Toll and Speeding

Eric Muller has some interesting thoughts on giving speeding tickets on toll highways.

It arises for me specifically in the context of the NJ Turnpike, but it pertains to any highway that gives you a toll coupon when you enter the highway and then collects it from you (with a payment) when you leave the highway.

Highways like that strike me as huge potential revenue sources for the states that operate them. Why? Because they offer the possibility of entirely mechanized enforcement of the speeding laws.

Let’s say the distance between exit 1 and exit 5 is 65 miles, and the posted speed limit is 65 miles per hour over that entire stretch of highway. If a person is issued a time-stamped entry coupon at Exit 1 at noon and arrives at Exit 5 before 1:00, he has been speeding. Period.

Why not issue him a speeding ticket at exit 5 when he pays his toll and leaves the highway? This would be a superb revenue source for the state, and it would get people to stop speeding far more effectively (and cheaply) than sporadic enforcement by state troopers.

(And by the way, the state would not have to sit its ticketing threshold at the actual posted speed limit. It could set it for, say, three or four miles above the posted speed limit. Or more.)

It’s an interesting idea. Don’t other countries already implement something like this? Australia, South Africa or Canada? I am not sure what the long-term effects of this would be on traffic patterns and unsafe driving.

By Zack

Dad, gadget guy, bookworm, political animal, global nomad, cyclist, hiker, tennis player, photographer

1 comment

  1. First of all, cops are out there not for safety reasons but to harass taxpayers. Noone would speed if they would implement automatic cops and the state would loose tax revenue…

    Secondly, speed limits are radiculously low. There should be no speed limit on rurar hihways, especially on rurar parts of NJ Turnpike. For most of the time it is safe and easily to negotiate speeds of 100+ mph on NJ Turnpike. Cops should focus their attention on unsafe driving, such as failing to keep right except to pass. Most of accidents happen below speed limit.

    Look at Germany’s autobahn. We need to have our senators drive on German autobahn. It is safer to drive 150 mph on autobahn than 65 mph in the US. Speed does not kill.

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