"Intelligent Speed Assistance" may become mandatory for speeding New Yorkers
Meanwhile, in Ontario, Canada, tear down those cameras and go faster!
The Governor of New York State, Kathy Hochul, has proposed that drivers who repeatedly blow through red lights or speed cameras have “intelligent speed assistance” (ISA) or speed governors installed in their cars. Austin Jefferson of Streetsblog quotes the Governor:
"Keeping New Yorkers safe on our streets is my highest priority — be it those in cars, parents walking their kids to school, or cyclists commuting to work," Hochul said in a statement. "We know that a disproportionate number of dangerous incidents on our roads are caused by a small group of bad actors who speed recklessly and endanger everyone's safety. Now, we are taking these super speeders on and, working with the City of New York, to end their fast and furious driving on our roads once and for all."
Whether or not this will actually happen is a question, because since 1923, we have known that everybody hates ISA. That was when speed governors were proposed in Cincinnati, galvanizing the industry, or as historian Peter Norton called them in his book Fighting Traffic, “motordom.”
They voted no. Norton describes what motordom learned from their victory in this battle:
"No longer would there be any thought about limiting speed; indeed, one industry executive explained that “the motor car was invented so that man could go faster” and that “the major inherent quality of the automobile is speed.” Instead, the approach to safety would be to control the pedestrians and get them out of the way, to separate them with jaywalking laws and strict controls. Over time, safety would be redefined to make roads safer for cars, not people."
“Intelligent Speed Assistance” is the fancy new name for speed governors that work by linking speed limit recognition cameras and GPS data to let the driver know the speed limit and if the driver tries to go faster: "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
There was outrage when it was proposed in Europe in 2018, and while all new cars have the hardware built in, it is not very effective; it either just beeps at you or is easily overridden. More in Treehugger:
European Cars May Soon Have “Intelligent Speed Assistance.” Should Every Car Have This?
Speed governors are just fine for e-bikes and scooters, but G-d forbid anyone proposes them for cars. That’s why there was outrage in New York State as well; when the super speeder bill was first proposed, motorists with more than six speeding or red-light camera offences would have the ISA devices installed, limiting their cars to 5 MPH over the speed limit.
This was too much for many politicians; according to an earlier post in Streetsblog:
“Instead of requiring drivers with six or more speed-camera or red-light camera tickets in any 12-month period to install a speed-limiting device in their cars, the bill now only carries that requirement for drivers with 16 or more tickets — and only speed-camera tickets rather than a combination.”
I don’t know what the new legislation actually proposes; the Governor’s “State of the State” message only says:
“Governor Hochul will introduce legislation to authorize New York City to pilot a program to require the installation of Intelligent Speed Assistance systems for drivers with a documented pattern of flouting speeding laws and putting New Yorkers at risk. Under this initiative, New York City can require that vehicles driven by persistent speeders be equipped with technology that prevents travel more than a few miles per hour above the posted speed limit.”
But this is still a very big deal. And New York State isn’t alone; Kea Wilson reports that “Legislators in 18 states and counting have either passed, introduced, or signaled their commitment to pursue a "Stop Super Speeders" bill, which would mandate the installation of active "Intelligent Speed Assist" technology on any vehicles registered to a driver with a track record of specific deadly driving offenses.”
Of course, this approach only works if you have the speed cameras in place to find the super speeders. In Ontario, Canada, where I live, the cameras were constantly vandalized. One on Parkside Drive was chopped down seven times, and somehow, the Toronto Police Department couldn’t solve this one.
The cameras were installed after Valdemar Avila and his wife, Fatima, were killed by a super speeder. One would think that the government would get on the case to find out who is chopping down all these cameras, but this is Doug Ford’s Ontario, so he sided with the vandals and banned the cameras, saying, "Over the last few years, we've seen municipalities across the province use municipal speed cameras as nothing more than a cash grab. People are fed up."
Instead, Doug Ford is running ads promising increased police enforcement, when the Police are no longer in the enforcement business, speed bumps, which don’t work on many of the roads with the worst speeding, and BIG SIGNS that nobody will pay attention to.
It’s true that nobody likes red light or speed cameras; the one near our house is regularly attacked. If Doug Ford is tired of vandalism and thinks cameras are a cash grab, perhaps he should consider Intelligent Speed Assistance, which doesn’t require cameras or grab any cash. As Families for Safe Streets notes,
“The push for ISA—especially active ISA, a system that automatically prevents a vehicle from exceeding the speed limit—builds on a long history of global traffic safety measures. Unlike traditional enforcement, such as a police officer stopping a speeding driver or an automated ticket arriving in the mail, ISA is a proactive technology that prevents speeding before it occurs.”
How could anyone, even Doug Ford, object to that?
They will object. Speeding is granted the same rights as owning a gun. In fact it is the same attitude: the government should not intrude on the private actions of its citizens except after they physically harm another. I can speed as long as I don't hurt anybody. I can carry a gun as long as I don't hurt anybody. This works for 99% of the population. But that 1%? He kills the 20 grade school kids at Uvalde or Sandy Hook. If the weapons are not allowed, the killing stops. Australia proved this. The USA proves the opposite. You are correct. The same is true for speeding. Cars go fast, bikers, pedestrians and legal speed drivers become victims. Does your speeding or weapon carrying rights overwhelm the right to life of the other. Sometimes the 99% has to accept limits to prevent that 1% (or less) from violating that right to life. Besides, and this is not my main point, you get a lot better mileage per gallon, or kilowatt, if you go slower. Perhaps this should be important too.
Really strong piece connecting historical precedent to current policy. The 1923 Cincinnati example shows how "motordom" basically won the framing battle by redefining speed as inherent to cars rather than a controllable risk factor. I've seen similar rheotric in local debates where any speed managment gets labeled "anti-car" instead of pro-safety. The part about proactive vs reactive enforcement is key though, ISA prevents harm before it happens rather than punishing after.