thousand dollar repair for my bumper that took me months to repair. Just like me I’m sure that many citizens have been victims of this either with intersections or stop signs. Because of that this research was conducted to see what people thought about this idea of putting cameras on stop signs and if their experiences with accidents would sway their view on it. It’s already happening in Washington D.C so why not?

Many people argue that this shouldn’t happen because it’s a waste of money but I say that it is very important to have so we can avoid these types of incidents. Yes, it might be something we have to pay for in the future but it is for our safety.

In Washington D.C they already started testing out these stop sign cameras. They started out with one just to test it out and it worked great so now they have added 32 stop sign cameras that are issuing $50 dollar tickets. According to the District’s Office of the Chief Financial all these cameras have reduced fatalities by a 76 percent and apart from that it has created phenomenal revenue for the District.

Alone in 2013 they collected $85 million dollars from speed and red light cameras. It works both ways it helps out the District and it keeps us safe so why not follow D.C’s footsteps?

Learning about Washington D.C and their idea of bringing in stop sign cameras made me wonder how people from Miami will react if this ended up happening here. So I randomly selected 29 Miami residential drivers and asked them eleven questions. This would allow me to see the type of people who wanted cameras vs. the people who didn’t. In addition, it would allow me to see if there was any correlation between the accidents and the places they occurred in, whether it was an intersection that had a camera or one that didn’t.

From the 29 residential drivers that were surveyed 18 were in car accidents so basically those were the ones all the results were based on. Out of those 18 five of them confessed that it was their fault and that their accident had occurred in an intersection. The rest of the driver’s accidents fell in the other range meaning highways.

Approaching the end of the survey I decided that the questions should be based solely on their opinion about cameras and their habits. One of the questions that had a surprising result was when the drivers were asked that if they knew that cameras weren’t on intersections would they still respect them and 93 percent of them said yes.

Usually when people know that there is a high chance they won’t be caught, they would usually run a red light. It’s logical that’s how society works and we have experienced it many times. For

example, we probably all had the experience of stealing the cookie that mom just baked hoping she wouldn’t catch us but in this case we would always get caught. It’s part of being human we like the thrill and knowing that there is that chance you’ll get caught if you don’t do it right.

In the end only 38% of the people surveyed wanted cameras on stop signs and 62% didn’t want it. In Miami alone per year there are about 235,461 auto accidents with 2,261 resulting in fatalities. According to Biscayne Times 98.5% of licensed drivers in Florida will be involved in an accident during 2014. That is crazy! Just imagine, the person right next to you could be involved in an accident right when they leave.

One result that brought controversy onto the table was that half of the 11 people that responded yes to cameras on stop signs have never been in an accident but the 18 people that have been in accidents don’t want them. This was surprising because you would think that people who have experienced accidents overall should want this to be installed to prevent this.

One possibility why people who have been in accidents don’t want stop signs could be due to the fact that they just don’t believe that it is going to make a difference. Another case could be that since it was their fault they just want to take the precaution of not voting for it to prevent any more trouble in the future.

The whole purpose of this research was to find a correlation between the amount of accidents and if it dealt with places that had cameras. This survey proved that fifty two percent of the people who were in accidents occurred in places that didn’t have traffic cameras. Only one person had the accident in a place where there was a camera. What this proves is that cameras are efficient in preventing accidents. Even though this proves it the majority of people still don’t want it to be added to stop signs.

In the city of Aventura with these red light cameras added in 2008 they have seen a decrease of about 60 percent in accidents. Since these tickets are so expensive people prefer to respect them than having one of their weekends ruined for the lack of money.

What the commissioner of Aventura says is that this helps out the revenue in the city of Aventura as well. Last year alone they collected $3 million dollars in fines that went to charter schools and other projects happening in Aventura. Those fines were only with red light and speeding tickets so an addition of this to stop signs will be very beneficial for us and for them.

In the end all I am trying to do is just bring in the statistics of how stop sign cameras could be a great addition. But since we live in a democratic country we have to decide as a whole community whether this should happen.

This whole research hopefully will open people’s eyes a little bit and help them realize the benefits that this actually could have on the community and us. For others it just might convince them more to not agree with it.

Either way since Washington D.C is starting the first trial many other cities will soon follow it like L.A. They already have a few of those stop sign cameras so in no time just like the red light cameras it will start spreading.

That’s how a country works if the President sees that something is successful he will try continue that success all around the country. Yes, some of us might not agree but then again all of us don’t agree with the laws that this country has so most likely get prepared for it.

Works Cited

Noble, Andrea. "D.C. Cops Go ‘nuclear’ with Traffic Cameras." Washington Times. The

Washington Times, 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Bojnansky, Eric. "Traffic Cameras: Money Pit for Some, Gold Mine for Others."

Biscayne Times. N.p., Sept. 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2014

Cleary, Sean. "Auto Accident Statistics in Miami and Florida." Auto Accident Statistics

in Miami and Florida. The Law Offices of Sean M. Cleary, P.A., May 2013. Web.

04 Apr. 2014.