1/6/2003: Speeding duck

[Undertoad]

What the hell...?

With the subject line you could figure it out. In the town of Glueckstadt, Germany, the cops have set up radar and traffic cameras to automatically catch speeders.

And this was one of their catches, a duck - clocked at a speed of 39 km/h in a 30 km/h zone.

I'm so against automated ticketing, and not because a few birds might gum up the system. I'll just note that cameras have not, to my knowledge, done all that much to really prevent crime. They certainly aren't the magic bullet solution.

In the US, municipalities have tried putting cameras on traffic lights, catching people who are running the red light. They notice two things. One, revenue from traffic tickets goes way up. Two, safety goes way down.

Why: because locals learn to slam on their brakes to avoid getting ticketed, and voila: a dramatic rise in rear-end accidents at intersections.

Compare this to what happens in major cities during power outages, when there are no traffic lights. No accidents! People are suddenly forced to become considerate of others in order to make the system work; and guess what, they DO.