Use more traffic cameras

Re the April 28 article Anarchy returns at intersections: My wife is from Australia, and we go there to visit her family a couple of times a year. Everywhere in Australia, there are three things that we somehow can’t seem to implement here.

Red-light cameras at essentially all significant intersections; permanent speed cameras on major highways; and roving camera/radar stations, where police trained and authorized civilians set up in different places each day. The radar is tied into a camera. In each case, you don’t get pulled over. The photo of you in your car and a citation just appear in the mail a few days later.

I once interviewed the assistant police commissioner there. He knew of the American system and scoffed: “Wouldn’t you say that the police have more important things to do than put manpower against traffic ordinances? Americans seem to think that unless an actual police officer pulls them over and writes a ticket, nothing else is legal. How silly is that?”

I didn’t have an answer.

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 7:17 PM with the headline "Use more traffic cameras."